History is Not Boring discussion
If you could go back and change something knowing it could change History from that day forward, what would it be?
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good going barnow no one will respond to this thread in fear of causing biological warfare
i'd save the twin towers not just to save those people but to prevent these wars
and prevent the invention of post its
i hate post its
Achhh, I'm just messing about. Just like looking at the "what ifs", read too much 2000AD as a wee boy.Anyway...
I'd try and stop the eejits that destroyed the Scottish economy with the Darien Project, which lead to the Union of the Parliaments.
Would the Jacobite risings still have happened? More spare capital to investment in the weaving industry? The tobacco and slave trade? A stronger South during the US Civil war as a result of foreign investment 160 years later? Lincoln getting shot earlier (or saved by Kelley in her Chronosuit), maybe not even elected? A complete seperation of North and South? Canada, now French, invades the North in 1888?
Where would the knock on end though?
Read this back and went in to edit it:
I don't mean for this to say I support the slave trade, merely that one change could have huge consequences. It's not just what people would want to stop in this thread that interests me, but how that change would spin out and what else would be different as a result. OK, my view of the above change may be a bit pessimistic. Any positive versions? I think the problem is that the further back the change the wider the ripple would be by now.
Interesting stuff though.
I would either give Hitler's father a condom or kill him. And at the same time , in the U.S., Joseph Kennedy would not be allowed to have any power at all.
I think the removal of Hitler would have a huge impact on life today. Millions died because of his actions, but allot of technology was developed to stop him. That technology has saved millions, and will save millions more. When dealing with the dynamics of history I think one should be very careful about what should be changed. I will second stopping 9/11 though; I view 9/11 as an accelerant. I believe it is something we would have to face sooner or later, but 9/11 made us throw all our chips in at once.
I would make Geo. W. and Condoleeza read (and heed) the warning that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack us. It would have avoided this senseless occupation and saved many lives. It's a bit current compared to Hitler or Socrates, but the negative impact it made on current events was devastating. Geo. W. would have found something else, probably...so, never mind.
howdy nick-good to hear youlove that dog
Here's a scary thought...what if someone already went back and changed things?What if this is the better reality?
If Hitler or 9/11 are the lesser evil?
Hitler happens because a more compotent leader arose in Germany, he observed the Mutual Non-Aggression Pact with Stalin until he consolidated his hold on Europe, then went East. Someone takes him out, Hitler filled the void?
If by stopping a bomb at a Superbowl 9/11 was the price?
Sorry, as I said I read too much Sci-Fi as a boy. This stuff fascinates me. The moral dilemas...if the only way to stop someones existance in the timeline was to kill them as a child could we justify that?
Actually, at the minute I'd go back to last night and not have eaten quite as much curry.Paying for it this morning.
It's the little changes...
I have always wondered what would happen if we could fix some recent foreign policy blunders by our government.For instance:
What kind of world would we have now if we had let Mohammad Mossadegh's elected government succeeed in Iran in 1953.
Unfortunately Britain and the US feared the nationalization of the oil industry and they engineered a coup to return the Shah to power.
Consequently the Shah's autocratic rule produced an anti US/modernization reaction and established the creation of a conservative Islamic regime.
I would stop Robert F. Kennedy from being killed. I think he would of been as great of a president as Lincoln. The day we lost him our country forever changed. I truly believe the Vietnam War would of ended sooner and perhaps our country wouldn't be in the situation it finds itself in. I just think we lost so much that day and it saddens me whenever I think of all the what if's.
Oh another thing...I'd make sure George and Barbara Bush had a condom on the night they had their greatest mistake George W. Think of all the pain and suffering that would of saved our country.
Easy. I'd take out the Bible. Imagine the wars and hatred that would be avoided. Imagine if George W as a Buddhist, or a pagan Rush Limbagh!
Ah, Limbaugh as viking berserkyr...what a pretty thought. Strangely, GWB sounds zen like at times...don't think that's the intention though.
I agree that the Bible is a huge catalyst in war and hatred but there has always been war and hatred way before the bible humans are a self destructive bunch are we not!lolIsnt it crazy all the fighting over a book? Imagine people finding a novel in a 1000 years and taking it to heart as gospel!LOL
There are several things I would love to change in history like Napoleon's return from Elba, the 30 year war in Europe from 1618-1648, Hitler coming to power in 1933, the assassination of Lincoln, Kennedy and the murders from Sarajewo 1914....But the question is what would happen to our world then??? Would it be a better place to live? Or would things be even worse hen they are already are? I doubt that the world we live in would be better if we could change our past.
what if... "eve" never tempted "adam"? changing the extinction of dinosaurs would certainly change a few things.
Whilst I broadly agree with your sentiment I think you underestimate the human capacity for evil and cruelty with or without a book to justify it.
Have Bush Sr go into Iraq and finish the job the first time. The plan wasn't to invade and defeat and over throw, just invade. Then most of the threats in that area wouldn't be so deadly now.
The two problems with that would have been that, first, just as now, it would have been much harder to get out of Iraq than in, and Bush Sr. realized the American public wouldn't be up for an indefinite occupation and the inevitable insurgency it would inspire, and second, he and Baker wanted to leave Iraq strong enough to keep Iran from dominating the region militarily.Bush Jr. should have stuck with finishing the war in Afghanistan, tearing Al Qaeda and the Taliban out by the roots, and left Iraq to continue withering on the vine. It was a shadow of its former self and a hollow threat.
The other thing that could have made the world safer would have been for the CIA, FBI, and NSA to do a better job of cooperating (or to have cooperated at all) to share information before 9/11; if they'd pooled their info and capabilities, they'd have caught or killed Bin Laden and caught the hijackers when they came into the US.
It's all butterfly wings isn't it???