History 151 Paper on Recurring Themes

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 11^th, 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.