The End of the World

     Most religions have apocalyptic scenarios in their doctrines. None of the world empires of the past have existed at their zenith of influence and might forever and inevitably succumb to change whether internally, externally, or an alloy of those changes. An unique comparative analysis can be examined when comparing the eschatological hope-fears of the Christian Byzantium Empire and the enthusiastic vigor of the newer Islamic forces.
     An extension of the historical Roman Empire, Byzantium, with its capital of Constantinople, remained strong well into the tenth century if at only a shadow of its former power. The Judeo-Christian belief system upon which the Eastern Roman Empire was founded under Constantine took the promise of Jesus' return "soon" seriously and strove to set up a Christian world empire to begin Jesus' Millennial Reign on earth. This belief motivated the Byzantine's to expand and conquer, especially the areas around Jericho and the Holy Land.
     However, the quick rise of the fundamentally oppositional Islamic power immediately and dramatically reduced the dominating capabilities of the Byzantines. The Byzantine Empire was not unfamiliar with the tides of fortune having long weathered bankruptcy, civil unrest, plague, and military defeat. Initially, even as the empire's strength waned, hope burgeoned, especially in the outskirts of Constantinople's provinces. A variety of groups and belief systems viewed their Roman-founded empire as immortal as the phoenix that must suffer defeat to be renewed to full prominence again.

Overall there seemed to be a fairly popular train of thought that imperial redemption and renewal would start on the outskirts of the Byzantine Commonwealth and be consummated in Constantinople and/or Jerusalem. At least in part this tendency could be explained by the belief that the empire itself needed a renewal, its sacred vitality no longer strong enough to guarantee the empire's triumphant universalism. The power of renewal could no longer be found within Constantinople but outside of it. The shift of focus. of imperial sacred geography from the imperial center to the periphery sought to restore the vitality of mythical Byzantium through the inversion of established canons of imperial sacred space. In the situation in which the imperial center lost its strength, once-peripheral parts of the empire claimed this strength for themselves, positioning themselves as legitimate successors of Constantinople.¹

            1  Alexei Sivertsev. Judaism and Imperial Ideology in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University

               Press, 2011), 214.

     As the years wore on without providing a great return of Byzantine might, defeatism set into the culture, and the once proud armies of the Eastern Roman Empire called upon the Franks for military aid. The mighty Christian empire was set to fall.

     On the other side of the spectrum, the new Muslim armies expanded furiously with their own religious urgency in conquering the world because of the basic teaching's of Muhammad warning that the world would end and God would judge all.

What drove Muhammad and his armies to conquer is a subject of deepest controversy . . . it is clear that the common Late Antique themes of universalism and apocalypticism shaped both his message and his method. A significant portion of the Qur'an addresses the Apocalypse (the Last Day, the Overwhelming Event) when God the righteous judge would return and set the whole world to right. Believers were enjoined to a Holy War to prepare themselves and the world for the impending day of reckoning. Muhammad's last recorded speech admonished that 'Muslims should fight all men until they say "There is no god but God."' The goal seems to have been to build a universal righteous community - a melding of Late Antique monotheism with dynamics drawn from deep in the Age of Ancient Empires.²

           2 Eric Cline and Mark Graham. Ancient Empires: From Mesopotamia to the Rise of Islam (Cambridge, UK:
             Cambridge University Press, 2007), 330.

     Byzantium Christendom and the Islamic Empire had the end of the world to spur their conquests; thus, both sides of a centuries long war struggled to convert the world before the end. These two mighty empires used religion to mutual self-destruction.
     In the case of Byzantium, European Crusaders did as much to destroy Constantinople as the Islamic forces. Centuries of war, contraction of governed land by church officials, and reduced tax revenue wore out the Eastern Roman Empire. The Islamic armies fractured under diverging sects and local governors over their vast holdings. Essentially both empires crippled themselves enough for an outside force to have the final impact. The Arab-based Muslim world shifted as Asian Turks took the reigns of the empire, and the Byzantines eventually fell to these Islamic-modified Turks as well.
     In the end both regimes got what they long expected though perhaps neither side predicted the "apocalypse" to be of their empire, not the world. However and whenever man's world ends has been the focus of legends, tales, and religions for millenia. Since we can neither know the day of our own death nor the death of the world, strive to do all you can in the time given to consistently carry out your beliefs and improve upon the world that we do have for as long as we have it.


