When was like now?

[rojo]

With all the recent comparisons to the onset of the Great Depression, and now with Glenn Beck et al alerting us to the massing brownshirts in America, it seems that the 1930s are informing alot of contemporary interpretations. So, is this valid? And what other eras compare to ours usefully?

[Robson]

The scale and rate of the depression is analogous - I think the difference is that we've started from a much higher quality of living, and access to debt cushions and finance reserves that are higher than anything previously. So it hasn't really hit us as hard.

The worrying thing is that it has coincided with people losing interest and acceptance with democracy, which is very analogous to the 1930s.

[outer-H]

I suppose, just for fun, we could compare the present with the 1500s, the efforts of America and the EU to create a global order being similar to the Holy Roman Empire trying to unite the continent, and the meddling of Russia and China being similar to Britain and France frustrating their efforts.

[snuggleskunk]

No time was ever like now - the idea of being able to communicate instantaneously globally has such an impact on our world that it makes it impossible to compare.

[outer-H]

I suppose... if we go back far enough, to when all human beings lived in a single tribe within shouting distance of each other... would that count as universal instantaneous communications?

[A_Stuartus_Tacitus]

I suppose... if we go back far enough, to when all human beings lived in a single tribe within shouting distance of each other... would that count as universal instantaneous communications?

Did their banking system need government bailouts too?

[ziggy_encaoua]

When was like now?

20 seconds ago