Since I rushed my previous post out without completely rounding off my thoughts (and because I missed what I believe is an important point) I will follow it up with this additional material…
The idea of ‘wreak havoc’, which many see as a call to arms in vengeance for something, in my view entirely misses the point which the originator – though misquoted – intended to convey. The origin of the phrase, I think (though I am not entirely sure) stems from a misquote and complete misunderstanding of Shakespeare’s Mark Anthony following Caesar’s untimely death, perpetrated by murderous backstabbers among his Roman peers. He said, that is Mark Anthony said (Shakespeare – whoever that actually was – putting the words into his mouth during the Play, Julius Caesar), and this speech was actually uttered in the form of a curse on Rome and a prophesy as to what lay ahead for that benighted empire. An Empire (the last great empire) soon to fall into decadence and debauchery, followed by destruction. The statement, part of a fairly long soliloquy, was – “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war“. No mention of ‘wreaking’ (or wrecking).
This was not a war cry, not a call to arms, not a rally to avenge wrongs, not a crusade, not a jihad, and not a terrorist surge. what originated in the mind of Mark Anthony that day, was none of those things. It was but an agonised warning, plain and simple. A warning that what had just occurred had a deeper meaning than just the death of one man, however justified – or not – the murderous act. It marked the realisation that the death of this man initiated the beginning of the end for the Empire. He alone it was, that was holding back the ‘dogs of war’. The ‘dogs of war’ referred to, being not the forces of ‘the greatest military force in the history of the world’, but the northern hordes who would descend in coming years as a wave of destruction to overflow and overturn the armies and cities of the greatest Empire ever built. It was the beginning of the end for Rome.
Havoc is a word which perfectly describes what took place in the Roman Empire following Caesar’s death. Partly or perhaps fully assisted by Shakespeare’s hindsight, Mark Anthony (of the play, if not of the history) foresaw that. He knew exactly what would ensue.
That, of course, is history. It matters little, to us today, whether history repeats or rhymes. Either way we repeatedly see – if we care to look – patterns emerging from the recordings of time concerning the passage of humanity across the ages. Notwithstanding whether the records be entirely true or the fictional work of victors in adjustments woven among the threads of truth.
Even through those clouds it is not difficult to imagine that we are currently seeing one such event forming in our own century and looking back to the previous recent ones. There appeared a whole string of would-be petty empires, mostly centred on Europe. All of them, without exception, based on evil intentions to subjugate, rob, pillage and murder in the lands of ‘the other’. As all of these foul endeavours inevitably began to fail during the middle years of the last century, the bastard child of unknown parentage which arrogantly and quite unjustifiably purloined the name of ‘America’ for itself, ignoring the birthright of all ‘the other’ who dwelled in the twin continent land-mass of the true Americas, decided, while the rest of the world was still reeling from two recent global wars, it was now ‘my turn’ to follow the exact same plan with the additional ‘divine’ – or should I say ‘self-divined’ or ‘self-anointed’ – blessing of their own ‘manifest destiny’ to rule the world without peer. And they almost pulled it off.
Thankfully, some in ‘the other’ had something to say about that, and two men in particular, independently, and now jointly – separated only by national identity – gradually grew into positions where they, in tandem with others of ‘the other’ can, will, and are, bringing about the decline of the bastard empire. It must be among the shortest lived empires ever in the history of man. A new age is dawning, and it is not, nor ever could be again, based on empire. The age of empire is over.
But first, cry, with as much feeling and agony as you can muster, as you witness the havoc unfolding. If what we see today is not havoc, then I do not know what havoc is. And, rest assured, it is not yet over, and it will engulf everyone. Keep your eyes on the horizon, and your hand on your go-bag.
If I were to say any more, it would be superfluous. But that should not stop you from thinking about it more.
Not Something Else 
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