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"One of the saddest stories of the 20th century is the fate of air travel." Or the Holocaust. Or Stalin murdering 10 million folks. Certainly one of those th
by tjic 18y ago
"One of the saddest stories of the 20th century is the fate of air travel."
Or the Holocaust.
Or Stalin murdering 10 million folks.
Certainly one of those three.
- robg 18y agoDid you read the article? The author is clearly referring to where we were at the beginning of the 20th century w/r to air travel (it didn't exist but was associated with a modern utopia), and where we were at the end of the century. It's a romantic lament, to be sure, but if you actually read the article the sentence fits as a lede. And as a Jew, those epic failures of humanity, to me, provide a stark relief to the promise of globalization afforded by air travel. They represent the breakdown of (slowly) dying nationalistic geopolitics. Air travel was one hopeful cure made ugly in reality.
- robg 18y agoThat comment above is really bothering me. I suppose it's a mix of the callous disregard of the context in which the sentence lies and as a reflection of where we sit after maybe 15 years of a popular worldwide internet. To me, this quote now springs to mind: "One of the saddest stories of the 21th century is the fate of human communication." And yet, it's only 2008.
- staunch 18y agoI also find it unusually bothersome. We all feel like being snarky bitches sometimes, which is mostly okay. I just expect those posts to get downvoted here.
- helveticaman 18y agoNow that I read the replies, I wish I had thought twice about uploading the "one of those three" comment. You're right, HN deserves better.