2010/02/23

Long live this joke

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Customer:
“I want a book to complete the set for my grandson.”

Me:
“Certainly, madam. Can I ask what you’re looking for?”

Customer:
“Well, he’s interested in history. I want to encourage him, so he’s already got books on World War 1 and World War 2. I want to get him the next one so he can be prepared before they do it at school.”

Me:
“Um, the next one?”

Customer:
“Yes. Haven’t you got anything on World War 3? I’ve looked all over.”

Me:
“I’m sorry, Madam. I’m pretty certain we don’t have anything on that subject at the moment.”

Customer:
“Oh, never mind then. I’ll try a bigger bookshop.”


(P.S.: I actually know one such book.)
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3 comments:

  1. actually thought the last sentence here was the real joke:

    "Well, he’s interested in history. I want to encourage him, so he’s already got books on World War 1 and World War 2. I want to get him the next one so he can be prepared before they do it at school."

    My 14-year old son doesn't know British history (despite my own large history/military library). German and US history yes, British no. It's no longer taught in schools.

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  2. All history is subjective. There are so much events that it is impossible to include them all into the compilation of knowledge about 'history'. So you only pick the most important ones. And what do you use to filter out the important events from the insignificant ones? You need a hypothesis. So only those events, which fit your hypothesis will become 'history'.
    (freely paraphrased from Stuart Crane http://www.resist.com/DrStuartCrane.htm)

    There is of course some feedback running in a never ending OODA loop updating the details of you 'history', but for most people the core of their view on 'history' will remain the same. Only a few will voluntarily have their paradigm shift. The majority will only change when forced and the rest will just snap.

    Although obvious to your readers (I think), that you cannot possibly get all the history of those 2 world wars in just 2 books, the fact that many people do (subconsciously) act as if their (high school level) history is the 100% truth is (for me) the real (and sad) joke.

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  3. This history was written by Sir John Hackett (General, UK Army) in 1987: "The Third World War".

    This WWIII took place in a parallel dimension where WWIII started in 1985, where all high-tech US weapons work perfectly, and military operations unfold as planned.

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