Opus 2026-053: Oh Well…

I was thinking about the death of Charlie Kirk.  He was a young man who was going to be a world changer, and in spite of his death, he may still be a world changer.  We have to wait and see.

I wonder how many other deaths I can think of where it changed the direction of the world.  I am sure others have addressed this.  There are probably books on it.  When I taught middle school and assigned term papers about famous people it was one of the questions I asked:  How would the world be different if the person had never lived?

One that comes to mind is Abraham Lincoln.  If Abraham Lincoln had lived, then the soft-sell of reconstruction would’ve been the game.  He wanted to bring the states back in with almost no penalties and no consequences for what they’ve done.  Johnson tried to implement the policies that Lincoln wanted to put into play.  He didn’t have enough political power.  The radical Republicans shot him down, tried to impeach him and generally made his life miserable.  If Lincoln had lived, things would’ve gone in a direction in a very different direction. I ’m not sure if it would’ve been good or bad, but it would’ve been different.

How would the world have been different if Julius Caesar had listened to the warnings?  It would have certainly made a difference in the direction of Rome.  Rome had a republic which was deteriorating.  Cesar had a lot of great ideas and had he managed to get them finalized Rome would have run much more smoothly and might have lasted even longer.  Of course it was from the point of view of a dictator or a monarch.

What about Joan of Arc?  She was betrayed by the people that she was helping.  If she had continued on, would she have ended up changing the whole direction of France?  She might have eventually become queen or some kind of dictator.  We might be speaking French today.

What if Santa Anna had not won the battle of the Alamo?  How would that have changed the direction of Texas and thus the United States if they had managed to stay alive?  Would I still be in California?  Would my grandmother have moved west?

Of course they’re the unknowns.  How many potential world changers have been destroyed by the forceps of the abortionist.  How many Beethoven’s, Einstein’s, Salk’s, Washington’s?  Make your own list.  Put your name on it.  It will give you something to think about on a cold night.

homo unius libri