Sunday, July 23, 2006
Civilized
What does it mean. Most of us scratch our heads and admit that we really don’t know the precise meaning. We just know it when they see it or don’t see it. The dictionary is not much better. The definition found there is so broad and subjective that it is useless.
I reason it this way. Going back to the cave man days; I think we can all agree that this was a time that was uncivil. Why is it that we intuitively understand that cave man behavior defines uncivilized? Because that portion of the history of man can be characterized by the notion that the use of force dominated how humans lived. Scare resources were distributed to the strongest and most violent bully of society first, and the weaker and less violent shared what remained. You can see this play out every day by observing animals survive in the wild. The resources needed for survival were present all around them. They were hunter gathers. So the cavemen gave us the purist and cleanest definition of uncivilized. Simply put, violent and strong bullies set the rules buy force. Emotion was prominent with just the bare minimum of civil behavior necessary to survive.
As intellectual capability of humans increased, they were able to use brain power to increase their likelihood of survival. In stead of hunter gathers, they learned how to grow crops and domesticate animals. Now they could survive easier. But what did this big shift really mean. It means man shifted from using force and bullizm toward a system whereby brain power insured survival. Using brain power leads to people cooperating to make the power of the group more powerful than individuals working separately. The consequences of this made life more pleasant, it became easier to survive, there was time to even have fun. The bully became less important to survival. Brains and cooperation replaced the bully. So if uncivilized is characterized by the bully dominating society, then civilized means society is dominated by intellect along with the spirit of cooperation.
Applying this definition to what we see going on in the world, it is by no stretch of the imagination that the word uncivilized can be assigned to the Islamic movement. It is characterized by the use of force to achieve its objective. Just take a look around the world. Almost everywhere you see violence(uncivilized) you see Islam. Pretend to do a world fly over and jot down the countries you see bombs going off and the indiscriminate killing of the general population. People killing people to resolve differences. Flying over Europe you jot down England(train bombing), Spain(train bombing), Holland(Islamists killing writers), death threats against newspaper cartoonists in Denmark, Bosnia, Chechnya, Moscow theater bombing, turkey, on to Africa, Egyptian bombing, Algeria, Sudan, Somalia, all of the Arabian peninsula, all of Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippians, even starting in Australia, on and on. Most other places in the world you see cooperation. People negotiating to achieve peaceful resolution to differences(civilized). So the next time you hear that Islam is the religion of peace, just look at the map of the world.
Can you say UNCIVILIZED?
Jack Shaft
I reason it this way. Going back to the cave man days; I think we can all agree that this was a time that was uncivil. Why is it that we intuitively understand that cave man behavior defines uncivilized? Because that portion of the history of man can be characterized by the notion that the use of force dominated how humans lived. Scare resources were distributed to the strongest and most violent bully of society first, and the weaker and less violent shared what remained. You can see this play out every day by observing animals survive in the wild. The resources needed for survival were present all around them. They were hunter gathers. So the cavemen gave us the purist and cleanest definition of uncivilized. Simply put, violent and strong bullies set the rules buy force. Emotion was prominent with just the bare minimum of civil behavior necessary to survive.
As intellectual capability of humans increased, they were able to use brain power to increase their likelihood of survival. In stead of hunter gathers, they learned how to grow crops and domesticate animals. Now they could survive easier. But what did this big shift really mean. It means man shifted from using force and bullizm toward a system whereby brain power insured survival. Using brain power leads to people cooperating to make the power of the group more powerful than individuals working separately. The consequences of this made life more pleasant, it became easier to survive, there was time to even have fun. The bully became less important to survival. Brains and cooperation replaced the bully. So if uncivilized is characterized by the bully dominating society, then civilized means society is dominated by intellect along with the spirit of cooperation.
Applying this definition to what we see going on in the world, it is by no stretch of the imagination that the word uncivilized can be assigned to the Islamic movement. It is characterized by the use of force to achieve its objective. Just take a look around the world. Almost everywhere you see violence(uncivilized) you see Islam. Pretend to do a world fly over and jot down the countries you see bombs going off and the indiscriminate killing of the general population. People killing people to resolve differences. Flying over Europe you jot down England(train bombing), Spain(train bombing), Holland(Islamists killing writers), death threats against newspaper cartoonists in Denmark, Bosnia, Chechnya, Moscow theater bombing, turkey, on to Africa, Egyptian bombing, Algeria, Sudan, Somalia, all of the Arabian peninsula, all of Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippians, even starting in Australia, on and on. Most other places in the world you see cooperation. People negotiating to achieve peaceful resolution to differences(civilized). So the next time you hear that Islam is the religion of peace, just look at the map of the world.
Can you say UNCIVILIZED?
Jack Shaft
