In honor of the current book I am reading, Howard Zinn's A People's History of The United States, I decided to write about the era I would have most liked to have lived through. The book essentially tells history from the perspective of the victimized, the losers, the extinct. It is a harsh, but true examination of how people have risen to power in our country. The book is a strong reminder that power flows from the barrel of a gun. Whether right or wrong, just or unjust, the powerful have always won over the masses by force.
Winston Churchill commented on the idea that war doesn't solve anything with the remark that, nothing in history has been solved by anything other than war. I believe this was never more true than during the era of the Wild West. Not to say this was a time of great leisure or complete justice, but it would have been an interesting time to have lived. It seemed to be an era where good an evil were clearly defined. It was a lawless frontier and people had to decide for themselves whether morality and justice would guide their lives.
Today on the other hand, the line between good and evil, between public servant and criminal, is harder to differentiate. Politicians, lawyers, businessmen, and policeman can be a saint to some and the devil to others. In the Wild West, a cheating poker player would be shot on sight, leaving the profits to those who were wronged. Today, computer hackers in remote locations steal money from online bank accounts. In the Wild West, a corrupt businessman would be found and brought to justice. Today, banks are bailed out and businessmen sit high atop skyscrapers, shielded from justice and accountability. The Wild West was not perfect by a long shot, without twitter, facebook, or modern fashion. Nevertheless, it would have been a pretty interesting time to try to live, to survive, to make life in a brand new world!
