Ways of the World: Chapter 24

A section that I found to be very interesting was the section on religious alternatives to fundamentalism. I found it interesting because the way that the countries and the different religions that inhabited these countries were willing to come together and meet to discuss their different ideas to gain understanding and hopefully come to establish peace. I feel that this is exactly what needs to happen in order to be able to establish a global peace. There have already been too many wars in the past between nations because there was a difference in religion or ideology, by coming to accept other ideas and religion there will be a greater peace established. In the past religions have tried to convert others with different ideas to share the same ideas so that they could be "saved", this caused conflict as well as distrust amongst nations, which led to wars. The acceptance of one global religion and the destruction of all others would be impossible to achieve therefore making the only possible solution to be agreeing to disagree on the matter, through acceptance and understanding of others and their cultures. Unfortunately this solution is easier to be said than done and in order to accomplish this there would be a lot of hard work and cooperation, which is hard to achieve due to the already present resentment between nations. I hope that some day this will be accomplished and a global piece could be established.

Discovering the Global Past: Chapter 15

A piece of the reading that I found interesting was the churches response to September 11, when the United States was bombed by terrorists. Reverend Falwell and Pat Robinson believed that an angry God had allowed the terrorists to succeed in their deadly mission because the United States had become a nation of abortion, homosexuality, secular schools and courts, and the American Civil Liberties Union. This is the first time that I have encountered this idea, and when I read this section I was truly shocked to see that people really believed that this was the reason for the bombing. I am slightly biased to be against some of the views and ideas of the church as it is, so this just made me angry. Religion needs to evolve and reconsider and be refreshed to the very ideas that people believe qualify a person as a good christian individual. Christianity stresses being a good individual that is accepting and understanding to all other people, no judgment or condemning of others, that is the responsibility of God. The church in this case was just using September 11, as another reason to hate people are different from what they want and teach and I find this truly disgusting.

Ways of the World Chapter 23: South Africa

I found the apartheid to be very interesting and how ending the apartheid and gaining freedom was a challenge for the South African natives, because South Africa had in fact been independent of Great Britain since 1910, however the Independence was granted to a small group of white settlers that made up less than twenty percent of the entire population. Therefore the struggle for freedom was against an internal opponent rather than a distant colonial authority. The dependence of the black population on the white controlled economy made individuals seem highly vulnerable to repressive action, however the threat to withdraw the work of the black community gave the people a powerful weapon. Actions that were taken to end the apartheid were nonviolent civil disobediences such as boycotts, strikes, and the burning of the hated passes. In retaliation the white leaders had the black leaders put in jail and participated in violent shootings thought to be necessary in sending a message to the revolutionaries. However the people remained persistent in the fights for their natural born rights, and with the help of international countries, the apartheid was officially ended in the 1990’s, and the African National Congress came into power and Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black South African president.

Ways of the World Chapter 22: Nuclear Standoff

The United States was able to gain an authoritative advance on the other nations because it was the only country that had nuclear weapons. The soviet union was not happy with this advancement so they focused much of their attention on the production of a nuclear weapon, and were successful in 1949. The amount of nuclear weapons in the world and the countries that obtained them increased exponentially creating a worldly threat and changing the way warfare was carried out. There were no need for simple battles when a nation could be destroyed at the touch of a button. This is the concept that grabs my attention the most, because the thought of this even being possible is absolutely horrifying to me. To think that the entire world could be destroyed over one wrong move. That is why there was the cold war, because there was a cold front. Countries feared fighting any battles because it might possibly result in a bombing that leads to the destruction of earth. The concept that the earth could be destroyed seems so distant but so possible. If a country or psycho leader decides to release a bomb on us, the whole world will break out into a nuclear war, destroying everything and nothing but cockroaches would be left to walk our planet. That is a scary thought, I wish the weapons would just be destroyed and then we could be more peaceful of a place.
I watched a science special on nuclear weapons a couple years ago, where the scientist that invented the nuclear bomb was interviewed and he said he hated what has become of his invention. He made the weapon to keep the peace and after it was released he was sorry he ever did it, because all it did was create more problems. He feels guilty for the lives it took and for the destruction it has already caused. I found this extremely interesting because this man recieved so much honor and praise for his discovery and he doesnt want it because he is not happy with the discovery. I understand his guilt and I feel sorry for him, cause there is no way to really end it. I hope the nations that have these weapons know what they are caring for and do so wisely, cause like the scientist, they will probably regret the aftermath, if there is enough time for the thought to run through their mind.

