ALTERNATE UNIVERSE - DREAMING OF AN IMPERIAL (ROMANTIC) 21st CENTURY

The absurd, unsuitable, and overwhelming weight of a technological, fast paced existence within any major metropolitan Western center during the 21st Century is nearly intolerable for the few remaining romantic souls who long for the simplicity of life during the early days of the industrial age… Gadgets, circuits, connections and speed not only twist but also infect the human condition by insulting its very nature… Indeed, nearly every issue appears exceedingly disagreeable, distasteful and/or distressing; at best the entire landscape of modern urban society emerge as a rather unappealing experience, which unquestionably triggers or exacerbates the overall sense of “malaise”, fear, and great discomfort afflicting millions of unwitting victims everywhere today…
For those who worship the Past, most events and nearly all issues currently endured by most metropolitan citizens would indubitably have been signficantly assuaged in case the noble Houses of Windsor, Romanov, and Habsburg were still in charge of their respective monarchies today, and had never lost their grip on power (naturally I have deliberately excluded the Prussian Hohenzollerns for trouble would always have emerged in some nefarious fashion from Berlin - if any Kaiser is permitted to consolidate power over the entirety of Germany – as opposed to remaining confined to the much smaller Prussian Kingdom – unless of course inevitable serious “issues” were somehow much earlier addressed during a Major European conflict – a “War of three Emperors between 1870 and 1885 - concluding with the complete defeat of the Prussian forces, as opposed to our historical World War I in 1914). In such an “alternate world” the United Kingdom (along with France under Napoleon III) would have financed and supported the Russian & Austro-Hungarian empires (a Russia where the State Duma would have been permitted to function and an Austria where Archduke Rudolf would have been the Emperor) to defeat Prussia, thus preventing Otto von-Bismarck (who would have been executed) from creating a German state and further militarizing Prussia.

If these majestic Houses had not “fallen from grace” (which categorically would have also included a Orleans & Bragança sitting at the Brazilian Throne at the “Imperial Municipality of the Court – as Rio was once named), the current Islamic threat (rooted upon an insolvable Arab-Israeli conflict) along with the current financial chaos, which has brought our civilization to the brink of bankruptcy, would not have arisen. Indeed, because the 20th century would have been entirely distinct from what we learned from the History books (NO great depression – NO rise of National Socialism – NO independent Middle Eastern or North African states – NO Soviet Union –and a much less prominent USA) there would not have been any splitting of the atom in the 1940’s, nor any space travel in the 1950’s, transistors would not have been invented around 1960, while personal computers (let alone the internet) would have remained in the realm of Science Fiction...

Rather, we would, most likely, have been accustomed to pleasant, comfortable two-day long crossings of the Atlantic aboard magnificently furnished floating Airships from “Lufthansa, British Caledonian or Pan American; using elegant Rail Express Services to travel inside our respective continents; utilizing gracious metallic telephones that require Human Operators to make connections; and listening to Radio Broadcasts while sending one another telegrams...

If my dream scenario were to have come to fruition, Planet Earth would have been a much more agreeable place in 2009: much more peaceful, elegant and civilized than what we have in its stead…