Arrogant Offspring

     The biggest and strongest can always get their way. Every major tribe and dominating empire can attest that what they want, they get. That mentality could be human nature, the corrupting nature of power, or simply a precedent now ingrained in the human experience. As Europe began to rise with the power of innovation, logic, and resourcefulness, they conquered the world. The earth has been Euro-centric for centuries. Now, as that power wheel begins to shift away from Europe and the West into a slowly adjusting balance with the major Eastern powers of China, Japan, Indonesia, and a few others, the long gloated power of the nations of Europe finally falls into question.

     Whether or not Europe was right to colonize and dominate the world, the past has affected the present as it always does. However, the criticism of the present upon the past directs the future, learning and digressing from previous experiences. Europe birthed the modern world: industry and nation states now permeate the world from European origins. All non-European (and even some European nations: Spain and Eastern Europe) are the children of the colonial era, even if only intellectually (Japan, Thailand). Who now is the bread winner that inherits the power endowed by the old, retired grandparents of Europe?
     By necessity the new power will have once been a colony of Europe. In that sense, Europe will live on just as Rome has lived on through Europe. As the maps above and below illustrate, nearly every habitable portion of land, the world around, has been controlled by Europeans within the last five hundred years.
   

     With the trauma of the twentieth century, those nations destroyed each other through successive wars - while planting industrialism and the keys to power abroad. Who will be the new leaders?
     Consider America, proclaimed owner and victor of the last century, the "American Century." Can she continue to "police" the world considering her shrinking industry, weakened economy, and divided self-interest? Perhaps - she has done so for nearly seventy years already, but with self-criticism. America has forgotten why she came to power, why others fell.
     This nation, though powerful, has several drawbacks.
     1.) America is a young nation by the estimate of dates of independence, her immediate geographical neighborhood even younger. Europe was nearly three times America's age by the time it arose to conquer the new world.
     2.) Along with her youth, America has been historically isolationist most of her history. In fact a good portion of her population still wishes to be self-focused, isolationist, and let the world run itself. Ron Paul, a candidate of the 2012 presidency, had strong isolationist ideals in his campaign and garnered a moderate support. The world wars woke America, but she has not completely abandoned the internal, domestic idealism that characterized her before 1917.
     3.) In conjunction with this isolationism, America is too self-centered to be the big kid on the block. All of her issues are focused on economic might or anti-communism/anti-terrorism agendas. At least the Europeans began industrializing their colonies. The mistakes made in Europe were also made in their colonies, but no precedent existed to caution. The US makes the same mistakes which have already been shown to be dysfunctional to the distribution of power
     In answer to America's weaknesses, what nation is respectably old and stable? What nation has learned from the brutal, oppressive domination of European control? What nation is strong, if inexperienced, on the world stage? What nation remembers its past?
     China is one of the oldest, most geographically stable countries in the world. She was abused by Europeans ransacking trades along her ports, and the Opium Wars destroyed her self-respect. As Western ideologies infiltrated her masses, China split between capitalism and communism. With Taiwan remaining just off her coast, China is still divided between those economic ideologies. However, she has weighed both options and seems to have found a fully functioning middle ground as evidenced by her expanding economy the last thirty years. China is excellent at remembering its history. Ancestor worship strengthens the patterns of the past, and China will likely avoid the selfish individualism rampant in the West. As an economically and military powerful and up-and-coming nation, one of China's biggest flaws is her inexperience on the world stage. "Cathay," an old English term for China, intentionally isolated herself from much of the world the past millenia. In order to dominate the vacancies on stage, she will have to accept a mantle of unprecedented world influence.
     Who then should lead the world? The West is falling. America's monopolar decadence is disintegrating as China has successfully siphoned Asian and African influences to create an increasingly bipolar world. Could the West and East work together, united, as nations seeking a common goal? Will the East try to reassert its ancient strength, so long absent the past five hundred years? Will the West completely collapse a midst an incomprehensibly large pile of debt and military-economic oppression?
     The study of history reveals many things, but only the future can pull the curtain back.


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Agatha Tyche

Berry picking

     Picking berries has been an agricultural function since ancient history. While the types and uses of berries alter with the time and culture, the process remains remarkably the same even for different berry types. Many berries are thrown out because they are imperfect by their size, age, or other qualities. Age is the only attribute that can be justified in contributing to a berry not being picked: it is either too ripe or to the point of molding off. Other reasons should be ignored. Size is unimportant if the berries are to be eaten free of hand or mashed into ingredients. Dried-up berries will still provide flavor when added to the overall berry mixture. Even oddly shaped, slightly aged, or the young, sour berries can be used when mixed in to the larger picture.

     People are like berries. Everyone contributes to the final creation. Size, color, age, and juiciness all vary with the individual. Some groups may be better in size but lose flavor while some of the driest berries may be exactly what is needed for the right taste. Being too perfect may actually detract from the success of that berry because it will be the first one snatched up birds, deer, squirrels, or people which would destroy its potential for reproduction. The most undesirable berries can be the most successful for their usefulness and reproduction.
    Many great leaders and thinkers of the past have not brought children into the world to carry on the legacy of their name or qualities. Alexander the Great, founder of the largest empire of his time, fathered a child but failed to live long enough to rear him. Nikola Tesla, though one of the most creative minds to work with electricity, never had a known relationship with any woman. Ludwig van Beethoven, the great musician, never succeeded in marrying or having children.
     While the finest of berries may be exquisite in certain aspects, the emphasis on one quality forces a decline in other areas. Many of the most brilliant people in the world struggle with social conventions. Conversely, those who interact perfectly with others, seemingly reading other people's thoughts out of the air, may fail rudimentary intelligence tests.
     On the pendulum's reverse swing rests the berries that are poisonous to eat. People, as berries, can poison their consumer. The toxin does not destroy the usefulness of the berry, however. Consider that some of the worst criminals and ruffians become heroes in war. Despite their unsavory habits in polite society, their skills provided them with assets necessary in the heat of bloody war. Considering that some great war heroes may also become poisonous themselves when they fully ripen just as Adolf Hitler did after his respectable service in the Great War.
     The diversity expressed in the types and uses of berries are a poor comparison to the multiplicity of character people reveal. Don't judge a book by its cover. Don't judge a berry by a single variety of qualities. The only way to know if a berry is true is to eat it just like the only way to know the character of a person is to get to know them.


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Agatha Tyche