Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
In theory that is true, but how much does the USA substitute the purchases of states like Turkey and China, that money has to come from somewhere. Add that the USA is lacking the backing of OTL Breton-Woods and the Petro-Dollar and suddenly the whole thing may be a bit too expansive for them.
I know we are primed to think of the USA as THE juggernaut of the second half of that century. But in this TL several circumstances that brought that out are missing or inverted. So while the USA may be internaly roughly on the same course, externaly in politics and trade they are much less important the OTL.
Arguably at least in part the US came to world domination not unlike winner of a race where everyone else crashed into each other and they almost won by default. In this timeline the rest of the world is on more equal footing.
Of course the US still has its huge population and all the riches of the land, both mineral and natural, but this is in part made up for by closer cooperation elsewhere.
Not having the entire Americas under control doesn't help much either.
To get ahead the US needs allies and they need to make full use of the advantages they do have like their large and growing population.
Alternatively they might try to go the China way and become a country of cheap labor and exports instead.
In any case having NASA actually manage to keep up with the rest of the world and show the American population that they are not behind will be necessary to keep everyone from falling into the wrong self-image.
If the US doesn't manage to press ahead and show the world and themselves that they are a country at the top of science and technology, the success of the outside world in this regard may just lead to some sour grapes where that whole science and new tech and futurism thing is seen as un-american and raise a generation of Luddites, who prefer superior good old American know-how over nwely-fangled foreign ideas like electronics and book-learning.
You learn so much of your behavioural traits while your very young that they become ingrained. It takes a conscious effort to overcome them at times. The pressure & expectation to conform for the role "to which you are born" is also something that the rest of us fail to recognise is so much greater on the Royals. Yes, they have an immense amount of wealth, power & privilege compared to us mere mortals, but they are expected to "stay in their lane" at all times. Even by us, in modern times. They really are trapped in a gilded cage and Heaven help them if they try to go against the grain if the Establishment has its own plans for them.
The old "Why are they so distant with me, yet so doting on my kid?" scenario. See above comment re: gilded cages. Suga and, especially, her parents, definitely grew up in a very gilded cage indeed.
As a Kiwi, this tendency of the Aussies to claim non-Australian people & things as theirs gets really F@#$ing annoying at times.
If the US keeps "trying to keep up with the Joneses", they could find themselves going down a similar economic road as the OTL Soviet Union. Different drivers of course, but it could happen.
ferdi254
Banned
One quote from a singer I like:
You can waste a whole life time trying to be, what you think is expected of you, but you‘ll never be free
may as well go fishing.
10 bonus points to who knows singer and song without google.
Been to Kiwi country once liked it much but it‘s a damn long way to get there.
You can waste a whole life time trying to be, what you think is expected of you, but you‘ll never be free
may as well go fishing.
10 bonus points to who knows singer and song without google.
Been to Kiwi country once liked it much but it‘s a damn long way to get there.
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By sheer coincidence, I was listening to that very song, by that very singer earlier today.
Ah, sounds like Andy Murray.
The saying is that the press, (mostly English), will describe him as British when he's winning, reverting to Scottish when he's losing.
-shrug-
"[...] Duty is heavier than a mountain."
That's why the people who are admired are the ones who mostly live their lives for others, regardless of hardships.
Part 107, Chapter 1743
Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Forty-Three
15th August 1966
Kreuzberg, Berlin
The early morning hours were mostly good ones for Gang Ji, even on Mondays. He typically worked over the weekend, so he didn’t understand the complaints of people who hated this day of the week. For Ji it was just another day where he tended to wake up before the sun came over the horizon and walked to the store from his apartment. Han Suk wouldn’t be in until later in the morning, so all Ji had to do was open the store and mind the counter until Sun got in. That usually happened just as the morning multitudes who made up the morning commute arrived looking for food and drink before they started their day.
