(no subject)
Nov. 12th, 2004 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Ah, the decline of the yuppie…
There’s a shop in Bath, a little way up from work. When I first saw it, it was selling Ferraris, at pretty much what one would pay for a largish house.
When I saw it again just before I went off sick, it was selling Ferrari keyrings and sweaters and baseball caps, with a few cars in the window round the corner.
Now it’s an estate agent. Sad really. :D
Oh, and since everyone seems to be doing it: here’s to all the people who died before they should have, or lost limbs or sight or sanity, or loved ones or children, for whatever reason or excuse seemed good at the time. Sorry I can’t quite bring myself to believe that it was necessary.
There’s a shop in Bath, a little way up from work. When I first saw it, it was selling Ferraris, at pretty much what one would pay for a largish house.
When I saw it again just before I went off sick, it was selling Ferrari keyrings and sweaters and baseball caps, with a few cars in the window round the corner.
Now it’s an estate agent. Sad really. :D
Oh, and since everyone seems to be doing it: here’s to all the people who died before they should have, or lost limbs or sight or sanity, or loved ones or children, for whatever reason or excuse seemed good at the time. Sorry I can’t quite bring myself to believe that it was necessary.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 05:31 am (UTC)I've been to Dachau.
I believe.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 06:38 am (UTC)I can get just as emotional as anyone about the victims of human cruelty, but we all have the choice not to be cruel. In that sense, I wonder if anyone can name a war that was "necessary" from its outset.
The trick (and it's not an easy one, but who said it had to be?) is to know when you're putting in power a person who will cause a war, and not to do it.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 08:14 am (UTC)That I could accept as an argument. It *did* become necessary, that I know. Whether it could have been *avoided*, that I know not.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 09:19 am (UTC)Have you come across the seies "What If?" The first one is a collection of essays by military historians on turning points in history based around conflicts. Several of them are WW I and WW II based.
Suppose Hitler had died while on active service in WW I?
One of the best has an obscure failed British politician killed when struck by a taxi in New York between the wars. Churchill was knocked down because he looked the wrong way while crossing the street. Obviously in reality he survived and went on to serve his country once more. Consider WW II without his leadership and those morale boosting speeches.
The second one in the series is not as good but still not bad.
If interested I could bring them over next weekend.
One last (hopefully non-contentious) word...
Date: 2004-11-12 02:11 pm (UTC)"Wake up, bard, you're not living in a song now..."
no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 09:47 am (UTC)Okay, I did have something to add to what I said. That's the last of it, though. I'm done.