Thursday
Mar042010
It's war! Or Not! - Ep. 21
Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 06:00PM Stephen predicts we won't advance really that far at all in the next 100 years, and we'll all be at each others throats. Patrick thinks we'll see the end of major wars. Hippie.
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Reader Comments (2)
I find the idea that 1910 is similar to 2010 to be very disingenuous. Here's a story from right now:
Last semester I went on a study abroad to China. It takes about a day to get over there (from the Eastern US) and about a day to get back. While I was there, I met a Chinese girl. Not are we still in touch, but she's still my girlfriend, AND if schedules and everything work out, we get to see each other face-to-face, in real time, over webcam. It's not a perfect world, but I'll take it.
Now, here comes a story from the early 20th century. It's fictional, but it reflects the times:
I was watching "La lengua de las mariposas" ("The tongue of the butterfly") recently for my Spanish class. That movie is set in around 1930's Spain, just near the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The main character's older brother sees a picture of a "yellow" person in his brother's textbook and says that he likes "las chinas", and wants to one day go to China and marry one. This is treated as just a pointless fantasy, just as the idea of people going to AMERICA is greeted with either awe or laughter -- and it's a lot closer. He does eventually meet a "china", but the reasons he can't have her are more social in nature so I won't get into it.
The point is, this Spanish guy (who is a tailor's son -- poor but not THAT poor) will probably never leave his little town in Galicia, whereas I traveled halfway around the world and back again, am currently dating someone from that other side of the world, and the two of us will probably begin travelling back and fourth once we both have money flowing in and such. AND I have a number of friends who have done the same or better, one of them being a dude who works fast food and retail jobs (with some differences but this comment is already too long).
I think it's pretty clear: today > early 20th century -- by far. If you disagree, well you can just go die of tuberculosis, then.
I think you guys are being pedantic.I too have a great grandmother who saw a Wright Flyer and a Space Shuttle.Our contribution to society is that we made information ubiquitous,that changes everything.I would argue the last ten years of human history are more important than the previous fifty.