AP Photo

Curl up in the foetal position and hope that this too shall pass? Attempt somehow, anyhow to understand why this is happening to us? If the latter, there are so many strands, where do you begin? Militants, the economy, politics? If militants, then which kind, the sectarian or the pan-Islamic?

Is the state collapsing? Or are still-born state-building processes finally catching up with us, inevitably proving that only shrinking pockets can be kept governable? Is this an economy of an elitist state or are we a national security state where the concentration of wealth is incidental?