# When can we stop obsessing over WWII? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613 "2011-01-14T16:55:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/61 "2011-01-15T16:25:04Z")
IOt is true, WWII was an amazingly transformative point in history…it resulted in the “Bipolar World” of the 1950’s and 60’s. Now the world is being transformed again-by the rise of China and India. Will these two aspire to be superpowers? Who knows? My belief is that military power is pretty passe-the powers that will survive will be the ones who master new technologies, and make the transistion from oil-based energy. The USA has a place in the new world order-if we can refrain from our attempts at “nation building”. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/62 "2011-01-15T17:00:47Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Agreed, but that comment was in response to the claim that “Last time I checked, the U.S. is still the world’s largest manufacturing country.” This hasn’t been true since at latest the early 'Seventies, when the United States transitioned from being a primarily industrial economy (making stuff) to post-industrial i.e. service and technology development (selling information, specialized capabilities, and developing and capitalizing on innovative technologies). You need to check your facts. Just because we do other stuff doesn’t mean we have given up manufacturing stuff. > [@](#): > > Last year, the US created 19.9 per cent of world manufacturing output, compared with 18.6 per cent for China, with the US staying ahead despite a steep fall in factory production due to the global recession. [link](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/af2219cc-7c86-11df-8b74-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1B4L1VDBK) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/63 "2011-01-15T17:18:36Z")
“Created manufacturing output” is not the same as “Manufactured within and by citizens of the United States.” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![smileybastard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@smileybastard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smileybastard)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/64 "2011-01-15T17:24:05Z")
> [@The\_Amazing\_Hanna](#): > > (Posted after accidentally switching to the Hitler, sorry, History Channel.) > > World War II ended almost three score and ten years ago. The babies born to parents who returned from the war are now old men and women. The countries involved have all changed radically - mostly, for the better. The meek, liberal Germans of today are as unlikely as their Japanese counterparts to start marching anywhere soon. Large-scale antisemitism in the West is dead and buried. Most of those who fought are no longer with us. > > Yet WWII occupies what seems to me a remarkably large share of our worldview and popular culture, and our view of the countries involved. As well as as, perhaps, many people’s attitude to foreign policy - not only in the US, but in Europe, Japan and Russia as well. > > Is it time to turn a new leaf and recognize we now live in an era which no longer really resembles the world of the last world war? My experience is that most of the young people today do not not obsess about it and certainly not about Germany and Japan. I think the general lessons about WWII and WWI are important to retain. To realize that conflicts can get out of control and with “advanced technology” can cause massive numbers of deaths. Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/65 "2011-01-15T17:26:32Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > “Created manufacturing output” is not the same as “Manufactured within and by citizens of the United States.” > > Stranger Huh? What exactly do you think it means? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/66 "2011-01-15T17:41:04Z")
Also, I’m not sure that absolute manufacturing output is the best measure of “manufacturing power” and the place of manufacturing in our economy relative to other pursuits. How about manufacturing output compared to consumption? Percentage of total income deriving from manufacturing? It’s not actually debatable that the USA is now much _less_ of a manufacturing country than it was during and just after the War, right? ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/67 "2011-01-15T17:48:28Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Also, I’m not sure that absolute manufacturing output is the best measure of “manufacturing power” and the place of manufacturing in our economy relative to other pursuits. > > How about manufacturing output compared to consumption? Percentage of total income deriving from manufacturing? It’s not actually debatable that the USA is now much _less_ of a manufacturing country than it was during and just after the War, right? If by “less” you mean absolute (inflation adjusted) terms, then no. The size of the manufacturing sector in the USA has been growing pretty much continuously since the war. If by “less” you mean compared to other sectors of the US economy, then yes, the US is less of a manufacturing country. But this is because we have invented entire new sectors of the economy, not because we have lost manufacturing. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613/68 "2011-01-15T18:04:33Z")
Those who forget history end up repeating it. WWII and the aftermath still effect us today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-can-we-stop-obsessing-over-wwii/567613.md?page=3)