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About 2,150 years ago, there lived one nation under control of another. This kind of thing was by no means unknown, of course; empires were all the rage.

But the subordinate nation was facing death through slow erosion of its distinct identity. Whether the empire's strategy of absorbing subjugate peoples by assimilation was focused on this nation in particular or was simply a byproduct of hegemony is not important; national death is never something to be celebrated.

And the straws piled up. Admittedly, the subjugate nation was not the nicest place to live. Its people were being ruled by a theocratic empire, when what they wanted was... a theocratic kingdom. Still, suffocating a distinct people out of existence is not something we should be too casual about. Annihilation, as one writer has told us, is the most terrible word, in any language.

The last straw was a law passed by the emperor decreeing that all his subjects must worship his chief god. At which point, a few members of the priestly caste of this subjugate people - whose jobs, other than performing services, mainly consisted of educating the rest of their society - arose and instigated a revolt. Let us not deny: there was murder, and there were assassinations. Such is the way of revolutions.

The emperor responded, as any ruler would: he sent an army to pacify this rebellious province. The revolutionary leaders - priests, remember! - fought a two-year war against the emperor, and they won. In essence, they had saved their people. They were heroes. More than two thousand years later, they are still remembered.

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Now, who cares? Nobody is threatening to annihilate anyone else, you may say; why worry? And the answer is, you would be wrong to say that nobody is trying to annihilate anyone else. We merely don't talk about it, because it makes us uncomfortable. It would mean we would have to get involved, we would have to hurt and bleed on behalf of others... and it doesn't happen.

But the threat of annihilation, for people not actively involved in a war for national survival, is nonetheless still there. Sometimes it's cultural annihilation through imports or immigration. Sometimes it's physical annihilation through military invasion. Either way: the threat is never all that far away. While states stand strong, the peoples who form their flesh, blood and spirit can easily be destroyed.

We need to be ready.

I remember reading a comic series by... well, let's just describe him as a cartoonist. If you've read the story, you know which one.

In any case: in one element of the series, a young man visits his girlfriend's family. And Dad - a grim though not unkind veteran of modern war - tells the fellow the story of fighting for national survival. Partly to make his point, he lifts his old rifle off its mount in the wall and hands it to his daughter's suitor, and speaks to him of the responsibility of self-defense.

It has stuck with me, I believe, because it mirrors what I have long believed. In every age, the threat of annihilation is present. We shouldn't allow it to consume us - we're here to make the world a better place, not lash out at every person who gives us a funny look.

But let's keep ourselves a working rifle on the mantelpiece, and clean and oil it regularly, and know where the magazines are. The threat exists. Be ready. Be the everyman hero. Be prepared to do your duty.