Yes…and now, we would be arguing in GD with Mithraist fundamentalists.
I wouldn’t undo anything since we couldn’t know what would be the result. For all I know, without Hitler, we could have had a nuclear war in Europe during the 60s, instead…
Besides, given that the birth of each of us was incredibly unlikely, nobody born after a signifiant event that you change result in none of the people born after this event not existing (your grandfather might not have met your grandmother, and even if he did, the slighest change in his life would have resulted in some other spermatozoid winning the big prize). And I’d rather exist, thank you very much.
I wouldn’t mind much you altering events happening after 1989, though. The people I love the most were all born by this time. And to say the truth, if I did such a thing, I’d probably, egoistically, alter my own life.
I’ve no doubt that a Central European war would still have happened, possibly escalating into a different WWII. It was an untenable situation. I have equally as little doubt that without Hitler the Holocaust would not have occurred.
As much as many people (especially the History Channel) would like it to be true, I believe that Hitler was mostly a catalyst for the anti-Semitism rampant in Depression Era Europe (maybe even around the world – Stalin was no Jew Lover either) but was by no means its cause. He had to have many people, mostly well-educated and power-hungry associates along with the German populace in general, for his rise to power and his bloodthirsty methods to have worked. Blaming Hitler is not the answer to the Holocaust any more than current day atrocities can be laid at the feet of your basic dictator. It’s a Zeitgeist type of attitude toward big issues. Hitler was an opportunist who read the crowd well. Evil as all hell, but not working in a vacuum.
To me, the lesson to be learned from WWII is not to be on the lookout for the next Hitler (how many have we had since then?) but to try to forestall the apathy and ignorance that allowed Hitler into power to start with.
I’d go back to November of 1955 and actually have my dad stand up to Biff so he could gain some self-confidence and finally write that Science Fiction book.
Aw, damnit, I’d probably get back to the present and find that I’m now the proud owner of a two year old Mac Plus-IV, with a 200mhz 68090 CPU, a 1024 color monitor, and I’d find out that Steve Jobs now owns Monaco. :smack:
Okay, I’ve got a safe one…how about stop the U.S. from protecting the Unit 731 guys from war crimes prosecution in exchange for their research data? (We didn’t get much useful data anyway, as I remember. So no big loss.)
“john, that yoko woman is just leading you away from the music. why don’t you just sit down with paul over a nice cup of tea and work out your differences…”
Public education wouldn’t have taken the huge hit in taxpayer support since 1955 if whites didn’t flee en masse to the suburbs to send their kids to all-white private schools. Formerly poor black schools would have, with the proper legislation, gotten money for key improvements in faculty, facilities and books, which basically means equitable federal money would have been earmarked for black education 50 years ago. Integration of schools would have occurred through voluntary efforts rather than forced bussing. Integration of the workforce would likely have happened sooner, too – possibly with less initial tokenism. Not to say that racism, bigotry and discrimination wouldn’t have been intractable in some quarters, or that the desegregation of public facilities in transportation, hospitalization, etc., was a bad thing, but I think further strides would have been made sooner.
In any event, we would have sidestepped aspects of racial quotas, bussing, overcrowded poorly maintained urban schools, duplicated efforts in nonsectarian private education and underminded confidence in public education.
Dec 26 1893. Distract Mr and Mrs Mao (with a funny dance, maybe) and prevent them from creating little Chairman. He’s currently top of my “Evil Bastard” list. China was probably in for a rough old time anyway, but this psychotic bastard was utterly outstanding in his field.
