The Wonder of History (The Coming of Civilizations)

The Wonder of History 

(The Coming of Civilizations)

How did we get civilizations? What is a civilization? We have all heard of large empires and civilizations that ruled large regions where people lived. That is a Civilization.

The ancient civilizations were The Egyptian Civilization, The Indus Civilization, The Mesopotomian Civilization and the Chinese Ancient civilization.

All these come near the river valleys. But the question really is – How did all these Civilizations come about, each with a distinctive mode of belief, behaviour, laws, organization and rules of functioning.

First, when Agriculture came into existence, small pockets, settlements, villages came into existence, 12000 years back.

People for the first time began to co-exist. They had to co-exist peacefully and in a stable way.

So naturally, there were rules set up, rules of behaviour, of trading, rules with respect to marriages, rules that all had to follow. The tribal rules were omnipotent and any deviation was not allowed. These tribal rules are today, in good part, still followed!!

Man is inherently still tribal in outlook. He needs the security and safety of the tribe and a feeling of –nothing will happen to me!! Fear of the world, that deep, primordial insecurity is deeply inherent in Man’s nature both metaphysically and also, mainly culturally.

The use of stone and then iron and copper and bronze made each region powerful and another aspect of man is might and power lust. This lust is the cause of all conquest and wars. There is always the threat of war even today.

In fact, in simple terms History is nothing but alternative periods of wars and peace. The wars were conducted in the name of region/colour of skin/religion/wealth.

People in the world have died, not because neighbours killed neighbours but one power with its combination of belief and might together wanted to conquer another land. Might has always been perceived as Right especially in the earlier times, when concepts of moral restraint had not pervaded the land. But again, the bloodiest wars took place even after the enlightenment and scientific revolution!!

So it is deeply a belief system that governs man. Some belief system seems to be a pervasive need of man. If the belief says, kill, man would kill, not for himself or his gain, but for the belief. Man cannot live without a structure of thought, a perspective on the world, a belief system.

This is his deepest psychological need. Imagine a person who has no beliefs, it would terrify him. belonging to a group, on the basis of belief, is the primary psychological necessity for man.

So the villages became civilizations, slowly, very slowly, over a period of around 5000 years.

Man has a powerful energy, and in every society, these emerge, for good or for bad. The energy within man is the human energy, the ability to imagine, to think, to plan, to do large scale things.

But this energy can lead to wars, and to useful inventions, both. Both have happened in history!!

So, surely there is the good and the bad things that have happened in history to speak in simple terms.

The ancient civilizations were the result of power and organization on a large scale, with certain fixed belief systems. Thus, each civilization had their own distinctive mode of organization and these civilizations originated and perpetuated large scale organized living based on beliefs.

The beliefs evolved. So did the organization. And that is the whole unfoldment of History!!

You may see that unfoldment, the whole of our History, in our continued series of “The Wonder of History” .

History is still in the making today also…..