A response to Algeo-Scheckler’s “Terrestrial-marine teleconnections in the Devonian: Links between the evolution of land plants, weathering processes, and marine anoxic events”

A. Introduction

Before appearance of life on earth it was degassing from volcanisms, metamorphisms and weathering of silicate rocks that were regulating the carbon cycle. Volcanisms were supplying greenhouse gases like CO2 to atmosphere and weathering of Ca and Mg- Silicate rocks were drawing down CO2 from atmosphere to deposit them in form of carbonate rocks (Berner, 1983). The appearance of life on earth added biotic factor in global carbon cycle. One of the biggest events in geological history and also in evolution of Carbon cycle was the evolution of trees and seed plants which resulted in forestation and deep weathering of Silicate rocks (Beerbower et al. 1992). The forestation changed climate by working as a carbon sink and caused rapid drawdown of pCO2 that led to continental glaciations at the end of Devonian (Caputo 1985; Berner 1992, 1994). The rise of forests is correlated with widespread bottom water anoxia that was catastrophic for tropical benthos and coral reef communities (McGhee 1996). Sinking of organic matter and anoxia also resulted in deposition of Barite in Late Devonian Period (Paul, et al. 1994). The vegetative cover of land deeply affected the flow of water in terrestrial environments by strengthening of river banks, bars and changing the morphology of land. Meandering river system become more frequent as compared to prior vegetation cover of land when braided river system were dominating (Neil, et al. 2010). Prior to evolution of larger land plants in Silurian, virtually all river systems had a braided platform (Cotter 1978).

Thomas Algeo and Stephen Scheckler has recently (July, 2010) published a model to link all these events into a feedback system. Though this model covers beautifully most of the aspects of major impacts, tree evolution in a feedback system that changed both marine and terrestrial environments of Devonian Period however, this model is very brief with missing some important changes in feedback systems. There is no mention of forest fire though it was an important addition in Devonian ecosystem and perhaps climate. The rise of forests not only provided fuel but also oxygen level (more than 13%) for forest fire. A opposed to desertification, forestation was a main event that impacted the rate of evaporation and albedo. Eustatic sea level changes that many authors suggested a cause of mass extinctions in Late Devonian was totally ignored. The role of Arcadian orogeny is also totally ignored while Acadian orogeny may have played a vital role in accelerating silicate weathering of plants. All these events are important factors in marine-terrestrial teleconnections that was the main purpose of this flow chart model. Besides, Algeo-Scheckler model’s is showing that all subsequent events are related to Pedogenesis. Though Pedogenesis was an important outcome of arborescence and seed habit however we can’t overlook the roles of forestation and orogeny which were not only the main causes of Pedogenesis and silicate weathering but also had their independent role in marine-terrestrial teleconnections. For example, the landscape stabilization is shown as a result of intensified Pedogenesis while it is as a result of forestation and vegetative cover. Lastly it is needed to acknowledge the complications from parallel mechanisms for climate change and mass extinctions like orogeny, meteorite impacts and even orbital forcing of climate that is really difficult to link in distant geological time. Based on the above arguments I suggest for remodeling of this flow chart and I have redrawn it. Following is Algeo-Scheckler’s flow chart model and next to it, is my effort to amend this flow chart.

After Algeo et al, 2010

Above: Algeo-Scheckler’s flow chart model of marine-terrestrial teleconnections
Below: Redrawn flow chart model of Devonian marine-terrestrial-teleconnections

