Time is a continuum that trudges on fearlessly and we, as simple humans, have absolutely no control over it. This isn’t to say we are helpless, though. The only way to truly learn is to take lessons taught in the past and base future decisions on them, all while avoiding repetition of the same mistakes.
When considering today’s society, however, it is apparent that history always repeats — no matter how much it shouldn’t. I suppose it is a testament to how humans can be so brilliant yet simultaneously so incredibly stupid.
Like the barbarians of antiquity, we have our fair share of barbarians today as well. Brutal and inhumane, barbarians have graduated from throwing spears and dismembering their enemies, but they haven’t by much.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a present-day barbarian who is evidently doomed to make the mistakes of his counterparts. Preferring to wear a suit and fancy shirt over traditional barbarian garb like a loincloth and hollowed out ram’s head, our boy Mahmoud exhibits all the characteristics of bloodlust and savagery, and eventually this will get him killed.
With his country relentlessly trying to perfect a nuclear program — against the objection of most of the world — it seems that the Iranian president is allergic to reason. His asinine public statements, the most recent being his idea that September 11, 2001 was a “complicated intelligence scenario and act,” inch him closer and closer to his demise.
If and when Iran finally creates a nuclear weapon, the timeline of events will go something like this: Ahmadinejad sends nuclear weapon hurtling towards Israel; Israel shoots down missile in air; Ahmadinejad is condemned by the world and Israel gets the go-ahead to attack; Tehran is leveled by Israel’s nuclear weapon; the rest of the world thanks Israel for doing what should have been done years ago.
Just like the barbarians of yesteryear, a more civilized and technologically superior society eliminates the weaker one. Time marches on.
But Ahmadinejad is not the only example of the unsavory armpit of history repeating itself; not by a long shot.
“Et tu, Brute?”
These poetically representative last words, spoken to Brutus by Julius Caesar before the former close friend and traitor killed him, echo even today.
Adam Gadahn, the American-born al-Qaeda member known as “Azzam The American,” is our modern day Brutus. While he may have never been as close to the ruling class as the real Brutus was, the parallels are still there.
Raised in Orange County, this cretin converted to Islam and moved to Pakistan where he promptly got into bed with more of our current-day barbarians. My question to Gadahn is not “why,” but rather, “did you sanely think this out?”
If it was indeed Gadahn who was caught in the Pakistan raid last weekend — it is slowly becoming clear that it was not him — he faces treason and the death penalty, and his days of making threatening videos with the rest of his fundamentalist brethren will be over.
In these modern times, it is really quite telling how history continues to repeat itself. Learning from mistakes of the past is evidently harder to do than it seems. And one thing is for sure: No matter who the offending party is, things will inevitably end badly for them.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Daily 49er.