 The
wheel
We either live together or fall to the horrors that we are so
knowingly capable of
By FF
June 13, 2003
The Iranian
"If an alcoholic asks me what he should do
about his drinking
problem, I'll tell him to stop drinking." Easier said than done but it is
as simple as that. This line was from a movie I saw a few years back, a Prius
for anyone who knows the flick, and although marketed as a light hearted dramatic
comedy, its message stood out. It is a serious and complex issue put in simple
terms a child can understand. Is
the premise not correct? Is the response not accurate?
Granted it’s overly simplified but it does not make it
any less accurate or true. In fact its potency stems from its
frank and direct nature.
Philosophy
has become overrated. As has love, the truth and
anything having to do with Madonna or Celine Dion.
All words with regards to philosophy, politics, religion and
sociology have been said probably in the initial 1000 years
of the thinking man's life.
First declarations of human
rights carved on a stone 3000 years ago lacks nothing to the
principles published in websites today by leading human
rights advocates. And let’s not forget the constant reminders
by Abraham, Moses, ... Ideas appear to resurface throughout
history when they are most desperately needed and give birth
to movements challenging the status quo.
Whenever I hear
something that seems to present a new thought I later find a
passage by Gandhi or Omar Khayyam or Martin Luther king or
Buddha or Churchill or Homer Simpson or some obscure French
philosopher from the thirteenth century echoing the same
basis in a slightly different manner, which I can only assume
is shaped by the specific’s of the period.
The core of the
message, however, remains the same. These ideas arise from
necessity and after having a profound effect on the masses
take their natural course and slowly skew and dissolve into
the pages of history. Think back with me: The wheel was invented
in Araak (who can
prove me wrong anyway?), or where Araak stands now, about
110,000 years ago by my great (power of 2750) grandmother,
which for the sake of argument we'll call Ashraf .
As I look through
the rows of A,C,G,T within my DNA I distinctively
remember a specific shallow cut on her forearm inflicted by a
heavy jagged edge stone she had to carry from the river bed
back to her camp site.
As I recall blood slowly slid down her
right arm and gathered at the base of her elbow forming a
drop that fell as she watched, which almost seemed in slow
motion, on her brand new DoNKeY skin shoes.
Enraged she
kicked the closest thing to her, which happened to be a
coconut (who can prove there were no coconuts in Araak back
then anyway?) and observed with amazement how the strangely
shaped object, let's call it round, gladly rolled half way up
the steep mound before rolling back to her feet. This
behavior of course was completely different than her past
experiences when a rock or a tree trunk was involved. Naturally
she put this newly found technology into good use.
She was able to carry more material on the flat bed atop of
20 rotating coconuts to her camp and construct a stronger
shelter and a larger fire, which provided better protection
against the elements.
After a few short days her discovery
received a lot of attention from everyone and in specific one
person, we'll call Mahmoud, which although the best hunter in
the tribe somehow always seemed to have a cold or perhaps was
allergic to the rabbit skin he’s been using as a
handkerchief. He never found out which.
It wasn't long though
before Ashraf’s secret was out and everyone in the camp had
built huts just as big and extravagant. But by then Mahmoud,
my future great (power of 2750) grandfather, was hooked and
thought Ashraf was the best thing all the way up to slice
bread.
Amidst this simple love story a storm was brewing.
That fateful day approximately one hundred thousand years
ago marked the day our plight began. The dilemma to live like
an animal or embark on the greatest race of all, the human
race.
If you've been trapped in a cave for a while -- or
don’t
have
cable -- let me inform you that we took the challenge head on.
We had to. Not doing so would literarily spell out our
extinction - E X T I N C T I O N.
We united to increase our
power and armed with tools and weapons to include gholaab
sangy, which may I add was invented by my great (power of
125) Uncle Davood, and empowered by our natural instinctive
drive for survival, we were determined to move forward, and
forward we moved without pause. This movement gained pace and
gripped by its nature could not and did not stop with our
domination of the natural world.
What is ambiguous about the "survival of the
fittest" theory
is if it applies to struggles of species against one another,
or the clash turned inward once the external threats have
been removed!
If we as humans consider ourselves to be the
rational animal and "ashrafe makhloogaat" to paraphrase,
then
we must recognize the scope and relation between these ideas
within Darwin's theory. Would it be correct to apply the same
rules that govern in the jungle to the human social
structures that exist today and let the chips fall where they may?
Correct or not, that seems to be the trend.
Looking back, it seems our instincts remained the same
throughout the years and morphed from defending against a
pack of wild animals to the defense of our ideology and
beliefs which remain so essential to our out of the cave
existence.
In an absence of a global truth we are faced with
opposing versions customized to meet the demands of the
locality and in different to other points of view that in
most cases express the same concepts in a different manner.
What
all humans seem to share beyond race, color, religion and sex
is the deeply threaded instinct to survive and
prosper. This aspiration plays out in two ways. In a singular
structure governed by the age old rules of survival or a
mutual inclusive system conscious of its workings and purpose
and accepting the total, weak and strong.
Like anything else
this struggle is a double edged sword that would either shed
our blood, as so apparent through history, or be utilized as a
tool for a collective reality accepted by all.
What I'm getting at is maybe for the first time
in history of
mankind we are at a cross road that would lead and perhaps
prove, or not, the justification and success of the conscious
animal with respect to the instinctive. We have computed our
way out of the dark ages, rationalized the concept of a
greater power or energy, and amazingly enough currently
challenge the very nature of creation by breakthroughs in
genetic science.
Globalization is in full swing. Products we
consume, images we see and idea’s we share do not stop at
the
border and transport through space like the smell of burning
trash from the neighbors yard. The time for philosophizing
about our nature is passed.
Perhaps for the first time in history
we posses the desire,
resources, and the know how to do what needs to be done and
what stands the test of time is our conviction to exercise
our “free will” and follow through with its execution.
The
very “free will” that is undoubtedly the greatest tool
we
hold and what supposedly distinguishes us from the other
species on this planet. The very “free will” that
is grossly
malnourished and under estimated.
Viewing our world as it stands today we have no
other choice
to look within ourselves and recognize our need to change and
evolve, knowing that our past habit’s can not be sustained
for much longer. We are once again faced with extinction not
from cats and dogs but from acute problematic complexities
rooted in our own chronic behavior. Pick your poison: Greed,
Pride, ...
In search of purpose we have created an alternate
world that although seems far from reality dictates our daily
lives and in most ways pre determines our future by pining us
against others searching for the very same purpose. What
we’ll soon realize -- that very well might be our final hour
-- is that we either live together as a singular specie capable
of so much beauty or fall to the horrors that we are so
knowingly capable of.
 When everything is said and done the success and
glory of humanity will not be measured within a limited scope in
time
and place and rather would be judged and balanced on a
collective scale representing all that is good about the
human race in the span of history. Anything less makes Mona
Lisa a canvas splattered with paint and Taj Mahal a pile of
bricks. Anything less will put us right back in the cave with
an SUV parked outside anticipating the arrival of the boogy
man.
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The
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