 __    
Agatha Tyche

Fulfillment

     Only since the onset of the Industrial Revolution has the definition of a nation been considered. A kingdom, empire, duchy, or baronage had centuries of political significance and meaning, but as the common man gained a voice, the identity of the political unit and means of governance changed. Nationalism is a political ideology that attaches member citizens to a nation. During the inconclusive, gory republican revolution in France, individualism took hold of popular imagination. When pseudo-monarchical dictatorship under Napoleon ended the revolution and spurred French armies to invade much of continental Europe, this new, political nationalism spread from its cradle to the enormously diverse tribes, clans, and people groups throughout Europe.
     As the nations of Europe stoked the furnaces of the industrial revolution, historic military rivalries escalated as means of production and population rose. As material wealth increased dramatically in no time at all, these citizen-nations jostled each other over bragging rights. To encapsulate the essence of these views, no matter the state of your people's heritage, you should be proud of your language, religion, and culture. Nationalism is national pride; pride goeth before a fall.
     Nationalism seemed fulfilling. The industrial revolution's wealth and technological adaptations allowed Europe to conquer the world as the Imperial Age took hold of even smaller nations, notably Belgium. At the height of its glory, Europe took slight from any perceived offenses by competing nations, and as the web of inter-national alliances bound Europe together, war was unavoidable.

     As European nations descended into a total war of attrition, colonial populations were called forth to man the war front. Despite the large death tolls, troops from the colonies returned home with their own ideas of nationalism and self-determination. As the infrastructure for maintaining colonies was shelled into the mud of continental Europe, independence movements began in to push back against their oppressive overlords. The major effects of the Great War were to inspire nationalist movements in the colonies and to set the motivation for World War II.
     Just as the War to End All Wars crippled industrial production in Europe that weakened imperial powers, WWII decimated Europe to such an extent that the two decades following saw a nearly complete disassembling of imperial powers.
     Nationalism spurred European nations to reach the epitome of global domination while providing the decimation that destroyed their basis of power.
"Fulfillment" means that Europe was satisfied in their pride, strength, wealth, and might, ever proud of their developments and accomplishments. However, fulfillment also means a conclusion of a promise or prediction, and in that way Europe both fulfilled its desire of world conquest while completing the prophecy of pride.
     Wealth, technology, and cultural perceptions do not a great country make. People make a nation great. Love is stronger than hate. If a nation's people are fueled by hate and fear, they will never succeed, never be satisfied, and never feel safe.

 __    
Agatha Tyche

The Barbarian in Us All

    In the recent centuries of history, Western Europe has been the strong point of the world - invading, conquering, and building, but as Charlemagne, the father of modern Europe, looked out over the North Sea he saw a Viking knarr and said that he feared for his kingdom's future once he was gone. Shortly after Charlemagne's death until well into the eleventh and twelfth centuries, many people near sea and navigable rivers were subjected to Viking raids. These raids had a strong influence on continental Europe and infected the roots of the formation of modern nation states.
     Rollo invaded Paris and raided northern France until he was defeated. He submitted to King Charles and became recognized as a noblemen in exchange for protecting the Seine River. His great-great-great grandson, William the Conquorer, invaded England in 1066 and began the lineage of English monarchs that continue to this day. Nearly a thousand years later this is the last successful invasion of England.
     Rurik was "invited" in by local tribes to rule Kievan Rus' in the 860s. The Russian Tsardom evolved from these early stages but shifted after the Mongol invasions in the 1240s. Russia is an odd mixture of the West and the East, but their passionate convictions, endurance, and energetic enthusiasm credit the strength of the Vikings.
     Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish tribes raided throughout the European world, the Black and Caspian Seas, northern Africa, Iceland, Greenland, and the coast of North America. Even the Byzantine Empire contended with Viking raids. In all the Viking urge to conquer included four continents: North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia while rendering the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires mostly incompetent.

     The main reason for the end of their raids was assimilation. As Vikings raided, they also settled and assimilated with local cultures similar to how Rome adopted many of the customs of Greece. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Europeans romanticized the Vikings which soothed away the historic fears the name had invoked for centuries. However, Vikings are still revered as fearsome warriors because of their determination to succeed regardless of injury.
     While the nations the Vikings raided eventually became mighty, the influence of the Northmen has lived on over the centuries because they remained strong, true, and worthy adversaries even as they assimilated. Perseverance, courage, and motivation push men to amazing accomplishments. The more difficult something is the more incredible the accomplishment.    

 __    
Agatha Tyche

An Extroverted Introvert: The American History of Isolationism and Expansionism

     Being an ocean away from its European parents, America has long been an individualist, isolationist nation peopled by self-motivation and determination, yet a nation that was founded to oust external influence now is the most extroverted country in the world which is a complete reversal of its initial political stance.
     The first American president, George Washington, set the tone for American isolationism with his precedent of non-interference and, especially, his Farewell Address.

