And then his second comment was, "The essential fact about civil wars is that they happen less than once in a lifetime, and, because they happen less than once in a lifetime, the events leading into the civil war are not a part of anyone's experience. Our perception of the arc of history is like our perception of the world: it APPEARS to be flat, because it is bending so slowly that we can't see the curve. We are bending very slowly toward dysfunction leading to chaos, AS EVERY OTHER COUNTRY PERIODICALLY DOES, but because the curve is so gradual, we think that the world is flat, that the conflicts of today are merely repetitions of the conflicts of years past."