B. Discussion:

I. Physiological innovations and forestation:


During Early to middle Silurian bryophytic plants have started invading terrestrial environment. Although it was a big step in evolution of land plants however the reproductive and physiological limitations of the bryophytes kept them close to water bodies. Bryophytes are non-vascular, rootless, without stems and leafless thalloid plants that reproduce by spores (Beerbower et al. 1992). Lack of wood, kept them small and limited to wet environment so their invasion of terrestrial environments didn’t result in forestation and their role were limited in silicate weathering as product of their weathering were protosols. These physiological limitations of bryophytes limited their impacts on global carbon cycle, global climate and their role in marine-terrestrial teleconnections. It was Late Silurian and Early Devonian that vascular plants evolved and diversified (Gray, 1985). Though these land plants were small, shallowly rooted and limited to moist land areas but in Middle to Late Devonian Large trees with deep root systems like Archeopteride appeared that had colonized uplands. Algeo-Scheckler (Algeo et al, 2010) has presented artistically the evolution of vascular trees from early to late Devonian. The main innovation that led to differentiation of different plant systems (roots, branches, leaf) was appearance of wood. Raven (Raven, 2005) has pictured this phenomenon beautifully, “Scientists believe that once a lycophyte tree was stabilized by its shallow, forking, rootlike axes, it pushed rapidly skyward……”. By focusing more on impact of forestation of marine-terrestrial teleconnections, my focus will be on , a. environmental diversity of plants and on their size,

Early Devonian (Siegenian/Pragnian-Emsian) upland floodplain
After Algeo et al, 2010

Middle Devonian (Eifelian-Givetian) upland floodplain
After Algeo et al, 2010

Environmental diversity of land plants:

The range of environments that land plants have covered is key to understand the impact of their evolutionary innovations. Algeo-Scheckler’s reconstructions of environments of small, shallow rooted vascular plants in early Devonian and middle to large sized trees in Middle to Late Devonian show their environments as upland floodplains. Their reconstructions are supported by their own works on exposed beds of Franklinian Geosyncline that have exposures at High Arctic island of Canada and Famennian beds in Appalachian USA (Scheckler 1986a; Streel & Scheckler 1990). The flood plains that these trees have covered had diverse environments ranging from fluvial-deltaic to shore lines.

Scheckler (Scheckler et al, 1990) have compared the flora from meandering and braided river system and those of lowland and found that upland vegetation was similar to those of lowland but less diverse.

New York is famous for it’s in place tree stumps especially those of Gilboa village. In place tree stumps in New York regions are mostly found in Fluvial-deltaic, chiefly comprises of two formations of Plattekill and ManorKill formations which are successions of mudstone to sandstone that deposited in diverse range of environments. Bridge-Willis (Bridge et al, 1994) listed environments of Catskill formation from (i) Storm-wave-dominated muddy marine shelf with sandy shoals; (ii) sandy, tide influenced channels with wave- and tide-influenced mouth bars; (iii) sandy and muddy tidal flats, including channels, mouth bars, and washovers ; and (iv) muddy brackish bays, lakes and flood plains.

Late Devonian (Famennian) upland plain
After Algeo et al, 2010

2. Tree sizes (stem and roots)

Along with diversity of environment the size of trees and their rooting systems is another measure of impacts of evolutionary innovations. The large trunk sizes play as large reservoirs of carbon sinks and extensive rooting systems play main key role in weathering of Silicate rocks.
We see a rapid increase in trunk sizes, rooting systems and differentiation of different plant organs from simplest vascular plant of Early Devonian plants like Rhyniophytes to giant trees with extensive rooting like of Archeopterids of Late Devonian. Following I provide some representative plant assemblage of Devonian Period and also representative sizes just to show, how small plants turned into huge trees. This increase of size was a response to terrestrial environment.

i. Early Devonian assemblage:

Early Devonian plant assemblage includes Rhyniophytes, Trimerophytes and Zosterophylls. Rhyniophytes is thought to be oldest vascular plants and it is the simplest of all known vascular plants (Taylor, 1993). Rhyniophytes were small plants and they could reach the height of 30 cm (Renalia) though most of them were much shorter. Zosterophylls that are believed to be the ancestor of Lycopods could attain a height up to 50 cm (Gosslingia breconensis). Trimerophytes which were more complex than Rhyniophytes and Zosterophylls and their size could exceeds than a meter in height. Hence the plant assemblage of early Devonian was leafless with dichotomous braches ranging from few cm to a meter tall.

ii. Middle Devonian assemblage:

