Once upon a time there was a man who invented a time machine. The details and science behind it are unimportant (and hard to explain) so we will abandon them here. He was a idealistic young man, still at an age where he truly believed with conviction he could really change the world. And now, he felt, he had the means to do so. He realized he could go anywhere and do anything, or maybe that should be stop anything from happening. So he figured, why start small? Why not do something really big and kill Hitler? That would probably save a lot of heartache. So he climbed into his machine (it was the kind you climbed into), pushed the 'activate' button on the remote (it had a remote too) and was off.
The machine suddenly just appeared in 1915 in Austria, where Adolf was still a young boy. He had pictures of Hitler from his younger days stored on his phone. He also had a gun he was ready to use when he spotted him. As luck would have it, mere moments after he landed, he saw the young boy coming up the road, evidently alone and on his way home.
This is perfect, he thought. Grabbing his gun, he hurried up to the top of a nearby hill in order to take him by surprise before he had a chance to run. As soon as he was near enough, he jumped out and grabbed the boy, who started to yell until he saw the gun. Then he froze, completely immobile, eyes wide with fear. The man started to pull the trigger, when suddenly a voice behind him said dryly, "I wouldn't if I were you."
He froze. The voice sounded very familiar. Almost like...
He turned around and was face to face with himself. Well, not quite himself. This him was a little older, a little grayer, But it was definitely him. After he got over the momentary surprise, he said "Why not?"
"I tried it. It didn't change anything," his doppelganger replied.
"What do you mean? Like things got worse? Or Stalin or somebody started World War 2 instead?"
"No, I mean, it didn't change anything. Hitler was out of the equation, but Herman Goering took his place in history. The Nazis still existed, the holocaust still happened, World War 2 still went on. In fact, they even lasted a few months longer that time around. But everything stayed the same, more or less. The world was still almost exactly the same in our time. It made no difference."
"Ok, well, why not kill Goering too?"
"I did. Once I realized Hitler wasn't the catalyst, I went back and killed Goering too. Instead, Goebbels took over. So I killed him, too. Every time I went back, history would record a new and different leader, but the end result was the same. I spent years going back killing every Nazi I could find, and you know what happened? In the 30's Germany went Communist and their leader, Franz something-or-other, started a war of expansion anyway. The players kept changing, but the game was the same."
The man was stunned by what the older him was saying. How could he believe that it didn't make any difference? That he couldn't change the past really at all?
"So, what you're really saying is the whole thing is predetermined. I can't affect the outcome?"
"No," the older man said, quietly. "That's what I thought at first, too. What's the point of doing anything, if you can't change some pre-made outcome? I was despondent for awhile. But then it hit me: that's not the point at all. What it really means is any one man is not a point on which history turns. Rather, he represents an idea that people want to believe in. You have to change the whole society's mind if you want to stop the horror they cause. Look at the boy trembling in front of you. Do you really think killing him will stop anything? He never became anybody and so what did he learn? That there's a whole world out there ready to kill you and it will if it gets the chance. He learns you have to strike when you are strong to crush the weak so they can never strike at you. look at him!"
The man turned to look at the boy. He was shaking so hard his hands were blurred slightly. He was crying in silent terror and his pants had a large wet stain on the front. He let him go and felt ashamed of himself. The boy, still shaking, ran off.
The older man nodded. "You did a wise thing, just now. I'm glad I could talk some sense into you."
"Me too." He paused, unsure of himself, then said, "I still want to make a difference, but what can I do that will make an impact?"
"We talk to people. We show them a future in which their twisted ideals have already failed. We show them a better way."
"Wow." The younger man considered this, then said "When did you finally figure that out?"
The older man smiled. "oh, about 15 minutes ago."
The End.
No comments:
Post a Comment