By
Ali A. Parsa, Ph.D.
We should condemn extremism of
all kind, right? Wrong. The purpose of this writing is to demonstrate that,
extremism like a coin has two sides-good and evil. Then, why do most of us fail
to observe that during the long history of our world, the extremists have been
behind all important events and movements such as revolutions, dynasty
replacements and other changes, from drastic to subtle?
We also need to remind
ourselves that only one or a handful of leaders are the engines of the movements
and they determine the direction of the change-good or evil. It follows that
all great religions like Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as
well as other lesser religions have been manifestations of extremist views of
their time in opposition to the status quo.
In fact, extremism has been an
integral part of all changes in our natural world and the underlying cause of
evolution in response to the ever-evolving physical, chemical and biological
changes and interactions going on within all living systems, from a single cell
to complex organisms in nature.
One common denominator in
behavior of living systems is that they all exhibit an initial resistance to
change, but gradually adjust to them until a new equilibrium in the system is
reached or all the dust is settled at least for a while, or until another change
is needed. As a soil scientist with deep concern for the direction of our world,
I see a clear resemblance between the living system of soil and human societies.
The living system of soil has what we call the buffer system that resists
drastic changes like, for instance in pH- acidity or alkalinity of the soil
until a new equilibrium is reached and new adjustments are made. Suffice to say
that if not for this marvelous buffer power of the soil, all life within the
soil would succumb to the sudden changes. Further scientific explanation of such
interesting phenomenon is beyond the scope of this writing. In the Far East this
social phenomenon is referred to as the balance between ying and yang. In human
societies ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy can disturb this balance and create
catastrophes.
The reason for this is that
whereas extremisms in natural world have always followed the natural rules of
law, but in human societies they often don't. This is due to interference from
the imperfect human beings and the inferiority of their decision making as
compared with the strict laws of nature. That constitutes the reason why most
people or public dreads the change in status quo. Indeed, most revolutions have
left a bad taste in public's mouths. Most extremists have abused the public and
utilized them as instruments to feather their own nests. It is most ironic that
most governments have been selective in the kind of education and information
they instill in the public in order to avoid or delay another change in status
quo.
Although a minority of
public-the elite has managed to survive the evil of extremism, that has not been
the case with most people (the masses). It seems as if the masses lack the
ability of searching for truth, analyzing the facts and making unbiased
personal, social, economic and political decisions by default. Indeed, the
deprivation of the public from reaching their maximum potential has turned full
control of the public to a handful of leaders to do as they wish. Such abuse of
the public has led to more death and destruction in our history than that from
natural calamities up to the present time. A popular American saying is, 'never
underestimate the power of stupidity especially in groups!'
During humankind's recorded
history, replacement of weaker governments by stronger ones in pursuit of power
and wealth has been the real cause of all events behind the veneer of deceiving
slogans. In our contemporary time the use of 'people' as in People's Republic,
socialist republic and even Government of the People have gradually lost their
meanings even if they had genuine causes and went through some initial
reconstruction periods. However, sharing the power with the masses has not been
an issue. As a result, the government and the people remained separated and the
balance of power has, in most cases in favor of the governments. In the words of
Barbara Tuckman, "Every revolution, in time, puts on the robes of the tyrant it
deposed." While a few have argued the necessity of the governments for
maintaining law and order and certain functions, the public at large has not
been able to prevent their cancerous growth and their abuse of power.
One philosophical question
facing humankind has always been, why does the public is short-changed even
though it pays the most taxes, give more of their lives and plays by the rules
more often. And, why even during the twenty first century or our modern time, in
spite of our marvelous technology and its utilization in every aspect of our
lives we have not been able to educate, inform and empower the public to shape
their own destiny instead of leaving it to the extremists. In other words, why
is the public more willing to forgo its rights and even resort to substance
abuse and apathy instead of becoming active part of the political processes that
affect their lives and pocket bloods? Why do we prefer to sit down, complain,
let the chips fall where they may and then whine after we are shortchanged by
the governments-or when the gate is left open and the horse is out, so to speak.
