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Naga Tuma
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Exhaustions and Inceptions of Civilizations in the U.S.; Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Biden in the U.S.

Post by Naga Tuma » 15 Apr 2021, 18:19

Even though I am not a formal student of history, as its observer, somethings in it over the ages just fail to add up for me.

So, I try to draw a trajectory of history from the earliest known reckoning of civility and hence civilization to the present day in order to understand and interpret it better.

In my view and limited understanding of history over the ages, the earliest inception of reckoning with civility started with putting down spears in favor of making laws.

It is also my view that ever since that reckoning, there has always been a discernible trajectory of progress to maintain that reckoning. In some ways, it has become embodied in the everyday way of life in various places. I view the expressions of Namaste and Shalom in everyday life specific cases in point.

Studies have documented that Classical Civilization was a byproduct of that earliest known reckoning with civility, a necessary condition for the practice of democracy.

Unfortunately, there have been times over the ages when the inertia in many quarters to fall back to the days of spear violence overpowered the inertia of the trajectory. Even then, as Dr. King put it very well, the arc of the moral universe always bends toward justice, a byproduct of making laws after putting down spears.

As vibrant as Classical Civilization was, it was overpowered until the students of Renaissance brought it back to a new age of vibrant life.

With all their faults, some of the students of the Renaissance borrowed ideas from that long trajectory and planted the checks and balances of democracy in the U.S.

When Adolf Hitler rose in Europe, a continent wherein the Renaissance became the most vibrant, the new country that borrowed and planted the seeds of democracy rose with others to face it and defeat it.

In the last few years, the same country under the kingship of Donald Trump appeared to have exhausted that borrowed civilization, culminating in the January 6, 2021, riot in the premises of one of the three branches of the checks and balances that those students of Renaissance borrowed and established. Evidently, it was an attack on democracy after democracy won convincingly.

That is what I mean by the exhaustion of borrowed democracy in the U.S.

Also in the last few years during the kingship of Donald Trump, gun violence in the U.S., the same country that has been boasting its democratic values to the world, stood out in the same world.

Switch gun violence in the 21st century in the U.S. for spear violence in ancient times and imagine what gave birth to civility and consequently democracy in the first place. I don’t think that that imagination fails anyone who has been observing gun violence in the U.S. closely.

Juxtapose that imagination with the civil trial of George Floyd that modern cameras have taken to the world. I don’t think that anyone with any gem of imagination about what we call civility and hence civilizations fails to question how it is that any encounter between two human beings leads to the eventuality that the world saw.

To those whom any encounter between any two human beings comes naturally, with the first expressed words like Namaste and Shalom accompanying that natural encounter, watching the civil trial of George Floyd may not seem to be happening in this world.

Civility may have given birth to law enforcement when and where necessary. However, law enforcement is not and should not be the threshold for civility. Voluntary expression of respect is a far superior byproduct of civility than law enforcement.

Even though any part of this civil trial is sad, there have been moments that brought one of the factors that may have given the inception of civility in ancient times. A case in point here is dignity and the concept behind it as well as what it embodies.

As much as the human species may be selfish in elevating itself above other species, Birmadu, which roughly means dignified, is used as a code word to distinguish itself from these other species. Once that code word is invoked during a hostile encounter, respect is in order. It can be invoked in seconds, not minutes, of observing a trespass against the dignity of another human being.

Watching a scientific perspective of human physiology during the trial of George Floyd has brought that ancient observation of dignity to life.

Watching this scientific perspective is likely to have left the value of civility seared into the consciousness of all human beings who have watched it and understood well enough how it works. If this is likely to be the experience for many and generations to come, I can imagine the inception of organic civilization in the U.S. based on that physiology alone, if the disproportionate gun violence experience didn’t do it for them.

