Life Here on my Parallel Earth (a.k.a. Texas)

Science (in particular, Quantum Physics) stipulates that there are probably millions upon millions of parallel worlds separated across dimensions, and this has become a staple of science fiction. We live on this Earth; the next Earth over the primary currency is the $2 bill -- the next Earth over the South won the Civil War -- the Earth after that the Nazis won World War II -- etc., etc.

So sometime during the winter I was watching my weekly dose of STARGATE SG-1 on the Sci-Fi Channel. On one of the episodes they were discussing how some of the cultures on different plasnets were more advanced than Earth, even though they were seeded by humans from our planet thousands of years ago. One of the characters made the comment that it was because our Earth had gone through the Dark Ages from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance, during which Science and Progress came to halt. A culture without a Dark Age would have continued to progress and would be far advanced of the current culture we live in today.

While I was having lunch with Ariane today it finally hit me why I like the great state of Texas so damned much.

They never had the Dark Ages.

Specifically, they never had the late 1960's here in Texas.

Think about it for a minute with me. Drift back in time with me if you will. It's that dark, desperate period of the late 1960's. Psychedelic music, drugs, free love, and the all-consuming power of Rock-And-Roll. Authority is Questioned, the Social order is disturbed. Hair is grown long in defiance of parents and authority. Teen-agers and college students are tuning out, turning on, and dropping out. In 1968 in Paris, student protests tear the city apart and unleash weeks of violent protests, leading President DeGaulle to expel NATO for both their own safety as well as to placate demonstrators. In Chicago later that summer, riots convulse the city of Chicago and Mayor Daley issues a "shoot to kill" order to the Chicago Police. In 1969 in upstate NY, thousands of teenagers, college students, and Hippie counterculture members descend on a small farm for a week-long literal orgy of free love and indiscriminate drug use. In 1970 Ohio the National Guard is called out to Kent State University to quell student protests, leaving 4 dead.

Mass social upheaval, leaving societal scars lasting decades. Indeed, the after-effects of these events and these times are deeply ingrained into the societal fabric of today.

Except here. Except on my Earth. A little planet called . . . . Texas.

It's like it didn't even happen here. The prevailing hairstyle here is still short hair, and the shorter the better. The occaisional long-hair is seen, but usually braided in a pony-tail a la Willie Nelson.

Women are still "Ma'am", and men are still "sir." Drug use is neither tolerated not condoned; mostly just ignored like bad manners and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law when it's blatant and obvious. Free Love has pretty much been stopped in it's tracks by the advent of AIDS.

It just doesn't happen like that here. For crying out loud, I was eating lunch with my wife in a Cafeteria when I made this connection today. (Cafeterias pretty much went out of style everywhere else about 40 yerars ago -- yet Luby's Cafeterias are thriving in Texas (and in states near the Texas border.)

And the flag still proudly waves. We respect our president, whether we agree with him or not. God Bless America.

Really, it's such a better way to live. I don't know why the rest of the country doesn't try it. The 1960's are over -- get over it. Demonstrating against the war -- ANY War -- is NOT right or honorable; it hurts the kids in the military. Your "right" to Free Speech ends when your whiny, self-indulgent babble enters my ears.

And drugs kill people. It's not a "victimless crime." There are no Victimless Crimes.

~~JD~~