Challenge #02171-E342: The Depths to Crawl

It will be called the Battle of the Somme. It will begin on a date that will be called July 1, 1916. In this charge, on the first day twenty-thousand men will die. Twenty-five thousand more will be wounded. But most will survive, and charge again another day.
Belisarius shook his head. "How-?"
We do not know. We do not fully understand humans, even the Great Ones. But you will do it. You will do it again and again and again. And you will survive, again and again and again. We do not know how. But you will.
— Belisarius Series -- c/- Anon Guest

When learning of Human history, one of the most common questions is, Why did they DO that? and one of the most bemusing passages of Human history is the first modern war. The first multi-national use of rapid fire in Terran combat held large cultural artefacts dating from combat techniques set in a more romantic period of history[1].

Cavalry charges had been proven to be no good against machine guns, but the Humans persisted in trying them anyway. They were, of course, failures. Humanity persisted, with people running into gunfire instead of knights mounted on horses charging at the enemy.

The thought at the time was that enough people on the field would outweigh the enemy forces and win. The thought was wrong, just like the thought that a multinational war fought with devastating weaponry would be over before an incredibly popular midwinter festival. Those in charge of the combat, who rarely saw the impact of it in the front like, continued in their mistaken belief that more bodies on the field of conflict was the key towards winning the war.

This is merely one amongst many examples of Human insanity within their own pre-Shattering history.

Some called it glory, but they were the ones who were never there. Some called it noble, but there was no nobility in the mud, blood, and senselessness of those battles. Some called it Hell. They were there, and they were right.

One might think, given the terrors of one nation-spanning super-conflict that devastated many areas into unlivability and impoverished entire countries, that that might be sufficient. It was not. Rigid restrictions on some nations by others created the perfect storm to brew the dissent necessary amongst one socio-cultural identity to spark a second nation-spanning super-conflict that also introduced city-destroying armaments that brought terror into even the Humans themselves.

Humanity responded to this weapon's existence by creating bigger and more terrifying weapons in order to preserve some form of superiority status against other socio-cultural identity groups. Humanity didn't seem to care that the largest of their weapons could vaporise a continental mass, just that they had one that could.

When they were capable of local-system space travel, reaching another planetary body was used for bragging rights rather than species preservation. It was only when Humanity discovered the exploitable resource of their in-system one-way wormholes that they truly began exploring space at all. Even then, it was for the goal of proving strength rather than giving Humanity a better chance of surviving the Universe.

Ironically, it was the socio-cultural groups who were ejected down these one-way wormholes who had a better chance of persisting and creating worlds in their own image, rather than the ones selected for ideals coherent with the political supremacy of the time. Humanity repeatedly failed to learn from this.

From the examples of history, it can be inferred that Humans will persist in failing strategies in spite of any and all evidence that they do fail. They will, in fact, insist that these strategies will work if they are just applied harder. One might think that the best strategy might be to let them continue and therefore destroy themselves in the process, but this has proven to be inefficient. Far too many times, the strategy is employed to a planet-spanning detrimental effect, as seen on numerous Greater Deregulation colonies.

There is evidence that some Humans can be taught not to repeat the tragic lessons of history. They must be taught young, and taught often, that such lessons are true even to this day. Then, should they be clever enough to attain leadership, they must be gently removed from the idea that consequences don't happen to them.

It's a work in progress.

[1] Otherwise known as a period of time no longer extant in living memory and therefore able to be viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / lucidwaters]

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