While Nature and Nurture both evidence impact on human beings, it is nurture that influences the surrounding environment on one's personality and beliefs. As nature being the innate ability more or less remains stagnant, nurture is dynamic and plays a more active role in one's life. It is the environment which teaches humans what to believe, how to behave, and how to respond/react. The community and country where one lives is perhaps the most influential force in developing the foundation of opinions, values, and actions of people. Parents, public institutions, and social communities are essential in the molding of children. Parents, schools, and communities’ involvement/non-involvement in children’s lives play a primary role in their aspirations, economic success, and values. Actions taken by the community in childrearing years affect children throughout their entire lives, especially in the economic, political, and social spectrum; it is important to remember how essential children are in the development and progress of a nation. This idea is most clearly illustrated in the various Ancient Civilizations. Throughout history, strong co-ethnic ties and beliefs have had a prominent influence on the national economic performance and happiness/prosperity of citizens of states and nations. Successful nations and unsuccessful nations differ immensely in their cultural and societal values. Nations that strive for the “common good” of their people are very successful as the Government, Religious Community, and Laws work together to makes choices that will benefit most of society without hurting the rest of society. Specifically the creation of laws are responsible for protecting the common people from injuries to liberty, justice, equality and opportunity of personal growth prosperity and happiness within a society. In addition the Government is responsible in the enforcement of laws and to guide, lead, and protect the interests of the individuals as well as the interests of the weak, old or young from inside and outside forces; they are the foundation of a nation because what the government chooses to do will have a large influence on the going ons in society especially on the common good. Similarly, Religion is a unifying factor, that should be used to propagate good values such as love and compassion. It should also be responsible for providing a guideline/structure for living a good life for those who need guidance while still allowing other more free spirited people to choose their own path. It should not be discriminatory or oppressive in its beliefs.
The Greek Empire, one of history's most famous civilizations, began with a very unified state and culture that dominated a sizeable portion of the western hemisphere. Most citizens residing in the Greek empire believed in one “religion”(Pagan belief of multiple gods such as Zeus, Aphrodite etc…). And while they did care about individualism, they focused more on collectivism as a nation, and as a family. Cooperation was highly valued and this was demonstrated with the Greeks invention of democracy, debate, and discussion. Moreover the Greeks had very clear rules for how one should behave within society( The Greek people strived for perfection in every aspect). Although they did not have any official law, discipline and certain cultural values like virtue and respect were ingrained into society. The Greek empire’s culture, politics, and philosophy positively impacted many other states and countries, most notably the Roman Empire and the Muslim Empire.
In Greece’s prime, many of the values that were emulated and essential to Greek life were Xenia, or hospitality, devotion to family, moderation, education and philotimo, "love of honor" a concept that Greeks have long respected and is about one's conduct and "acting correctly." All of these ideas were important to the progression and health of the nation because it allowed for the majority of the people to be happy and equal on a conscious level. Even slaves had the opportunity to free themselves from slavery.
But as time passed, and the Greek Empire grew more powerful, many of their important values were forgotten and their system of society and government slowly became polluted which ultimately lead to their “downfall”. This downward trend was especially prevalent during the Hellenistic period in Greece. In this time period, the Greek city-states were weak and disorganized as a result of two centuries of warfare with the Persians, Thebans, and the Spartans. All of this fighting and anarchy made it easy for a dominant figure to rise to power and instead of the city-states democracy system that was utilized for most of Greek history, Greece was now ruled by oppressive and corrupt Kings. Many Greek citizens felt detachment in this new political landscape as before, Greece had a direct democracy where every man was a part of the going ons in their democratic city-states. Now, these people lived in an empire governed by professional bureaucrats. This made many Greek citizens feel alienated from their state; one can connect this situation to Marx’s ideology on alienation of labor during the industrial revolution. Furthermore, this also relates to Almond and Verba’s classic study on Civic Culture. They believe that the nation/society is more stable when many people are active in politics and feel like they have the power to influence the government. In Greece’s case during the Hellenistic era, the people felt like they lacked power to impact their government which I feel contributed to Greece’s increased instability. During the Hellenistic period, the Greeks lost many of their important values like honor and respect which they replaced by values such as war and continuous conquering.
In the same context, the Roman Empire fell because of similar reasons. The Roman Empire like the Greeks, were one of the most revered Empires in the world at the times as well as in history. Before the Roman Empire’s disintegration, it was an empire that was full of national pride and unity(it also absorbed good Greek values). The empire was open to foreigners and was reliable to its allies. Rome unlike many of its neighboring states accepted and incorporated other people even enemies into their society. Anyone could become a citizen as long as he/she adhered to the rules and values. Even with slaves, the Romans commonly practiced manumission (owners freeing their slaves). Slaves could work and accumulate money and then buy their freedom. Numerous such slaves then prospered as merchants and became rich; they could also fight as gladiators to earn their freedom.
