If you could go back and witness any historical event, which one would you pick?
I think this can be a tough question to answer because so many historical events are connected to violence. For instance, sure it would be cool to see the French Revolution, but it was such a chaotic time, and not only would I be afraid of the bloodshed, I would just be afraid of getting caught up in it.
So if you had to ask me one historical event I would like to go back in time and witness, I would choose the night people on both sides of Berlin turned out to tear down the Berlin Wall. I was 15 years old at the time, sitting in my bedroom in between rounds of playing Nintendo, with the TV running in the background. I remember the broadcast breaking in with breathless news updates: everyday private citizens were swarming the wall, taking it down with their own hands. I saw video footage of people hacking away with hammers and chisels, one guy operating a massive concrete saw, and another group trying to pull down an entire section of the wall using a pickup truck and a chain.
Breaking Down the Wall
We know now that the breach was actually triggered by a botched government announcement. A confused East German official named Günter Schabowski gave a live press conference stating that travel restrictions were being lifted, mistakenly implying they took effect “immediately” rather than starting the formal application process the next day.
The people didn’t wait to sort out the bureaucratic confusion. They just took it upon themselves. Thousands surged toward the checkpoints, and the guards—overwhelmed and unsure of what to do—ultimately stepped aside. There was no military involvement, no bloodshed. People on both sides said let’s get rid of it, and they did.
An Accidental Revolution
So often throughout human history, radical shifts have to come about either through war or through a political revolution and general bloodshed. That’s what was so remarkable about the night they tore down the Berlin Wall. Nobody got hurt, and what ended up happening was that people on both sides of a divided city who hadn’t seen their relatives or friends for decades made a point of reuniting. This, of course, eventually led to the full reunification of East and West Germany.
None of us realized it at the time, but we were witnessing the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and we were watching it unfold in real time. Mapmakers, atlas publishers, and globe manufacturers couldn’t keep up with the changes. It swept through Eastern Europe and eventually the former Soviet Union as well, rendering countless school textbooks around the world obsolete overnight.
And again, it happened not through a violent political uprising or a bloody revolution. People simply said enough is enough. One can argue about whether or not communist ideology works, or if it’s more a matter of having corrupt politicians in power, but the people were just done. That was the most shocking thing of all about it.
The Analog Rebellion
It makes you think about the walls we build today—and the ones we’re trying to tear down. Lately, I’ve been looking at how today’s younger generation is staging their own kind of analog rebellion against our hyper-connected, digital panopticon. Both of my boys carry cell phones everywhere, yet they actively crave physical media—collecting records, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. It’s almost as if reaching for tangible, physical things is a way to break out of the invisible digital prison that traps the rest of the world. Watching ordinary people take hammers to a concrete wall in 1989 feels a lot like watching kids today refuse to let algorithms dictate the entire scope of what they hold onto.
Before you go, if you want to read more about how we navigate our modern digital prison, check out the digital panopticon post dropping later today at 10:00 AM. And don’t forget to catch the latest podcast episode dropping Wednesday morning!
Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.
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The article “Nintendo, News Flashes, and the Fall of the Wall” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob
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