Events That Alter The Path Of History

It doesn't happen often. Most events don't offer the required emotional impact. I'm only considering events that have occurred within my lifetime, so we're talking about after 1950 or so.

One momentary event can only alter the path of history if it can demonstrate that it will, within itself, enter the consciousness of the entire population and change the character of everything that happens after it. It will alter the way that people think of the world. This leaves out many otherwise momentous events. The Soviets, and then the Chinese Communists, exploded atomic devices? No, not a big enough deal. Those we could see coming. Death of Stalin? Same thing. Not a big deal, because no one lives forever. Sputnik? Now you're getting closer. That was a surprise to kids like me, because we'd never even thought about that before, other than watching Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, and the old Flash Gordon serials. But it was a shock to anyone who realized the capabilities of such rocketry. (ICBMs.) So, no, Sputnik doesn't qualify. Too abstract, and it didn't really change anything beyond some acceleration of programs already in place.

Events that instantly alter the path of history must place a new filter in the thought process of every person on earth. They must render more cynical every person who becomes aware of the event, and everyone must almost immediately become aware of the event. We all become more cynical, or more pessimistic; the point is that people are forever changed. These events change the meaning of everything that subsequently happens from what it would have meant before the event to what it means in light of the event.

There have only been two such events in my life, according to my way of thinking. Three, if you add the one that punched us in the stomach in just the last few weeks and which we are in the midst of right this second.

For me, the first one was the JFK assassination. That was the death of innocence for a large part of the earth's population. I was only fifteen at the time, so it was only later that the full meaning of it sunk in for me. JFK was a big deal, he was a world-wide phenomenon. That's easy to forget today. Now, to most Americans, he was just a liberal Democratic president who probably got what was coming to him. The reality of JFK at the time went much deeper than that, and not just for Americans.

Around 1980 I worked at a camera factory in West Los Angeles that had an interesting strategy for saving money on payroll. They hired a lot of people that were just plain desperate, like me, and they hired people from other countries who needed visas to stay in the States. Half of the machinists were Russian Jews on some special program, and one guy that I got to know very well was a rich kid from Egypt who was probably trying to avoid military service. He told me about his mom having a big shrine in the house. It had three parts, with multiple photos, statuettes, candles, the works. One of the three was JFK. It wasn't political, like having Nassar up there. To her, JFK was a saint. The whole idea of “they” got a lot darker when JFK got shot. We finally get a decent, honest man to lead us (yeah, I know), and right away “they” took him away from us.

The second event on my short list is 9-11. I was on the West Coast, and my alarm went off at about 6:00 a.m., that's 9:00 a.m. New York time, and out of the daze of sleep NPR's Morning Edition was offering blow-by-blow coverage of a plane that had not long before crashed into the World Trade Center. I got up and put on CNN, and there are the videos and everything, but it's still a plane crash as far as anyone knows, so I'm still going to court. I've got appearances to make. I had TVs everywhere at the time, all with the cable hook up, so all of a sudden I'm watching live, in real time, a second plane crashes into the second tower. At that point, I sat on the bed and did the math. Someone has done this; I can guess who, because they have attacked these buildings before; the old world has just died, I said to myself, and everything that happens after right now is the new world. (I did drive to the courthouse, by the way. Of course, it was closed. I wasn't taking any chances.) 

Now we're experiencing number three. It seems like the “midst” of this one will last for a while, so maybe we ought to get used to it. It lacks the instant quality of the other two, but it brings its own unique qualities. What does it take to make every single person in the world simultaneously anxious at a level that is life altering? Well, now we know. We'll all be scared shitless at least until they come up with a medicine that will knock the wind out of its sails. Like, you know, with HIV, there's a medicine generally available that both a) prevents the virus from becoming full-blown AIDS; and b) prevents the spread of the disease. That's some good medicine, and that's what we need. What we really need, of course, is a vaccine, so that we can all get inoculated and just forget about the whole thing. Like we've forgotten about smallpox. At least, that is, until some genius brings it back to life. The vaccine will happen someday, but that day is probably eighteen months away. There will be drama at that point too. They give those things away in most countries, rich or poor, because the minimal expense of their distribution is obviously to be preferred over spreading AIDS or our new plague around. That is the compassionate thing to do, and definitely pragmatic as well. It's a win for everyone. I wonder if we'll be so lucky this time, with even the President of the United States of Blood, Bones, and Profits trying to get into the act of profiting from this plague. (“Buy me that vaccine they're working on in Germany.”)

Call it what it is: it is a plague. To call it a pandemic is like calling a balls-to-the-wall crack-whore a “taxi dancer.” There's no need to be polite! Plagues do not offer dispensations for your courtesy.

Is it really necessary for people to eat pangolins, and civits, “jungle meat,” and God knows what all else? The fallout from this fucking bat-virus will be extreme and disagreeable. That's economically, medically, politically, socially, wholly, and individually. Within a couple of years, nothing at all will be the same.

There's a small chance that things will be better. A very, very small chance.