"Years ago, I read a book that told an interesting story. Just suppose that Hitler had won the war, wiped out all the Jews and convinced his people that there really was such a thing as a master race. The history books start to be changed, and a hundred years later, his successors manage to wipe out all the Indians. Three hundred years later and the Blacks have been eliminated too. It takes another five hundred years, but, finally, the all-powerful war machine succeeds in erasing all Asians from the face of the earth as well. The history books speak of remote battles waged against barbarians, but no one reads too closely, because it's of no importance.

"Two thousand years after the birth of Nazism, in a bar in Tokyo, a city that has been inhabited for five centuries now by tall, blue-eyed people, Hans and Fritz are enjoying a beer. At one point, Hans looks at Fritz and asks, "Fritz, do you think it was always like this?"

"What?' asks Fritz.

"The World.'

"Of course the world was always like this, isn't that what we were taught?'

"Of course, I don't know what made me ask such a stupid question,' says Hans. THey finish their beer, talk about other things and forget the question entirely."

Was the world really always like this?