Thoughts on Empire

Friday, January 21, 2011

Thoughts on Empire

Yesterday was an interesting day for me. Christy and I decided to visit Napoleons’ Tomb and the Pantheon. I’ll say first off I am a little disappointed in myself because I was far too exhausted to take pictures of the Pantheon, so I will have to go back and get a few snap shots of at least the outside. However, we first went to the Tomb of Napoleon and I was taken back, but also had contrasting feelings about it. I have always been a fan of history, and its leaders, but sometimes you wonder at what cost do these accomplishments come with. There are list surrounding the tombs that state the accomplishments of the Revolution and Napoleon and it really is fascinating. For a group of individuals to bring education to a culture and give it a seat at the table of the powers of the world is quit a thing to boast about, however, you wonder what is the true difference between a state sponsored education that simply indoctrinates you to the belief system of the time, but can also brings knowledge of mathematics, science, language and writing skills to people that might have not had them prior. What this also has done is taken away indigenous belief systems as well as our freedom of movement and thought. We only need to look at our own takeover of native tribes of America to understand that the true knowledge we lost by uprooting, killing and alienating a way of life that we did not understand but could use an example of for a way past our overindulgences’. I am the first person to want to read or hear about empires of Egypt, Sumeria, Rome, America, and other countless periods of times ruled by power, intellectualism, and art, but these things come at a heavy cost. It is hard to paint this picture in your head anymore, because throughout time we have plucked people and beliefs from indigenous cultures and now there isnt much to look at and say,’ we should hold on to this’, because the empire way has become such a deep rooted need in the minds of men. The ease of excess and the access of it have become so easy that people just want the easy way out. Few people realize anymore that there is true beauty in the small things in life. The accomplishment of catching your own dinner to eat it, to build your home, to run your life daily without the domestic ‘needs’ of a society, has dwindled down to a Pasay thought of’ not wanting more out of life’.

I can also see the other side of this coin, to know without these empires of men, we would not have some of the knowledge we do today.  Some might see the Maya as an indigenous culture, but one only has to look at the populations of cities under this empire to know that people were there to advance the culture for its own power. I could not imagine life, without the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, The Gilded age, the Scientific Movement, heck, we might still think the world was flat, if it wasn’t for our need to explore, but that is simply my mind working under the constructs of those ages being brought forward into my daily life now. Maybe I wouldn’t need them, maybe man as an individual would of sought that knowledge on his own without the need of rulers to curb the need for surplus, and a way to keep its population fed and healthy to an extent to keep them going but not that happy.

These are things that I will never know, but only be able to ponder, because like every other choice in life it was one made long before I was around. To give the power you have over yourself to someone else for security and peace of mind is a dangerous thing. We must proceed with caution when things of this nature arise in life. Because if we don’t we might be forgoing a freedom and knowledge we might never be able to come back to.