Consistency

Stability. Reliability. Assurance. Regularity. Loyalty. Reputability. Steadfastness. Responsibility. Faithfulness.
     The thing you can always count on to be the same. If you ever leave home for several months or a couple of years and return, people change, streets look slightly different, and trees get taller. However, there's that gem of a person, flawed or not, that you know will be exactly like when you left. Whether or not this person is a friend is irrelevant. Sometimes just having something stay the same makes the passage of time easier to bear since sameness grounds people. Change is constant, omnipresent, and unpredictable, but by having mountainous landmarks, a timeless sense pervades life that calms and eases reflection.
     Ignoring the accuracy of its stance on any issue, the Roman Catholic Church has been the most stable social institution in Western history. Established by the Roman emperors themselves, the church provided the unifying factor to Europe throughout its history. Kings and empires have risen and fallen while the church remains continuous despite several Schismic earthquakes in its past.
     With the pressure from humanitarians in the West today, the Catholic Church is criticized for being backward, out-of-touch, inflexible, and intolerant. While few would deny the Church has problems, the consistency which it faces opposition is safely reliable. Since Catholicism includes people from nearly every country in the world, a relatively small change in stance or doctrine to pacify one group may ostracize another. While the Church is no stranger to politics, the divisiveness its members have brought against one another presents an old threat. Spain, France, and Italy have rarely interacted agreeably (Spain has been a reliable ally of Britain against France), the Church has kept them united.

     In the age of hyphenated-nationalism, a unifying force should be welcome. One as inherited and popular as the Catholic church should be honored for its consistency. Many reforms have occurred both in the 1960s and 1990s which shows its understanding of cultural shifts. However, while Aristotle only needed a lever long enough to move the earth, the Church requires time, prayer, and tradition to effect change.
     Again, regardless of religious views, the Catholic Church has solidly held its beliefs with earnestness. When you hold down your own bunker of beliefs, don't be discouraged by a few bad raps or scattered criticism. Keep at it, press on.
     Need more examples of consistency? The most identifying part of countries: geography. Greece is characterized by steep coasts and scattered islands. Germany is known for the plains of central Europe. Egypt's Nile has remained steady for thousands of years in stark contrast to the desert. When travelling to other regions of the world, the thing first noticed once your eyes shift away from the odd clothing is the landscape. The exceptions to this are monuments of the past, the great buildings that demonstrate the wealth and power of local ancestors. Churches, stone defenses, and tombs hold the character of a people while standing unchanged for centuries.
     As Herodotus said, "Man fears time, time fears the pyramids."

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Agatha Tyche

Pine & Repine

     A cyclic nature pervades many aspects of history and personal experience. While no technical history evinces the psychological process of pining, revolutions demonstrate this point markedly well. Pining usually refers to broken hearts in the matter of personal love. However, the term is defined merely as "to suffer a mental and physical decline." This broader definition, applied to political thought, reveals angst in the heart of the people. It is nigh impossible for human society to stagnate levelly; growth or destruction occurs in varying degrees. Economic charts, particularly, have sharp peaks with slopes going up or down, never level. This is true with international and personal relations as well. The more time spent with something, the inclination towards it will increase its desirability or decrease into apathy, possibly hatred if conditioned.
     Humans pine for causes. Whether the overarching cause of justice, democracy, freedom, revenge, or imperial superiority, some desire fuels the ambitions. Eventually this cause loses its passion, and people pine for the fervor that once easily possessed the masses. The cause remains, the purposed hearts fade, the effects diminish, and the conclusion holds wasted, unfruitful efforts. Likewise in the world of love, the initial interest peaks, involvement elaborates, and over time, discontent upsets the balance creating an emotional state reminiscent on past passion.
     As vehemence dies with many goals unfulfilled, new steps are taken to ensure the fire's brightness, usually at a cost to its heat. As the virgin passions fade farther into the past, nostalgia for that first driving force kick-starts another bout of energy as the participants remain pining for better times. Unfortunately, passion-driven societies are usually filled with turmoil and violence.

