William Grassie; Nationalism, Terrorism, and Religion: A Bio-Historical Approach

This is a part of a lecture that William Grassie gave in 2008: February at the Subodhi Institute, April at the University of Peradeniya and again in May, BMICH Committee Room B, Colombo, Sri Lanka;
http://www.grassie.net/pdfs/2008_A_Biohistorical_Approach.pdf viewed on 29.10.2010 at 13:53(GMT+10)

“Discussing the phenomena of nationalism, terrorism, and religion. It is wise to take a bio-historical, evolutionary perspective, because I think this will help us best understand and transform many conflicts [and dilemmas] throughout the world.

I am inspired to take this evolutionary approach in part through my encounters with the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit Paleontologist who died in 1955.

He writes:

For our age, to have become conscious of evolution means something very different and much more than having discovered one further fact...

Blind indeed are those who do not see the sweep of a movement whose orb infinitely transcends the natural sciences and has successfully invaded and conquered the surrounding territory – chemistry, physics, sociology, and even mathematics and the history of religions. One after the other all the fields of human knowledge have been shaken and carried away by the same under-water current in the direction of some development. Is evolution a theory, a system, or a hypothesis? It is more: it is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, a curve that all lines must follow.

By taking this broad evolutionary approach, we gain the most leverage in both understanding and transforming [our] countries and the world. So [it is good to] begin globally and end locally [wherever on Earth].

Nationalism

Nationalism can be understood as an evolutionary outgrowth of our natural tribal passions and rationalities, which were imprinted in the human psyche and genome over millions of years. Humans are profoundly social animals with a highly evolved capacityto engage in symbolic thought. One of the fundamental challenges in social species is how to ensure cooperation within the group and sacrifice on behalf of the group. The wellbeing and survival of the group depends on this cooperation and sacrifice. In humans, this is accomplished by a mix of evolved primate behaviours, as well as, newer cultural adaptations in the realm of religions, ideologies, and cultures.

It is no simple evolutionary trick to get individuals to cooperate and to sacrifice their own wellbeing, or that of their immediate offspring, for the benefit of the group. And yet, we cannot imagine that a human society would long endure if it could not 1) organize its members to cooperate and 2) in extreme instances, ask individuals to sacrifice their wellbeing for the benefit of the group. The latter is particularly troublesome to evolutionary biologists, because true altruism would contradict Darwin’s theory of natural selection. There are various theories within evolutionary biology that try to explain other-regarding behaviour. They go by names like kin selection and reciprocal altruism. At this stage, we need only consider a few of the proximate mechanism, rather than their ultimate explanations, and think about how these scale up from the level of the tribe to the dynamics of a nation state.

Remember that the dark side of this in-group altruism is that it is often employed in the most brutal manner against outsiders. Humans are clearly capable of great evil, as manifested in warfare, massacres, pillaging, raping, and enslavement, which have been the norm for most of human history and presumably much of our pre-history. This evil is partly a function of our evolved nature.

Of course, humans have natural dispositions towards living in groups. It hardly needs to be said, but no human is self-created. There is no such thing as a fully autonomous individual human. We speak languages we did not invent; we use tools that we did not design; we benefit from a vast library of knowledge that we did not discover; and we are nurtured as infants and children into “individuality” by families and societies that we did not choose.

What does Henry Lawson’s story “Drifted Back” tell us about the experience of the Australians in 19th century? What two themes we can identify in the story?

In this essay I will present my view on Henry Lawson’s perspective on the life and experience of white settlement pioneers in outback Australia described in a sketch story “Drifted Back”. Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) absolutely had no romantic illusions about a 'rural idyll'. His bitter view of the outback life was far removed from the romantic idyll of brave horsemen and beautiful scenery depicted in some other Australian novels and poetry of his time. He touched two themes in the story: loneliness and change.

From the story we learn that the stranger, perhaps a white old man, has come back after 15 years to the town he knew very well. He enquired about number of people he knew from this desolate town. He listed them surname by surname expecting to find a few of his old friends. He seemed very surprised to find that most of the people were no longer in the town. He did not expected so big a change. It seems like he did not realise that time is flowing. He came alone to his hometown after years of his swagman journey “(…)I've tramped and travelled long ways since then” expecting to reunite with his family - old friends, to find a home again and spend Christmas-time like everyone likes to spend – with family, among people where one feels safe and comfortable.

The Forgotten Genocide of World War II

Operation AB KATYN - download movie "Katyn" by Adrzej Wajda (Oscar award winner)

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre after the partition of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.

After Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union collaborated to rip Democratic Poland apart in September 1939, the two totalitarian regimes started a systematic extermination campaign aimed at destroying not only Polish patriotism but also the spirit of freedom which made Poland the first nation to stand up against them.

If we forget about them, then You God in heaven, forget about us.

 

(paraphrase of Adam Mickiewicz - a Polish bard)

The image was taken from blogs.myspace.com/cafe_bodo

Historical events which are influencing most of the western world in the present

It could be argued that most people do not care about history. Many are only focused on materialistic concerns and do not think much about tomorrow. They only show interest in their individual lives and their professional careers, if they have careers, easily neglect the past and the welfare of the community in which they live. They do not seem to care about the past history of their families, their nations and countries. Loosing the link to one’s own roots and one’s own real identity, where one belongs, does not seem an important issue these days. However, if some specific events in human history had not occurred, our present attitudes to life would be very different. Therefore it is beneficial to consider the impact of key historical events on ordinary people’s awareness of their current political responsibilities.

The first event which should be considered, in terms of importance, is the downfall of Constantinople (1453). It demonstrated the serious technological backwardness of the Christian troops compared to the Islamic military. Turkish engineers and generals introduced to the Christian world their advantage and superiority in the development of thought, creativity and military logistics. Greek scholars, afraid of regulations imposed by the Ottoman Empire, escaped in massive numbers to Western Europe. They brought with them ancient philosophical ideas never known before by western intellectuals or aristocrats. The collapse of Byzantium was the first step of the Roman Catholic Church’s progressive obscurity and loss of authority, a process which is still continuing today.

The second event is a direct consequence of the first one. Western writers of 16th and 17th centuries, shocked into consciousness by the forbidden free thought of ancient Greek thinkers, decided to turn away from the despotic and dogmatic Catholic Church and studied new books and ideas in secret. This led to a widespread intellectual revolt against the established feudal order and started the massive movement of the Enlightenment. Centuries of Catholic absolute power in the Middle Ages, overwhelming terror, political and personal control, created a drastic new opposite extremism, in which the cult of God was replaced by the cult of reason. Mysticism began to lose its appeal. The human faculty of reasoning became the new object of man’s veneration and was arrogantly considered to be superior to any other force in the universe. Secret societies rose enormously in numbers.