That usually meant that Ji had a couple hours to get the store ready. Today, there was a bit of a commotion out front as he entered through the back door. A lorry from the company that delivered the day’s newspapers had just pulled up. The driver was cussing at the crowd that had gathered in front of the market, telling them to wait their turn and let him do his job. It wasn’t until he got the hand-truck loaded with stacks of newspapers that Ji saw what the deal was. TO THE MOON AND BACK! the headline for the Berliner Tageblatt read in massive print. The rest of the newspapers followed a similar theme. There were photographs of the Raumfahrers and announcements about what was upcoming in the Taxidiotis Program. The tabloids echoed the serious newspapers but speculated on the personal lives of the men and women involved with the Program to a much larger extent.
By the time Han Suk got to the market all the newspapers had been sold along with whatever else the customers had bought while they were there. Whatever else was going on, Suk liked profits and the truck pulling up to deliver the next editions of the papers was welcome indeed. When noon rolled around, Ji left the store and headed for the Trade School that he had been attending. That evening he would return to the market and help Soo-Jin and Bora close the store, then escort Soo-Jin with Suk to the bank to drop off the day’s proceeds.
The term “Trade School” was a bit of a misnomer these days because while Ji had originally intended to study heating and cooling systems, he had swiftly moved into electronics when Fürstin had pointed out that was where the future was. Computer Science followed. The reasons behind that was obvious to Ji when he looked at the daily papers with the Space Program dominating headlines. Not just Germany, but the entire world needed Engineers, in this country they were making a concerted effort to produce them.
17th August 1966
Pohnpei Island, Caroline Islands
After a few days aboard the SMS Boelcke being subjected to every medical test imaginable plus a few that Ben suspected that the Doctors had made up on the spot, the crew of Amicitia III were flown to Pohnpei. Emperor Louis Ferdinand was present, as well as a few other Emperors, Prime Ministers and Presidents. All of whom had been interested in meeting with them. Still, there was only one meeting that Ben had been interested in setting up and he had gotten it just a few hours before the crew were to be presented with Polaris Medals from the ESA, or whatever they were calling it these days now that apparently they were taking people from just about everywhere who made the cut. A bronze disk with Polaris represented on one side, the date on the other and only issued to those who had been into outer space. There were also a handful of medals that they would get from member nations, the fact that Ben was up for a PLM seemed astonishing. Captain Brown was to get a star device for his Polaris Medal and there was talk that the Queen of England was going to Knight him.
The car that brought Ben from the hotel in Kolonia pulled up to the villa in pouring down rain and he was escorted through the building. Entering an office, Ben immediately that it wasn’t who he had wanted to see today. Louis Ferdinand was looking out the screened window into the forest outside, a deep overhang preventing rain from getting into the room.
“Kristina isn’t here” Louis said, “After you named that mare on the moon after her, the jackals from the tabloids swarmed her. You know what happens when she gets too much attention.”
“She disappears” Ben answered.
“Yes” Louis replied, “That is why I sent her elsewhere in these islands, to give her a bit of space and put her time to constructive use.”
“If you could tell me where?” Ben asked, “I would like to see her.”
“I’m sure you would” Louis said, “Just in a few weeks she is supposed to start her Medical Internship in Anhalt, the last thing she needs is to have it become a circus because of you and a misguided romantic gesture.”
“I had to though” Ben replied, “I wanted her to be a part of this.”
“By turning her life upside down?” Louis asked, “Give me one good reason why you thought that was a good idea?”
“I did it because I love her” Ben said. That was the truth, it just sounded very clumsy to his ears though.
“Then you understand just how private she is” Louis replied.
How many times had he been warned about that by Kiki herself? Ben had no idea.
----------------------------------------------------------------
After Ben left, Louis opened the louvered door to the next room off his office. “Did you hear all that?” He asked, “Because it is something that I’m not going to do for you again. I even took the blame this time.”
Kiki was seated on the floor with her back to the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest. “I heard enough” She replied.
“I know that this whole thing is scary for you” Louis said, “But you cannot avoid that boy forever.”
Kiki sat in silence.
“We need to figure out what we are going to do” Louis said, “Because the status quo is unfair to everyone including you, but especially Benjamin.”
15th August 1966
Kreuzberg, Berlin
The early morning hours were mostly good ones for Gang Ji, even on Mondays. He typically worked over the weekend, so he didn’t understand the complaints of people who hated this day of the week. For Ji it was just another day where he tended to wake up before the sun came over the horizon and walked to the store from his apartment. Han Suk wouldn’t be in until later in the morning, so all Ji had to do was open the store and mind the counter until Sun got in. That usually happened just as the morning multitudes who made up the morning commute arrived looking for food and drink before they started their day.
