Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the US, has spoken about his life and bittersweet memories as if he was narrating a film in which there was drama, tragedy, happiness, and fascination. Different art forms have always tried to glimpse into the future and take their audiences to bygone times, combining myth and prophecy and sometimes creating a world of their own to relate the story of the creator and creation.

Among the many plots available, games of power and control within or between different political entities have always invoked people’s imagination, but in retrospect they are not really that different from the present. Films such as Lord of the Rings and series such as Game of Thrones attract audiences of millions whose heartbeats race to a plot that compresses months and years into seconds and minutes.

In Game of Thrones, the first cry is that “winter is coming”. It is not a prediction of a moment of grave danger, but rather a forecast of the threat of annihilation that people try to avoid at all costs. But people tend to forget and do not always learn much from history. Some people have evil impulses that they exhibit as noble motives and honourable goals, justifying murders, wars, and violence.

Towards the end of the show, the dreaded winter comes and is unlike any previous scenario. A deadly cold brings out creatures that no imagination had anticipated, with creatures flying, pouncing, and killing and mutilating weaker human beings. These creatures have the ability to raise the dead from their eternal slumber, crashing skies of violence onto the land of sin.

In the film the Perfect Storm, a man of pride and humility faces a storm in which strong forces combine to suck him into disaster. He drowns. Similarly, in the Game of Thrones the audience are left battling with a family of dragons. Infighting heats up in Westeros, the continent in the Game of Thrones, before being followed up by the latest fashion and beauty tips in a contemporary world that is meant to ignite unseen, brutal instincts.

The truth is that the cry of the “winter is coming” for present-day people is unlikely to ring strangely as Europe recalls the horrors of World War II and the battles in heavy snow during the march of Hitler’s forces towards Moscow or in the advance of the forces of Soviet general Zhukov and US president Eisenhower towards Berlin. 

At that time, the use of petroleum was limited to supplying the attacking or defending forces. 75 years later, petroleum and other forms of energy are an inseparable part of people’s lives, whether they live in smaller or larger houses.

At the time of writing, Germany has secured only 80 per cent of its energy needs for the coming winter. The case is not much different in the other European countries, many of which have gone back on their previous rejection of nuclear energy or have even returned to the use of coal. It is not possible for man to retreat into caves to light a bunch of dry leaves to heat up his food.

Even so, the 1981 film Quest for Fire began with a scene of a fire that a group of people had lit to stay warm in a cave. The group then decided to send some of its members out in order to scavenge for resources. Their journey led to the expanded use of fire, which in turn brought about civilisation and war.

With every advance humanity makes, people grow hungrier for energy. After learning how to run, man learned how to get on horseback to travel longer distances. Today, cars, planes, ships, and trains are all in desperate need of energy at all times of the year.

In the 1980s, former US president Jimmy Carter launched a series of actions to prevent the former Soviet Union from taking oil from the Gulf and paralysing the western camp. At present, Russia, minus the Soviet Union and the Gulf’s oil, is forcing an oil embargo on Europe.

“Winter is coming” is the cry of all humanity, as indeed it is for the superpowers, against unprecedented threats. Some of these are manifesting today in the form of wildfires, droughts, and floods, others in the form of viruses that mutate to escape man’s defences.

The strange thing is, however, that just at the time when these challenges are intensifying, people are engaging in more and more conflicts. To many observers, the war in Ukraine could not take place because of the “wisdom” of their leaders and the fact that nations depend on each other for commercial exchange. Nevertheless, the war broke out, and while many countries are engaged in the conflict, others, such as Finland and Sweden, have not taken sides out of fears for their future. 

The truth is, and it cannot be ignored, that just like in Game of Thrones when winter came it brings many evils with it. During the Cold War, when the winter lasted for decades, the countries engaged in it gave birth to monsters such as McCarthyism in the US that led to unfair charges being brought against many people. In a similar fashion, the Gulag in the former Soviet Union saw many people locked up in an everlasting winter.

It remains to be seen what kind of winter we will face as the cold wind blows from the US and Russia. But it looks terrifying.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 15 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.