The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
Guess the year:
Murderous organizations have increased in size and scope; they are more daring, they are served by the most terrible weapons offered by modern science, and the world is nowadays threatened by new forces which, if recklessly unchained, may some day wreck universal destruction. The Orsini bombs were mere children’s toys compared with the later developments of infernal machines. Between 1858 and 1898 the dastardly science of destruction had made rapid and alarming strides…
No, that wasn’t a typo. “Between 1858 and 1898….” This quote is from Major Arthur Griffith, Mysteries of Police and Crime, London, 1898, II, p. 469. It’s quoted in: Walter Laqueur, A History of Terrorism, New Brunswick/London, Transaction Publishers, 2002.
Albatross • October 10, 2008 1:18 PM
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” Santayana.
Of course, he had nothing to say about those who deliberately re-create historical conditions in order to profit from the situation, which is why we are now facing a SECOND Great Depression…