That usually meant that Ji had a couple hours to get the store ready. Today, there was a bit of a commotion out front as he entered through the back door. A lorry from the company that delivered the day’s newspapers had just pulled up. The driver was cussing at the crowd that had gathered in front of the market, telling them to wait their turn and let him do his job. It wasn’t until he got the hand-truck loaded with stacks of newspapers that Ji saw what the deal was. TO THE MOON AND BACK! the headline for the Berliner Tageblatt read in massive print. The rest of the newspapers followed a similar theme. There were photographs of the Raumfahrers and announcements about what was upcoming in the Taxidiotis Program. The tabloids echoed the serious newspapers but speculated on the personal lives of the men and women involved with the Program to a much larger extent.
By the time Han Suk got to the market all the newspapers had been sold along with whatever else the customers had bought while they were there. Whatever else was going on, Suk liked profits and the truck pulling up to deliver the next editions of the papers was welcome indeed. When noon rolled around, Ji left the store and headed for the Trade School that he had been attending. That evening he would return to the market and help Soo-Jin and Bora close the store, then escort Soo-Jin with Suk to the bank to drop off the day’s proceeds.
The term “Trade School” was a bit of a misnomer these days because while Ji had originally intended to study heating and cooling systems, he had swiftly moved into electronics when Fürstin had pointed out that was where the future was. Computer Science followed. The reasons behind that was obvious to Ji when he looked at the daily papers with the Space Program dominating headlines. Not just Germany, but the entire world needed Engineers, in this country they were making a concerted effort to produce them.
17th August 1966
Pohnpei Island, Caroline Islands
After a few days aboard the SMS Boelcke being subjected to every medical test imaginable plus a few that Ben suspected that the Doctors had made up on the spot, the crew of Amicitia III were flown to Pohnpei. Emperor Louis Ferdinand was present, as well as a few other Emperors, Prime Ministers and Presidents. All of whom had been interested in meeting with them. Still, there was only one meeting that Ben had been interested in setting up and he had gotten it just a few hours before the crew were to be presented with Polaris Medals from the ESA, or whatever they were calling it these days now that apparently they were taking people from just about everywhere who made the cut. A bronze disk with Polaris represented on one side, the date on the other and only issued to those who had been into outer space. There were also a handful of medals that they would get from member nations, the fact that Ben was up for a PLM seemed astonishing. Captain Brown was to get a star device for his Polaris Medal and there was talk that the Queen of England was going to Knight him.
The car that brought Ben from the hotel in Kolonia pulled up to the villa in pouring down rain and he was escorted through the building. Entering an office, Ben immediately that it wasn’t who he had wanted to see today. Louis Ferdinand was looking out the screened window into the forest outside, a deep overhang preventing rain from getting into the room.
“Kristina isn’t here” Louis said, “After you named that mare on the moon after her, the jackals from the tabloids swarmed her. You know what happens when she gets too much attention.”
“She disappears” Ben answered.
“Yes” Louis replied, “That is why I sent her elsewhere in these islands, to give her a bit of space and put her time to constructive use.”
“If you could tell me where?” Ben asked, “I would like to see her.”
“I’m sure you would” Louis said, “Just in a few weeks she is supposed to start her Medical Internship in Anhalt, the last thing she needs is to have it become a circus because of you and a misguided romantic gesture.”
“I had to though” Ben replied, “I wanted her to be a part of this.”
“By turning her life upside down?” Louis asked, “Give me one good reason why you thought that was a good idea?”
“I did it because I love her” Ben said. That was the truth, it just sounded very clumsy to his ears though.
“Then you understand just how private she is” Louis replied.
How many times had he been warned about that by Kiki herself? Ben had no idea.
----------------------------------------------------------------
After Ben left, Louis opened the louvered door to the next room off his office. “Did you hear all that?” He asked, “Because it is something that I’m not going to do for you again. I even took the blame this time.”
