Karen Armstrong’s Fields of Blood will have a reader
ask the question, “Is violence endemic to human nature?” From mankind’s early beginnings there was a great
struggle for survival. When our ancestors
were hunter-gathers they had to hunt and kill their prey. These humans lived through violent periods in
the Paleolithic and Neolithic age. Later
Mediterranean peoples continued to experience struggles during the
Constantine’s empire, Crusaders, Spanish Inquisition, Wars of Religion, Thirty
Years’ War, and Reformation.
In the 17th and 18th century
religion was rejected in the West.
During the Age of Enlightenment John Locke propounded the belief of the
separation of Church and State, but this period saw the rise of scientific and
cultural racism. In Europe and America
the suppression of the indigenous populations and African slave trade for
economic profit flourished. And Germans,
who were world-leading secular thinkers, gave rise to death camps under Hitler
that exterminated millions of Jews.
Secularism was marked by Western imperialism, and an
imbalance of power. But what became of Asoka’s
concept of peace, India’s ahimsa – non-violence, China’s Golden Rule, and Jesus
Christ’s teachings to love your neighbor as yourself? In India there were renouncers, European
monks took to monasteries, and Confucian and Taoist’s ideals, but still
violence was prominent.
In the 20th century violence continued to
rage in the Middle East. Historical observers
point to many reasons, but one of Islam’s tenets is that of peace. Still there was 9/11, the Israeli-Arab
conflicts, jihads, and the horrendous effects of the Jews Six-Day-War. Yet people were witnessing the activities of
the Muslim Brotherhood, the rise kookism of the Israeli secular right, and
fundamentalism in America. It appears
that with the rise of more nations with nuclear weapons humankind’s future has
become more problematic.
No comments:
Post a Comment