Are We Savages?

July 4, 2019

It is extremely ironic that on this very day of July 4th, 2019, The United States of America under the reign of its short sighted and clueless president is displaying potential of its military might to the rest of the world. It may be a Public relations exercise to some, newer version of American gun boat diplomacy, an attempt by republican advisors to fuel nationalism among its dwindling vote bank or just that the most hideous man to lead the strongest country in the world is realizing his childhood dream where America joins the ranks of every other nation state that appeals to its citizenry on their respective national day not by the means of real progress but by exhibiting progress achieved to disperse brute force.

Or maybe I am wrong. This is not the first time this sort of ridiculous affair has been undertaken. This has been the case forever. I see the tribal beginnings manifesting themselves in a grandiose fashion. I remember studying the humble beginnings of the man where he was wandering as a hunter gatherer living off of the nature by acquiring bushmeat, small game, wild grasses, pants and herbs. With the cognitive and social development, came our ascent to the food pyramid. We devoured everything that stood in our way, we manipulated nature, we established our tiny societies, conquered each other. Mayhem, murder, plunder, acts of barbarity led to development of what we call the modern world. Seafaring, exploration, changing of the world order, at times necessary and many a times forceful migration of populations and downright need and greed led to many discoveries where the knowledge of existence of all the continents was established. There came a point when we not only knew that the earth was round, but we could traverse all the landmass by various means. Eventually we launched ourselves into space and called it the final frontier. I call it the first frontier since humans have only a primitive understanding of what’s out there. We are at the cusp of many new discoveries and inventions, but that has always been the case.

Ability to manipulate fire and ability of roll a wheel to carry things from point A to B were paradigm shifts. Agricultural development which took place independently in few parts of the world impacted the trajectory of our growth and ability to sustain larger populations. Society grew larger and smaller states appeared. Then came the Egyptian civilization. We know of Egyptians only because they left their pyramids and burial sites. Many other civilizations came to exist around and after that period. Sumerian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, Aztecs, Incas, Mayans etc. are some of the famous ones. One striking commonality is the violence employed by all these civilizations to unite the lands and to fight the invaders of ravaging bands that dwelt in their surroundings. There were many great accomplishments achieved by these civilizations. They lived, observed, gathered, wrote and passed on knowledge that became the foundation for what we call the 21st century. If we were to somehow find ourselves among these peoples, we probably will call them brutal savages who lived in an archaic way.

Greeks had an Athenian democracy, but they also had the Spartans, another extreme of the governing spectrum and Athenian themselves possessed fighting apparatus. What westerners like to call western thought and I prefer to call Mediterranean and near east thought was developed in a society that knew what war was like. They called Asiatic people savages yet displayed their bestial ways themselves on regular basis. These Mediterranean people also glorified the war and even today they name their children Alexander in the memory of a great savage. After this great monstrous explorer of the world was gone, his heirs carried on with the time tested and honored fashion of savagery and brutishness.

Romans were no exceptions. One can visit a library and find abundant literature proudly gathered and published on the barbaric acts of this civilization. The great hope of humanity, so called Son of God himself met a violent and horrific death during Roman age. He is still assisting many sheep achieve atonement roughly 2000 years after his death. Since he rose again, I am quite curious about his thoughts on savagery he had to endure and his experience during the time he spent with the dead.

 After the fall of Roman empire, came the rise of Islam, whose adherents call it a religion of peace. It is hard for many to agree with this notion as Islam was no different. It had a message, a prophet and an army that conquered what it could, not with peace but with force, opportunistic negotiations and economic subversion. Similarly, Christianity saw Islam as a rising enemy and used religion for warmongering and plain opportunistic loot. It is amusing when people in the west today make fun of suicide terrorists for going on jihad for the sake of 72 virgins, whereas their own ancestors were promised the heaven if they were to go on their crusade for the sake of their religion. Even today, the American middle eastern policy is streamlined according to the religious propaganda exhibiting short sightedness, savagery and foolishness that has and continues to jeopardize a peaceful coexistence of all three parties involved. As a neutral observer, I find myself disoriented and ponder why all the factions today and throughout their histories have miserably failed to notice the similarity of their ruinous actions. As of yet, I have not been able to find any religion that actually does not exhibit savagery and not promote violence.  Buddhism seemed to be an exception while I was growing up, but the plight of Rohingyas changed that notion. One must never forget that any ideology is only words unless the practitioners engage in actions that are detrimental to the lives of adherents of other social systems, cults or religions.

As far as nation states are concerned, savagery gives them birth and is also the harbinger of their end. While they exist, they spend enormous amounts of material wealth, human ingenuity and manpower only to wield the largest stick. During the times of exploration of the unknown parts of the world, European powers used every trick in the bag to maim, subvert and many times to outright kill the native populations they came across. Spanish conquests or decimation of native cultures in Caribbean and Americas was a genocidal streak that went unbated for few hundred years. French, German, Belgians, Dutch, Portuguese, Italians, all unveiled their ogre like demeanor for few hundred years. These genocidal maniacs looted and exploited what they called savages by use of unprecedented savage means themselves. The mother of all beasts was a tiny, insignificant island that showed extremes of human capacity to orchestrate and organize savagery through what is called Pax Britannica. I may be a little biased as I am of Indian origin. Truly, all colonial powers displayed uncouth hooliganism, and mania just to satisfy their savage needs at the expense of others. Were they truly civilized, they would have been more conscientious while exchanging goods, services and ideas with other people in faraway lands. Religion was a coarse instrument that coerced hordes into believing that savagery dished out by the westerners must have been the God’s will as the conquered people were inferior.

Then came the 20th century, where clash of the civilized people occurred. Not just once, but it took two wars on an unprecedented industrial scale where devastating loss of life was observed. These wars were fought by modern, scientific man who had divided the world amongst him and his peers. So called world powers annihilated each other using the good old-fashioned savagery. After these humiliating wars a new winner emerged. At the end of world war II, United states of America wielded the largest stick. I am not sure what went through the minds of these new winners who had found the most savage way to maintain world peace. 

May be the semblance of peace did last for a little, as far as I have learnt that the countries were being divided and the lands were being partitioned on religious and economic lines and then Soviets detonated their nuclear bomb and cold war began. A savage race to conquer the world by any means necessary.  England, France, Israel, China, India, Pakistan followed and succeeded. Only South Africa abandoned its hope of having a nuclear weapon. The capable savages came up with protocols and hotlines in place so that Scenarios such as nuclear winter and MAD could be averted. These days world order is trying to stop new members of the savage club North Korea and Iran from procuring smaller versions of the large stick.

This is the main timeline. The official version of things. History of humans, who rose from jungles of Africa and conquered it all. We like to see ourselves as the center of the universe, which we are not. It is usually said that God created us in his image. Many people would agree with me that it is the other way around. Most of you may not agree, but we are still very much animals who happen to be more savage than the wild ones as we have the ability to hoard and harm at all times. We have come up with the most ludicrous ideas to hurt each other throughout our history and we refine our savagery every day. These days we are working on robotics, information technology, biotechnology, scramjet vehicles and gliders, anti-satellite weapon systems, ways to manipulate light to achieve invisibility, all of which display our savage mindset and mistrust of each other. Amongst these new developments, the fool who thinks that he leads the free world, is displaying the means to disperse American savagery by land, air, water, space and the cyberspace. 

In light of the above-mentioned observations, I would like to ask all readers a question, “Are we not savages?”