     Polybius analyzed Rome's system of government as Carthage fell in 146 B.C. He determined that the republic system was the most capable manner of delaying the inevitable cycle of tyranny typical of Greek monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. People and power mix poorly. Inevitably, oppression ensues as time betrayed the Roman republic into an empire.
     The most recent example to attract wide-spread attention over several weeks are the revolutions in North Africa. The Egyptian revolution yanked power back from the political leaders in attempts to undermine the corruption that discontented its citizen-subjects. However, the coop failed on several counts, and the new system will likely totter into its predecessors tracks before too long.
     The most famous example of pining for better times where money for food was not snatched from the hand of the poor to feed the luxuries of the rich is the French Revolution. The focus of the entire bloodbath initiated with more equality for the middle class to socially escalate to the standing of nobles within the Second Estate. As the various groups of the middle class gained control, none successfully retained power for a long period. The famed Reign of Terror held France for over a year but succumbed to its own paranoia. Finally, arising from ten years of rubble on Parisian streets, Napoleon solidified the government by becoming a monarch in principle though the title remained incognito for several early years. Thus, France's desire to establish a democracy ended with the establishment of a new monarchy with many in the populace satisfied with new found glory.
     The question then becomes was anything achieved by the revolution - or any revolution - if the end result is a near-mirror image of the instigating circumstances? People's contributions give a sense of personal touch, influence, and hope attached to the new regime of whatever system is established. Thus, satisfaction is achieved by and large. However, as time passes and the original founders fall from power or pass away, those less involved in the revolution repine for the glory that their predecessors achieved. This cyclic discontent for the nostalgia of power engineers' interactions of all people in the modern world.
     Pining does apply equally to both love and politics, but the lessons learned by each application vary in accordance with time, culture, and involvement. The joys of accomplishment aid the present but will ultimately overthrow pleasures of the future as its brightness and potential seem to fade against the stark fires of revolution instigated by the hearts of those pining and repining for a better life.

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Agatha Tyche

Sapid Alterations

     The origins of nearly everything can be a thrilling journey of investigation. If the knowledge has already been secured by another in the past, an interactive lecture on transitional philosophy and historic political motivation rapidly inspires the power of time over the culture of humanity. However, if the path remains untrodden, the exploration may be undertaken by any that wish to link current circumstance with the fluctuating uncertainty of the mists of time.

     The origin of words fascinates a great many people. English began its descent from the Germanic tribes that gradually mixed Celtic and some Welsh words into a comprehensive linguistic exchange. Several centuries later, the French exerted their influence especially on the highest end of sophistication with trade and food. A thousand years hence, modern speakers combine elements of all these events and converse with merely the bones of its pure, initial form.

     The origin of nations and political alliances may also be an interesting study. For a thousand years the British hated, opposed, and attacked the French. With the advent of aggressive Germanic policies preceding World War I, these two peoples allied together and remain cooperative even a hundred years later. The complexity of circumstances that lead to this reversal has not entirely affected the peoples as a whole since even after the second world war, France resisted British membership in the newly formed European Community (predecessor to the EU of Europe today and which the English are, for now, a part).

     The origin of history itself interests some as well. Herodotus, credited with being the father, is the first recognized man to record events assimilated from sources outside of mythology. While opinionated and poorly researched from differently biased perspectives, the processes of gathering and sharing knowledge has powerful precedents. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persians less than a hundred years later, he made sure to keep a historic recorder in his company to ensure the victorious tale’s continuance. Napoleon, inspired himself by Alexander, kept a historian within the camp of his army, and the French are credited with the establishment of the modern form of historic research and recording. Humans as a species seem fascinated with records. The Egyptians and Sumerians meticulously recorded business transactions and religious ceremonies. Their supposed predecessors even recorded their daily viewing of animals on cave walls.

     No one can escape the past – whether it is forgotten or not. Influences all around us began as miniscule ideas, no matter how long ago, and succeeded in embedding and affecting generations through their establishment. The present is here to influence the future just as the past has done for the present. To understand the scope and progression (or regression) of any matter in life, one has but to look to the past. The answers may not always be evident, but a close corollary can almost always be found.

     Subtly in daily life and the gradualization of most changes dulls our notice. Just as you hardly take note of the length of your hair until it is past your eyes, the hum drum processes of life easily accumulate, twisted away from their original form, but easily recognized by the steady watcher.

     Part of the joy of life is in comparison – with others, with our past, with the pasts of others. Take notice, record the distinctions, and strive to inspire and influence the future generations that look back at what was, long ago, the present.

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Agatha Tyche