Gentle Readers,
As you know, of late, I have been taking an extended diversion of into the Pacific and the middle distance of history. It is comforting to go there, since we know the answers to all the looming questions of that titanic conflict. With the remarkable gift of the friendship and memory of a truly Great American, we can see the context of times when the participants did not know that things would generally turn out all right. In fact, to them it seemed that sometimes things could go horribly wrong.
I tried the same thing with the series of stories on the American love affair with the automobile, and some of the truly delightful people who own classic vehicles. It is comforting to be back there, too, behind the wheel of a 1960s muscle car, clutch depressed and ready to roar off the line into a limitless future.
Part of selecting events far away in space and time for the story-telling has been to avoid the present. There are some strange portents out there. That marvelous article in The Atlantic about “What ISIS Really Wants” by Graeme Wood (March, 2015) is a case in point. But that is hardly the scope of all the issues or the actors. The fact that some of them are pulling for the end of days does give one pause.
Some of the issues de jour have clear analogies to blunders in the past. Others appear to be completely new and unexpected paths to folly.
This morning the number of curious issues seemed to peak. I don’t know what it all means, this paroxysm of public events. I have stayed away from ISIS and domestic policy to the degree that I can- I mean, we all have to live in this world, crazy as it is.
I was privileged to enjoy consultations with some learned colleagues this morning- their experience in military intelligence and foreign affairs dar exceeds a century. They are collectively of the opinion that this has the significant potential to be very interesting indeed.
I am going to hold fire on that, and go someplace else in the narrative stream. Things will probably turn out OK. They always have, right?
I mean, what could go awry?
Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303