If you could travel back in time...
 

If you could time travel to any destination in history, to any decade, anywhere in the world, what would you do?

Would you set out to meet anyone in particular (or to better your chances of a chance meeting)?

Would you attend a social demonstration?

The only rule is that you cannot directly change history (e.g., no rescuing people who died too young, no making yourself president of the US, etc.).

I would probably go back to the night that Malcom X was assassinated. I would just love to hear him speak and also be in the area when such an event happens.

If I didn't go there. I would probably just go somewhere in Africa and hope that I don't die being in the middle of a tribe feud. Going back in time is just a shitty deal all around and I wouldn't want to with my skin color.

I'd go back around 50,000 years but would stay exactly where I am geographically. I'd like to see what the hills, meadows, forests, lakes and mountains where I live looked like back then, how the Earth looked back then before mankind left its mark. I'd also like to know what was life back then was like without laws, police, conditioned thinking and the similar crap that is imposed on modern life. Maybe I'd hate it. But I'd take that chance.

I have just now fully realized my privilege - though as a woman (regardless of my race) I don't think I'd want to wander much further than the 60s. It's a dangerous past!

Would love to have been there for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech - even seeing video footage is riveting, what a time. I'd like to think he gave hope to everyone in his prime. I do agree, though. History is a dangerous place (unless you're a white male).

Would you want to stay?

I would like to go back to the 1960s and go to a bunch of concerts. Woodstock, Captain Beefheart, The Doors, and Albert Ayler would be on the list, but I would go to ****loads of concerts if I was able to go back to the 60s.

I'd want to drop acid with Sky Saxon.

And I'd love to have gone to Monterey Pop Festival. I finally made it, I really did - just ... y'know, 40+ years too late. :(

I don't know. I'd have to see what it's like. However it's just ocurred to me that 50,000 years ago the Earth was smack bang in the middle of an ice age and I really dislike the cold, so I'd go back 10,000 years instead.

I often wonder what it would have been like to have been born back then. On one hand you'd be incredibly free, there'd be no money, no school, no laws, so very little conditioning; but on the other hand if someone wanted to kill you there'd be no punishment of imprisonment to deter them, you'd be living alongside many dangerous animals, there'd be very little medicine, so something as simple as a toothache could become unbearable. I'd like to know whether the increase in freedom was difficult to appreciate due to the scant security and subsequent increased danger.

Going back to the 60's & early 70's to see shows was the first thought I had when I saw this thread. I only got to see one show back then but it was a good one; The Grateful Dead with Jefferson Airplane on August 6th 1967. It was a free, outdoor, afternoon show and the only reason I got to see it was because I was with my parents at the time and we just happened to be in the area and they decided to check it out. I was too young to go to shows by myself until the late 70's, so there are plenty of bands and shows I would've loved to see. Woodstock, Monterey Pop, Isle of Wight, Atlanta Pop Festival to name just a few.

It would also be interesting to see some of the many significant historical events as they were happening.

And it would be interesting to go back to the time of the dinosaurs and see some of those magnificent beasts walking the earth. I'd probably need some type of armored vehicle for protection so I wouldn't wind up on the menu, though! :D

I'd go back to the 1700's America, with all it's hardships and oppressive governing. Wouldn't be much different from now except less people and no electricity.

As a big sixties music fan it would be intersting to see it all.
Also, for some perverse reason, medieval Europe would be a nice thing to see but not to stay. Still I'm pretty happy that I live in 21st century, but as a man who is pretty interested in history I would also like to visit in the past.
Though I could be perfectly happy if I lived in the sixties and in England or Usa and I could see the whole thing. Although Finland was probably back then boring plays where people only drank and danced tango and feared The Soviet Union...