Time and Time Again

[Maggie/915]

Time and Time again is a book by Ben Elton.

Basically the plot is what one event in history would you change.

On the brink of War with Isis , I wonder what we could or would change.

In the book the assassination in Sarajevo of the Archduke is the one event to change.

[webtrekker]

Why did he pick that event Maggie. Jewish roots maybe.

Just guessing.

Given all the Bible-bashers and Global Warming alarmists, it may have been better if Adam and Eve had topped one another and left the planet to it's own devices!

[Maggie/915]

I understand one irritation for Ben Elton was Michael Gove.

Seems he was negative about Blackadder saying that the First World War was being presented as a shambles.

Ben Elton had ancestors on both sides in the First World War.

There may also have been Jewish roots.

Hence his living here : although I think he now may live in Australia.

Reading about history is easy when presented in story form.

[threegee]

Ben Elton... ...I think he now may live in Australia.

 

That's the best news I've had this week - so far!

 

I think you have to separate the events that would have happened anyway from those events that likely wouldn't.  Some are difficult to categorise, but WWI was surely just waiting for an excuse to happen? Another excuse would have come along quickly.  In fact there might have been something to trigger it quite some time earlier, as tensions had been rumbling on for many years.

 

It's easy to paint it WWI a huge misunderstanding as many politicos do these days, but that would be a lie. Rather like George W. looking for an excuse (ably assisted by Teflon Tony) to finish off a war his father had made the quite opposite mistake of terminating far too early - the Austrians only declared war because Germany was standing right behind them urging them on, and planning to be the biggest beneficiary. Our parents and their parents read it correctly as yet another historic German grab for power and influence.  It also turned out as another historic German miscalculation as to the will and determination of other peoples.  Yet, how soon we forget these simple truths, and dismiss the fact that many of the very same factors are still at work in the very same locations.  They are simply dressed up differently to appeal to a modern audience, but the scheming and the lies continue.  I guess that brings us back to your thread title: Time and Time Again.

[Symptoms]

My money is on Napoléon Bonaparte beating Wellington and going on to conquer the World.  Just imagine ... every town and city in L'Angleterre having pavement cafes and bistros, rather than Whimpy bars; boulangeries, rather than Greggs; decent coffee, rather than Star*ucks dishwater; AND no big bunfights between Blighty and Fritz.  Oh, and we'd get to sing that beautiful anthem, La Marseillaise, instead of that dreadful dirge to Betty Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

[Maggie/915]

Brilliant Symptoms.

Not sure I agree.

I remember one of the Viz lot going on a Newcastle trip and saying that in sixties the 'cafe culture' of outside tables and chairs would have been considered free furniture.

On a serious note the causes of the First World War are well documented and make for a good argument.

One Grandson said in a project that the countries were 'Itching for a Fight'

However the loss of life and the stalemate that followed are another subject.

Who can argue with the tragic loss of life when faced with every War Memorial in every town.

The lives lost in all countries should / could have been avoidable .

The result was the peace being achieved on the eleventh day at the eleventh hour of the eleventh month.

No one won.

Ben Elton considers all this and has interesting reflections on what could gave happened.

I could not tell you what he concludes.

You may read the book.

I have enjoyed reading lots of his books and agree with a lot of his reasoning on World Issues.

Nowt is simple not even the Bedlington Situation.

As good old Bob Dylan would say 'You are right from your side and I am right from mine'