No doubt the massive political and social upheaval post-WW2 coupled with the technological bump that comes from unfettered spending and existential threats brought about big changes over that fairly short period.
The end of WW2 to 1960 was of course a mere 15 years. More time has elapsed between The Alexander Litvinenko poisoning or the launch of Twitter and today.
I live in Los Angeles. I know. If I tried to take public transportation to work, it could easily take me three or more hours one way, and that’s after they’ve established some train lines.
Perhaps more to the point, it’s not just a case of densely-populated European countries vs sparsely-populated rural western American states/provinces.
The population density of England - not London, not the urban areas but the whole of England - is more than twice that of the Los Angeles metro area. (It’s also significantly denser than metro Atlanta, Dallas or Miami). The only area in the US that comes close is the Boston-Washington corridor.
In California, 4th graders are taught state California History. The first fact we learned was that if our state was a nation, we would have the sixth largest economy in the world (at least it was in 1973 when I was in 4th grade.)
I like to say that the northern third of Ontario, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, is a swamp twice the size of Ireland.
Let’s see. Area of Ontario: 1,076,395 sq km; 1/3 area of Ontario: 358,798 sq km; area of Ireland: 84,421 sq km. Hmm. Seems I underestimated things!
Re: travelling… one time we had some English relatives come over for a holiday. Starting from our house just east of Toronto, they wanted to see Niagara Falls and the Rocky Mountains in one weekend.
We had to explain that, sure, we can go to Niagara Falls, it’s only a couple of hours away, but the Rockies? To see them, you’ll need another set of plane tickets or be willing to drive for a week, 8 hours a day. It’s 3500 km. And if you want the actual West Coast, that’s another 1000 km.
(My friends and I made it almost to the Rockies one year in just under 4 days, but that was only from Oshawa to Edmonton, overnighting in Flint, Michigan after the first half-day, then driving 24-7 for two days, taking four-hour shifts at the wheel, stopping only to eat and pee, until we got to Minott, North Dakota, and after another overnight stay, making it to just south of Edmonton by 11 pm the next night.)
While watching Get Back, it struck me that John Lennon has been dead longer than he was alive, and both of his sons are now older than he was when he was murdered.
Very true - not just mass population, but population DENSITY. This is why places like New York City have such good (depending on one’s definition - it’s certainly AVAILABLE) transportation.
Outside of such metropolitan areas, even city-to-city transport is iffy at best. For a while after COVID hit, my daughter would literally have had NO way out of her small town in Vermont (as the one daily train had been stopped, ditto the two buses that went to other towns). One of the buses, and the train, have been restarted - but there are a lot of towns where there isn’t even that option.
Were you driving 35 MPH? Your times are way long. According to Google maps it’s only 30 hours driving from Flint to Edmonton, and 9 hours from Minot to Edmonton.
I’ve routinely driven from Phoenix to Wisconsin, almost 1800 miles, in 30-36 hours by myself, depending on how tired I got. 2 to 2 1/2 days was typical. 1 1/2 with a co driver.
Yes, revolutionaries normally want to undercut the rule of law, so lawyers are an obvious target for that.
And, you can’t know what Shakespeare thought of the matter. That phrase is said by a peasant revolutionary. It’s true to that character’s perspective, but that doesn’t mean it was Shakespeare’s.
I think the context suggests that it was meant to be a bit of buffoonery. If I thought lawyers jokes were sincere, I’d have a different reaction when I encounter them.
In my experience, most people “hate lawyers”, until they need one. Then, we’re their most prized advisor. It’s quite the dichotomy.
