I'm reminded of

and particularly this

In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.

In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

They were good threads - a bit of turbulence was to be expected!

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson