Whew! A whole lot of history being debated by you guys!
Helen, thanks for your story. It came as close to what I was trying to get at as I'm likely to see on this thread.
I am fascinated on this little debate that seems to be going on between a few of you. LH- just in the reading of your thoughts and facts here, I definitely tend towards your thinking and the process you used to get there... but it's not what I had in mind to discuss really on this thread. It's certainly an interesting one, though, so I'll let you and freightdawg battle it out between you.
Perhaps I think differently in terms of people and what influences them, and perhaps it will always be true that the world will be led through the insanity of aggression, power plays, greed, and the desire to control others. Forgive me for saying this (or not) but it is unfortunately too much a Man's World for me. No, I don't think I'm making too large of a generalization by saying this. If I were really interested in any "What If" scenarios, they would include a lot more of my gender (though we've certainly had our share of power-seekers and power-takers). I'm personally convinced it's a testosterone thing, but be that as it may....thanks for any and all contributions to thinking over poking someone's eyes out!....ellen