🔄 If At First You Fall… Try Again
🧔 A Bearded Vision: Russia as the Next Rome?
You’ve probably heard of Rasputin, the mysterious monk from Russian history. But before him, in the 1500s, another monk named Filofei wrote letters to a young prince with a big idea: he said that Russia could become the “Third Rome.”
What does that mean?
The first Rome was the Roman Empire. The second was Constantinople (also called Byzantium). Both eventually fell. Filofei believed that Russia could take their place as the new center of global culture, faith, and power.
🧠 Discuss with your team:
What kind of world was Filofei imagining?
If one country today became the new “Rome,” would that be a good thing—or a dangerous one?
Could somewhere surprising, like Greenland, ever be part of this kind of power?
🧩 Concepts to explore:
Unipolarity vs. Multipolarity
Core vs. Periphery
Client states
Soft vs. Hard Power
Foreign Assistance
🏛️ Empires That Just Won’t Quit
Some empires are like movie franchises: even when they fall, someone tries to bring them back.
These “reboots” of old empires try to recreate past greatness. Some work a little. Most don’t. But all of them tell us something about what people value.
📚 Explore:
Neo-Assyrian Empire
Song Dynasty
Byzantine Empire
Carolingian Empire
Ottonian Dynasty
Meiji Restoration
Neo-Sovietism
💬 Team Talk:
Why do people want these empires to return?
What parts of the past do they want to relive—or fix?
Did any revived empire outlast the one it copied?
🧱 Rebuilding History: Restoration or Reinvention?
When historic buildings are destroyed and rebuilt, are they the same places—or something entirely new?
🏗️ Rebuilt Landmarks:
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
White House
Notre Dame
Shuri Castle
Stonehenge
Shakespeare’s Globe
Yellow Crane Tower
Babylon’s ruins
Basilica of Saint Paul
💬 Discuss:
Does rebuilding preserve the past or rewrite it?
Is something “real” only if it’s original?
📚 Can Librarians Save Civilization?
In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, a galaxy-wide empire is collapsing. One scientist comes up with a plan: send librarians to a remote planet to preserve human knowledge and rebuild society.
🤖 Team Talk:
Are librarians the best people to save a civilization?
If not them, then who?
Can math and data really predict the future?
✈️ Pan Am’s Double Comeback: Sky and Style
Pan Am was once the most glamorous airline in the world. After going bankrupt in 1991, it’s returning in 2025—in two totally different ways.
🛫 1. Flying Again—for Two Weeks
According to AeroTime, Centurion Travel is launching a ر.ق 65,500 luxury Pan Am-branded flight tour retracing the airline’s classic routes with stops in New York, Bermuda, Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Ireland.
👕 2. A Lifestyle Brand in South Korea
SJ Group turned Pan Am into a fashion label, with shops selling retro travel gear, bags, and accessories in Seoul. The brand collaborates with local artists and plans to open 13 more stores.
💬 Team Talk:
Is using an old brand for something new clever—or confusing?
Would you rather fly Pan Am—or wear it?
📼 From Floppy Disks to Film Cameras: Why Old Tech Is Cool Again
Could floppy disks or cassette tapes come back? They already are. And so are instant film cameras, vinyl, and 2000s digital cameras—thanks to nostalgia, self-expression, and viral online trends.
📷 As BBC News reports, Gen Z is reviving early digital cameras on TikTok, with over 220 million views for #digitalcamera.
🎞️ Polaroid-style film is also booming. Why?
You get just one shot—so it feels meaningful.
It’s imperfect, unpredictable, and fun.
It feels like you’re capturing memories, not just saving files.
🎧 Cassette tapes are loved for their limitations: no skipping tracks, hands-on controls, and real support for small artists.
💬 Team Talk:
Why are people choosing “worse” tech?
Is it about feeling more real in a digital world?
🎵 De-Extinct Music: Are Old Songs Taking Over?
De-extinction isn’t just for passenger pigeons or cassette players. Old music is back—and it’s dominating the music world like never before.
According to The Atlantic, 70% of the U.S. music market is now made up of old songs. New music is actually shrinking in popularity.
🎧 Examples:
Classic rock bands like The Police and CCR top iTunes charts.
TikTok users stream 40-year-old hits instead of new tracks.
Even young people working in diners and shops prefer Sting or Fleetwood Mac to the latest pop.
⚠️ And it’s not just listeners:
Major labels are spending billions on rights to old catalogs instead of signing new talent.
Most new songs get less than 5% of total streams.
Even the Grammy Awards have lost their audience—98% of 18–49-year-olds didn’t watch in 2021.
📉 Radio, labels, and even streaming platforms are promoting the past more than the future. Algorithms reward safe, familiar sounds. Anything truly different gets filtered out.
😬 And it’s getting harder to break through:
New artists fear lawsuits over similarities.
Record stores push vinyl reissues.
Labels invest more in dead musicians’ holograms than in living artists.
🎵 So is old music “killing” new music?
Maybe not. Music revolutions often start from unexpected places:
Elvis came from Mississippi.
The Beatles from Liverpool.
Hip-hop from the Bronx.
💥 Today’s music gatekeepers may have given up—but the next big sound may be coming from someone recording in their bedroom, uploading to TikTok, and breaking through without permission.
💬 Team Talk:
Is it bad that we’re stuck on old music?
Are we ignoring amazing new talent?
Where do you think the next musical revolution will come from?
🔍 Final Reflection
We’ve explored a world where:
Countries try to become the next Rome
Empires and brands get rebooted
Buildings, music, and media are resurrected
Old tech becomes trendy
And old music might just be winning the popularity contest
🧠 Ask yourself:
Is our obsession with the past holding us back—or helping us find what really matters?