This indifference by the public
and the abuse of its power by the governments has led to birth and premature
death of many nations. As Erick Fromm said, "The world is graveyard of empires
that did not meet the challenge of their time." The best answer to the question
of public apathy seems to have been that by J.P. Durran who, in 1790 said, "The
condition upon which God granted us liberty is eternal vigilance." Why is this
eternal vigilance absent in most of us?
Unfortunately this and similar
pleas from the elite have not been heeded by the mass. It is this ignorance that
breeds apathy and complacency. It is also ignorance that makes the mass
unconditional followers. Perhaps the saying "Ignorance is a bliss" expresses the
general opinion of the mass. One answer may be that the masses are too decent
and too honest to be involved in dirty politics. This unsolved puzzle still
deserves considerable historical, philosophical, social and political
discussions. Let us trace the historical aspects to about the beginning of a
kind of recorded history.
Sinohe
(pronounced SeeNohay) was a man who rose from the depth of degradation to become
personal physician to the pharaoh Akhnaton. His views of the public in 14th
Century B.C. Egypt was the title of the first major historical novel (The
Egyptian, listed at
amazon.com) published in 1949 by Mika Woltari, widely considered the
greatest Finnish writer of 20th Century. In this book Sinohe states that the
public is not educable and always prefers to be ignorant and, if educated,
always tends to revert to the state of ignorance! He likened educating the
public to dipping a person in water. He said, as that wet person does not stay
wet when out of water, the public and education, too, do not stay together! The
irony is that Sinohe considered himself as elite rather than a common man that
he originally was and he elevated his own status first and then he denigrated
the public. The hidden conclusion is that even though the public as a whole
prefers not to be decision makers, all or a limited number of them can, through
their effort cross over and become the leaders in their respective fields. The
bottom line seems to be that a minority of the people or the elite have and will
always be responsible for all changes.
Obviously no revolution
went as far as the American Revolution to provide the opportunity for the public
to break the barriers of class or a kind of caste system and reach their maximum
potentials. The beauty of the American Revolution was its universal acceptance
and the fact that it espoused talented people not only of its own, but also from
all over the globe regardless of their background.
No extremist movement contained
as much antidote for preventing the abuse of the public by the government as the
American Revolution. The success of this revolution was due to the genuine
desire of a handful of men who opposed the status quo. Thomas Jefferson, a
staunch believer of change in status quo believed that society, like standing
water becomes stagnant if not stirred once in a while. He is also quoted as
saying, "God forbid if this nation goes without a revolution for twenty
years," as if he could predict the problems our nation is facing now. Obviously
Jefferson could not recommend a physically destructive revolution especially
with the modern lethal weaponry. His was mainly intellectual revolution that
could even be considered evolution rather than revolution.
History repeats and the
American Revolution that illuminated the world is all, but faded away and is
need of serious revival. In fact I call what is going on in America 'the
undoing of the American Revolution' that invented the 'government of the people,
by and for the people'-the first movement in the history of the world that tried
to elevate the status of the public by devising the public education system.
At the start of twenty-first
century while we have invented all kinds of gadgets to make our lives easier and
save time, we are barely taking the first effective step to make use of the
dividends of our marvelous technology to reduce the gullibility of the public.
The bitter truth is that we have the most gullible people in the world. The
irony is that while the cost of education goes up and we throw more money into
the system we educate less. In the meantime, we have amassed weapons of mass
destruction to destroy our world and ourselves many times over.
What we have achieved in recent
decades has been the positive balance of our evil power that has baffled our
most respected scientists and philosophers in their intellectual discourse.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The end of human race is that it will die of
civilization." And, Albert Einstein was so concerned about abuse of technology
that he said, "I do not know what weapons will be used in WW III, but I do know
that WW IV will be fought with sticks and stones." I personally suspect that if
we did a quantitative research on the net positive effects our technology that
net effect would be zero or minus something.