The Middle Devonian plant assemblage included Cladoxylalean ferns, Aneurophytes progymnosperms and Drepanophycales lycopods. Lycopods have originated from zosterophylls, had small leafs known as microphylls and most species were herbaceous. The diameter of their stem could reach 6.5 cm and leaves up to 4 cm long and they could reach to height of 50 cm tall. Cladoxylales are fern-like group of small trees; some of them (Pseudosporochnus) could reach 3 meters of height with a trunk that bore large roots and atleast three order of branches. Aneurophytes are the most primitive group (order) within progymnosperms, had three dimensional branching and their trunks from Gilboa, NY (Eospermatopteris), and is believed to 9 to 12 m tall.

iii. Late Devonian assemblage:

The Late Devonian plant assemblage included Zygopterid ferns, Archeopterids progymnosperms, Sphenophyll vines and Tree Lycopods. The elaborately frond bearing Zygopterid ferns were almost tree size as Austroclepsis from Lower Carboniferous of Australia had a trunk of 30 cm in diameter, consisting of numerous leaf bearing stems and intertwined roots. Archeopterids were large trees with extensive root system. Some specimen (Callixylon) had a woody of stem of up to 150 cm and a height exceeding 10 meters. Sphenophyll vines were small trees less than a meter and formed the understory of forests in Devonian and Carboniferous forests.

II. Forest Fire and marine-terrestrial teleconnections:

The most important point that is missing in Algeo-Schekler’s model is forest fire. Forest fire is an important event for Geology, Ecology, Climate and Paleobotany. Forest Fires could be traced by fossilized charcoal known as Fusian. Fusian are dominantly characoalified secondary wood but it may include other plant parts like leaves and seed (Scott et al, 1991) and hence they are important for Paleobotanists as they provide valuable information about the Plants that were constituted forest. Fusian is very important for paleoclimatologists because, forest fire is only possible when atmospheric oxygen level exceeds 13% and it charcoal will not form if atmospheric oxygen content exceeds that of 35% as it burn out the whole woods (Scott et al, 1991). The Fusian along with spores and megafossil may also tell the succession of trees.
Forest fire is important in marine-terrestrial teleconnections of Devonian period to explain the episodic erosional surfaces of black of Devonian. Schieber (Schieber et al al, 2004) identified four regional erosional surfaces in Chattanooga Shale. Algeo-Scheckler’s model linked the black shale to intensified Pedogenesis during Devonian Period. Though intensified Pedogenesis must have played a key role in deposition of black shale however it can’t explain the erosional surfaces of black shale because Pedogenesis was an increasingly intensifying event with evolution of trees. Erosional surfaces could be better explained by transgressive-regressive cycle, orogeny and perhaps also forest fires which are episodic and occur more frequent in hor and climate or during freuquent volcanisms. Pedogenesis, Arcadian orogeny, eustatic sea-level changes and forest fire combined provide a plausible explanation for episodic black shale deposits. Black shale basin of Late Devonian used to measure the rate of Arcadian orogeny (Ettensohn et al 1987). Black shale was deposited in foreland basin and the rate of Arcadian orogeny was exceeding 7 cm/year, so we would expect high terrigenous influx which is adding complicate linear explanation of events.

III. Forestation cover, Fluvial systems, Pedogenesis and Silicate weathering:

Though forestation was not the only big event in Devonian Period but it was the single only event that caused a series of big events of Devonian Period that were related to it like, landscape stabilization, decrease of desertification, intensified Pedogenesis, forest fire and increased O2/CO2. Appearance of root system and their rapid lateral and downward growth and anchorage not only helped in enlargement of plants to tree size but also intensification of the Pedogenesis.

