William Shatspeare
2020
"Once you delve into the illusions of orthodox history—such as, who deserves credit for discovering Amerrica—you will understand how the past can change, because..." Muddle’s pulse quickened, " ...you will have changed it!" Muddle fell back a step and held his breath. He had dropped his bombshell. The professor exhaled slowly and agonizingly. Down and down sank his chest and with it went Muddle's hopes. Instead of erupting into riotous applause Muddle's students looked singularly unimpressed. Muddle imagined that he could hear crickets chirping in the amphitheater. He sighed. Some things never change. Muddle encountered the same reaction whenever he trotted out his blockbuster theory of Historical Transitivity. Crickets... The gist of Muddle's theory was simple but provocative. Interpretations of the past often change when priorities shift in the present. Wars, dynasties, even entire historical epochs were forever falling in and out of historical fashion. With that in mind, historical transitivity asserted that the past was just as malleable as the present. If Muddle’s theory had stopped there, he might have been able to generate enough polite interest to assuage his damaged ego. But Muddle insisted on adding another wrinkle that, as far as his students were concerned, pitched Muddle and his theory into the abyss of certifiable insanity. Ever the optimist, Muddle was convinced that, with the right tools, he could do more than change the way that people interpret history. Muddle believed that, via the magic of historical transitivity, he would—somehow, some day!—find a way to alter the very course of human history. For Muddle, history was not a lifeless record of bygone events. Muddle believed that history contained all of the answers to humanity’s most vexing problems. All he had to do was identify the key turning points in history and then find a way to change their outcomes...for the better!!
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