gary@percival.UUCP (Gary Wells) (02/20/88)
I don't normally read this kind of book, and I suspect neither does most of the net. Excuse me if you've seen the item from other places, but I thought it was worth the bandwidth. From the Acknowledgements of _Mega-Traumas_ by Gov. Richard D. Lamm, 1985, ISBN 0-395-37912-1: There is a nice story of a political prophet in Munich in 1928, who was asked to prophesy what would be happening to the burghers of his city in 5, 15, 20, and 40 years time. He began:"I prophesy that in five years time, in 1933, Munich will be part of a Germany that has just suffered 5 million unemployed and that will be ruled by a dictator with a certifiable mental illness who will proceed to murder 6 million Jews." His audience said:"Ah, then you must think that in 15 years' time we will be in a sad plight." "No," replied the prophet, "I prophesy that in 1943 Munich will be part of a Greater Germany whose flag will fly from the Volga to Bordeaux, from northren Norway to the Sahara." "Ah, then you must think that in 20 years time, we will be mighty indeed." "No, my guess is that in 1948 Munich will be part of a Germany that stretches only from the Elbe to the Rhine, and whose ruined cities will recently have seen production down to 10 percent of the 1928 level." "So you think we face black ruin in 40 years time?" "No, by 1968 I prophesy that real income per head in Munich will be four times greater than now, and that in the year after that 90 percent of German adults will sit looking at a box in a corner of their drawing rooms, which will show live pictures of a man walking upon the Moon." They locked him up as a madman, of course. -from General Sir John Hackett et al., _The Third World War: August 1985_ -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Still working on _natural_ intelligence. gary@percival