Life
can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards
Søren
Kierkegaard
I. Parallel Histories
The history of a person is not so different from the
history of the world. In both, experiences and events repeat themselves, and
each repetition carries something to be learned.
Some people surrender to the comfort of delusional myths
that fill the gaps of ignorance and calm their anxieties. Others challenge
those myths once their instructive power has been exhausted and expose
themselves to the vast expanse of the knowable unknown. Neither path is without
cost. They are different ways of standing before reality.
The tragedy is that not everyone is willing — or able —
to distinguish between inherited myths and claims of fact that can be tested
against reality. Some remain inside their tribal or cultural bubble, unaware of
the wider human landscape of diverse cultural worlds. Others break free to
explore that landscape, receiving from it and giving to it in return.
Inside the insulated bubble, there often arises the
conviction of being chosen to occupy the whole landscape. Outside the broken
bubble, there may emerge a feeling of freedom from tribal restrictions, a sense
of belonging to a greater living whole, and a sobering realization of one’s
relative smallness.
With these thoughts, I found myself drawn into
reflection — neither by choice nor by chance, but through the unsettling
convergence of events: the subservient political surrender of the United States
to Zionist Israel; the unrelenting killing of Palestinian, Iranian, and
Lebanese civilians; the Russo-Ukrainian War; the Sudanese Civil War; the
Myanmar Civil War; and many other conflicts unfolding across the world.
Alongside them came a more intimate mourning: the loss of friendships I had
long believed to be authentic, solid, and humanly irreplaceable.
Life is a constant trade-off. With every decision, every
choice, something is gained and something is lost. With age, after passing
through many peaks and valleys of experience, I have become increasingly
minimalist — not so much in relation to possessions as in how honestly I relate
to others, and in how carefully I choose what deserves my time, attention, and
emotional energy.
As my social fears, self-consciousness, and need for conformity receded,
many other fears receded with them. In their place, I felt the rise of a new
kind of courage: the courage to speak my mind on controversial issues, whether
local or distant; to recognize my own biases as well as those of others; to get
as close to the truth as I can; and to enter relationships truthfully, without
fear of rejection, loss, disapproval, or the external approval that once
mattered more to me.
The Shelf Life of Hegemonic Power
Unlike civilizations, which unfold in archaeological time, hegemonic powers
move in historical time. Their dominance often collapses through a combination
of internal decay, economic overreach, and external pressure from rising rivals
and resistant subjects. What follows is usually not a single blow, but a cycle
of declining legitimacy, military overextension, and economic imbalance, until
failure spreads through the system with a kind of domino effect.
For historian and author, Jared Diamond (Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed), collapse begins when a society weakens its own foundations and then proves unable—or unwilling—to change course before crisis becomes irreversible. Sallust, the Roman historian who chronicled the corruption of the late Republic in works such as The Jugurthine War, saw political collapse as something sprung from within by greed, incompetence, and the decay of public virtue. The Mahabharata, the vast Indian epic of the struggle between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, traces another path to ruin: not luxury in the Roman sense, but dynastic obsession, envy, and a disastrous will to possess what ought not be possessed. Taken together, they form a paired moral anatomy of decline. One warns against corruption and luxury; the other against rivalry and unrestrained ambition. Both suggest that a political order may continue to stand outwardly even as it is already disintegrating inwardly.
June 10, 2026
Albert Halac | Intercultural Facilitation LLC
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