Yes it's basically a "it was better then" article. The last part is quite funny and true.
http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/2/12/150908.shtml
Life on Planet Bizarro
David C. Stolinsky, M.D.
Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003
A favorite science fiction theme is a man who wakes up in a world that seems to be the one he’s familiar with, but isn’t. Slowly he realizes he is in a parallel universe, where everything is almost what he’s used to, but not quite. He’s on Planet Bizarro.
Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes I feel that the world I knew has been exchanged for another world.
World War II never happened.
In the world I grew up in, World War II was the greatest catastrophe in history. We learned the hard way that it is dangerous to ignore its lessons.
In my world, Hitler outlined his violent plans in speeches, but we didn’t listen. He scrapped the treaty that ended World War I, but we paid no attention. And we did nothing when he built up his military, reoccupied the Rhineland, seized part of Czechoslovakia, and then took the rest.
Finally he invaded Poland, and by then it was too late to stop him without a war that cost over 40 million lives.
But on Planet Bizarro, all that never happened. We never learned that we can’t appease violent megalomaniacs. So we try to appease Saddam Hussein. We try not to "overreact" when terrorists strike. Then we are shocked – shocked! – when it doesn’t work.
Pieces of paper keep us safe.
In the world I grew up in, we knew that the police keep us safe from violent criminals at home, and our military keep us safe from violent enemies abroad. We didn’t enjoy getting a traffic ticket, but we realized this was the price of traffic safety. We surely didn’t enjoy getting a draft notice, but we realized this was the price of freedom. And we honored those who paid it.
We knew that police enforce laws, and our military defend the Constitution. Yet we never confused pieces of paper with the brave men and women who protect us.
But on Planet Bizarro, the kids who yelled "Pigs off the campus!" are now professors. Lawyers make up the large majority of politicians. They tell us that police are dangerous Neanderthals, and it’s laws and court orders that keep us safe. They tell us that our military are ignorant boors, and it’s treaties and U.N. meetings that protect us.
We never watched the League of Nations descend into irrelevance as it failed to stop Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. We never saw international agreements trashed by sneering tyrants. We never saw politicians waving pieces of paper they claimed would bring "peace in our time," but instead brought the bloodiest of wars.
So we don’t complain when the U.N. descends into irrelevance as it fails to act against Iraq or North Korea. We don’t object when academics and liberal pundits tell us to rely on pieces of paper to protect us. On Planet Bizarro, the middle of the 20th century vanished into a black hole.
Moral decisions are made by majority vote.
In the world I grew up in, moral decisions were made by the individual, with the guidance of religion. We used the vote to decide political questions, not moral ones. We had the lesson of Germany, where the Nazi regime was installed by democratic means and where genocidal tyranny was enshrined in law and ratified by courts.
We studied the Dred Scott decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a slave was not free even if his master took him to a state where slavery was illegal, and that freed slaves could never be citizens. So we knew that a court ruling by majority vote, and a nation using democratic processes, could still be immoral.
And until a few centuries ago, a majority of people believed the earth is flat.
But on Planet Bizarro, those events never happened, so we naïvely put our trust in majorities. We duck the decision on what to do about Iraq, and fob it off onto the U.N. That’s the same U.N. where Libya chairs the Human Rights Commission and Iraq heads the Disarmament Conference. Yes, that U.N., the Bizarro U.N.
High taxes help the economy.
In the world I grew up in, we knew that under President Kennedy, about half the federal budget was spent on defense. And he proposed a tax cut to stimulate the economy. When some complained that the tax cut would benefit mainly the rich, Kennedy remarked, "A rising tide raises all boats."
But on Planet Bizarro, we spend only about 18 percent of the federal budget on defense, and even after 9/11, many complain it’s too much. When a tax cut is proposed to help the economy, many object that we should raise taxes instead.
If high taxes were good for the economy, the pre-Civil War South would have been an economic giant. After all, what is slavery if not a 100 percent tax rate?
Nobody ever heard of John Kennedy on Planet Bizarro. More defense spending is seen as a strictly Republican idea, designed only to benefit big corporations. And anyone who said "A rising tide raises all boats" would be called a stooge for the rich and an enemy of the poor and minorities.
Everything depends on race.
In the world I grew up in, there was racism, but we knew it was evil and fought it when we could. We saw Eleanor Roosevelt dance with a black enlisted man. The first lady was showing us what World War II was all about. After all, the importance of race was the core belief of the Nazis.
And we all heard Dr. King express the hope that children would grow up in a world where they would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their characters.
But on Planet Bizarro, the Holocaust never happened, not to mention apartheid. We never learned that classifying people by race could be dangerous, or even lethal. So we insist that applicants for jobs or places at the university be classified that way.
