“whether the stars are veiled”. Indeed. That’s the real risk here. Decades, even centuries, of stagnation and tyranny may be survivable, but what is hidden in those words is not. The spectre that has haunted us for the last sixty years might just be released – and then the stars, and the sun, will indeed be veiled.

To use much better words than mine; “World War II once a second, for the length of a lazy afternoon” (Sagan). That’s the risk. Cthuga fhtagn! (Not Cthulhu.)