h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm guessing that there are a great many young people out there who have suddenly found themselves in an unfamiliar world since September 11th 2001.

A world which, previously, had been prosperous, optimistic and (relatively) peaceful must now seem dark, foreboding and bellicose. The changeover took place within seconds, but the aftermath seems to have lasted for an eternity as billions of viewpoints, facts, images and stories have filled our media ever since.

An unpleasant and tragic turn for the worse which has taken all of us by surprise.

But let us not get too downhearted. Let us not forget that there are people alive today who have seen darker periods of global history than this. Anyone who was alive for more than half of the last century has known days when the very fate of human society hang in the balance, when their every waking moment might be reduced to ashes by the actions of a distant foreign power. Throughout the Cold War, the majority of ordinary citizens carried on their lives as normal, growing up, falling in love and enjoying life as generations had done before them.

Perhaps those times had unspoken assurances of conduct that this crisis has seen destroyed; underlying assumptions of how warfare was to be conducted which prevented those concerned from laying waste to whole continents?

The truth is that since September 11th we have all found ourselves in a strange new world, one of uncertainty and dread. But it is not a dark place.

Perhaps we see things in a new light? In which case we shall have to learn to cope with the new shadows that have been thrown.

Bolivar