A Lesson from History?

[MidnightCowboy]

Considering that history is the best freeware resource on the planet, it never ceases to amaze me that mankind seems incapable of learning from it.

We continue to cut down trees (especially here in Brazil) and then go “wow!” when mudslides wipe out whole communities and millions of tonnes of topsoil disappears out to sea when it rains.

We continue to overload ferries to maximize operating profits and then go “ah shame!” every time one sinks.

The list is endless but to avoid transgressing into either political or cultural conflicts, the rest is best left to your individual memories and imagination.

Where is all this leading? Well, here's an example of how history repeats itself across the generations.

Lets imagine a hypothetical scene which was repeated every Saturday night in nearly every bar and disco all over the UK during the 1960's. This was of course the first generation to enjoy the freedom and financial resources necessary for young people to buy cars.

“High Jimbo – did you get it?”
“Yeah man – mini”
“Oh wow man, what sort, Cooper, CooperS?
”No man, hadn't got enough dough so went for the 1000 instead”
“Aw - no worries man, better than an 850 anyway”
“Sure man, and I've tweaked it so it's close to Cooper performance anyway”
“Yeah?”....”What you done to it man?”
“Oh, you know, basic stuff man – spacers and low profiles all round, dropped some of the fluid to lower the suspension and swapped that slow old single carb for a twin SU”
“Wow man, bet it goes like sh** yeah?”
“Sure does”....”My girl loves it!”

OK, so now the reality. Putting spacers behind the wheels did improve the grip slightly but because minis stuck to the road like glue anyway, whatever improvements there might have been were not measurable. What spacers did achieve though was to increase the stress on the wheel bearings and especially the CV joints and drive shafts. As many drivers exceeded the speed rating for the tyres fitted anyway, the combined effect often saw cars losing one or other front wheel completely on a regular basis. Not so fast then while it's being un-wrapped from around a local tree?

Lowering the suspension on a vehicle with very little ground clearance to start with had the combined effect of “rubbing” the tyres on the top inside wheel arches as soon as more than two people got inside,and reduced the life of the shock absorbers by at least half. Hit a big hole with a rig like this and you also risked splitting the front sub-frame as well.

Replacing a standard single chamber carburettor with a twin set was a meaningless operation unless the head, valves and pistons were also upgraded accordingly. The net result of such an operation was more smoke and more petrol but very little else.

Today, most guys don't have minis but they do have computers instead. So, out goes the IG memory and in goes a 2G. No matter what the motherboard was designed for lets slap the biggest AMD we can find on to it. No worries about all that temperature increase either because my mate gets extra fans real cheap! That's right boys, nothing messes with my PC now, and I've got file zappers, registry cleaners, tweaking suites, memory boosters and stuff most people have never heard of.

Doesn't work for very long between installs but hell, it's quick!

[wdhpr]

Reminds me back in the day when the boys would drop a 350 cubic inch into a Chevy Vega. Yes you could get it to work with a little welding and other modifications. For one thing you had to upgrade the suspension to add weight to keep it on the road. Then there was issues with the transmission and rear end. But hey its fast and really cool.

The real problem is when they lost control and crashed they were no better off then if they were driving a cardboard box at a 100 mph.

I learned the computer issue the hard way. 2 internal dvd and hard drives with a stock power supply results in a fried power supply as well as taking out the mother board.

Cheers
Wdhpr

[revboy]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

“Sure does”....”My girl loves it!”

OK, so now the reality. Putting spacers behind the wheels did improve the grip slightly but because minis stuck to the road like glue anyway ...... between installs but hell, it's quick!

Well how about that MC, my first car was a mini minor, my dad helped me to panel beat the existing stoved in fuel tank rear corner. We painted it British Racing Green, and stuck two 4 inch wide white stripes 2 inches apart from boot to bonnet !
Then wacked in a timber steering wheel, still got fond memories.

Amazing how quickly the old girl got fogged up at the drive-in, don't know why though !

