At the party in honor of Lauren’s grandfather at Winfield House in London, Sir Isaiah Berlin was asked about the causes of bloody conflicts in the remainder of the Soviet Bloc. “It’s simple,” he mumbled and shifted restlessly, “people like to fight and kill each other!” I wonder why so few see things so clearly.

Addendum I (October 5, 2012)

I often think of Sir Isaiah’s disarming comment. It comes to me at oddest of times. I just checked his biography, and discovered that he was born in 1909, as well as that he died in 1997. A year older than my mother, he was eighty-three when I met him in person. That was the age of my mother when my parents moved to England in 1993 on account of the civil war in Yugoslavia, which was the subject of discussion at the party mentioned in this piece. She was a wise woman, too. Till her death in 2001, she was a joy to talk to. Returning to Sir Isaiah, I wonder why it takes so long for people to become wise. As well as why wisdom is of no interest to anyone any longer.

Addendum II (April 18, 2015)

Today I came across an article about the ongoing and ever-more vociferous rivalry between Zagreb and Split, the first and second largest city in Croatia, and I thought of Sir Isaiah’s wisdom at once. The article was all over the place in search of causes of rivalry in question, but it did not even mention such rivalries in other countries—such as those between Paris and Marseilles, Berlin and Frankfurt, and Rome and Milan, for example. “It’s simple,” Sir Isaiah would hit the nail on the head without much ado, “people like to detest and contest each other!” Indeed they do. And how. But why are simple answers like these of no interest to anyone nowadays? In other words, has wisdom become history by now?

Addendum III (May 10, 2018)

As of late, Sir Isaiah crosses my mind ever more often. Why as of late? More often than not, I remember his wise words in my ruminations about World War III. The whole world seems to be rooting for it, too (“On World Military Spending,” May 6, 2018). Willy-nilly, I find myself wondering about the causes of the tumult. Mindboggling or what? “It’s simple,” I remember Sir Isaiah’s words sooner or later, “people like to fight and kill each other!” And I feel sort of relieved for a short while. No better explanation of warmongering around the globe is available, at any rate. So-called human nature is surely behind it. Perhaps the only thing that has happened over the last hundred-thousand years or so is that weapons available to humans have become so deadly that the future of the entire species is now in question, not to mention many other species that will perish in the bargain. And the next world war cannot but go nuclear at some stage. Alas, biology and technology are ultimately at odds with each other!