In Time...

Atop the Stoa this day, I would like to think about endurance and permanency. There is an old saying that goes something like this, "All things must pass in time."

Those who lived in the Northern French regions of the Roman Empire during the last generation of peace had little reason to think that their grandchildren would grow up in a world where the Roman Empire was but a hollow construct. New leaders, claiming the legitimate mantle of Roman legitimacy ruled their lands in reality and did as they pleased. The Empire, for them, was dead, even if it still endured in the core areas of the old Republic. Eventually, even that was gone and the Empire faded into legend. Those of that last Imperial generation enjoyed the wealth and technology of an Empire that had endured for nearly a thousand years. Those in the east, two thousand. Mind-boggling stretches of time.

In time, all things must pass. While watching an interesting documentary on Sun Tzu, I was struck by the number of times he was called the greatest, or best, or genius, and all that. Often times, on other shows, writers go out of their way to get the point across that this person was somehow the best, or that country was somehow the best at something. Sun Tzu was ultimately more important to the modern world than he ever was in China.

The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land-empire in the world. Largest, yes. Cohesive, no. It could no more be administered from the home lands then by any other region in their Empire. Also, culture worked against an enduring edifice that could live long past a single ruler, thus the various Khanates that sprang up in short order. They were also destroyed as the smaller units that they were, over time.

Many countries have had the title of "best" over time. The Egyptians lived a high quality life for THOUSANDS of years before Alexander the Great ended it in 335 b.c. The Greeks themselves conquered an empire that stretched all the way to India. They fragmented and assimilated over time.

Sun Tzu went a long way towards the unification of China, though this was elusive even into the modern era with the gross violation of territory by the West.

China has been around nearly as long as the Egyptians, though until the last few decades, no one saw China as the best of anything short of reproduction.

The Western powers each had their day in turn as well. Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, each had world-spanning colonial possessions. Germany rose in time as well, but being land-locked, it quarreled with the neighbors often. Russia, emerging from the Mongol yoke, spread out as well. Though big, they were backwards and never really attained the stature of a great Western power, even today as the Russian Federation.

People look at the United States as the greatest power to ever exist on Earth, and they would be right. If you look at things that make a nation or people great you see economics, military power, law, culture, etc. There is a matrix of traits that makes a country "great". The more of these categories you excel in, the greater your stature. Many countries are great at some things, though backwards and twisted on others, which bring them down as a whole.

The Aztecs had calendars nearly as accurate as our modern system, but they had a thing about cutting out your heart and pitching it down a ziggurat to please blood-swilling gods. Sort of pulls them down on whole.

The Chinese have excelled at many things over the millennia. Evolution and information dissemination were not among those. Gunpowder had been around for a while, but never really used in a significant way for warfare until a European got a look at the stuff and thought about all the walls a home he'd like to knock down. Writing, paper, navigation, astronomy; highly developed, though it took longer between discoveries than it did in the West. Their culture was highly compartmentalized and ideas were blocked by status, birth, and station. No cross-pollination of concepts or ideas among other geniuses. No wonder they were a rich nation that could not protect itself from the rising West.

As an American I would like to think that my nation has been chosen by God for a special purpose. I believe that everything has a purpose, for good or ill, and it is not within my cognitive realm to understand which is which. Our peace and plenty has been a boon for us, though it has made us soft. The seeds of our destruction are sewn in the genesis of our success. Our endurance as a nation and people are dependent upon the choices we make, short and long term, those around us, and historical or environmental forces largely out of our control.

There is virtually no genetic difference between the various "ethnic" groups of humanity. The political units we build are built by groups of people who differ only in their outlook on a variety of philosophical issues. Nothing more, nothing less. Adaptive cultures will endure, inflexible cultures will endure only as long as historical or environmental factors permit.

I pray that the United States can endure. Our experiment is only under 250 years old, born of concepts a thousand years earlier. Can we last as long as Rome or will we last as long as a Supernova. Brighter than all the stars in the entire galaxy, though winking out after but a short while.

Let us see together.

Live well.

--Zavost