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

This statement significantly impacted American foreign policy for over a century. The Monroe Doctrine officially stated this U.S. policy from 1823 until 1904.
     The United States, with its incredible ethnic and religious diversities, has always been divided on issues; however, since the debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists in the 1780s over the Constitution, the "negative" side has always lost. No significant debate in American history has been won by a side that is "anti-" which explains the modern abortion debate labels of "pro-life" and "pro-choice." That said, American foreign policy has always brought domestic disagreement.
     Despite the war hawk nature of the American spirit, foreign policy remained stable until the late nineteenth century. As European nations began to colonize all parts of the world, some Americans feared being left technologically, economically, and militaristically behind the European states.
     From 1880-1904 the anti-expansionist cause fought American imperialist policy. These anti-expansionist "Mugwumps" fought against American claims on overseas territories such as the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). William McKinley's election to president in 1897 and the Spanish-American War in 1898 drained the anti-expansionists of a political voice. The Spanish-American war was America’s first interventionist war, and it set the tone for America’s foreign policy in the twentieth century.
     The Mugwumps's arguments against colonialism were defeated by the political precedent of America's Manifest Destiny - the century long process of continental expansion and settlement.

     As the long standing isolationist period fell to an imperial ideology, the war hawk blood lust of America faded as well. With the United States policing the Philippines in East Asia and the Banana Republics of Central America, the intensity, cost, and commitment of World War I deterred the general American population from entangling itself with the great European powers. It is fitting that World War I bloodied America's hands as Europe's, for one of the most feared warnings the Mugwumps had stated was that colonial expansionism would end America's militaristic innocence. These warnings were proved true in Cuba, the Philippines, Central America, and Europe - all within a decade.

     As World War I closed, America withdrew once again only to re-emerge in 1941 with a war spirit matched only by Stalin's U.S.S.R. The remainder of the twentieth century revealed how far America would stray from her isolationist roots to become bloodied in the involvement of "liberty" and "independence" around the world. Despite the incredible wealth, love of war, and history of expansion, America was never built to be a ruler nation. Her people's heart has always been isolationist, and her founding document, the Constitution, gives no reference to global involvement.
     America began as a small, independent nation that rejoiced in its separation from the warring countries of Europe. It conquered its whole continent in only a century but could not further restrain its greed for growth. Despite a divided people who wished to leave the world to its own problems, America bathed in the blood of a century to "police" half the world and "protect" lesser nations from the "evil" clutches of its Soviet competitor.
     Finally, after seventy years of war, a decade of fruitless struggle in the Middle East, and a stagnant economy, isolationist sentiment within the United States is growing again. Most Americans are happy to leave the world alone, but the political leaders, hungry for more power, seek to disrupt the "injustices" of the world and "liberate" by subjugation to the American military.
     As difficult as it is to see a people apart from its government, a country is more than its officials. The Islamic nations are undergoing "spring," Eastern Europe is struggling for an identity between the might of Western Europe and Russia, and the two richest nations, America and China, have populations that are happy to leave other nations alone. As diplomacy affects the globalized interconnections of all nations, do not despair that governments are corrupt and power hungry. The majority of people in the world are content with food and friendship, so go about your day with a smile and remember that whatever language or culture people have, life is a blessing.

 __    
Agatha Tyche

Road to Tenochtitlan

     "Interesting" is always occurring. Whether you prefer technological advancements, medical miracles, archaeological digs, or political maneuverings, the world is full of coincidences, twisting plots, and ironic actions.
     Christopher Columbus is usually credited with discovering the New World in 1492. Most textbooks ignore the suspected Viking expeditions, stories of shipwrecked sailors, and historic possibilities that China, Rome, and Greece had access to the Western Hemisphere, never mind the estimated 20-60 million people already populating the Americas before Columbus. When arriving on an island somewhere in the Caribbean, Columbus concluded that he had arrived in the Eastern Hemisphere, incorrectly assuming this "New World" was Asia. At this time the Spanish were competing with the Portuguese for a trade empire and sought riches in this new land. Thus, the conquistadors arrived in ships with gun powder weaponry intent on dominating a heavily populated continent. Suspecting this new land to be filled with gold, the Spanish traipsed through the continent to encounter several powerful civilizations.
     Because of the successful obliteration of pre-Colombian societies, all sorts of Spanish-sponsored myths have sprung up that alter accurate historical insights. Despite the popularity of the belief that Moctezuma announced Hernando Cortes as an anthropomorphized form of Quetzalcoatl, a god, the Aztec's understood their own superiority over their Spanish guests and believed themselves safe in the strength of their numeric advantage, imperial dominance, and secure military might. The Spaniards, with a total army of about a thousdand men, only succeeded in their conquest by turning vast numbers of indigenous groups against the Aztec overlords.

