Note: My write-up has no bias to religion/ ethnicity or culture. I am in no ways a historian. What I write below is a gist of what I recollect from my reading.
You might have watched or read Carl Sagan's Cosmos; if not, it is not too late. When I read Cosmos, I felt tiny. I realized, that I attach too much of importance to myself. Considering the time span of our universe, My "life" is worth a firefly. (W.R.T. a human, a firefly dies a quick death.); Same would a banyan tree feel about my life span. Life arriving on Earth is in split second, as compared with a time line starting with the Big Bang explosion.
We prefer to believe in Big Bang right now. From our perspective of space / Time, all objects move farther away from the center, so we can only relate with expand notion. A few brains came up with reverse implosion theory, that shall follow just like matter and Anti matter. But, we choose believe in facts that we can see.
Explosion and implosion cycle can be observed in our life span, (and) with bit of reference from history. Explosions and implosions are part of life, if we step back and watch ourselves. (You have more advantage to do this, if you have aged more.) As a youth I was aggressive, unstoppable constantly challenging " explosive" individual, but age and reflexes slow me down today. I do more introspection i.e. "implosion" of what my act and its consequences. If I did anything wrong and how it could have been better done in a better "mature" way becomes important. These thoughts would not occur to an explosive myself 25 years ago. (My friend tells me that this is already explained in the four stages of life. )
My write-up is around aggression and taming of "countries". Consolidation equals implosion and Separation of state equals Explosion. I am sure most of this "philosophy" is already well covered in Hinduism or other ancient religions (Lifestyles) which were not aggressive. The religion did not feel the need to 'convert'. The cosmic truth exists beyond what a single religion can narrate. The truth of Creative destruction. You ought to destroy in order to create anew. (Whatever is created shall get destroyed.)
In our life span and a generation earlier, we saw the Unification of Germany from Balkan states..and then the world war. Did Consolidation result in a war? Probably so.The war broke Germany into 4 "governable" pieces. (Explosion) (Which "with time" got Consolidated into 2. (Implosion)
Then occurred Partition of India, Separation of Israel from Palestine. (Explosion) which is more Religiously motivated separation. Break-up of Russia and finally Ukraine crisis. Iraq and the ISIS. There may be more examples but I stick to these as I have limited knowledge.
Territories marked by Humans to make a "state". The states change with time for political reasons.
The history book takes us to an earlier period; something we have not witnessed in our life , nor our parents vouch for it.
All humans who tried to consolidate their "empire" under "one rule"..
Alexander, Ottomans, Julius , Genghis Khan , Taimur, Napolean.
(Genghis and Taimur was more of a looter, than consolidator, from the Indian angle.)What is the current situation of their countries? Does such prosperity last?
The British/ Portuguese/ French looted and plundered in name of trading companies later in name of King/ Queen..setting up colonies for trade. In the name of the queen the colony was declared as "Commonwealth" The model of plunder had changed with time and it needed a cleanup act. This consolidated model (of an empire) lasts for two centuries max ? What next?
What is the current situation of the most aggressive countries that were ill famed looters in past? We should look at the Euro legion. Countries that looted in past now live on alms?
Greece! Spain! Portugal! Italy?
How long will they keep getting bailed out? Countries follow socialism when they get on the brink?
Aggressive always burns out faster. All historical "consolidations" have failed.
Countries who plundered became weak later. World domination has never worked.
If we consider only the Muslim states, I think Turkey progressed under good leadership. It is role model for Mid east..Yet other muslims cannot forgive and forget the outrage of Ottoman empire.
We owe Algebra to the middle east! The Library at Mesopotamia is an example of its well progressed civilisation trade. Look at the current state? Was it only Oil boom and the sudden "wealth" that followed ? Or the middle east conflict! Quite a few Arabs claim, that the current tags for their countries were designed by the British. Defeat of Ottoman was good news then, but for how long? Jews and Muslims in Palestine had been living in mutual respect till, other 'hoards' arrived. I do agree that the new immigrants have worked hard to build Israel.
Soon after the formation of Israel, Arabs came together to fight against Jew settlements and failed.
An Israeli from Old days would think,"I displaced people even though, I may show that people displaced themselves. My next generation may not even have to think so. It is just his own land by birth. They will never realize what Freedom cost. We need an outer "enemy" to fight with and we have many."..Every civilian has to be on guard. A peace loving Jew who migrated from India to Israel..What does he see? Was he not safer in India? He never had to fight for survival or join army. Was he religiously blinded, when he decided to migrate? He never thought of interacting with migrants from different countries and the new problems community buildups create. The 'individual' has lesser chance to fight back.
India was and is the largest consolidation of cultures that has flourished and had survived against all odds.. (China is the other.) India became independent, but before so, it had to be dissected for good reasons. Pakistan was born out of hatred centered around religion. Hate burns for a long time doesn't it? Indians/ Pakistani/ Bangladeshis do not realise their joint power even today. If if they do, consolidation is not possible in near future, due to free hyper-reactive radicals. As law of nature commands, a bang and a collapse, there is reason to believe that it too shall happen, when everyone are in their proper senses.
Is Consolidation Good? Israel..Consolidation / Gathering in name of religion (though quite a few will dispute this- with "examples"). British troops helped displaced Jews from war torn regions, to settle down. Status quo of Arabs was challenged. They moved to surrounding states. Inside Israel, how are diversities managed? People flocking from different countries..Majority single religion.
Germany consolidated..Most of the world rejoiced, but there is always pain when the older brother has to take care of his sibling. (Would the sibling grow and be independent?) On a trek, I chatted with a West German climber. He was taking a beat in taxes to support his "brethren" from East. During European Union 'consolidation' , Britain chose to stay away. It may have been a very wise move. There is a saying: Make friends with equals. Did Germany not realize the pinch of their "internal" consolidation exercise? It would have been a lesson learned before they got into larger consolidation business. I pity my German friends (also French) who will continue to pay taxes for the weaker.
Any "consolidation" uses a Socialist approach and it works for limited time. Aggression has never worked for long time and it paid back with time. Perhaps we should learn what made ancient nations and what keeps them now.
Gluing together is time bound and so is Breaking up. After all, this is a cosmic law that does not even spare marriages or evolution. Nations are just logical boundaries made by humans, that secures the interests of "our community" from "The foreign". There is no utopia for individualists, as, sooner or later they have to make a choice to get consolidated in the gathering muck or get flung aside.
No comments:
Post a Comment