Cultures come, Cultures go !

 

Why do cultures die ? 

Why do the children of the rich do not have the same success as their parents – sometimes becoming poor within a few generation. 

Why ?

In my most humble opinion, having scanned several cultures and histories of yore, I can only say – its because they become too soft !

The cultures that rise to prominence do so due to their hunger – hunger for food, power, land, survival etc !  Once that hunger is assumed, they become sated and do not have the fire in their belly to fight and maintain their position.   Some are able to reinvent their initial goals and become hungry for new things.   Such cultures last a few centuries. 

Even they reach a point where their thinkers and law makers become soft and are unable to see the fire in the belly of their conquered lands.  They assume their new subjects are just as “civilised” as they are and as sated as they are.  This is when they let their guard down, the laws, ideals and ideas that led them to position of prominence are abandoned in new forms of “(politically) correct” behaviour and soon, the conquerors become the conquered.

Rarely do cultures / civilisations go beyond these limitations and continue for millennia's.  India and China have done it.  Theirs are truly ancient civilisations that have survived many a tests of time.  They have been conquerors and conquered time and again, and have survived to rise like phoenix time after time.

 

The sons of poor are sometimes seen to become rich – almost over night.  The wealth remains for a couple of generations, and than, it vanishes.   Why ?

Same reason – once super rich, they go soft - there is no fire in the belly of the super rich. 

A poor kid, struggling to live on the streets has a hunger in his belly to fire his  ambition.  S/He works hard and by sheer force of will power, becomes powerful – in which ever field they has chose.  Once they have kids, to avoid the pain of not having what they desired, they make sure their kids life is full of luxury - all the things that they were denied. 

Kids of the newly rich have seen some of the hardship of their parents, or heard about it and are impressed enough to try and maintain their new found wealth.  The grand children and subsequent generations, do not have the same connection and often, have none of the die-hard fire in their belly to want to stay at the top.  Having become soft, and once the legacy is spent, they move down the wealth ladder.

That’s why is rare to find “old money” – people who have remained rich or powerful for generations upon generations !

 

Civilisations come and civilisations go…

  

One of the strangest thing is, over the millennia's, civilisations come and civilisations go.  Even the smallest nations have at one time or another dominated the scene and than, as quickly as they have come, they have gone back.  A few have flourished for centuries, some for a few thousand years, and a rare few are still here.

The likes of Huns, Mongols and Vikings, rose to power and prominence.   They dominated neighbours due to strength and weapons.  Their sudden desire to dominate seems to have culminated in a few generations of brilliant leadership.  Once they achieved their initial goal of loot and land, they stopped being so aggressive and were conquered by those they had once conquered.

Some managed to survive a few centuries – mainly by redefining their goals and looking to leave legacies greater than a few ruins.  Their lofty goals of leaving laws, religions, languages, philosophies allowed them to last longer.   Like the Romans, Greeks and Incas, they rose to prominence, made huge gains and than, having achieved their initial goals, they set up new world order, not something that lasted a few years, but for decades and centuries after their prominence.  However, they became “soft” and their enemies came to dominate them.

Some cultures, like the Egyptians, rose to power, went through several ups and downs, but remained in overall control of their destiny for a few thousand years.  They found that being flexible was essential for survival.  They went through phases of rigidity and flexibility, through phases of being inward looking and outward looking policies.  They died out due to lack of roots – the new rulers aped aspects of the past, but without real roots in the new lands, they died, taking the ancient civilisation with them.

Of all the ancient cultures, only Hindu and Chinese have lasted for millenniums.  Sadly, the Chinese culture is being systematically wiped out and re-written to please a rootless political ideal.  An ideal that was born on the other side of the world, and that has failed in every other country.

 

Hinduism is the only one that survives in its land of origin.   It too is being attacked – from all sides and it will be amazing to see how it survives this latest attack on it.

 

© Bhagwat Shah

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