Chapter 21: The Faciest Alternative in Europe

I found it interesting to read about how the fascist movement began. So many people grabbed onto this new idea of government and embraced its ideas, I am hoping without really knowing what it is. The description the textbook gives of fascism makes me very unwary when realizing so many nations accepted this concept. Fascists bitterly condemned individualism, liberalism, feminism, parliamentary, democracy and communism, all of which they argued divided and weakened the nation. Fascists were intensely nationalistic, seeking to revitalize and purify the nation, they condoned violence and exalted action rather than thought and or reflection. Nations that accepted the fascist ideas and joined the movement, included Germany, Italy, and Russia. These were the main three nations and all were taken over by an inspiring charismatic leader that could make some of the most horrid and treacherous things seem like the right thing to do.
For example, Hitler was the leader that began to influence Germany and his party was able to eventually take over the entire nation's government. Hitler was such a good speaker and influencer that he nearly influenced an entire nation that it was right to kill a neighbor due to the way they looked or the religion they chose to follow. He turned friends against friends, lovers against lovers and in some cases family against family to lead a nation to one of the largest and most horrible genocides in history. The fact that people could be influenced enough to let something this horrid take place and also in some cases follow along and commit these types of crimes is scary to me. I sometimes wonder if something like this could happen again and the people of one nation or even my own nation could do something similar.
What I have learned from this is that I must craefully choose which leader I choose to follow and allow to influence me. The other people of the nation must also do this. In a case where a mistake was made or the people were blinded by someone's character, I hope that people would choose to stand up and do whats right so that history willl not ever repeat itself. This was a very interesting subject and I am curious to read more on the subject.

Ways of the World Chapter 20

The section that grabbed my attention most was Cooperation and Rebellion. When discussing colonial times and the actions of exploration and conquest, it is common to discuss rebellion. The rebellion usually occurs from the people of the colonies that are natives to the land and being conquered by other larger nations. They rebel because they disagree with the ideas or religion of the Europeans. They may also rebel in order to drive the Europeans out of their native lands so that they can preserve their histories and traditions that the Europeans are trying to strip from them. What grabbed me about this section was the discussion of cooperation of the native people and the Europeans. In some cases the natives chose to cooperate with the European colonists in order to gain an advantage. It was necessary for the colonials to rely on the natives in order to make distant rule more effective. In these cases the natives of status and influence usually were able to retain their power while gaining even more wealth for their efforts. The natives that cooperated were able to gain a strong western-European education that allowed them to sometimes leave the native lands and go off and gain a further education on the "mainland". These natives would return home as lawyers, doctors, and even engineers or journalists, which enabled an overall higher level of sophisitication amongst the natives.
This is what I found most interesting. Both options, rebellion or cooperation had its pros and cons among them. In the case of rebellion, the pros were that they stood for what they believed in and what they felt was right, and in some cases they were successful. The cons of rebellion is that many natives were saughtered and in the end they seemed to lose every freedom possible. The pros to cooperation was that the people contained some freedoms and were given the opportunity to receive and education. The cons of cooperation were that the people lost their traditions and beliefs and were forced to conform to the ways of the europeans, losing everything they believed in. Niether is better than the other, and both have positive and negative outcomes.

Ways of the World Chapter 19: Sick Man Of Europe

I found it interesting to read about how the Ottoman Empire, which was once viewed as one of the most powerful empires in the world, weakened greatly in the early 19th century. The Ottoman Empire was the leader of a variety of nations and controlled most of the Arab world and it shocked me to see that a nation so powerful could fall so suddenly. Then I realized that this was a common phenomenon that occurred in many of the powerful nations in the past. This in a way, slightly scares me, because the United States is constantly growing in power and I cannot help but think when it is our turn to fall. As the United States continues to grow as a nation, the chances of us falling, I feel greatly increases. It is important that the United States government pays attention to the stability of the country which I am sure that they do, but I am afraid we are headed down the path that many nations in the past may have followed, which lead to their overall downfall.