Re: Oldest SF not necessarily most dated?

On 15 May 2008 05:40:24 GMT, "Dan Goodman" <dsgood@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Matthias Warkus wrote:

>> John Schilling schrieb:
>> > I think there's a partial misunderstanding here.  I don't think
>> > anyone, from the early '80s on at least, was terribly surprised to
>> > see the Soviet economy collapse.  Commmunism's early luster faded
>> > pretty fast, and once e.g. the Russians had to come begging for
>> > American grain, it was pretty clear which economic system wasn't
>> > working.

>> > What surprised most everyone, including myself, is that the Soviet
>> > economy collapsed peacefully.
 
>> To me, the surprise is rather that it managed to hold out that long.
>> (OK, but then, I was born in 1981, so ...) I recall a long and
>> pointed article from 1963 (IIRC) detailing how the Soviet economy
>> worked in spite of central planning rather than because of it. Hard
>> to believe they muddled along for nearly 30 more years.

>Even harder to believe how many Americans -- including some sf writers
>-- thought it was likely to take over the world.


Why is that hard to believe?

It's not like, e.g., the Mongols had a prosperous, dynamic, sophisticated
economy that outclassed those of the poor, backwards Chinese, Persians,
and Europeans.  Didn't stop them from coming frighteningly close to taking
over the world.

And, indeed, the list of almost-world-conquerers through recorded history,
is mostly one of economically backwards and/or depressed nations.  For
what should be rather obvious reasons.  Why, after all, would the richest
nations *want* to conquer the world?


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