Roman leaders, whether they be senators from noble families or emperors, were accountable to their citizens. Leaders respected majority ideas over the will of a single man. There were multiple checks on power with the emperor being kept in check by the senate, the tribunes and other leaders. If an emperor was abusing his power, he would not have a long reign as the other leaders would make sure he was taken down from his position of power. In relation to government, the Romans had a codified law and justice system, a republic cased government which was divided into districts with elected governors, well made roads across the empire, and effective battle tactics. So as citizens paid their tax, they were paid back through infrastructure, trade routes and of course, security and protection from the strong military. In addition, the Roman Empire respected the religions of the conquered people (although this would change later).
When the main goal of the Roman empire no longer pertains and benefits the majority of the society, there is bound to be disconnect between the people and nation(this contributes slightly to the military issues of the Roman Empire in its later years). This demonstration will weaken the empire and allow for invaders to infest the nation. In addition, The Roman empire also became greedy and wanted more and more land, but with limited resources, it was unable to maintain such a large empire as their communication tools lagged behind the rate the empire expanded(Large empires needs a large army. The empire was so sprawled out that communicating across it could take months, so soldiers had to live for years at the outposts, and there were many border outposts. And because the Roman Empire had trouble conquering the forces in the East and the Germanic tribes in the North, much of their resources were drained as they maintained these outposts through decades of fighting). The farther the empire stretched from Rome, the harder it was for Rome to make its demands known and for it to enforce its edicts.
By the same token, the empire eventually started using its barbarian neighbors as their mercenaries because Rome could no longer recruit enough Roman citizens due to the plethora of wars that were simultaneously active. And when it was unable to effectively pay those mercenaries, the mercenaries turned on the empire and looted many resources to gain their just rewards because these mercenaries had no loyalty to the Roman Empire. During this time period, the citizens of Rome were not supportive of the Roman government/leaders because so many of their loved ones were returning dead from war and poverty was prevalent. Similarly, Roman cities became overpopulated and insanitary which increased the risk of disease and health problems. Everything and everyone were in turmoil.
Furthermore, there were Internal dissent and conflict. Just like many other empires in mankind's history, the levels of internal dissent in Rome were high. The emperors were interchanged every few years and corruption was very prominent. There were religious and cultural conflicts especially with the Jewish and Christian people within Rome and when that dissent prevented the empire from reaching a point where equilibrium could be maintained, the empire began to crumble. The empire split into two entities and when Rome became an Eastern and a Western empire, its days were numbered. The empire was only a cohesive entity for a relatively short period of time. Rome as it was known really only lasted 150-250 years. But during that relatively short period, it dominated the known world.
Of course the Roman Empire which was later split into Western and Eastern parts had different outcomes in the long run. The Western part of the Roman Empire was mostly destroyed but the Eastern part later evolved into Byzantium(Constantinople). Constantine, a famous Byzantium emperor(also the founder of Byzantium) who understood the importance of the common good and majority support decided to decriminalize Christianity as before, those who were Christian were persecuted against. This act was done because he knew that a large portion of his empire was Christian and so he mostly used Christianity as a political move to unite the empire under him; he created one state, one religion, one god, one savior, one Emperor. If he didn’t convert or if he was still worshiping Multiple Roman Gods while most of his subjects were Christian, then obviously a general instability and disconnect throughout the Empire would follow. This could possibly lead to an overthrow of the Emperor and promote more conflict. The Emperor’s conversion to Christianity and his decriminalization of Christianity was almost like an early enforcement of a “law” as persecution against Christians was now against the will of the emperor.
Being such a unified state, Byzantium sat at the crossroads of world trade. If you were in business in Byzantium, wealth was a promise. Constantine’s move from Old Rome to New Rome revitalized the empire at the expense of abandoning Rome’s historic home. Byzantium grew rich and prosperous while Rome withered.
The Muslim Empire in comparison to the Greek Empire and Roman Empire was similar in some ways but vastly different in others. Like the Romans, the Muslims were greatly influenced by Greek values as many early Muslims were translators. The Muslims built their earliest architectural monuments in a purely Greek style, they used Greek works of philosophy and geography to help themselves gain a better understanding of the world around them. Early Muslims approached the Greek tradition as part of their own heritage, even if it was a pagan heritage. As the Muslims began to build their own identity, the creation of abstract art became popular. Their calligraphy was written in a way that hinted at abstractness and creativity. This was all done because Muslims thought it was important for people to have their own individualistic interpretations of what they saw; they wanted everyone to have their own individual feelings toward God as it would help them forge a more intimate and personal connection with God. Nature is especially important to Muslims as it is the direct presence of their Religion(Islam) and it is also the reason why unlike the Jewish and Christians, there is no image of God. They believed “everything is God” and no one is better than anyone else because everyone is a part of God. This type of individualism highly valued in Muslim society was looked down upon later in Hitler’s reign of Germany as anything that was considered abstract was destroyed and banned. Nazi Germany did not want critical thinking and personal ideas from their people. It wanted a cohesive homogeneous community.
