a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by historyarch
historyarch  ·  2215 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Berlin Wall: It's now gone for as long as it stood — 10,316 days

I agree, I was 18 when the wall came down so it seemed like a permanent fixture. The Cold War seemed like it was permanent as well. I remember being assigned the article "The End of History?" by Francis Fukuyama in high school and we had a debate about what was coming next. No one predicted what actually unfolded.





FirebrandRoaring  ·  2215 days ago  ·  link  ·  

What were the more common predictions?

historyarch  ·  2215 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's been a while but the students were generally more optimistic than our teacher. He said war and conflict are part of human nature so it would continue in some form. I remember that we looked around the globe to see who might emerge as a new rival to the US. The USSR was not dead so there was some thought about China replacing the Soviet Union as a new communist leader or a new Sino-Soviet alliance. The teacher mentioned the possibility of more regional conflicts.

I think a lot of us naively thought that the rest of the world would just "convert to democracy" as if it was that easy. No one mentioned Islamic fundamentalism. I had no understanding of Islam and did not think of religious conflict as a potential issue. At that time, I had thought about going into the military and that no longer seemed an option. I didn't think it would be necessary anymore. The world seemed to be divided into two camps for my entire life so it was hard to think in different terms.

FirebrandRoaring  ·  2215 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Does the world still look two-camp to you?

EDIT: Allow me to rephrase the question. Does the world still seem similarly divided? How do you feel about places that haven't "converted to democracy"?

historyarch  ·  2214 days ago  ·  link  ·  

No I don't think now that it was that simple back then or now. There were lots of non-democracies that were pro-American. That was just the perception of a teenager in the midst of the Cold War.

FirebrandRoaring  ·  2214 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your story. I'd be delighted to hear more of what you have to say.