Imagination therapy. If you were given one wish, what would you wish for?

[Cyrano]

Come on, admit it. You know you've daydreamed about what you'd do if you were all powerful.

Okay, so you find a bottle on the beach, uncork it, a Genii pops out and grants you three wishes. The law of unintended consequences dictates that no matter what you wish for, it will disrupt something else in an unforeseen way. So to avoid screwing up the world beyond repair, let's limit it to one wish. What would you wish for?

(And please try to leave out any Anne Coulter/Creme Brule type remarks.)

[havocmom]

1. Have Ben Franklin alive and well for a look around at things

Seriously, I have wanted this since I was about nine years old. (Which was just after his death ;) )

[Cyrano]

2. Have a little mercy. If Franklin were alive today, he'd kill himself.

[havocmom]

5. Well, back in the good ol days, I wanted to show him modern presses

and mini skirts ;)

Now, I wanna pick his brain for ideas on how to turn back the corporate fascists who have taken over.

If we could put a wire in his crypt and hook it to a turbine, we could probably power a good portion of the East Coast what with all that spinning...

[Cyrano]

13. Good idea. But he'd use kites, not turbines. Great original wish.

[havocmom]

14. Turbins TODAY

not the olden days when I was a kid ;)

[MadMaddie]

3. I would wish to turn the clock back before the * cabal came into

power and reverse all of the divide in this country.

[jedicord]

4. Three wishes! n/t

[anarch]

6. immortality, I think...just to see how things end up

Here's something related to this topic:

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. As he sits, the waitress comes over and asks for their orders. The man says, "I'll have a hamburger, fries and a Coke." The waitress then turns to the ostrich, "What's yours?" "I'll have the same," says the ostrich. A short time later the waitress returns with the order. "That'll be $6.40, please," she says. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment. The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, "I'll have a hamburger, fries and a Coke." The ostrich says, "I'll have the same." Once again, the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change. This becomes a routine until late one evening, the two enter again. "The usual?" asks the waitress. "No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and salad," says the man. "Same for me," says the ostrich. A short time later, the waitress comes with the order and says, "That'll be $12.62." Once again, the man pulls exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table. The waitress can't hold back her curiosity any longer. "Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change out of your pocket every time?" "Well," says the man, "several years ago I was cleaning the attic and I found an old lamp. When I rubbed it, a genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there." "That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would wish for a million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!" "That's right. Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there," says the man. The waitress asks, "One other thing, sir, what's with the ostrich?" The man sighs, pauses, and answers, "My second wish was for a tall chick with long legs who agrees with everything I say."

[Cyrano]

11. There it is. The law of unintended consequences.

[sui generis]

7. reminds me of my favorite x files episode

Before I grant your wish, are you absolutely sure there isn't anything else you'd like? Hint hint?

"Nope, just a solid gold wheelchair."

and

"Well, I wished for a bottomless bag of turnips. What? It was the 14th century, I was hungry all the time, give me a break!"

:rofl:

[Selatius]

19. That was a good episode. n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

8. World communism, I think

[Selatius]

9. I'd wish to live in a country that was better than the one I know

It'd be a country with vast farmlands and green countryside, beautiful cities the rival of any in Europe or indeed the world. The weather would be nice all year round, and the skies wouldn't be choking with pollution.

Gridlock in cities would be mitigated. This wouldn't be Los Angeles or New York City. Cities here would be built around pedestrians, not cars. The nation would have some of the most advanced networks of bullet trains, light rail, and busing systems in the world in addition to the regular interstate system.

The issue of health care is a non-issue. The people own and operate several health care companies with the aid of the government. Everybody is covered because there is no profit motive to price people out of the system. Non-profit health care companies would not be crippled by laws designed to aid only for-profit companies.

The students would have access to one of the best if not the best education system in the world with standards any nation could envy. Everybody who has the marks would be subsidized through college, and those who don't have the marks would be subsidized through vocational schools to learn trades and crafts. Tuition debt is a foreign concept relegated to the obsolete past.

