The Unthinkable Present

During World War II there had been an alliance with Russia and the United States to attack the Nazis. In the end due to pressure and internal conflict the Russians had been forced to retire from the war in peaceful terms with Germany. Even then after all the souls that had been lost by the Russians to maintain the front, a war between the U.S and Russia was improbable. We see here the terms in which the U.S and Russia were during the war: "He spoke of the brotherhood between the American and the Russian people, and how those two nations were going to crush the disease of Nazism, which wanted to infect the whole world." (p.58)Although this alliance had been powerful and essential for the allied victory, it was investable for another type of war to develop the cold war.

At that moment it was unclear whether the powerful alliance between Russia and the allies was going to last. Then, all that matter was that this alliance was as decisive for the moment. The withdrawal of Russia from the war brought a new tone about the relation between the two countries that no one had expected. "'Once the Russians are defeated,' he went on, you will be repatriated through Switzerland.' There was no response. 'You're going to have to fight the Communists sooner or later,' said Campbell. "Why not get it over with now?'" (p.58) Americans showed no interested in doing such thing. They were tired and men devoid of hope and will to fight for their country. They had been captured by the enemy and their moral had been crushed. The war that followed the World War II was unthinkable to them at the moment yet to those that had to live the moments of the Cold War would have seen it coming from the history books. Sadly, it is very hard to stop something which might be obvious once it happens but before there is little chance of detecting it.

The present we live in today is unthinkable from the perspective of those who lived a couple hundred years before or even those who lived only decades before. Maybe that's a message the author want to get through. That no matter how hard you try to predict the future from the past it is almost impossible since the possibilities are too great. This supports the point the eternity of the moments in time. An event in the future or in the past will always happen the same way. Even if we know what will happen, we can't understand how it will happen because we haven't lived the necessary experiences to comprehend the chain of events that lead to that moment. Due to our lack of comprehension the vent will happen, immune to our attempts at changing it. Billy probably understands that he can´t change the future or the past mainly because of this. He sees the moments but no what lead to them and therefore he remains trapped in his own magnificent ability.