Rifleman, Riddle Me This: What's The One Thing They'll Remember About Us?

Back to a familiar theme of mine. (If you just want to buy the Rifleman book, or learn more about it, scroll down.)

Here is the theme, which I think about all the time:

What's the ONE THING people will remember about the 20th century?

You might say there won't be one thing, that there will be lots o'things remembered, but you would be wrong, depending on how long we as a species survive, of course. If the midterm elections go the way they should there is a chance, slim but still nonzero, that we will survive the year as a country and as a species. VOTE DEMOCRAT. They're only slightly less evil than Republicans, but that slim margin is what makes all the difference between "a horrible life" such as we're having now, and "a life that can be tolerated if you really try."

Anyway, the World Of Tomorrow (TM) will remember one thing, if that, from the 20th century. ONE THING TOPS.  Think back on history yourself. How much do you remember from the 20th century yourself? Maybe 20 things, without really trying hard?

What about the 19th century? Here's my list: The civil war. Reconstruction. Railroads. John Quincy Adams. Tyler & Tippecanoe. The War of 1812. Napoleon? I am not sure of that last one.

The 18th century? Even worse.

Eventually, we boil popular, general knowledge down to one thing. Shakespeare lived from 1564-1616 (I had to look it up). Here are some things that happened in the 1500s:

Michelangelo did David, and the Sistine Chapel by 1512. Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. Nostradamus was born and Lutheranism began. Copernicus declared the sun to be the center of the universe. Cortes took over Mexico. Henry VIII started the Anglican church so he could get divorced and beheaded Anne Boleyn. Mongols invaded China. Spain and Portugal became one country. Roanoke was colonized. England beat the Spanish Armada. The British East India Company was chartered.

That's the highlights I recognized, from a massive list of things found on Wikipedia. I had heard of all those things, although I didn't know they took place in the 1500s.

But go back 400 more years and check on the 1100s: here's what I've got: Leif Eriksson landed some Vikings in North America; Catholicism split into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox.

That's it. There's lots of other stuff that reportedly happened, but I had never heard of any of it.

We don't teach people all the stuff; we can't. So each generation we winnow and sift down through what we know about everything, and decide what to teach and remember and keep alive as a general thing that people know, and as time goes on the past becomes less and less important. Someday, all the stuff you could list about what you know happened in the 20th century will be boiled down to 10 things. Then 5 things.  And eventually, one thing.

My guess has always been that the one thing we'll remember is Star Wars.  It's got some staying power, having come back around for a second run and never having left, plus it's controversial at times what with the racists and fanboys being all butthurt about there being women and minorities (and woman minorities!) in that galaxy far far away.

People will think maybe World War II, which is my second guess, but wars have a way of fading, even world wars, even ones as bad as World War II was. Pop culture, especially lowbrow pop culture, has staying power.  Just ask Shakespeare.



Rifleman book: Very good condition but for a handwritten inscription from the former owner. The inscreiption says "I read this book twice," and is initialed and dated. The date is 2/17/13, so someone in the last five years read this book twice before it ended up at a shop and I bought it because there's this shop in Waukesha, called the "Pathfinding Bookstore" where if you buy two hardcovers the third is free, so if you're going to get one you might as well get two so you get a third one free, and this one was my third one that day.

Asking $20. It's a 1959 first edition. You'll love it. Comment if you're interested in purchasing.