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Originally Posted by Ustwo
Tried it once, didn't work out so well, so you might want to plan those retirement investments after all.
But back to the original topic....
Every moment is a crossroads in history, but we only see the obvious ones. A simple distraction, a sneeze, an alarm clock that didn't go off can have profound effects on history.
What if Hitler was a better painter?
What if Castro was a bit better a pitcher?
What if Abraham Lincoln had a better body guard?
Things like this can change the history of the world, only we never see it. You could argue that conditions were right for a change, but its the people that matter. It is the simple events which turn into the large ones.
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I agree with the overall point, but not the examples given, because they all rely on character traits and abilities, rather than little happenings. How about, what if Lincoln had gotten up to use the washroom (or for some other purpose)?
Or more recently, what if Bush had died choking on that pretzel? How different would the world be if Vice President Cheney had assumed power on that day?
History is made by the big events, but upon closer inspection, the big events are always a cascade of smaller events. The Great Depression happened because a lot of people tried to sell at once. That's a lot of little events, but from a distance they look like one big one.