And recently we were treated to former first lady Hillary Clinton declaring that race is an important component of character. Adolf would have agreed, but not Martin.
Evil resides in inanimate objects.
In the world I grew up in, we knew that evil resided in the human heart. We saw monstrous tyrants abroad and violent criminals at home, so the lesson was obvious. And religion reinforced the lesson, as did movies like "High Noon."
I grew up during World War II, when violent images were in every newspaper and magazine, even comic books. Boys played war games or cops-and-robbers. I had a cap pistol at an early age, and an air rifle by age 10. In high school, we took ROTC and learned to shoot .22 rifles at the rifle range in the school basement. Guns and violent images didn’t make kids violent. We had good values.
Many boys were growing up without fathers. But having a father away in the service, or even killed in action, was not the same as having one who just "took off." In those days, if a boy said his father "took off," you would assume he was an aviator.
At the age of 8, I could walk to school alone through a park. Kids weren’t afraid. People didn’t put bars on their windows. Only criminals lived behind bars. And the 1950s, when the World War II generation matured, were marked by a low homicide rate and the lowest suicide rate in our history.
But on Planet Bizarro, this never happened. We "know" that guns cause crime, so we ban guns, even toy guns, and we suspend little boys from school if they point their finger and say "bang." We forbid boys to play war games or cops-and-robbers.
We also "know" that there are no bad people, only sick people.
Then why is it that on Planet Bizarro we have to teach kids "stranger danger"? Why is it that children live in fear, but molesters don’t? Why is it that law-abiding citizens feel the need to live behind bars, but criminals roam free?
Of course, no one asks these questions, because all this seems normal. And why shouldn’t it? On Planet Bizarro, people think that’s the way it has always been.
Try this test: What would you do if a man broke down your front door at 2 a.m., screaming threats and brandishing a bloody ax? (Choose one.)
Call the police only if they promise not to use force, which "never solves anything."
Phone an attorney and discuss obtaining a restraining order from the court.
Press for stricter ax-control laws.
Do nothing, so as not to continue the "cycle of violence."
Inquire whether the man’s childhood was unhappy.
Sit down and talk, while trying to "see things from his point of view."
Avoid a "pre-emptive strike" by waiting till he starts hacking up your family.
Shoot him.
If you chose any answer from (a) through (g), you’re already on Planet Bizarro. Life there won’t be easy. Without history to guide you, everything is confusing. But if you chose (h), you’re still at home on Planet Earth. Glad to have you with us.
http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/2/12/150908.shtml
Life on Planet Bizarro
David C. Stolinsky, M.D.
Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003
A favorite science fiction theme is a man who wakes up in a world that seems to be the one he’s familiar with, but isn’t. Slowly he realizes he is in a parallel universe, where everything is almost what he’s used to, but not quite. He’s on Planet Bizarro.
Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes I feel that the world I knew has been exchanged for another world.
World War II never happened.
In the world I grew up in, World War II was the greatest catastrophe in history. We learned the hard way that it is dangerous to ignore its lessons.
In my world, Hitler outlined his violent plans in speeches, but we didn’t listen. He scrapped the treaty that ended World War I, but we paid no attention. And we did nothing when he built up his military, reoccupied the Rhineland, seized part of Czechoslovakia, and then took the rest.
Finally he invaded Poland, and by then it was too late to stop him without a war that cost over 40 million lives.
But on Planet Bizarro, all that never happened. We never learned that we can’t appease violent megalomaniacs. So we try to appease Saddam Hussein. We try not to "overreact" when terrorists strike. Then we are shocked – shocked! – when it doesn’t work.
Pieces of paper keep us safe.
In the world I grew up in, we knew that the police keep us safe from violent criminals at home, and our military keep us safe from violent enemies abroad. We didn’t enjoy getting a traffic ticket, but we realized this was the price of traffic safety. We surely didn’t enjoy getting a draft notice, but we realized this was the price of freedom. And we honored those who paid it.
We knew that police enforce laws, and our military defend the Constitution. Yet we never confused pieces of paper with the brave men and women who protect us.
But on Planet Bizarro, the kids who yelled "Pigs off the campus!" are now professors. Lawyers make up the large majority of politicians. They tell us that police are dangerous Neanderthals, and it’s laws and court orders that keep us safe. They tell us that our military are ignorant boors, and it’s treaties and U.N. meetings that protect us.
We never watched the League of Nations descend into irrelevance as it failed to stop Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. We never saw international agreements trashed by sneering tyrants. We never saw politicians waving pieces of paper they claimed would bring "peace in our time," but instead brought the bloodiest of wars.
So we don’t complain when the U.N. descends into irrelevance as it fails to act against Iraq or North Korea. We don’t object when academics and liberal pundits tell us to rely on pieces of paper to protect us. On Planet Bizarro, the middle of the 20th century vanished into a black hole.
