Time, change and mood

[ewx]

Questions from kaet

1) In earlyish Rome you have the magical ability to make either the germanic tribes or Rome unequivocally and irreversibly "win" and largely wipe out the civilisation and languages (though not the people) of the other. Which and why?

On the one hand, the Roman record of transmitting interesting culture around is good; backing Rome would be a safe bet, much as it was at the time. (I wouldn't expect either "side" to act any more morally than the other, so I'm not even going to take such into consideration.)

But a couple of things sway me in the other direction. Firstly, we know how the Roman world turned out; here we are, it's us. Granted the hypothesis makes the world even more Roman, but I think the effect wouldn't be interestingly different. So the possibility of seeing something different points towards the barbarians.

Secondly, as a culture we trace our love of liberty to our (ultimately) germanic roots. A romantic, poorly historicalq and not very ewxish reason to choose them, perhaps, but I think it wouldn't result in a new dark age in the way that the Romans might imagine: a few generations down the line I think you'd find a Europe as literate as it otherwise would have been, with culture from further east rapidly permeating back in, etc.

I think the Romans were, despite their undoubted achievements, in some sense merely lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Take them away at 0CE or whenever and although we might be talking about half a millenium more of germanic factionalism in Europe rather than a Roman empire, we'd still be close culturally and technologically to the current position.

Quite what happens to Christianity without Rome is another question.

2) Which year of your life so far would you most like to relive?

The first year at either Green End or Relativity were both pretty good, i.e. late 96 onwards or late 98 onwards. If I had to choose between I'd got for the latter, for LNRish reasons.

3) Which is the cruelest month for you?

Hayfever makes May and (particularly) June pretty nasty, and here we are, which makes me wonder if I'm just picking the worst of the present and elevating it to a fact about the world. Winter can be pretty horrid but, yes, I think the hayfever season is the time I'd most want to kill.

4) Scientists (for it is they) prove, incontravertably, that the christian God exists. What do you do next?

Find out what He wants. The Bible leaves plenty of ambiguity, so could only be a starting point, albeit probably a pretty good one under the circumstances. Having done so, decide whether it's reasonable; if He really meant everything in the Bible (never even mind the interpretations of the more conservative end of the church spectrum) then the answer would surely be "no" and I'd have to figure out whether and how to resist.

5) Which piece of music is best at comforting you after something upsetting?

I'm not sure about a particular piece of music but the kind of thing that rings bells for me under such circumstances is anything with lyrics that seem to describe a situaion similar to whatever it is that's getting to me, either in term of fitting the mood or just a relevant narrative. I like strong lyrics in general. I've me