If there was one thing in history you could change...

[gulliver]

... what would it be?

I stole this shamelessly from another forum but I thought it might bring up some interesting discussion.

[smash]

That's a lot harder to answer than it should be.

I'm going to throw out anything that would be a "miss america" answer like "ww2" or 'wmd's in iraq' and stick with something that I care about: me.

I'd go back and fix me not properly asking a girl out back in college. She was a ginger-kid, but 5 years older than me so I was very uneasy about how could she be interested in me, despite the fact that she was pretty much trying to hang out with me 24/7.

[efilflah]

Similarly, I'd probably go back 6 years and seek out this girl I work with currently and stop her from ever meeting her prick of a husband.

Either that or like in the Star Trek:TNG finale, I'd go back and stop the primordial soup from ever forming life......Earth can thank me later.

[gulliver]

Ok I'll jump on this band wagon too. I'd go back to before my teens and take up basketball or football or something, some sort of a sport that I could excel at and use my height and size to some advantage. Somehow I feel that being 6'7 and 245lbs is being wasted by practically sitting at a desk all day

[Steampunk]

On a personal level:
Yeah, looking back, I would've done two sports: wrestling at school and boxing at the Y. Basketball, football, and most other sports haven't done me shit since school.

Miss America answer:
Change one thing in history? Teddy Roosevelt winning a third term, when he ran as a Bull Moose (third party) candidate. It would be bully to see him take on WWI instead of that fuckhead Wilson, and the precedent of having a third party would be interesting.

[AngelBaby]

In before "kill Hitler."

[gulliver]

I wonder what state the world would be in today if ze German's had succeeded. Or if Hitler had been taken out before a rise to power, would someone of similar evil have arose and cause just as much chaos?

[Seriously]

In before "kill Hitler."

Thread over: Godwin's Law.


EDIT:

I think that if Mr. Hilter had enjoyed a successful painting career the world...would have had one less genocide.

I don't believe in that we were due an antichrist, and he just fit the bill, he made his own way in the world.




How...inspiring.

But at the same time, change it and maybe everyone I know and love doesn't ever get born? Conception is the random number generator to rule them all. We are all as impossible, if not more so, than a thousand 20-sided dice coming up heads.

I wouldn't touch history, I am too selfish.


I'd be scared to change something in my own past, what if I did something really minor but when the results came back someone was dead?


Reality is weird like that.


I also might not like the person I change into.


Horrible anxiety aside, pretty standard regrets-adressing:

-Join fencing club and/or martial arts organization when I came to college.
-Asking the girl(s) out. There are two, the third I got right though, so maybe not.
-Taking up an instrument earlier, not selling them later.

[exelis]

I would skip one girlfriend, would have given another more of a chance, and spent a hella lot less money on frivolous crap.