Moral decisions are made by majority vote.
In the world I grew up in, moral decisions were made by the individual, with the guidance of religion. We used the vote to decide political questions, not moral ones. We had the lesson of Germany, where the Nazi regime was installed by democratic means and where genocidal tyranny was enshrined in law and ratified by courts.
We studied the Dred Scott decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a slave was not free even if his master took him to a state where slavery was illegal, and that freed slaves could never be citizens. So we knew that a court ruling by majority vote, and a nation using democratic processes, could still be immoral.
And until a few centuries ago, a majority of people believed the earth is flat.
But on Planet Bizarro, those events never happened, so we naïvely put our trust in majorities. We duck the decision on what to do about Iraq, and fob it off onto the U.N. That’s the same U.N. where Libya chairs the Human Rights Commission and Iraq heads the Disarmament Conference. Yes, that U.N., the Bizarro U.N.
High taxes help the economy.
In the world I grew up in, we knew that under President Kennedy, about half the federal budget was spent on defense. And he proposed a tax cut to stimulate the economy. When some complained that the tax cut would benefit mainly the rich, Kennedy remarked, "A rising tide raises all boats."
But on Planet Bizarro, we spend only about 18 percent of the federal budget on defense, and even after 9/11, many complain it’s too much. When a tax cut is proposed to help the economy, many object that we should raise taxes instead.
If high taxes were good for the economy, the pre-Civil War South would have been an economic giant. After all, what is slavery if not a 100 percent tax rate?
Nobody ever heard of John Kennedy on Planet Bizarro. More defense spending is seen as a strictly Republican idea, designed only to benefit big corporations. And anyone who said "A rising tide raises all boats" would be called a stooge for the rich and an enemy of the poor and minorities.
Everything depends on race.
In the world I grew up in, there was racism, but we knew it was evil and fought it when we could. We saw Eleanor Roosevelt dance with a black enlisted man. The first lady was showing us what World War II was all about. After all, the importance of race was the core belief of the Nazis.
And we all heard Dr. King express the hope that children would grow up in a world where they would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their characters.
But on Planet Bizarro, the Holocaust never happened, not to mention apartheid. We never learned that classifying people by race could be dangerous, or even lethal. So we insist that applicants for jobs or places at the university be classified that way.
And recently we were treated to former first lady Hillary Clinton declaring that race is an important component of character. Adolf would have agreed, but not Martin.
Evil resides in inanimate objects.
In the world I grew up in, we knew that evil resided in the human heart. We saw monstrous tyrants abroad and violent criminals at home, so the lesson was obvious. And religion reinforced the lesson, as did movies like "High Noon."
I grew up during World War II, when violent images were in every newspaper and magazine, even comic books. Boys played war games or cops-and-robbers. I had a cap pistol at an early age, and an air rifle by age 10. In high school, we took ROTC and learned to shoot .22 rifles at the rifle range in the school basement. Guns and violent images didn’t make kids violent. We had good values.
Many boys were growing up without fathers. But having a father away in the service, or even killed in action, was not the same as having one who just "took off." In those days, if a boy said his father "took off," you would assume he was an aviator.
At the age of 8, I could walk to school alone through a park. Kids weren’t afraid. People didn’t put bars on their windows. Only criminals lived behind bars. And the 1950s, when the World War II generation matured, were marked by a low homicide rate and the lowest suicide rate in our history.
But on Planet Bizarro, this never happened. We "know" that guns cause crime, so we ban guns, even toy guns, and we suspend little boys from school if they point their finger and say "bang." We forbid boys to play war games or cops-and-robbers.
We also "know" that there are no bad people, only sick people.
Then why is it that on Planet Bizarro we have to teach kids "stranger danger"? Why is it that children live in fear, but molesters don’t? Why is it that law-abiding citizens feel the need to live behind bars, but criminals roam free?
Of course, no one asks these questions, because all this seems normal. And why shouldn’t it? On Planet Bizarro, people think that’s the way it has always been.
Try this test: What would you do if a man broke down your front door at 2 a.m., screaming threats and brandishing a bloody ax? (Choose one.)
Call the police only if they promise not to use force, which "never solves anything."
Phone an attorney and discuss obtaining a restraining order from the court.
Press for stricter ax-control laws.
Do nothing, so as not to continue the "cycle of violence."
Inquire whether the man’s childhood was unhappy.
Sit down and talk, while trying to "see things from his point of view."
Avoid a "pre-emptive strike" by waiting till he starts hacking up your family.
Shoot him.
If you chose any answer from (a) through (g), you’re already on Planet Bizarro. Life there won’t be easy. Without history to guide you, everything is confusing. But if you chose (h), you’re still at home on Planet Earth. Glad to have you with us.