HIST 151 – MW 12:00
10 December 2010
Recurring Themes in the Past and the Present
One
theme that I have found that was in the past and still is now in the present is
the attitude and actions of the Athenians and now of the Americans. The
Athenians were the people of the city-state Athens in the Hellenic Civilization
of the Greeks in 800 BCE. They were a very democratic civilization and believed
that they were the best. They felt
“entitled” to everything they desired, I believe that this concept is used in
the United States of America greatly today, especially in the democratic
parties.
One example
would be that the Athenians wanted to choose their own Patron instead of having
someone just rise up and become leader. They also developed Hubris (arrogance
or excessive pride); After the Delian League was made by most of the city
states to defend themselves against the Persians if they attacked, the
Athenians started to use money that was saved by all the city states for
themselves. They bought themselves things and built many places with that
money. All they were thinking about were themselves, not taking into account
the consequences that all of the city states would have to endure if the
Persians ever attacked again.
The
Americans attitude is related to that of the Athenians in the sense that we
feel we should get what we want and what we think is right. For example,
Americans vote for our next president. We would rather not someone we don’t
approve of get into office, just as the Athenians thought. Also, now that
commercial goods are all around us in these modern days, we see what we want
and we get it. Sometimes no matter how difficult it would be to get that thing,
we find a way to acquire it. Even President Barack Obama declared that America
had “shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” towards its allies. His
speech in Strasbourg went further than any United States president in history
in criticizing his own country’s action while standing on foreign soil. (Harnden) This just shows that
we as Americans, even our president, do acknowledge that we are an arrogant,
entitled people.
The
second theme that I have recognized that has connections between the past and
the present is the difficulties between the Islam religion and Christianity. These
two groups of people always had constant arguments and disagreements. At around
the time of 1000-1400 CE, there were the Crusades, or Holy Wars which included
the Christians vs. the Muslims. The Crusades occurred on three different
fronts, or areas of the war. They were Spain/Granada, Sicily, and The Holy
Land/Palestine. The Christians were trying to drive the Muslims out of all
these three places because of their threat to them and their differences.
I
believe that this worldwide phenomenon is still being expressed tremendously today.
Christians absolutely do not agree with the Muslims today and vice versa. America
is supposedly a Christian nation by the Pledge of Allegiance stating “One
Nation Under God...” and therefore, most Americans do have Christian views
which contradict a lot with Islam views. After the September 11th,
2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Christians and
almost all Americans got infuriated because the bombing was done by Muslims.
This act that was done really flamed the fire that Christians already had
against the Muslims. It was so bad that a nondenominational church in
Gainesville, Florida, planned to host an "International Burn a Quran
Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. The
Quran is the Islam Religion book that is the written down message from their
God, Allah. Muslims all over America are now being arrested left and right
while doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary all because of what those
Muslims did. When a Muslim is seen, people already suspect that they plan to do
something crazy or that they’re terrorists.
This
strong tension that the Christians and Muslims are feeling between each other
is most likely the same exact thing they felt back in the 1000’s CE, during the
Crusades. It is undeniably amazing how the same religious battles that were
being fought thousands of years ago are still being fought to this day. The
Crusades are long over, but it seems like the battle between Christians and
Muslims is not quite over yet.
