The shape of a banana

I love to re read history. It's a mirror to who we are, even if we don't wish to acknowledge  it, since as a people, on the whole we don't change.
On a wider scale, the history of Europe is also fascinating especially how the temperament of the different nations are also reflected in their past. The machinations of the nations pre 1939 were, as, pre 1914, a mixture of old wounds and opportunism as treaties were signed to effectively inoculate any response from one nation so that another could be invaded. The crown princes and the diplomats were playing a game based on a map, the landmass was Europe, the boarders, a matter of relentless speculation.
When we look at Europe today and criticise the incursion of labour law, the type and size of packaging, the rules governing the shape of a banana we should just take a step back and remember the behind closed doors meetings to plan and decide to the invasion of whole areas of the continent and as a by-product, commit a generation of young men to die on the battlefield for a few hectors of disputed soil.
Read your history, not the history of the Romans or the Renaissance but the 'recent history' of Europe, within living memory and marvel that we have moved away from that chauvinistic period into one where we as a race of human beings are trying to find accommodation of even such trivial matters as the shape of a banana !!!