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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: 280plus on September 10, 2006, 09:57:02 AM

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: 280plus on September 10, 2006, 09:57:02 AM

As stated in a previous thread, I'm currently reading "Flying Dutchmen" by Frank Clune 1953 . Clune was an Aussie writer who, among other things, wrote travelogue type books where he takes a trip and tells you all about it. In this one he's traveling from Australia to Holland by KLM. (Is KLM still around?) Anyways one of his stops along the way is in a little town known as Baghdad, you may have heard of it. His insight to the area circa 1953 is most interesting and I'm posting it because I find it so utterly prophetic.

And remember, this is not ME saying this it's Frank Clune and he's syaing it ~53 YEARS ago!

Quote

Two a.m. at the "City of the Waving Palms", on the banks of the Tigris, but now I hear most of the 100,000 Jews who formerly lived here have migrated to Israel, a wise thing for them to do, as the Arabs of Iraq feel rather annoyed at the expulsion of Arabs from Palestine--to them also, as to the Jews, an ancestral land. Whether the Jews and the Arabs will settle their disputes amicably, or fight for possesion of the site of Solomon's Temple, at Jerusalem--very sacred to to both Arabs and Jews--is a question that only history will be able to answer. Both sides are inclined to be trigger happy, and there is no doubt that the State of Israel has produced a state of tension in the Middle East that could at any time burst into a conflagration, especially as there is so much oil in that vicinity.

So is history repeating itself or just continuing as it always has?

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: Tallpine on September 10, 2006, 10:51:52 AM

History is repeating itself just as it always has

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: 280plus on September 10, 2006, 11:38:58 AM

LOL...that's RIGHT!

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 10, 2006, 06:18:25 PM

How is it prophetic, or even noteworthy?

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: Winston Smith on September 10, 2006, 06:53:44 PM

Yeah, a right wing fundamentalist would say that., fistful. :-P

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 10, 2006, 07:05:09 PM

My humorous comeback to WS removed; too distracting.  I'll get you, Smith.

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: 280plus on September 11, 2006, 12:55:16 AM

Fist, you on the same planet as the rest of us?

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: 280plus on September 11, 2006, 02:06:21 AM

That's a joke BTW

I'll say MAYBE not the exact definition of prophetic but subliminally so. However, I believe it is extremely noteworthy.  For instance, did you know there was a mass exodus from Baghdad to Israel post WWII? I did not.

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 11, 2006, 02:55:51 AM

It's not really prophetic, because the author isn't clear whether there will be any fighting or not.  It seems to me anyone might have predicted that the establishment of a Jewish state could tick off the Islamic world, and that oil would complicate matters.  My two cents, anyway.

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: 280plus on September 11, 2006, 03:17:57 AM

True, he doesn't say it directly but he doesn't sound very hopeful to me. Again, to me, the fact that the statement is coming from what is essentially a third party viewpoint that sums it all up very neatly in one paragraph 53 years ago right as this was all jelling seems worth mentioning. It's kind of like a benchmark that one can look at and say, "Gee, things sure haven't changed much."

I like how he mentions both sides being trigger happy. He hits the nail on the head with that one.

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: garrettwc on September 11, 2006, 06:40:25 AM

I find this one more prophetic in nature. An excerpt from the book The Great Heresies written by Hilaire Belloc, first published in 1938. The entire text of the book is at this link:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/metabook/heresies.html

Quote

"Today we are accustomed to think of the Mohammedan world as something backward and stagnant, in all material affairs at least. We cannot imagine a great Mohammedan fleet made up of modern ironclads and submarines, or a great modern Mohammedan army fully equipped with modern artillery, flying power and the rest.

But not so very long ago, , the Mohammedan Government centred at Constantinople had better artillery and better army equipment of every kind than had we Christians in the West. The last effort they made to destroy Christendom was contemporary with the end of the reign of Charles II in England and of his brother James and of the usurper William III. It failed during the last years of the seventeenth century, only just over two hundred years ago. Vienna, as we saw, was almost taken and only saved by the Christian army under the command of the King of Poland on a date that ought to be among the most famous in history - September 11, 1683.

Given the historical nature of the Islamic world. You have to seriously wonder if the dates are just a coincidence.

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: Art Eatman on September 11, 2006, 01:43:17 PM

A pretty good read without  any political slant is Bernard Lewis' "What Went Wrong"  Available from Amazon.  Lewis is a lifelong scholar of Araby and Islam.  Prof. Emeritus at Princeton.

Art

Title: Prophetic Writing...
Post by: MicroBalrog on September 11, 2006, 03:37:30 PM

Quote from: Art Eatman

A pretty good read without  any political slant is Bernard Lewis' "What Went Wrong"  Available from Amazon.  Lewis is a lifelong scholar of Araby and Islam.  Prof. Emeritus at Princeton.

Art

I've seen him lecture in Tel Aviv.

Even at his age, his brilliance is evident in the way he speaks, bears himself, and in what he says.

He is indeed a truly amazing person.