"Who Would Have Noticed Another Madman 'Round Here?"

This is the only thing that seems fitting to post today.

When will we give up war?

Just as Edmund Blackadder tried and failed to go mad at the Battle of the Somme, we have tried and failed to go mad in the last twenty years.

It doesn't seem like we've learned a thing for good. A lot of people are dead, but since that war to end all wars, it feels like we have seen nothing but war.

And the war comes home, with hate for those who are not exactly like us, who do not think like us, who do not vote like us.

It's a war we can't win. And a war I don't wish to fight in.

Baldrick: I have a plan, sir.

Edmund: Really, Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?

Baldrick: Yes, sir.

Edmund: As cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?

Baldrick: Yes, sir.

Voice: On the signal, company will advance!

Edmund: Well, I’m afraid it’ll have to wait. Whatever it was, I’m sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad. I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?

(whistle blows)

Edmund: Good luck, everyone. (blows his whistle)

[The company leaps out of the trench amid a barrage of rilfe and artillery fire.]

These were the sane men, in the trenches. Captain Darling was right to write "Bugger" as the only word to describe his assignment to the trenches. They clung to hope, and grasped at the straws that the silenceing of the guns meant the war was over, not that their side was going to give the Germans the chance to kill them instead.

Hope without guarantees. It inspired a young JRR Tolkein, who lost friend after friend in the war, to also grasp at that hope when all felt lost.

What pale light did Tolkein cling to in the West?

And what light can I see as the wave overcomes the world?