I submit that all abuses stem
from ineffective education, lack of ethics and lack or shortage of effective
leaders. If not for these shortages, we could mobilize the masses in a way that
we could use their latent positive potential and make our world better. In fact
millions of decent Americans are volunteering to bring about positive changes
both in America and abroad, but not enough to defeat the evil side of
extremists.
Let us not forget that the
American Revolution, the most noble, the longest lasting and the most effective
revolution owed its success to a handful of leaders who were the products of
effective education, ethical upbringing and followers of exemplary leaders
before them. That is not to say that they were all angels, had no evil sides,
did not engage in mud slinging and dirty politics that are customary at our
time, but it is to say that they were as perfect as imperfect humans could be.
For thousands of years
religious and secular leaders and gurus believed that education would redeem
humankind and would put an end to death and destruction brought about by
ignorant, arrogant and selfish leaders who took the public for a long ride to
achieve their selfish goals. The American Revolution was meant to put an end to
this tyranny with the invention of public education for educating and
enlightening the public to fend themselves against their selfish leaders. That
noble purpose is reflected best in Thomas Jefferson who said, "Enlighten the
people and the tyranny of body and mind will disappear like evil spirit at the
dawn of a day."
It is not difficult to trace
the reasons for the downfall of America. Simply put, it is the reverse of what
Jefferson said. That is, keep the people in the dark and tyranny of body and
mind will appear like evil spirit in the dusk of a day!-my own phrase.
America is the youngest and the
most successful empire on earth. Only those with a sense of world history know
that countless empires have appeared and disappeared from the face of the earth.
The founders of America would spin in their grave if they could see how the
nation they founded is taken for a ride by the evil side of extremism that is
turning back the clock of history of America and the world. It is allowing the
infrastructure of America go to ruin and trample upon the cradles of
civilization just as Genghis Khan did in the 13th century and similar
ones at other times. Recall Albert Einstein's concern. The signs of decline are
all over the walls for those who only care to look.
These signs should be serious
concerns of all citizens of this Nation of Immigrants, no matter when we adopted
this land as our home or where we came from. In fact, the newly arriving
immigrants have always been more protective of the American Ideals than those
who were born here and lost the sense of appreciation through apathy and
complacency. The most vivid sign of decline of America is that this backbone of
America is constantly bombarded with the colonial mentality of extremists and
neocons that ridicule immigrants, multiculturalism and multilingualism. This is
nothing but declaring a war on the whole America and divide this unique Nation
of Immigrants at its seams. Did the fact that all America's founders were
bilingual or multilingual hurt America in any way or strengthened it through
diversity? Indeed, with friends like these America needs no other enemies to
worry about. If we worried about anti-American activities, this is it. Once
again, welcome to observe the undoing of the American Revolution.
Let us use one historical
evidence and judge for ourselves how the today's extremists use the same tactic
as 2500 years ago and expect the public in America and in the world believe
them.
"BEWARE THE LEADER WHO BANGS THE DRUMS OF WAR IN ORDER TO WHIP
THE CITIZENRY INTO A PATRIOTIC FEVER, FOR PATRIOTISM IS INDEED A DOUBLE-EDGED
SWORD. IT BOTH EMBOLDENS THE BLOOD, JUST AS IT NARROWS THE MIND. AND WHEN DRUMS
OF WAR HAVE REACHED A FEVER PITCH AND THE BLOOD BOILS WITH HATE AND THE MIND HAS
CLOSED, THE LEADER WILL HAVE NO NEED IN SEIZING THE RIGHTS OF THE CITIZENRY.
RATHER, THE CITIZENRY, INFUSED WITH FEAR AND BLINDED BY PATRIOTISM, WILL OFFER
UP ALL THEIR RIGHTS UNTO THE LEADER AND GLADLY SO. HOW DO I KNOW? FOR THIS IS
WHAT I HAVE DONE AND I AM CAESAR..." -Julius Caesar
I leave you with a few
questions and I hope you as the reader will help me to answer these questions:
How does the public still fall
prey of the extremists after some 2500 years after Julius Caesar, not mentioning
the onslaught of numerous others who seduced the public?
