Thus a hackneyed expression that pops up here and there on the World Wide Web. It makes perfect sense in the case of war, no doubt. The same also holds in many a quagmire that humans have faced so far. But why is it gaining prominence at this particular time? The only plausible answer that crosses my mind is that humans are becoming aware of climate change and environmental degradation, as well as the wars they cannot but engender. Whence the need for a strategy worthy of its name. The trouble is that humans are not capable of coming up with such a strategy, let alone bringing it to fruition. And the bulk of humans do understand the limitations of their species, intuitively at least. Whence the oft-repeated phrase, I suppose. Given all the givens, there is no other strategy left to humans at this stage of their evolution but hope. The fact that it is not a strategy only emphasizes the point. The inescapable tragedy, that is. Fuckety-fuck.

Addendum (October 20, 2019)

As it happened, this piece ended up on postcards to Erdoğan, Modi, Putin, Trump, and Xi, the five most powerful men on planet earth at this particular moment. One more time, I just could not contain my urge to send a few more words to each one of them. The last sentence was especially enticing, I must admit with a dash of embarrassment. Anyhow, I hope they will enjoy both my missive and the postcards I selected for them, which will reach them in about a week. With some luck, a few of them will laugh out loud, not to mention their administrations and secret services surrounding them. Fuckety-fuck, indeed.