A History of the Peloponnesian War in 58 Lines

 You remember Ancient Greece?

Somebody once wrote about it in a book.

There’s also the movie. Plus a couple of sequels.

 

Well, the Peloponnesian War took place between Greece’s two greatest city-states,

Athens and Sparta, between 431-404 B.C.

Why is this important for you to know?

Because it ended 2,430 years ago

And there hasn’t been a day of peace on Earth since.

Not before either, because that was actually the Second Peloponnesian War.

It’s certain you will never live in a time when at least two countries aren’t at war with each other.

Somewhere in the world war is raging. Now, yesterday, last month, the day you were born, the day before that.

Every fucking minute of your life there’s been a war.

Big or small. A rebellion. Hostilities. Guerilla fighting. Doesn’t matter what they call it,

Fighting is going on somewhere. Usually a lot of wheres.

And it will continue to be that way tomorrow. And tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

 

Just think about that.

You don’t know what a world at peace is like,

You don’t know what it’s like to live in a peaceful world.

You, me, none of us know what that’s like and we never will.

We were born into a warring world

And we most certainly will die in one.

None of us knows, have ever known, or ever will know

Peace.

 

Go ahead and tell yourself it doesn’t matter to you, even if your country is one of the ones currently involved in fighting.

So what, right? The war is far away, not on your soil, not in your backyard, it doesn’t have anything to do with you.

Tell yourself that, believe it’s a good thing. The fact that it’s not on your soil definitely is.

But another truth is that war between any two countries or between any two peoples within the same country

Affects and involves every country and every person everywhere.

And I’m not just talking about the Middle East.

That’s a house fire that will consume us all eventually.

Or Russia and Ukraine.

From May to July 2025, Cambodia and Thailand exchanged fire across their border.

They called it a “border crisis” over disputed territories that, despite a ceasefire, kept going

Because of “numerous ceasefire violations.”

Sound familiar?

There will always be “numerous ceasefire violations.”

Wars within wars.

Didn’t hear about the Cam-Thai conflict, don’t care about it now?

Your privilege, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t affect your life

Because the world you live in, the world you count on to buoy up your life, got wrenched apart a little more,

Was made a little less predictable, a little less stable, a little less safe.

And that was last year, before the current shitstorm started.


Don’t kid yourself you’re not affected by far-off wars.

A world of perpetual violence, conflict, deliberately and cruelly inflicted pain and death--

Continual, constant war--

Shapes your perception, your understanding, your emotional makeup,

It impacts your relationships, your capacity to feel empathy, your ability to love.

It sculpts your psyche.

What chance do any of us have to live the lives we want to live,

Filled with hope and promise, trust and love,

When 24 centuries after it started the fucking Peloponnesian War

Is still going on?

Just called by other names.

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