Journey of Civilizations - Introduction
 

[B][U]Journey of Civilizations[/U][/B]

Let’s turn some leaves of history to find the great milestones of human civilization in his journey from savage to ambassador of democarcy. Here are two men disputing over an issue: one knocks the other down, kills him and then concludes that one who is alive must have been right, and who is dead must have been wrong--a mode of demonstration still accepted in international disputes. Here are two other men disputing: one says to the other, “Let us not fight-we may both be killed; let’s take our difference to some elder of the tribe, and submit to his decision.” It was a crucial moment in the human history! For if the answer was No, barbarism continued; if it was Yes, civilization planted its root in the memory of man: the replacement of chaos with order, of brutality with judgment, of violence with law. When we look at history in large it appears as a graph of rising and falling of nations, cultures disappearing as on some gigantic film. But in this chaos of men and nations, some great moments stands out as peaks and essence of human history, certain advances which once made never lost and step by step man climbed from savage to a civilized creature of this world. What is civilization? It is a complex of security and culture, of order and liberty, political liberty through morals and law, economic security through the continuity of production and exchange; culture through facilities for the growth and transmission of knowledge, manners and art. The rise of civilizations—the large and complex types of societies in which most people still live today—developed along with surplus food production. People of high status eventually used food surpluses as a way to pay for labor and to create alliances among groups, often against other groups. In this way, large villages could grow into city-states (urban centers that governed themselves) and eventually empires covering vast territories. With surplus food production, many people could work exclusively in political, religious, or military positions; or in artistic and various skilled vocations. Command of food surpluses also enabled rulers to control laborers, such as in slavery. All civilizations developed based on such hierarchical divisions of status and vocation. Great religions transformed the social architecture of civilizations through conviction and universality, philosophies were updated and deleted, science and technology modernizing the civic web. In this human journey, civilization as a whole, was never stop though it shifted its home periodically from Indus to Mesopotamia, Greek to Rome, Ottoman to British and finally to more than 180 nation states today. Though primitive practices are gone, and social organization, knowledge, family system, global trade non-tangible currency markets, democracy, knowledge sharing , space age and computers are the hall mark of present world, and yet barbarism, lust for control, oppression are still dwelling.
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From a Good Source
Qamar