11-01-2020, 06:45 AM
"Earth 2" is simply a different universe, at least for a person. It is any coherent alternative (at least for literary purposes, such as Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, a science-fiction scenario involving an Axis victory)*. It could be anything from "Lincoln not assassinated" because John Wilkes Booth falls to his death while going up the stairs to the Presidential box at Ford's Theater to "Babe Ruth remains with the Red Sox"... or even "Australia and India never split from Antarctica".
*Want a more plausible scenario of an Axis victory? Germany and Japan become the Good Guys, and the KKK has taken over America. Adolf Hitler gives up on politics after the silly Beer-Hall Putsch and finds his way into commercial art that includes some scary posters, "Dekluxification" becomes a valid word in the English language, Erwin Rommel takes the role of President of the United States even to the extent of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the game (to concentration-camp survivor Hank Greenberg) in which Jackie Robinson (another survivor of a concentration camp) has a debut. America's expressways are called "motorways", which is a perfect English translation of "Autobahn". John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is about Okies returning to Oklahoma as Mexico evicts them. Chicago is the city divided much like Berlin in "Earth 1". It's a Wonderful Life is a story about a German community in which "Georg Behli" discovers at a desperate moment how different the world would be without him. In this world Germany has a rich cultural life because it left the Jews alone. (Point of departure: Walter Rathenau is not assassinated).
*Want a more plausible scenario of an Axis victory? Germany and Japan become the Good Guys, and the KKK has taken over America. Adolf Hitler gives up on politics after the silly Beer-Hall Putsch and finds his way into commercial art that includes some scary posters, "Dekluxification" becomes a valid word in the English language, Erwin Rommel takes the role of President of the United States even to the extent of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the game (to concentration-camp survivor Hank Greenberg) in which Jackie Robinson (another survivor of a concentration camp) has a debut. America's expressways are called "motorways", which is a perfect English translation of "Autobahn". John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is about Okies returning to Oklahoma as Mexico evicts them. Chicago is the city divided much like Berlin in "Earth 1". It's a Wonderful Life is a story about a German community in which "Georg Behli" discovers at a desperate moment how different the world would be without him. In this world Germany has a rich cultural life because it left the Jews alone. (Point of departure: Walter Rathenau is not assassinated).
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
