Junior: Good morning, dad.
Dad: Good morning. Did you sleep well?
Junior: Oh yes. My night was great. And, before you ask—-yes, I have said my morning prayers. I have brushed my teeth, and I have done my morning chores, including taking out the garbage. Mom has run to the store to get eggs for breakfast. She will be back shortly.
Dad: Okay then. I think I should have a shower. We can begin after breakfast.
Curtain.
Scene 2. (Mom makes breakfast. The family sits at the table to eat).
Dad: Ohhhhkayyyyy. Muhammad Ali, originally known as Cassius Clay Jr. was born right in the thick of the Second World War on January 17, 1942, following the availability of Air travel which was a recent marvel but only accessible to the rich. Before Ali’s birth, the automobile had begun to gain popularity as a means of transportation due to the sheer guts of one man from Michigan. His name was Henry Ford. He had failed twice in his attempt to start a Car company. The era was known as the roaring twenties, as these recent inventions ushered in a period of prosperity. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the Great Gatsby, painted this era succinctly as a time of great immorality, sensuality, and conspicuous consumption. It was fueled by Prohibition, which created an underground market in alcohol that effectively sucked the oxygen out of the economy as Organized Crime ran the market. Prohibition was counterproductive as you cannot tax what you have prohibited.
Junior: Dad, what is Prohibition?
Dad: It was a national ban on the production and sale of alcohol in 1920. The ban also extended to gambling and prostitution. It was an attempt at puritanical social engineering to control crime and prescribe morality. Instead, it had the opposite effect. It was therefore no surprise that “The Great Depression” set upon the country in 1929. It lingered for over 10 years. Untold hardship and hunger stalked the land as millions became homeless. American families got desperate as thousands of businesses folded up. In the middle of the Great Depression, at his inauguration as President in 1932, Roosevelt spoke to encourage, to project hope, and to alleviate the concerns and fears of Americans when he delivered those famous lines, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” He signed a Social Security Bill into law on August 14, 1935, which Roosevelt spoke of as an attempt to create a safeguard “against the hazards and vicissitudes of life.” It was a brilliant stroke of genius to counter the effects of the Great Depression. It has withstood the test of time.
Junior: What does it mean to say, “we have nothing to fear but fear itself?” Also, was there a First World War? Why? Parents ask us not to fight. Teachers punish us for fighting in school. Why is it that adults fight but we cannot fight?
Dad: I can tell you this, son. I think the whole talk about “fear” was bombastic—-high sounding words that mean nothing but serve a purpose for people to ponder and go (wow!), he has said something big, but at the same time, they really cannot figure it out. It stays in the realm of mysteries. On wars, it makes one wonder how much fighting has gone on in human history. Nations are constantly at war, sometimes for big reasons but most times, for small, almost inconsequential reasons. No one ever seems to remember how the war began in the first place after so many people would have lost their lives.
The First World War was a bizarre kind of war. It was, to historians, the most foolish war ever in human history. Seventeen million people died because one man, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed by a lone shooter on June 28, 1914. Nobody sent him. He was angry that a foreign power dominated his country, and he killed the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That was it. The shooter was a Serbian nationalist.
Throughout Europe, because there had been centuries of wars between neighbors, countries had made mutual defense agreements that meant essentially—-an attack on one country also implied an attack on another and other countries who were friends of theirs. It was a convoluted web of relationships and a recipe for impending disaster. It would only be a matter of time.
Mom: It sounds like Armageddon to me.
Dad: Precisely! There is no better way to describe it. Let us try this mind-bender for a minute. Before World War One, the following alliances existed: Russia and Serbia; Germany and Austria-Hungary; France and Russia; Britain, France, and Belgium; Japan and Britain. Can you imagine Japan and Britain? They are not even on the same continent. How? Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia got involved in defending Serbia. Germany declared war on Russia upon finding out that Russia was mobilizing. France was drawn in against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany attacked France through Belgium, thus pulling Britain into war. Then, Japan entered the war. Later, Italy and the United States would enter on the side of the allies.
Junior: That looks like confusion to me.
Dad: The entire world is still confused about that war. Welcome to the club.
Curtain.
Watch out for the second part of Act 2 tomorrow. Please be kind to scroll to the bottom and subscribe. It’s free.
