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rfmcdonaldI met up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
schizmatic for the Counterfactual Threats Assessment Group, late. I misjudged the number of westbound streetcars on a Sunday afternoon, I’m afraid. Due to prior commitments, we were the only two in attendance.
A variety of topics were discussed, at the Yonge-Wellesley Starbucks and later when we convened for supper and drinks at Mullins. These included the complete wrongness of Putin’s proposed solution to Russia’s 21st-century problems, the prospects of a Brazilian century in the South Atlantic region, the question (first raised byschizmatic on soc.history.what-if) of what it would take for the Islamic world’s religious faith to collapse as thoroughly as Christianity in Europe and many European offshoots, ways in which the Western state from its medieval origins did more to penetrate the village community than its Islamic, Hindu, and Sinic counterparts, Bush’s mismanagement of Iraq (starting with his lack of commitment to the mission of the hapless Marines sent to take Fallujah), and good and bad villains in Star Trek (the Romulans and Borg are cool, not so the over-the-top Klingons).
The most interesting discussion occurred late in the evening when we discussed the consequences of the Fourth Crusade being averted and the Eastern Roman Empire surviving into the modern era, gradually assimilating the Serbs and Bulgars to its west and regaining most of Asia Minor to its east once the Mongols devastated the Islamic world. Conceivably, an intact Byzantium with a thriving Hellenic culture could jumpstart Western humanism while avoiding the divisive effects of Latin Christendom’s Reformation. If Byzantine diplomats were also clever enough, they might well have been able to establish a three-sided trading network in the Mediterranean, acting as intermediaries for the transfer of the emergent scientific knowledge of Latin Christendom to the Arab world and prospering as the western terminus of Eurasian trade routes. The effects on Russia would also be interesting, since without the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Turks the immediate rationale for the formation of an autonomous Russian Orthodox Church would not exist.
The next Counterfactual Threats Analysis Group meeting will take place at 1 o’clock this coming Sunday, in the Yonge-Wellesley Starbucks. All are invited.
schizmatic for the Counterfactual Threats Assessment Group, late. I misjudged the number of westbound streetcars on a Sunday afternoon, I’m afraid. Due to prior commitments, we were the only two in attendance. A variety of topics were discussed, at the Yonge-Wellesley Starbucks and later when we convened for supper and drinks at Mullins. These included the complete wrongness of Putin’s proposed solution to Russia’s 21st-century problems, the prospects of a Brazilian century in the South Atlantic region, the question (first raised by
schizmatic on soc.history.what-if) of what it would take for the Islamic world’s religious faith to collapse as thoroughly as Christianity in Europe and many European offshoots, ways in which the Western state from its medieval origins did more to penetrate the village community than its Islamic, Hindu, and Sinic counterparts, Bush’s mismanagement of Iraq (starting with his lack of commitment to the mission of the hapless Marines sent to take Fallujah), and good and bad villains in Star Trek (the Romulans and Borg are cool, not so the over-the-top Klingons). The most interesting discussion occurred late in the evening when we discussed the consequences of the Fourth Crusade being averted and the Eastern Roman Empire surviving into the modern era, gradually assimilating the Serbs and Bulgars to its west and regaining most of Asia Minor to its east once the Mongols devastated the Islamic world. Conceivably, an intact Byzantium with a thriving Hellenic culture could jumpstart Western humanism while avoiding the divisive effects of Latin Christendom’s Reformation. If Byzantine diplomats were also clever enough, they might well have been able to establish a three-sided trading network in the Mediterranean, acting as intermediaries for the transfer of the emergent scientific knowledge of Latin Christendom to the Arab world and prospering as the western terminus of Eurasian trade routes. The effects on Russia would also be interesting, since without the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Turks the immediate rationale for the formation of an autonomous Russian Orthodox Church would not exist.
The next Counterfactual Threats Analysis Group meeting will take place at 1 o’clock this coming Sunday, in the Yonge-Wellesley Starbucks. All are invited.
