Daily Prompt 2/1/2016 | Deja Vu

The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt 2/1/2016 | A Bird, a Plane, You!

You get to choose one superpower. Pick one of these, and explain your choice:

• the ability to speak and understand any language
• the ability to travel through time
• the ability to make any two people agree with each other

While none of these are my top choice in superpower, all 3 of these abilities have the power to save, or destroy, the world. In the wrong hands, any of these powers could be potentially devastating. Can you imagine the damage someone who was anti-woman, or anti-LGBT, or pro-racism and discrimination of minorities, could do with the ability to travel back in time? Everything would go backwards. All progress we have made for equality and love in the world would be reversed. And if they could persuade someone who opposed their views to agree with someone who supported his views? I can’t even imagine. There is already so much hatred and war in this world, and so many people who remain on the wrong side of history… any more would be catastrophic.

If I had to pick one, I would have to pick the ability to travel through time, as this is the only ability that is really supernatural in any way. While it would take a lot of time and energy, you could learn to speak and understand any language. That is something that can be taught. And, unless you’re planning to travel to every corner of the world, or work as a world-renowned interpreter, it is sort of impractical. I know I can’t even afford to travel outside of my state, let alone to the jungles of Brazil, or the mountains of Nepal, or to the most secluded islands in the ocean. I wouldn’t get much benefit out of this ability. Even someone who wanted to use this ability for evil wouldn’t get much benefit from this, without the ability to persuade the people that they are talking to.

The ability to make any two people agree with each other could come in handy with changing the direction that this world is headed in, but it can also be obtained without supernatural abilities, in some cases. The right amount of passion, persuasion, and information, can sway people into believing anything. This can be a very dangerous ability as well.

But in the end, anyone that I couldn’t persuade, I could just go back in time and influence them early on. Or even rid the world of them entirely, if I wanted to use my ability in a not-so-nice way. I feel like any of these abilities could be used in a negative way, regardless of which side of an issue you are on. Using something in a bad way, like murder, even for the greater good, is still not a good, peaceful alternative.

But, all things considered, I’m confident that if I had the ability to travel back in time, I could do a lot of good. I could save extinct species, meet my ancestors, gain knowledge and secrets that no one else in the world knows, prevent large-scale tragedies, save good people from murder and assassination, and rewrite history for the better. Hell, I could go back in time, learn ancient, dead languages from extinct races and civilizations, and bring them back. I could learn all the languages through time travel!

In the end, the other two abilities can be learned, even if they aren’t 100% effective. Time travel is just too good to pass up, too powerful. The possibilities are endless.

Thank you for reading, friends.

Jan