Entry tags:
History Repeats Itself
I'm currently reading (one chapter behind where I should be, as a matter of fact) about WWI. This particular book focuses more on trends in history, which is a nice break from my high school history books that listed interminable battles & dates & places & generals. However, it's been bad for my conspiracy-theory addiction because it all seems so familiar...
Just some generalities. WWI was the first war to introduce large-scale chemical & biological warfare. In the aftermath of WWI, there was widespread famine and a flu epidemic that killed over 21 million people. Odd, huh, that following a war that introduced biological warfare, a flu epidemic would pop up and kill off more people than died in the war itself. In articles & discussions of the new bird flu, some have mentioned that the epidemic of WWI was a strain of bird flu. Kind of convenient...
In the beginning of WWI, before the US became involved, like 1917 - 1918, there was a general anti-German sentiment that carried over into German immigrants needing to 'Americanize' their last names (this lasting sentiment affected my own paternal grandparents, who upon entering the country in 1935 went from being the 'Dreisbeck von Schmidts' to being the 'Smiths' & my own father, whose name was originally 'Karal Dreisbeck von Schmidt' becoming 'Charles Wayne Smith' - from shirt-tail Prussian royalty to potential serial killer in one easy step). Anyway, prior to the war, the rich German culture of the time was homogenized... 'Hamburger sandwiches' became 'Liberty sandwiches', 'sauerkraut' became 'Liberty cabbage', etc. & so forth. Would you like some 'Freedom Fries' with that 'Liberty Sandwich'?
The revolution of S. African workers against British imperialism - because of the registration of Muslim & Hindu people by the British government.
I've got a lot of respect for some of the hell-raisers of the time, tho. 'Mother' Mary Jones, a pro-union organizer who went to jail at 83 for her speech at Ludlow, CO. Jeannette Rankin, the first woman Congressperson - she voted against declaring war on Germany in WWI, upon her re-election in 1940, she was the only Congressperson to vote against declaring war on Japan in 1941 (thereby ending her political career) - and she was arrested at the age of 85 in 1968 when she marched on Washington D.C. to protest the Vietnam 'police action'. I really like poor ol' Eugene V. Debs, one of the most charismatic Union organizers the world has ever seen. This guy spent a lot of time in prison. During WWI, the U. S. government suspended many of our civil liberties - like the right to assemble & the right to free speech. They passd the Espionage Act in 1918 that illegalized any act deemed 'sabotage' - anything that hinted at the possible failure of our military or any slight indication of 'radical' political thought, which included Unions & Socialism.
I was telling Rob some of my thoughts on the synchronicity of WWI, and how teaching people history is futile, because if you look at the broad expanse of time, we keep repeating ourselves. We keep making the same mistakes. Rob's kind of worried because of things he's heard - scientists trying to open a mini-black hole in a lab, quantum colliders, teleportation, that 2012 radiation-belt thing... Things that seem like they're right out of a sci-fi movie, but are actually happening here & now. Ever since I read 'The Universe in a Nutshell', I've almost been noticing how dimensions do constantly shift and change - not by much, maybe only by a millisecond, or a single atom-space, but it's weird little things that are out of place, fluid events that may or may not have happened (Rob's favorite test is: "Milton Berle - alive or dead?"), items that are not where I put them two seconds ago.
He's also been worried about Bush wanting to invade everyone all at the same time - N. Korea, Iran, Iraq, etc. & so forth. Some of these countries will defend themselves fiercely, and they are so isolated and insular that they may not think of the global ramifications of their retalitory actions - Hel, we act that way, too, and we're supposedly a global power. When I was telling him about the coincidental famine & flu epidemic that followed the Great War, he just looked at me & said, "It's going to get bad, isn't it?"
I usually try not to think about the future. It's a vague, foggy place, and everything we do every minute changes things that will happen or won't happen... I'm better when it's just right here, right now, in this moment, perfect in this time and space... but I've been forced to look back so my mind is also looking ahead. Maybe we won't have to worry too much because some foolish scientists will suddenly find themselves on the event horizon of a point singularity that has grown out of their control. Or maybe someone's quantum collider will merge a few dimensions in an unexpected way & open the Imajica - or one of Stephen King's less pleasant tourist traps.
But instead of sitting here worrying about things I cannot change, I need to do my homework.