     The Spanish efforts were nearly entirely focused on financial accumulation in the suspected, readily available quantities of gold, but the first decades of interaction between the Old and New worlds saw "wealth" mainly through slavery. Interestingly, if the natives of South America had treated their European guests in the sixteenth century the same way as their North American brethren had repelled the Baltic colonists in the ninth century, the difficulty of an army traversing the Atlantic en mass would have severely limited the effectiveness of the European New World domination, but that is not what happened.
     History is filled with "what if's" that will never be answered. Circumstances, timing, coincidence, and opportunities either unravel or weave the tapestry of the past whose threads entangle the present with gifts, curses, and curiosities. Predictions, estimates, and theories only go so far in determining the path the future treads. Action is what marks the pages of history, inspires the glorious monuments of fleeting empires, and erases the smoldering ruins of change to give way for new greatness.
     Fear is an ally or an enemy, but he chooses a side just as surely as time marches on. Advance or defend - the choice is yours, but history remembers courage even in defeat.


 __    
Agatha Tyche

Diamond-Water Paradox

     The Diamond-Water paradox embodied the transformation of Europe from mercantilism to be one of the cornerstones to modern capitalistic economic theory. Supply and Demand are assumed  to be obviously coupled in this century, but all ideas are revolutionary at some point. Originating in the eighteenth century, the Diamond-Water paradox stated a counter example to the then prominent Mercantilism theory of absolute value of objects by stating a man dying of thirst in a desert would trade the most valuable diamond in the world for water because the diamond, at that moment, was worthless to him since it could not save his life.
     Items are worth their value - which is dependent upon the situation. As the human population continues to increase, water consumption around the world, especially in areas with a low water table, has reached levels too high for underground reservoirs to maintain. Los Angelos, United States is the third largest city, but all of its water is siphoned from the Colorado River. This aqueduct has significantly escalated desertification in the southern United States and northern Mexico. The Sahara's increasing populations to the south, notably Nigeria, and to the north in Libya and Egypt.

     In two hundreds years the paradox has become truth. While diamonds are less common than water, the value and utility of the most necessary liquid is constantly being evaluated. The world worries about water, yet some oases retain wasteful levels of overuse, particularly the suburbs of industrialized nations.
     Much like the man dying of thirst in the desert who is willing to trade all his wealth for only a glass of water, the world population may soon find out how valuable fresh water is. Unfortunately, as with so much else, few people will realize our doomed trajectory until the cliff's edge is already behind us. That is for the next decade of minds to resolve. Today merely eat, drink, and be merry. The prevention of tomorrow's problems requires too much inconvenience today.
     Efficiency, practicality, and forethought will greatly extend current water reserves, but ignorance and waste has long been the defeat of mankind.


 __    
Agatha Tyche

Maelstrom

     The title of this blog is incoherent. "Wyyes: microcosm" is intentionally enigmatic because it means exactly what the author desires without cluing in a casual observer. The meaning of this article is similarly convoluted, but as much of life is, the presence of confusion does not imply a lack of function or purpose; because a topic is difficult to convey does not mean that the topic is useless. The first time a chef makes a dish, the end result is not always the desired product, but patience, a working understanding of food chemistry, and the determination to persevere combine, sift, and combine to formulate later successes.

     What is a "malestrom" other than a word used to convey fear of the uncontrollable forces of nature? A chaotic current twists and pulls with an unpredictable flow that dictates the direction of watery paths.
     The thoughts of man meander along similar lines through the settings of time. Tangible yet difficult to see, thoughts seem to follow no direction, but once pulled in, there is no escape. History, society, politics, science, and the interrelationships that tie seemingly unconnected things into a powerful, conglomerated entity that forces humanity to either strive for avoidance (nuclear war) or to strive toward (ending global hunger).

     This concept is not new. The secondary definition of "maelstrom" is "a scene or state of confused and violent movement or upheaval." The turbulence of life displaces, disorients, and disenfranchises most efforts to subdue the natural forces around us. While it is nearly impossible to harness nature, by studying its patterns, rhythms, and motions, large scale implementation of improvement attempts is more readily uncovered. 

     Man is unpredictable yet powerfully motivated. Nature is the perfect depiction of inconceivable strength. Both can be ignored and avoided, but once you begin the advance, there is no retreat - from hurricanes to the minds of men, the forces churns with unbridled curiosity.

     The world is turning,

     Man is yearning,

     Time moves on - 

     And so will I.

 __    
Agatha Tyche