The War: 1359

A major crisis, bringing the world to a standstill.

In the context of The War, however, a minor footnote:
"(…) and in the fourth year, the bullets flying, a pandemic assailed the world (…)"

We've always been at war with... Oceania?

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I first came across the concept of "There's an XKCD for that" through Michael Nielsen's tweet. Riding back home, the Feuchtersleben quote rung in my head: "Reue ist Verstand, der zu spät kommt". Aptly, I found there was already a post on this very blog with this citation.

I'm not Randall, but even the (meta?-)meta-discussion on a certain number of prior experiences sufficing to last a creative lifetime has already made it here.

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That same post with Feuchtersleben's tragic realisation had, further down, the inspirative antidote.

The only way out is through.