The teacher lets the thick tension linger, seemingly enjoying it too, with a small smile at the corner of the lips while looking at the created effect. Actually, from the thoughts I can perceive, I'm not just assuming things, I can be sure. My smile grows, thinking that if we had a teacher like that in the previous years, history courses would have been interesting too, not boring to the point of leaving us empty-brained even after hours of fighting against sleepiness.
I blink, snapping out of my thoughts when the smile in front grows for a bit then settles down.
"So, since there is no peace to expect, what do humans do? They understand, they learn. The order doesn't matter, what matters is that after a certain point, the fragile balance breaks, because there are interests to satisfy. There is the desire for more, the desire to dominate, to take the leading position and be the one on top. You might get to discuss more about the thoughts of humans, their desires in your philosophy classes, or maybe in your psychology and sociology classes for those who will take certain paths for further studies after high school. However, for now, we will focus on what the broken balance will bring, and that is war, the element I said characterizes our civilization in its many, innumerable forms. And the war we will be talking about today is one that is very old. It happened so long ago that it seems like a legend instead. Only the traces it has left have fed the certainty that it really happened. And it is called…"
The narrating voice takes a dive, becoming low, deep, and even more intense and dramatic:
"...the secret war, or better yet, the war in the darkness."
A dark veil seems to crash down on the classroom. It dims, and becomes heavy enough to cause the breathing inside to turn stagnant.
Exhaling slowly, the story continues, because that is what history seems to have become.
"The war in the darkness, or the secret war. A war that had spread over one thousand years. It was a darkness where it was kill or be killed. The reasons? Unknown. The process? Bloody and dark, yes, but still, unknown. The winners? Unknown. The losers? Unknown. The only known fact, the only confirmed fact, is the duration it lasted. Weird, right? Such an uncertainty in history, a discipline that usually demands rigor is difficult to believe, isn't it? As if legends are allowed to be taken as the truth now."
A pause later, the voice that has gone from low to normal climbs up:
"BUT! That is what is accepted as the truth, an uncertain but undisputed truth. A bloody and dark past we know existed, but which we can only see the traces of, and which we know the consequences of only because we are living within the new order that grew out of it."
"Huh!?"
The surprise is so abrupt that it feels jarring. The tension that has already started melting is blown away, and the state of deep focus that everyone has fallen into is shattered. And it is unsurprising. Rather, that result even makes the teacher smile happily, having expected, and having been waiting for it.
A war brutal and bloody, but more a legend than a totally proven reality, having happened so long ago that even the thousand of years it has taken seem like an illusion. And now, we are being told that it created the order we are living in. Who would not be surprised by that? Especially when we have been told last term that the last big war reshaped the world, turning into the geopolitical form we have known since we were born. Even I, the mind-reader diving deep into the dramatism-loving mind of the teacher, am surprised to the point of falling out of my state of shallow focus that has allowed me to focus on one mind amidst the ocean of mental noise.
Yeah, I don't need deep focus for that anymore, but that is not the point of relevance here.
"Let's stop talking about that dark war for a moment and go back further in time, to the period where civilizations sprung up after the era of the initial barbarism. You must have already been told how humans suddenly moved out of that initial state of confusion to focus on thinking, evolving intellectually, and building, haven't you? Though many things are difficult to trace, that initial period of civilizations can be pinpoint with relative accuracy. And it is a point that did not appear only in one area before spreading like a prairie fire, nor did it appear with much temporal difference in the different parts of the world. It appeared without any logic, and like seed, grew in a towering tree at each area where it appeared, finally suddenly turning the world into a forest when there have only been prairies before. And that forest, while seemingly normal, turned dark over time. And when nothing could be seen beyond a foot away, the war that is more a legend than an element of reality started. The true participants are unknown, but many died, order collapsed, and society regressed. We don't know what happened after that, because historians are still researching and looking for clues. But after the collapse, a new order was created, and it is that template that has lasted until now, a template not of restraints, nor of peace, but of civilized wars. That order has ruled the world wars that have been so destructive, and delineated their boundaries. Even the reshuffles after the upheavals the world have been through have remained in that template."
The teacher takes a light breath and relaxes, letting the class let go of the tension that has been holding every heart tight. After a breath, the lesson continues with a lighter voice, and the tone of a coming conclusion.
"Since that war, remaining civilized has become the theme of the world. That is what all the historians have concluded. That makes one wonder how our wars would have been if not for that, doesn't it? At least, I shiver just at the thought of a war even more unhinged than the world wars and their dozens of millions of casualties. Would we have counted the dead by the hundred of millions if all holds had not been barred?"
*Ring!!!!!!*