I suppose I must give you the background about Earth too. About how life changed slowly into the bloody nightmare it was by that evening of 16 September 2041. Yes, let me spend some time on that, so you will understand – and so that I can put off describing that night yet a little longer.

It is difficult to explain how Earth descended into her madness – mostly because it is inexplicable. Why did it happen?

I mean, there we were, back in the early part of the twenty-first century, worrying about global warming and climate change and disappearing rhino and elephant. Thinking Earth was on the edge of extinction because of human greed and carelessness.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, came the violence. Human-against-human violence. No-one understands the reasons – not the sociologists, not the psychiatrists, nor the politicians.

At first, they blamed population growth: too many people squeezed onto too little dry land. The zoo mentality, they called it. Except that people in remote and sparsely-inhabited areas were also becoming wildly aggressive.

Then they blamed the massive inequality between the haves and the have-nots. So much jealousy burning in the hearts of the poor. So much fear stirring in the hearts of the rich. That theory fell through too, since the rich were just as keen on brutality as the poor.

Then they took to blaming the ridiculous fakery of Reality TV. And video games. And the hardcore news channels.

“People can no longer tell the difference between what is make-believe and what is real,” said one sociologist. “There’s a disconnect between their actions and the consequences of their actions. They confuse what is true and what is fake.”

For a time, Reality TV was banned, at least in the US and Europe. News was censored. No new video games were produced. But the murder and conflict went on unabated.

In the end, they shrugged their shoulders, all those sociologists and psychiatrists and politicians. Instead they joined in. They balled up their fists and started smashing the hell out of each other.

*****

You know that life on Earth has been divided into Ages: the Age of the Dinosaurs, the Ice Age, the Age of the Dawn of Mankind, the Age of the Pharaohs, the Dark Ages, the Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Discovery, the Industrial Age, the Information Age, the Age of Social Media.

But who, in their right minds, ever expected the Age of Aggression to come next?

Fair enough, we have always had wars. Where there are humans, there has always been bloodshed. The first tool a man ever developed was probably a club with which to beat his brother’s brains out.

And humans have used every excuse in the book to attack our fellow-humans: religion and race and nationalism and ethnicity.

But this, this Age of Aggression, this unspeakable violence, is a whole different ball-game! On a whole different level.

***

Tell us: Are humans really getting more aggressive with each other?