But the most important event in our life together, was when she saved my life, viz: Humming along the freeway with foot flat to the bulkhead, some turkey brain comes out from the side and stalls directly in front of me, in a moment of time I thought I was a gonner.

Grabbed the small steering wheel and with one action ripped it a full turn to the left, just missing the front of the stalled car, oh no, headed straight for a lamp post, ripped the wheel a full turn to the right, achieving a full 360 degree turn on all fours, finishing at a stop backed between two steel posts of a road sign.

Aout to get out to snot this guy, he gets his old beaten up vw combi van started and p....s off !

My reaction after calming down: Thankyou God.

best regards,

revboy.

[MidnightCowboy]

I've been very lucky I guess considering the mileage I used to cover in the UK especially on some of the most dangerous routes like the M1 (Northants/Leics) and the A30 (Cornwall).

The only time I was involved in a major incident was when a Turkish lorry came straight across me from a slip road on the dual carriageway right next to our office. I bounced off it (twice!)and like you did a complete 360 before smashing into the central barrier. The car was a total write off. It was a 6 months old Nissan Almera 2.0GTI which luckily was replaced with a new one by insurance. I'll never know why but I walked away from that without so much as a scratch or a twist. Testament also to the build of that particular car which was one of the most under rated hot hatches produced.

[HeWhoRocks]

Car crashes aside, the point MC makes is a valid one: we do not learn from history. Unfortunaly, if necessity is the mother of invention, greed is the father. Greed seems to induce both selective memory loss and chronic short sightedness in our species. We (as a species) don't learn from history because we choose not to. The sad and somewhat brutal truth is simply this: if you offer a person the choice of a 50" widescreen TV now compared to say, a world for their great-grand children to live in fifty years in the future, most people would take the widescreen. Ecology vs Economy is already an unfair fight: Ecololgy is clearly taking a beating. Ecology vs Economy+Greed?

[MidnightCowboy]

An excellent analysis.

I can now see this happening first hand since moving to Brazil almost every day on Globo TV news. Despite government pressure for media to "tow the line" here, even they can't cover all of it up. The murders of Chico Mendes and more recently Sister Dorothy Stang are just two high profile examples of the many deaths connected to the trade in supplying McDonald's with meat versus leaving the rain forest intact.

Even here in our supposedly more enlightened metropolis of Rio state folks cut down everything they want with total impunity. Anyone who complains just gets a yawn and directed to the government website. Tree cutting permits in totally preserved areas can be purchased by anyone with a few dollars to spare.

[anthony123]

Yes, there are a lot of things that need to be improved in the world, but instead of complaining about the situation, I think it is more important to take a look at oneself and make a change (like Michael Jackson used to sing in his song).

[HeWhoRocks]

Dunno about M.Jackson but yeah, responsibility for oneself and ones actions seem to be largely overlooked these days. This is not helped by the way governments see it as their right/responsibility to interfere in every single aspect of peoples lives, thus virtually eliminating any sense of individual responsibility people should have in relation to their own lives.
Bit ironic that you use Michael Jackson to make this point

[bo.elam]

I love History and its sad that many in today governments make the same
errors over and over. Thats the case in my own country where a group of
people that see themselves as the "Vanguard"of the people are actually a
bunch of thug's that are committing the same errors and crimes that they
did 30 years ago. They did not learn the lesson from History and, again, in
the future will be ousted. Hopefully next time it will be for good.
On the personal side, I always try to learn when I make a mistake so next
time I find my self in the same situation the error wont happen.
Bo

[Awgeewhiz]

1. History is written by those who won, not necessarily by those who were right.

2. Wars do no prove who was right, only those who were left.

3. If people cannot even remember what they had for breakfast, can you really expect them to remember what happend 100 years ago?

4. Today you are outraged, two weeks from now you remove the flags, stickers and protest banners. One month from now you say "what?".

5. Most computers can work more efficiently by removing the ID-10-T add-ons.