Kiki was seated on the floor with her back to the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest. “I heard enough” She replied.
“I know that this whole thing is scary for you” Louis said, “But you cannot avoid that boy forever.”
Kiki sat in silence.
“We need to figure out what we are going to do” Louis said, “Because the status quo is unfair to everyone including you, but especially Benjamin.”
One point to mention is, that in Germany the Sunday is normaly off and all shops should be closed.
I am not sure for 1966 but even nowadays it is so. As such the Gang Ji part is somewhat confusing for me. As he should have at least the sunday off. For learning or such.
I am not sure for 1966 but even nowadays it is so. As such the Gang Ji part is somewhat confusing for me. As he should have at least the sunday off. For learning or such.
Here is the thing about small family run markets like the one depicted, even if the store is closed there is a great deal of work needing to be done and to the Han family, Gang Ji is there to do that work. Another consideration is that the work ethic of people like Ji would terrify most people.
A remark about trade schools in Germany.
in OTL trade school is just that a school. It is mostly for teenagers and young adults that combines the traditional system of medieval guild education of apprenticeships with modern schools and something not unlike paid internships in companies. It involves alternately going to school and working in a business for several years.
It does cover a bunch of modern jobs though including for example computer stuff. There are apprentice sysadmins in Germany.
This might be somewhat different in this timeline, but probably not nearly enough to cover Gang Ji is going though.
For one thing there would be no school on Sundays, for another he would have to give up his regular job to work in a business that has journeymen and masters in the field he is learning and go to school while he is not at that job.
There are other types of schools that don't have the apprentice system and are classroom only to turn pupils into certified whatevers, bu these too would require him to spend Weekdays and Saturdays in classrooms.
For him an evening school like the Volkshochschule (folk high school) designed for working adults wanting to further their education while already working a job would probably be more applicable.
in OTL trade school is just that a school. It is mostly for teenagers and young adults that combines the traditional system of medieval guild education of apprenticeships with modern schools and something not unlike paid internships in companies. It involves alternately going to school and working in a business for several years.
It does cover a bunch of modern jobs though including for example computer stuff. There are apprentice sysadmins in Germany.
This might be somewhat different in this timeline, but probably not nearly enough to cover Gang Ji is going though.
For one thing there would be no school on Sundays, for another he would have to give up his regular job to work in a business that has journeymen and masters in the field he is learning and go to school while he is not at that job.
There are other types of schools that don't have the apprentice system and are classroom only to turn pupils into certified whatevers, bu these too would require him to spend Weekdays and Saturdays in classrooms.
For him an evening school like the Volkshochschule (folk high school) designed for working adults wanting to further their education while already working a job would probably be more applicable.
This may be the time for Ben to move on from his relationship with Kiki as she doesn’t want to move forward.
To me Kiki has always regarded Ben as a “Starter Boyfriend” safe and reliable with very little need of repair.
Kiki has always been in charge of their relationship and Ben needs to assert himself just to keep his self esteem and not be a convenient boyfriend at Kiki’s own time and needs.
They are both young and have plenty of time to get back to each other but it will be good for both of them to explore other options.
For Ben he is going to be seen as a “Hot Prospect” by other women and he will plenty of highly educated, intelligent, ambitious, and as an added bonus very beautiful women who want to be with him.
To me Kiki has always regarded Ben as a “Starter Boyfriend” safe and reliable with very little need of repair.
Kiki has always been in charge of their relationship and Ben needs to assert himself just to keep his self esteem and not be a convenient boyfriend at Kiki’s own time and needs.
They are both young and have plenty of time to get back to each other but it will be good for both of them to explore other options.
For Ben he is going to be seen as a “Hot Prospect” by other women and he will plenty of highly educated, intelligent, ambitious, and as an added bonus very beautiful women who want to be with him.
Ben's too smitten to bail unless Kiki tells him to.
At least at this rate, the first words spoken on the moon won't be a marriage proposal.
Yeah, at this point, I seriously suggest Ben just leave. It's evident Kiki isn't gonna respond, might as well show her that her actions have consequences.
Papa Louis just put his foot down. The next time Kiki tries to hide from her own feelings, he is going to side with Ben.