Moreover, why does this still
happen in America in which public education, freedom, and democracy had the best
chance to grow, mature, elevate the status of the public once and for all? In
other words, how does the otherwise decent public is so detached from reality
and the least interested in its own history, its present and its future
generations who will inherit even more of the same?
Let us assume for a moment that
the whole world emulates America in every respect as the extremists wish. Let us
predict the social, economic and global impact of this emulation.
Social impacts- A public
education system that educates less and costs more; a public that is the least
informed not only about the history and geography and culture of the world, but
those of their own country ; the least voter turnout in exercising their
participatory democracy ; a public and government that spend more money that
they have; a public that chooses 'shop till you drop as a big source of
relaxation; a public that is confused even about simple facts of life such as
when, what and hoe much to eat, then over eat and spend billions of dollars to
lose weight; a government that does not care about record national debt that
spends borrowed money to venture into unhardened territories and trample over
the Cradles of Civilization as Genghis Khan did, but more sophisticated warfare
at the cost of bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare; bullying the smaller
country and allow the idea of bullying to spread not only in international
arena, but in school yards, punishing drug producing countries because they are
unable to fight the widespread substance abuse inside their own borders,
energizing the repressive regimes if they cooperate and punishing more
democracies if they choose to not to follow the order of the bullies;
practically stealing the resources of other countries by any conceivable illegal
means in order to live beyond their own means; being indifferent to
international rules; letting the wage disparity ruin the morale of its workers;
getting their young so disinterested in education that would increasingly depend
on import of talents from other countries; making the country bankrupt and
calling the most debtor country the richest nation on earth, following the
example of colonial powers during the twenty first century; not recognizing that
educated generations in emerging make this impossible; replacing truth with
falsehood, peace with war, justice with injustice, education with ignorance,
patriotism with profiteering and corruption,; be indifferent to the will of the
young people to fight senseless wars and using mercenary to conduct such wars.
The best antidote to the above
self-destructing trend is effective education that includes ethics and exemplary
leaders. America has the wherewithal to educate the world starting from its own
public with a cost that is a pittance as compared to development of weapons of
mass destruction. Ignorance brings arrogance and these breed terrorism by
highlighting the evil side of the people. Just watch the Animal Planet and see
how wild animals are tamed and the best friends. All the extremists can do is to
believe that people too, are educable.
Those who have abandoned hope
that corporate America has no human face, should recognize the fact that
corporations, too, have humane side and evil side. If Bill Gates and his wife
have demonstrated this, so can the others.
While America is grappled with
these problems the world is making more progress than America and yet our
extremist leaders have gone into denial rather than facing reality which is the
first step to overcome the problems. In other words, America remains a sleeping
giant while the world goes through progress. Not long ago the same extremists
used to turn their nose when a Japanese product was mentioned. Now, not only
Japan, but also China and other newly emerging nations are added to that list
and their products beat those of America's while America's trade deficits rise.
Finally, I hope that I do not
leave the readers with the impression that I do not love America. I love truly
love the American public, American history, its founders and the ideals they
had. I only dislike where America is going. To me this writing is the ultimate
expression of my love for America. I am not one of those who praise everything
in America and deny the reality. To me, America's proven and unprecedented
record of leading the world makes it the best superpower if America survives its
present extremist leadership.
My only source of optimism and
hope has been the way the decent Americans have expressed their dissatisfaction
with the status quo during the last midterm elections. If that enthusiasm for
change becomes a reality I will be my reward. I appreciate it if the readers
assist me to answer the following questions:
By undoing the American
Revolution, do the extremists believe that the public is not educable as Sinohe'
did in ancient Egypt?
Is the extremists' resistance
to change and ignoring the will of the public an indication of their belief that
American Revolution was in vain?
To what extent are extremists
driven by ignorance, arrogance and greed? Do our present extremist leaders
qualify to be the real 'axis of evil?'
Please visit my website:
http://www.terrorismandhowtostopit.org/
... Payvand News - 11/28/07 ... --
