Many events and changes in history catch almost everyone by surprise. One of the most notable is the end of the Cold War. Prior to World War II, it was common to hear people claiming that the Soviet Union was about to fall in a matter of years or even months. Not only did those predictions fail to come true, but the USSR even managed to survive a massive invasion by Nazi Germany, win the war against seemingly impossible odds, and extend its influence over a country or ten. The people who predicted its imminent demise felt rather silly, and the opposite mood began to set in, with everyone assuming that the Soviet Union would last forever (or at least long into the foreseeable future); heck, maybe even winning the Cold War. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part
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| - Many events and changes in history catch almost everyone by surprise. One of the most notable is the end of the Cold War. Prior to World War II, it was common to hear people claiming that the Soviet Union was about to fall in a matter of years or even months. Not only did those predictions fail to come true, but the USSR even managed to survive a massive invasion by Nazi Germany, win the war against seemingly impossible odds, and extend its influence over a country or ten. The people who predicted its imminent demise felt rather silly, and the opposite mood began to set in, with everyone assuming that the Soviet Union would last forever (or at least long into the foreseeable future); heck, maybe even winning the Cold War. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part
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| - Many events and changes in history catch almost everyone by surprise. One of the most notable is the end of the Cold War. Prior to World War II, it was common to hear people claiming that the Soviet Union was about to fall in a matter of years or even months. Not only did those predictions fail to come true, but the USSR even managed to survive a massive invasion by Nazi Germany, win the war against seemingly impossible odds, and extend its influence over a country or ten. The people who predicted its imminent demise felt rather silly, and the opposite mood began to set in, with everyone assuming that the Soviet Union would last forever (or at least long into the foreseeable future); heck, maybe even winning the Cold War. It was thus assumed that the end of the USSR could only come as part of the general End Of Everything -- most likely as a result of nuclear war. The (relatively) peaceful collapse that actually took place at the dawn of The Nineties was very much unexpected. Ergo, it is rather funny to hear references to the Soviet Union, the Cold War, East/West Berlin and East/West Germany in Sci Fi shows written before 1989 but set Twenty Minutes Into the Future.
* No one expected Napoleon to fail or to have succeeded in the first place.
* No one expected the several European colonial empires to fall.
* No one expected the communists to take power in Russia in the first place.
* Unaware of the atom bomb, no one expected Japan to surrender three months after the Germans did so. While known to be beaten, everybody (even in Japan) expected them to fight to the very last man before surrendering.
* And in the 80s and earliest 90s, Japan was viewed as an invulnerable economic powerhouse on the way to now peaceful world domination. Science fiction back then showed a very Japanese future. Then their economy imploded and they've never made up that ground.
* No one in The Fifties expected the upheaval of The Sixties and nobody in either of said decades expected the malaise of The Seventies.
* No one expected women to actually achieve legal equality with men.
* No one really expected apartheid to end peacefully.
* No one expected The Internet. Even when it came, few thought it would become so ubiquitous.
* No one expected the upheavals in the Greater Middle East.
* No one really expected Osama Bin Laden to be found; many people thought he was dead already. A lot of fiction written shortly before such unexpected events and set Twenty Minutes Into the Future can seem ridiculous in hindsight -- but usually it's not the author's fault, really. Compare Science Marches On and Society Marches On. See also I Want My Jetpack and Zeerust. Contrast Why We're Bummed Communism Fell and History Marches On. Examples of The Great Politics Mess-Up include:
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