For no particular reason, I found myself in one of my favorite bookstores in Zagreb a short while ago. I went around its many rooms without any plan. All I wanted to see was whether or not a book on offer would attract me. I took a number of books from the shelves, and I browsed through a few of them, only to put them back in their places. But then I came across a book with World War IV in the title. I picked it up for one reason only, and that was World War III. Was this a sequel? To my disappointment, I quickly learned that the author considered the Cold War bloody enough to elevate it to the status of a real war. Thus, World War IV was squarely against Islamic radicals of all sorts.

I put the book down before I learned whether or not the war had already started, which would stand to reason. Irked by the book, I left the bookstore. In my mind, World War III is yet to be fought this century in connection with the ravages of climate change and environmental degradation. And World War IV would be its natural sequel, for it would leave many a conflict unresolved, as was the case with World War I. In my mind, that would be the last world war worthy of the name. There will be many wars to follow, but they will be regional or local in nature.

By the Twenty-Second Century, feudalism will be entrenched across much of the globe, and all rulers would be concerned only with the boundaries of their shrinking fiefs, for climate change and environmental degradation will keep pestering them. Major religions will come to the fore once again, but not for long. Soon enough, slavery will return across the globe, and several ailing empires will be encircled by warring tribes forever in search of loot. By then, major religions of this day and age will be largely forgotten. Shamanism will come back with a vengeance, and it will rule the roost for many millennia to follow. Screw World War IV, though. It only makes me think way too far, as it were. For better or worse, the Twenty-First Century is still in its infancy.