Hi Paul.
If it's OK for me to throw my two cents in, I think what Quirky might mean is that awful stuff has never stopped happening and that the world's not really all of a sudden gone back several decades.
Far from diminishing the terrible reality of what is happening in Ukraine at the moment, I think this insight is important for grounding. While Europe had been at relative peace since WWII, much of the world has not. And even this European peace has been punctuated multiple times, sometimes quite brutally. The Soviets invaded Hungary in the 1950s. Northern Ireland and the greater British Isles were embroiled in a low intensity but still nasty conflict between Irish Republicans and Ulster Loyalists for decades. Much of what happened in the Yugoslav, Nagorno-Karabakh and Chechan wars is eerily and heartbreakingly similar to the current conflict.
It is certainly shocking and horrifying what has suddenly befallen Ukraine. I've personally felt like vomiting multiple times. But I think being aware of post WWII history means that we can regard it as less of a plunge back into a dark age but as a very modern catastrophe, one of many, and one that can be addressed through modern means, many of which didn't exist in the 40s.
if you have relatives/friends in Ukraine or are of a Ukrainian background, that adds a different dimension to it and certainly in that circumstance I would expect concern for Ukraine would be much more acute than for anything else. What I have written would probably apply less in that case.
These are just my thoughts on it. I'm sorry if I've misunderstood anyone at all.
All my best wishes to the people of Ukraine and for peace.
