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ABSURDIST CRITIQUE OF WARFARE.

And so begins a new saga.
The Serene Republic of Sartre is led by Citizen-Duke Sartre.
The Republic is a merchant oligarchy with a trading ideology,
The great Thalassocracy that created monopolies on all basic commodities.
They were known as pragmatists, not thinkers and philosophers,
Trading required the senses, measurers and marketers.
From the universities the Citizen-speakers insist –
“If it is perceivable, then it is real and exists.”

But every tale has two halves.
The de Cartesian Empire is ruled by The Autokrator Descartes.
The Empire is a theocracy with a jingoistic perspective,
The great Empire unifying its subjects under a single objective.
They were known as theologians, caste-system warrior-priests,
Power required knowledge, rational faith and common belief.
From cathedral minarets The Autokrator’s Teachers insist -
“If it is perceived, then it is real and exists!”

The Citizen-Duke is respected, bringing citizens profits and riches,
These two nations were hostile over philosophical differences.
The Autokrator is deified, shaping subjects with His iron will.
These two nations would come into conflict over a tiny hill.
The hill was named ‘The Petite Goat,’ after its common livestock,
Small native Goats would often graze upon its rocky outcrops.
‘The Petite Goat’ would be the setting for the Conflict to End All Conflicts,
The last great war, a final Apocalypse.
Of course, neither nation really cared about the hill itself,
War entrenches ideology and ideology brings wealth.
They only cared for the process of war itself.

At the send-off ceremony, The Empires worker’s wave with a zealous fervor,
Women and children wear a white flower and yell for murder.
Rows of soldiers march straight past, hands placed on hearts,
The soldiers of Descartes pack themselves into awaiting train carts.
Descartes thunders – “MY Ubermensch go to WAR!
All Glory to the Empire! You THINK therefore you ARE!”

Citizen-traders make hurried deals –
“Invest in tombstones! Invest in guns and steel!”
City-streets are adorned with war slogans and flashy quotes,
The Republic’s marines squeeze into massed transport boats.
Sartre pontificates – “Our Citizen-marines go to war,
Prestige for the Republic, we exist therefore we are.”

Both nations took up positions, sentries on overnight vigils,
Rows of trenches facing each other, ‘the Petite Goat’ in the middle.
Propaganda made them believe they were a part of something greater.
The Great War began and ended just 24 hours later.
They fought because each thought the other was a threat,
And so ‘The Petite Goat’ was reduced to nothingness.
Hundreds dead in seconds, tens of thousands in minutes,
Hundreds of thousands gone by the end. Millions of lives altered in instants.
The native Goats were collateral damage,
Their homes destroyed to lessen the geographical challenge.
The Hill’s rocky outcrops demolished by volleyed roundshot.
It’s distinctive symmetry flattened by missile artillery.
Where there once stood a small upwards curve,
Now there was only flat, dead, scorched earth -
Some call war unthinking, illogical, an irrational fit,
but if conflict cannot think, then how can it exist?
Meaning, is conflict an inherent aspect of our own self,
Or is it a construction designed to entwine power and wealth?