Toward a civilizational perspective

# 3046

In the  early millennia, the few humans lived in families on the surface of the earth, hunting, eating reproducing – and moving around to find food and mates. They also dreamt, invented myths, handled fire, made tools, clothing , cooking and kinship systems. With evenings by the fire, looking at the night sky.

These families grew into tribes and the tribes bumped into each  other. Sometimes cooperative, sometimes competitive. They discovered the value of planting - for ceremonial purposes and the burying of the dead. Then  realized seasonal growth meant more food.

They discovered coal and started mining. Then oils and pumping. They pulled these out of the ground and burnt them in machines making interesting things, with  the heat such as blades and necklaces.  But also what was burned turned into pollution, especially co2. What was under the surface is now above the surface.

What went into the air stayed there,  making a blanket that traps heat, raising the temperature of the Earth.

Family has became tribes (Polis) it became empires and civilizations, much more diverse than later nation states. (This is from Toynbee’s Study of History and amplified by the Dawn  of Everything.)

Of the current world Toynbee said there have been approximately 23 civilizations five of which still exist. Some disappeared, some collapsed and became new civilizations. The current world:

West.       Islam.       Hindu.         Far  East.   Orthodox

A few nuances: far east includes China, Japan, and Korea. Orthodox Christians Is Russia and  the Balkans.  Each current civilization is the follow on to past civilizations. One of the best documented examples starts with Mesopotamia and goes on to Sumer,  Minoan, Athens, Hellenic, Rome, West.

We also have failed or static civilizations that often led to new civilizations. The aborted include celon,: Egypt,   Hittites, Greek, Sumer, Akkad, Hellenic,  Inkan,  Buddhism, Orpjhism, Babylonian, Andean, Yucatan, Mexic, Mayan, and perhaps, Polynesia, Eskimos, and nomads.

Some sidenote:

As the Egyptians took their excess wealth into the pyramids, the west took that wealth into the military – industrial complex and consumer, private pyramids.

With increasing population, Greece was under pressure. Sparta responded by conquering neighbors while Athens responded by colonizing by ship at great distance. The first failed, the second has been fruitful Athens went on to be the core of Hellenism, which became the core of the Roman empire..

We in the west tend to hide from ourselves, the fact of existing other civilizations. All five of the current cultures have atomic weapons and the simple five civilization diagram helps explain the dimensions of current tensions there are many primitive, societies that came earlier, but evidence is scant.

The west can be divided, not into civilizations, but phases

Western I Dark ages 675-1075

Western II middle ages 1075–14 75

Western III Modern, 1475–18 75

Western IV Postmodern 1875 –?

Whither  next?

Our standard way of thinking is in terms of material things that change. Energy, transportation, buildings, roads, knives, and forks, computers, tables and chairs. What we are mostly missing, is thinking about the Social things: political parties, media content, legal systems, patterns of sociability, and civilizations and belief. Toynbee says that we confuse nation states with civilizations. This is important to because change in the nature of a civilization is much more profound and impactful than changes in nation states. For example, when leaders lose faith in the project they are leading the people will rebel. The loss of faith is civilizational, not out of a nation state.

The reaction to climate change is going to be civilizational, moving things by attitude and belief, not by law and regulation, the tools of states.

“On this showing, the nature of the breakdowns of civilizations can be summed up in three points: a failure of creative power in the minority, an answering withdrawal of mimesis on the part of the majority and a consequent loss of social unity in the society as a whole.” Toynbee.