A prayer for us all:
Around the fire
May the Sacred Three
Save,
Shield,
Surround
The hearth
The house,
The household,
This eve,
This night,
Oh! This eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night,
So may it be.
- Traditional Celtic Samhain blessing
Just some generalities. WWI was the first war to introduce large-scale chemical & biological warfare. In the aftermath of WWI, there was widespread famine and a flu epidemic that killed over 21 million people. Odd, huh, that following a war that introduced biological warfare, a flu epidemic would pop up and kill off more people than died in the war itself. In articles & discussions of the new bird flu, some have mentioned that the epidemic of WWI was a strain of bird flu. Kind of convenient...
In the beginning of WWI, before the US became involved, like 1917 - 1918, there was a general anti-German sentiment that carried over into German immigrants needing to 'Americanize' their last names (this lasting sentiment affected my own paternal grandparents, who upon entering the country in 1935 went from being the 'Dreisbeck von Schmidts' to being the 'Smiths' & my own father, whose name was originally 'Karal Dreisbeck von Schmidt' becoming 'Charles Wayne Smith' - from shirt-tail Prussian royalty to potential serial killer in one easy step). Anyway, prior to the war, the rich German culture of the time was homogenized... 'Hamburger sandwiches' became 'Liberty sandwiches', 'sauerkraut' became 'Liberty cabbage', etc. & so forth. Would you like some 'Freedom Fries' with that 'Liberty Sandwich'?
The revolution of S. African workers against British imperialism - because of the registration of Muslim & Hindu people by the British government.
I've got a lot of respect for some of the hell-raisers of the time, tho. 'Mother' Mary Jones, a pro-union organizer who went to jail at 83 for her speech at Ludlow, CO. Jeannette Rankin, the first woman Congressperson - she voted against declaring war on Germany in WWI, upon her re-election in 1940, she was the only Congressperson to vote against declaring war on Japan in 1941 (thereby ending her political career) - and she was arrested at the age of 85 in 1968 when she marched on Washington D.C. to protest the Vietnam 'police action'. I really like poor ol' Eugene V. Debs, one of the most charismatic Union organizers the world has ever seen. This guy spent a lot of time in prison. During WWI, the U. S. government suspended many of our civil liberties - like the right to assemble & the right to free speech. They passd the Espionage Act in 1918 that illegalized any act deemed 'sabotage' - anything that hinted at the possible failure of our military or any slight indication of 'radical' political thought, which included Unions & Socialism.
I was telling Rob some of my thoughts on the synchronicity of WWI, and how teaching people history is futile, because if you look at the broad expanse of time, we keep repeating ourselves. We keep making the same mistakes. Rob's kind of worried because of things he's heard - scientists trying to open a mini-black hole in a lab, quantum colliders, teleportation, that 2012 radiation-belt thing... Things that seem like they're right out of a sci-fi movie, but are actually happening here & now. Ever since I read 'The Universe in a Nutshell', I've almost been noticing how dimensions do constantly shift and change - not by much, maybe only by a millisecond, or a single atom-space, but it's weird little things that are out of place, fluid events that may or may not have happened (Rob's favorite test is: "Milton Berle - alive or dead?"), items that are not where I put them two seconds ago.
He's also been worried about Bush wanting to invade everyone all at the same time - N. Korea, Iran, Iraq, etc. & so forth. Some of these countries will defend themselves fiercely, and they are so isolated and insular that they may not think of the global ramifications of their retalitory actions - Hel, we act that way, too, and we're supposedly a global power. When I was telling him about the coincidental famine & flu epidemic that followed the Great War, he just looked at me & said, "It's going to get bad, isn't it?"
I usually try not to think about the future. It's a vague, foggy place, and everything we do every minute changes things that will happen or won't happen... I'm better when it's just right here, right now, in this moment, perfect in this time and space... but I've been forced to look back so my mind is also looking ahead. Maybe we won't have to worry too much because some foolish scientists will suddenly find themselves on the event horizon of a point singularity that has grown out of their control. Or maybe someone's quantum collider will merge a few dimensions in an unexpected way & open the Imajica - or one of Stephen King's less pleasant tourist traps.
But instead of sitting here worrying about things I cannot change, I need to do my homework.
A prayer for us all:
Around the fire
May the Sacred Three
Save,
Shield,
Surround
The hearth
The house,
The household,
This eve,
This night,
Oh! This eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night,
So may it be.
- Traditional Celtic Samhain blessing