The best part is the people. The people love life. They have a passion for life, for dance, for music. They love festivals and celebrations and holidays. They have a totally different philosophy on life. Where others say, "Time is money," these people say, "Life is best." Life moves at a slower pace, and they actually take ciestas in the afternoon and enjoy life and the sunny day instead of spending it all working. For them, they are not interested in being the nation that works the greatest number of hours on average for some of the lowest wages in the industrialized world all for the benefit of the employers. For them, they want time for living and for happiness.

They want to live free--free from the prison of exploitation for the benefit of a few, free from the chains of war profiteers and the poverty and misery war brings to all.

[Cyrano]

12. Your wish sounds like a world with no conservatives. I don't know if

even a genii could pull that one off, but it's a beautiful wish and I hope you get it.

[Selatius]

21. Ultimately, it's probably a world I'll never see

George Orwell may have seen it, if only briefly, during the Spanish Civil War. When the wealthy landowners and factory owners abandoned their things and fled the countryside, the people were left to fend for themselves in the chaos. They had to take over the land and factories and run them themselves in a democratic fashion or die of starvation. In Homage to Catalonia, he wrote:

I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life--snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.--had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master.

In the end, these communes--and there were hundreds--were attacked by both stalinists and fascists aided by their allies the USSR and Nazi Germany. They were crushed under Franco's fascist dictatorship.

Ultimately, I don't hold much chance I'll experience what Orwell experienced in person, but I think at least having hope of seeing such a world and trying to come as close to emulating that world, hopefully through peaceful transition, is better than laying down to die.

[bigmonkey]

10. Here's a narrow one.

1) The whole Bush family is suddenly taken with a unstoppable desire and ability to tell the whole unvarnished truth about their lives.
2) No-one stops them.
3) Everybody gets to hear what they say.

[LeftHander]

15. Peace....

[ceile]

16. 1. AIDS cure

2. clean drinking water for every person on earth
3. $1,000,000 (I can't be a humanitarian all the time)

Besides, I'll be able to invest and doante more to charity.:)

[SmokingJacket]

17. Everyone gets what they deserve.

That'll be interesting!

[Cyrano]

25. Ouch. That's too painful to contemplate. I don't think the people of

this planet are ready for that kind of justice.

[The2ndWheel]

18. Clocks

Gone. All of them. Time to take back time.

[mmonk]

20. Freedom!

[Pathwalker]

22. Al Gore would have won so overwhelmingly in 2000

that 9/11 would not have happened, and peace and prosperity would have continued.

[Cyrano]

26. Al Gore did win overwhelmingly in 2000 and we got screwed anyway.

[Pathwalker]

28. Allow me to amend that, then. Al gore IS our President,

and has been since taking office in 2001. Of course, he was re-elected in 2004 by 91% of the vote, and our DEMOCRATIC legislature has worked with him to erase the National debt, save Social Security and Medicare, and they are pledging to revolutionize health care, etc.

How's that?

[Cyrano]

29. I surrender. You win.

My intent was not to denigrate your wish, but merely to state that we get screwed no matter what we wish for.

[Pathwalker]

30. I didn't feel as if you did that. I was too vague in my wish,

and I have agree that Gore won handily - I was just enjoying the free wish. I should have been more succinct. And yes, we're being screwed. :hi: :-)

[MrSlayer]

23. Unlimited magical power.

I want to be Raistlin Majere on steroids.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

24. World Peace. nt

[W_HAMILTON]

27. A long, healthy, happy life

Does that count as one wish? lol

Come to think of it, the guy that said immortality is probably an ever better idea. But then, what if you have immortality but none of your friends and family members, wouldn't that be somewhat of a sad existence too?

How about this instead: immortality for everyone. That's my one wish. Sure, that means some crappy people will live forever, but if the people you love and care about live for ever, and they can never be taken from you, and you can never be taken from them, then it shouldn't be so bad, right?