The United States will have gone to the moon by 1969, invented computers and an amazing network, done a thousand unimaginably cool and interesting things and yet by 2013 we will be a country in decline, unable to deal with our external enemies, half the population will be on the dole, we will be 16 trillion dollars in debt, GM will have been taken over by the government, we will have passed laws gutting the Bill of Rights, and China will be the manufacturer of just about everything you can buy in the stores.
I must disagree with you, ASM826, because of historical perspective.
Let's assume that we're talking about a 28-year-old time-traveler from late 1956 (born in mid-1928). Let's further assume that people start paying attention to the larger world no later than the age of 10 years.
Such a time-traveler would have been taught in school that "the Sun never sets on the British Empire," and would have seen a united Germany that was, at very least, among the most powerful nations in Continental Europe.
By the time said time-traveler was eligible for Selective Service (mid-1946), he would have seen Germany occupied by the four Allied Powers. Down the road, in 1956, Great Britain would be humiliated by the Suez Crisis, and British decolonization would be well underway. (Oh, and "the dole" would have been a feature of life in the UK since before our time-traveler's birth.) Meanwhile, the Allied occupation of Germany would evolve into the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (formed from German territory under Soviet occupation) and the Federal Republic of Germany (formed from German territory under American, British and French occupation).
A time-traveler from the 1950s would have seen both the rise and the fall of Great Powers, and would not necessarily be surprised to see the United States follow the pattern.
Yep. Sums it up right there.
ReplyDeleteThere is truth, and there is TRUTH. This is the 2nd one...
ReplyDeleteThomas may have been onto something. Something depressing, anyhow.
ReplyDeleteYep... and we STILL refuse to study history, even when it's at our FINGERTIPS!!! dammit...
ReplyDeletePerfect. Sad, true and perfectly sadly true.
ReplyDeleteBut I can haz a cheeseburger?
ReplyDeleteThe United States will have gone to the moon by 1969, invented computers and an amazing network, done a thousand unimaginably cool and interesting things and yet by 2013 we will be a country in decline, unable to deal with our external enemies, half the population will be on the dole, we will be 16 trillion dollars in debt, GM will have been taken over by the government, we will have passed laws gutting the Bill of Rights, and China will be the manufacturer of just about everything you can buy in the stores.
ReplyDeleteI must disagree with you, ASM826, because of historical perspective.
ReplyDeleteLet's assume that we're talking about a 28-year-old time-traveler from late 1956 (born in mid-1928). Let's further assume that people start paying attention to the larger world no later than the age of 10 years.
Such a time-traveler would have been taught in school that "the Sun never sets on the British Empire," and would have seen a united Germany that was, at very least, among the most powerful nations in Continental Europe.
By the time said time-traveler was eligible for Selective Service (mid-1946), he would have seen Germany occupied by the four Allied Powers. Down the road, in 1956, Great Britain would be humiliated by the Suez Crisis, and British decolonization would be well underway. (Oh, and "the dole" would have been a feature of life in the UK since before our time-traveler's birth.) Meanwhile, the Allied occupation of Germany would evolve into the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (formed from German territory under Soviet occupation) and the Federal Republic of Germany (formed from German territory under American, British and French occupation).
A time-traveler from the 1950s would have seen both the rise and the fall of Great Powers, and would not necessarily be surprised to see the United States follow the pattern.
Perhaps not, Aurictech, I was born in that era, grew up thinking the United States was rising to be the "Leader of the Free World", and all that.
ReplyDeleteI am personally surprised and saddened by the rate of our decline.