Glimpse the unthinkable
May 31st 2010 07:37
You may think the Black Panthers are a beneficial organization. You may think they are militant, racist hatemongers. You may think they are a fringe group and mostly irrelevant to this generation. Regardless, there is a high chance you think their chairman, Malik Zulu Shabazz, is mistaken or misguided when he declaims that the party should ”prepare for war”.
But he may be right.
The most frequently asked question among students of history is “Why did no-one see it coming?” It appears even in discussions of events like both world wars, the age of terrorism, the Civil War, and the Reformation, which people tend to feel were “too big” to miss. But if the course of history were easy to predict, the Foundation books wouldn’t have been interesting or novel. Even if you think that Shabazz is just an empty vessel rattling for attention, or that Glenn Beck is making a cheap play for ratings when he claims that America is on the verge of being destroyed, you can’t disregard them entirely. Not only because they have followers who might act on what they say – more importantly, because they may have picked up a scent in the metaphorical wind, whether they know it or not.
But he may be right.
The most frequently asked question among students of history is “Why did no-one see it coming?” It appears even in discussions of events like both world wars, the age of terrorism, the Civil War, and the Reformation, which people tend to feel were “too big” to miss. But if the course of history were easy to predict, the Foundation books wouldn’t have been interesting or novel. Even if you think that Shabazz is just an empty vessel rattling for attention, or that Glenn Beck is making a cheap play for ratings when he claims that America is on the verge of being destroyed, you can’t disregard them entirely. Not only because they have followers who might act on what they say – more importantly, because they may have picked up a scent in the metaphorical wind, whether they know it or not.
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