A Tale of Two Extremities

Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Some called it a modern Renaissance. Others called it a new Gilded Age. There had been no single war with 100 000 or more casualties in decades. Yet, there were more wars being fought than ever before—proxy wars, wars of ideologies, wars on terror, wars of oppression, and wars of misinformation. How did the world get here? Was it doomed to continue its path toward violence, disease, and…