<i>If the United States and the Soviet Union flail away at each other at any time between now and 2019, there is absolutely no use to discussing what life will be like in that year. Too few of us, or of our children and grand· children, will be alive then for there to be any point in describing the precise condition of global misery at that time.</i><p>A lot of the people I work with are too young to wrap their brains around the idea that the vast majority of people were <i>really scared</i> of nuclear war. They've grown up with a mindset that, in spite of 9/11, war happens somewhere else to someone else.<p>This is largely because of the success of the military's "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" strategy. But at the same time, it's reduced the notion of war to a video game, and empathy has gone by the wayside.<p><i>By 2019, we will be back on the moon in force</i><p>Oops.
Interesting how many things he got right... and while part of his education prediction is right, I feel that much is not better and in fact lost in more recent generations, including my own.<p>My great grandmother was a school teacher... when I was younger, I remember looking at a 5th grade textbook from when she taught, compared to what I had nearer that time... It was harder than what I saw through H.S. even. It was an english language textbook. There was similar for Math as well.<p>I think a large part is lost from current american schools where homework is rarely assigned, and the coursework has been watered down rather than asking students to rise up, or heaven forbid more general separation of classes based on ability.