Watched some eps of a documentary show on abandoned places last night. It's unsettling to see how many of them are associated with WWII, & with the Nazis in particular. Seeing that again & again really underscores how hard all of Europe was hit by WWII & all that came with it.
We don't have a clue in the US, really.
Every time I've visited Europe, too, the marks of both world wars are everywhere. Churches, especially. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's the focus of veneration at a church: is it war, or is it god?
@Impious_Jade
Oh, so you visit Europ. Every time I'm about to visit the US I stop at the check-in at the airport, back a way, turn around and cancel the trip. The Closet to the US I've managed to get my self is Aruba. Aruba feels safer as it is a small piece of Europe linked to the Dutch crown and Dutch protection.
@Lingitta I don't blame you, the US is uh... yeah, it's a bit of a mess at the moment. There are places that are better to visit than others, fwiw. I'm planning trips to NYC, LA & even Cape Canaveral at some point, to see the space shuttles. What is it that makes you turn around & not go?
@Impious_Jade
lt doesn't feel ok. I feel oppressed as a female, not being counted as an equal being. Husband worked a lot in the US once. He got some award and they wanted to write about him in the company newspaper. They wanted my name an picture And I said bloody hell no way. I'm not some trophy wife adoringly looking into to my husband eys. If they want to write about him please do but leave me and the children out of it. And now with these abortion laws there's no chance in hell I'd ever go
@Impious_Jade
Not that I am in need of an abortion it's the principal of a law like that. Seeing a female just like a brood mare. It's so bloody wrong in my eyes. And then there's health insurance. I don't want to feed that industry.
@Lingitta Fair. It's rough being her, knowing how things are like that. I wish I were able to leave, but a) I don't have the resources, & b) very broadly, nowhere I'd live particularly wants Americans & our bullshit.
@Impious_Jade
We’ve learned that we haven’t learned a damned thing.
@Impious_Jade: People learned a lot, but over time those people died. Then their kids died, and then their kids died. Then some folks decided, as people do, that the only problem with what evil was way back when was "just that they didn't do right" or "have good enough reasons., but we do". And so things begin again.
Ideas never ever, ever die, just as humans will always have a simultaneous positive and negative nature and capacity to choose either.
@Impious_Jade What was the name of the show? Sounds like something I want to check out.
@Impious_Jade: Of course we don't. Along with Canada and Mexico, we're pretty geographically isolated from the rest of the planet. We're hard to get at militarily. That said, we have a lot of abandoned places, but most people never see them because those places aren't usually on interstates. More than one might think are in the boonies in the midwest, as in open ranges, and the deserts. The population of the US occupies not too much of its land mass.
@Impious_Jade: The abandoned places around Europe, ones in addition to the ones from the two World Wars, are something else as well. A friend from Germany years ago went all around Europe (Western and Eastern) and photographed loads of places and learned all kinds of things about them. Eventually lost track of them, alas. Their LJ blog posts about their travels were really cool, though.
@thedisasterautist Oh right on. Yeah last time I was in the UK we checked out an abbey that had been dismantled during Henry VIII's Dissolution. The signs of that are allll over England too.
@Impious_Jade: When I was on Malta back in 2005 I got lost one evening looking for a bus stop out in the country, and I was stranded for the night because I didn't realize I'd walked off the road and onto a private road. I spent the night under a tree that I found out in the morning that had grown out of Roman concrete. I slept on what remained of a small villa. I thought it was a shed. LOL
@thedisasterautist That sounds amazing, frankly! If a bit chilly...
On one trip to England I stayed the night in a 17th-century country church. It was awesome. No sound but the clock ticking away...
@Impious_Jade: It was in March. It got very chilly, yes. Thankfully it didn't rain as it had the day before and then did the following evening. That would've sucked.
@Impious_Jade I like to watch Bros Of Decay for European bandos.
What was the name of the documentary? Watching Urbex shows relaxes me and I learn a thing or two sometimes!
@coolserenity It's "Mysteries of the Abandoned." One of those Discovery+ shows that's kind of slicked up & the music is overdramatic & the narration is simple, but I still enjoy it - I've learned something every single episode I've watched.
@Impious_Jade I'll be sure to look it up -- thanks!
@coolserenity I also like "Unearthed", for more wide-ranging historical stuff. Similar format, but they focus on one site for the entire hour & use CGI to blow the site apart & explore the insides. Learned something every time from that as well.
The last time we had a war on US soil was the US Civil War, & half the nation glorifies that as an upholding of institutionalized racism & white supremacy. We've learned little.