History comes down to a simple syllogism: every empire/great civilization eventually gets the war it seeks to avoid; today, everyone wants to avoid WW III; therefore, nuclear holocaust is the fate that awaits humanity. Only by accepting that fate, is there any chance of averting it. There’s the paradox. History comes down to a simple syllogism: every empire/great civilization eventually gets the war it seeks to avoid; today, everyone wants to avoid WW III; therefore, nuclear holocaust is the fate that awaits humanity. Only by accepting that fate, is there any chance of averting it. There’s the paradox. There is a pattern to history*. The pattern foretells the future: denying the pattern fulfils it. Humans attribute too much to power – but power is an illusion – and we will only find the answer to our problems in its opposite: powerlessness. *For more on this, read my previous book, The Pattern of History.