We have been watching a re-run of the series “The First World War” which is based upon Professor Hew Strachan’s book. It is difficult to watch as the body count increases, the weapons are improved, the destruction is immense and the idiocy of war is front and centre. The twentieth century must be the cruellest of centuries as we humans engage in war after bloody war. I kept thinking, while watching the series, that every politician and every religious person should watch this and remember the past.

We humans do not seem particularly good at learning from our mistakes. Driven by the worst emotions we lurch from war to war while at the same time destroying the environment around us.

About ten years ago I [Richard Marshall] interviewed Noam Chomsky, and the first question I asked him was why, with all the irons he has in the…