Flexistentialism Welcome Guest | Login or Register

Thousands of years from now, when the past becomes an indistinct fog, two historians will be sitting in an office, arguing. They are both specialists in a certain time in the past, which was known to its inhabitants as the time between 1700 AD and 2200 AD, a tiny little 500 year block that almost no one cared about, and was covered in less than one week of lecturing in most high-school level World History classes.

The argument today concerns emergency response systems in the landmass that was, for the greater part of the period, known as America. Their infrastructure, what was left of it, made it clear that they had a system by which individuals could report an emergency such as a crime in progress, or a health problem, and have teams of emergency response crews arrive quickly. Scattered documentation suggests that the inhabitants were able to dial a number into their common communication system, telephones, and be connected to a central dispatch for emergency crews. This number was most probably ’911′.

One historian has been studying the cultural significance of a very brief period of turmoil, only a few decades long, that began with an attack against the country known as America by some sort of religious organization. The date the attack occurred on is generally agreed to be 9/11/2001. The historian notes that after the attacks, the numbers 9/11 held cultural significance, as the inhabitants mourned over the attacks, and bolstered morale.

Surely, he argues, the fact that the emergency response code is agreed to have been ’911′ is not a coincidence with the fact that the attacks in question occurred on a date known to the inhabitants as ’9/11′. Surely the emergency response system wasn’t set up until after the attacks, and the number ’911′ was chosen because it evoked a sense of tragedy in the populace, and hence, was easy to remember.

The second historian is skeptical. She notes that in all probability, emergency response teams would have been summoned for the attacks, since much cultural significance at the time was placed on the role of rescue teams. Those had to have been organized teams, she argues, meaning the emergency response system was already in place, and ’911′ had been chosen for other reasons.

The debate goes back and forth for the better part of an hour with both sides finally agreeing to continue the debate at a later time, because the issue really wasn’t a big deal anyway, and they had real work to be doing.

BTW, Madalene flew back in from New York this morning, of all mornings. She brought me bagels, such as the horrifically delicious garlic bagel that I’m eating right now that surely required at least 4 cloves of garlic to make.

Feed on comments to this Post