I am unsure if these observations have been seared into the consciousness of the latest U.S. President, Joseph Biden, equally. He appears to be a humble man with an intent to fix problems that have been in plain eyesight. I was in college in the U.S. when I first heard and read about its failing infrastructure. It has surprised me that it took this long to get the kind of attention it is getting now to fix it.

At the same time, I have also watched him make very wild pronouncements that only made me ask if I heard an Adolf Hitler in Germany or a Democrat in the U.S.

My understanding is that he is a public servant hired by the citizens of the U.S. to serve them for four years based on the existing constitution of the country, that he could be rehired or fired after the four year term comes to an end.

If I am not wrong in this understanding, I am bewildered to hear him say he wants to lead the world. Whenever I hear him make that kind of pronouncement, I find it an oxymoron and ask his source of mandate to make that kind of pronouncement. To his credit, Donald Trump's pronouncements sounded to be focused on America even as he wished to walk as the strongest king in the world.

In the checks and balances written in the late 18th century into the future, including for Joseph Biden, every state in the union is a federal state that is independent enough to govern itself as well as work with other states and the federal government.

I imagine that by the same token, every nation in the United Nations is sovereign enough to govern itself as well as work with other nations and the United Nations leadership.

I really do not know what the checks and balances are for the U.N. At the same time, I also do not know if Joseph Biden has taken the time to understand it or help make one for it if it doesn’t exist.

In the U.S., the state of Delaware is not in a position to say it has to lead the United States, including the bigger states like California, Texas, New York, and so on, because their homeboy is now the President of all the States.

By the same token, a resource-rich African state, for example, Botswana, should not stand to dictate against the sovereignty of any or all of the U.N.’s member states.

If America’s founders had the fertile imagination to write checks and balances for its federal states in the late 18th century, can Joseph Biden get some fertile imagination in the 21st century to write checks and balances for the sovereign nations of the U.N. and take it to them? Speaking of checks and balances, it would be fascinating to read what checks and balances America’s founding fathers would write for the U.N. if they rose from their graves. Then again, would it be difficult for this American President to imagine a parallel between the federalism of the member states of the U.S. and the sovereignty of the member states of the U.N? If one can draw that kind of parallelism, one shouldn't fail to conclude that any member state of the U.S. dictating over the rest of the federal states or any member state of the U.N. dictating over the rest of the sovereign states is an oxymoron. I am inclined to think that if those founding fathers of America who wrote the checks and balances rose from their graves, they would agree with this imagination of parallelism.

Joseph Biden’s failure to go to the U.N. and explain the source of his mandate in order to address his repeated pronouncements to lead the world or failure to prepare convincing checks and balances for its sovereign member states in order to get leverage for his pronouncements of leading it can only make him appear an Adolf Hitler in the U.S.

After all, didn’t Adolf Hitler also unilaterally take upon himself to lead the world or parts of it without any mandate.

Some have suggested that he wasn’t even as organic German as other Germans. It can also go without saying that this Irish man in America, by his own account, appears to act more British than the British man in America.

He can stand to appease a Nazi puppy in America as it gets the audacity to call for compromises in the 21st century. What is there to compromise with a Nazi puppy or evolving savages instead of demanding of them to open up its pandora’s box and continue its repentance?

I was in a kindergarten level in a local school in my very early days there when I learned adding one to one to get two and got an instantaneous promotion for it from that kindergarten level to the next one. No, I am not bragging about it here. I am simply stating that it is that simple to quickly spot if one and one don’t add up to two in that pandora’s box. If this proves to be the case, it only makes that box a criminal enterprise.

So, if the timeless trajectory of civilization is discernible from this personal observations, it shouldn’t be lost to the average Joe to see it.

Naga Tuma
Member+
Posts: 5496
Joined: 24 Apr 2007, 00:27

Re: Exhaustions and Inceptions of Civilizations in the U.S.; Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Biden in the U.S.

Post by Naga Tuma » 15 Apr 2021, 22:43

The earlier draft of this commentary with quite a few typos has been updated.

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