The Muslim empire being such a religious society, it would make sense to say The Koran was their law. Anything against the Koran and God was wrong and one could be punished. There has been many cases (like Constantine) where people choose a certain religion for political or social purposes but in Islam, only one who is truthful, patient, always doing the right things for the right reasons, will be protected by God. Like the Greeks and Romans, the Muslims also at some point in their history believed in good values.
Muslims were also responsible for the innovation of paper spreading across the world as they conquered central Asia where papermaking was created. This spread of paper allowed for them to have an advantage in using paper in less formal situations. This is important because paper was useful in government settings as it was hard to forge on since erasing was difficult. This allowed for papers and records to be truthful as tampering was so hard and could be easily identified. Paper was used for commerce as there were checks that people exchanged and could use to buy things. Checks originated in Islamic society. This kind of system truly exemplified the trust illustrated between citizens in Muslim society. Moreover, their religion motivated them to become very self disciplined(praying 5 times a day, fasting on Ramadan month etc…). All of these values contributed to the Muslim society being highly functional.
Although because of their faith-based society, the Muslim Empire did have some problems, many of which ironically pertained to religion. Because of the divergence in opinion on who should be the next successor of Muhammad, there was a division in the Muslim Empire which created the Sunni and Shias. This would later be essential to the conflicts in modern society in the Middle East. In certain aspects, the division of the Muslim Empire has to do with the loss of the “common good”. These two groups in society could not come to a consensus on who would be the successor of Muhammad and as a result split. They did not think of what would be beneficial to everyone in society as a unit.
In addition, Muslim Society was extremely unequal in terms of gender. “Though during Fasting you must abstain from all the urges of nature including the sexual urge it is made lawful for you on the nights of the fasts to approach and lie with your wives (for sexual relationship).” This quote implies the dominant nature of men in comparison to women. Also it should be noted this excerpt is only addressed to the husbands, men, further demonstrating the inequality of men and women. The difference is even clearer in another text from the Koran when it says“For male is the equal of the portion of two females”; this gap in status was also illustrated in most Ancient Societies like the Roman and Greeks. Why this is a problem is because I believe that a Religion( Monotheistic especially) should unify the people, put people on equal standing in the eyes of God. When a person enters a church or a Religious institution, no matter their wealth or status, they are the same as anyone else. They do the same prayer, they are addressed the same. In this case, in the Ancient Muslim society, women who are essential to the functioning of societies being that they are the birth mothers, are not given the same rights of man. There is a split in gender in terms of rights where there should be unification.
Through the eyes of history, the sames mistakes have been made countless of times in civilization across the world. The values that are important to a civilization changes from ones that benefit the whole of society to those that benefit only the few. Values that should be embodied such as compassion and love are lost while values like war and power persist. And this phenomena has become even more common in our world today. Materialism and Greed has infested the hearts of this new generation of people. The United States government especially the executive branch and congress are overwrought with corruption. Corporations allow for the implementation of sweatshops, they look for loopholes to get out of paying taxes, and the problem with the “normal people” are that they are blind to the issues at hand.
Distracted and preoccupied by the plethora of media entertainment and daily lives of celebrities, many people are sedating themselves. They no longer have only lost important universal values, but have become ignorant to the reality of life. Most people choose not to see the problems in society like poverty and abuse because they don’t believe they have the power to change anything as they acknowledge themselves but a speck in a large galaxy. And if people continue on this route, what they perceive of themselves will become real and nothing will get done. To make a change in what I see is a decaying world, we must start changing one person at a time. By doing one good deed, you can influence someone else to do the same. As Sun Tzu in The Art of War emphasizes “Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.” which really implies that only when there is cooperation and unification can people become powerful enough to make a difference.
In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan says to her baby daughter “I hope she'll be a fool..a beautiful little fool." and in Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford, he says “Stay hungry, and stay foolish.” In both, the word fool is used yet one means ignorance and the other means curiosity. As we live comfortably in our homes watching television, the Rohingyas in Myanmar are being massacred, citizens of North Korea are starving. Even in the streets of our own towns, people are homeless. It’s the time to make a change, to work together to truly transform the world and as idealistic as it sounds, it is up to this new generation of youth to choose whether to be ignorant or to be curious. And this decision will decide the fate of our world.