Fri May 13, 2005 11:31 am
so what do you do if, out in the Old West, you're peacefully living your life for a while and then bandits or indians or any old sourpuss with a .45 takes issue with you and just tries to blow you away?
remember, you're a man of peace. what do you do? if you don't defend yourself he'll shoot you and probably rob you and then get clean away, no law hardly remember? and if you kill him, well your in breach of the Commandements. so what do you do?
I'm not having a go, i just want to see how deeply you've thought this through. I've often let my mind wander along similar lines, but there's always something that catches me out and shows me how very difficult it would be, and the further you go back the harder it gets to integrate even if you're an expert on the subject. Local customs, fashions, the intimate details of everyday life are the realities of everyday life, and without a lifetimes knowledge you'd stick out like a sore thumb, a stranger in a foreign land who's read lots of guidebooks but never actually been. I think most people would find the practicalities of life in the past so overwhelming theyd want to come home! unless of course they went as time tourists and could come home at anytime, but that sort of spoils the point doesn't it?
i've alwasy wanted to go back to see Rome or Cyzantium, or the ancient Empires of the Middle East such as Assyria or Persia, but even if I could, how could I fit in so as to be inconspicuous? we don't know enough of everyday life or even what local accents sounded like, i could sound totally out of place even if i knew the language back to front. and conspicuousness in ancient societies was often q enough to get arbitrarily into a lot of trouble. no sure justice way back then, no jury trials except for the elite.
remember, you're a man of peace. what do you do? if you don't defend yourself he'll shoot you and probably rob you and then get clean away, no law hardly remember? and if you kill him, well your in breach of the Commandements. so what do you do?
I'm not having a go, i just want to see how deeply you've thought this through. I've often let my mind wander along similar lines, but there's always something that catches me out and shows me how very difficult it would be, and the further you go back the harder it gets to integrate even if you're an expert on the subject. Local customs, fashions, the intimate details of everyday life are the realities of everyday life, and without a lifetimes knowledge you'd stick out like a sore thumb, a stranger in a foreign land who's read lots of guidebooks but never actually been. I think most people would find the practicalities of life in the past so overwhelming theyd want to come home! unless of course they went as time tourists and could come home at anytime, but that sort of spoils the point doesn't it?
i've alwasy wanted to go back to see Rome or Cyzantium, or the ancient Empires of the Middle East such as Assyria or Persia, but even if I could, how could I fit in so as to be inconspicuous? we don't know enough of everyday life or even what local accents sounded like, i could sound totally out of place even if i knew the language back to front. and conspicuousness in ancient societies was often q enough to get arbitrarily into a lot of trouble. no sure justice way back then, no jury trials except for the elite.