Change in Fluvial Systems:

One of the most obvious impacts of forestation was the landscape stabilization. Big differences in alluvial and fluvial sedimentation and fluvial system have been reported. Davies-Gibling (Davis-Gibling et al, 2010) have compiled the case studies and made a database of subject from Cambrian to Devonian. They constructed a flow chart of feedback system showing inter-relationship of fluvial systems prior evolution of root system of terrestrial plants. It make easy to understand major changes in alluvial system and sediment characteristics after the evolution of root systems. Pre-Devonian fluvial succession characterized by lack of fine grained sediments, were dominated by bedload-dominated transport, unstable banks and flashy discharges showing braided river system characters (Schumm, 1968, Eriksson et al., 2006). Cotter reviewed (Cotter, 1978) 39 published studies on fluvial system from Precambrian to Devonian and found only two reports of pre-Silurian meandering system. Though some authors like Bridge (Bridge, 2006, p.156) has criticized this approach by Cotter however, Vandenberghe (2001, 2003) has provided more evidence on impact of vegetation on fluvial system from preglacial river systems. Whether a system adopts a meandering system or braided systems depends on patchiness of vegetation.

Flow chart of feedback loops of alluvial system prior to vegetation.
After Davies and Gibling et al, 2010

Root systems and vegetation cover of the trees and plants of forest, stabilized river banks and helped to change the dominant braided river system to increasing meandering river system.

2. Silicate Weathering and Pedogenesis:

Algeo-Scheckler (Algeo et al, 2010) have illustrated it beautifully, showing that soil penetration was shallow in Middle Devonian by less 20 cm which increased by Late Devonian to more 80 cm. Vascular plants affect silicate weathering by multiple processes, (i) acidification of soil by organic acids, (ii) increasing residence of water (iii) Increasing the depth of weathering by deep penetration of root systems.

After Algeo-Scheckler et al, 2010

The evidence for intensification of chemical weathering of silicate rocks comes from difference of sedimentation prior vegetation and after the vegetation cover. Prior to vegetation and in absence of K-chelation, K-feldspar have been more stable in terrigenous sediments (Ranganathan, 1983) and hence arkosic and to subarkosic sandstone were more common in fluvial sandstone (Hiscott et al., 1984).


IV. Eutrophication, Glaciation, Sea level variation and Mass extinction:

Due to opposing reports and disagreements among researchers about causes of Late Devonian eustatic sea-level changes and mass extinctions it is not easy to establish an acceptable mechanism for Anoxia and sea level changes and extinctions. However, the coincidence of certain events makes us able to have a general explanation. There were two extinction events in Late Devonian, the first one between Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) and second one between Devonian-Carboniferous (D-C) boundary (Sepkoski, 1996). F-F mass extinction is one of the big fives of mass extinctions (MaGhee,1996). One important aspect of this mass extinction is that most of its victims were shallow, warm-water taxa, reef taxa and pelagic taxa (Hallam and Wignall, 1997) however deep and cold water taxa survived mass extinction (McGhee, 1996).

The episodic mass extinctions as well as survival of cold, deep-water taxa make it difficult to explain the mass extinction as a result of eutrophication from increased nutrient flow as a result of Pedogenesis alone. However, eutrophication becomes a likely factor when it coincides with other processes to accelerate the process of mass killings. Some authors like Newell (Newell, 1967) and Johnson (Johnson, 1974) suggested a rapid regression was the cause of F-F mass extinction, however extinction process was started during high sea level and continued to regression during F-F mass extinction event. There are reports of two regressive-transgressive cycles during mass extinction event. Based on these two cycles Buggisch (Buggisch, 1991) provided an attractive mechanism to link eustatic sea-level changes with marine-terrestrial events to F-F mass extinction.

After Hallam-Wignall et al., 1999

The event begins with transgression which starts two simultaneous processes. Firstly, transgression floods the shelf area and makes a deep and anoxic environment which results in mass killings of benthos. Secondly, transgression bury large amount of organic carbon which initiate global cooling that triggers glaciations. Glaciations cause the sea level drops and expose the organic carbon for oxidation. The oxidation of organic carbon increase CO2 level in atmosphere which in turn results in warming and melting of ice and hence another transgression. Though this mechanism seems explains well the rapid icehouse and greenhouse cycles during F-F mass extinction however, evidences from Morocco and Poland do not show evidences for transgression and regression cycles as you can see in figure of eustatic sea level curves of the period and it is only North America and South China that support the suggested mechanism.

V. Conclusion:

Despite of somewhat contradicting evidences and explanations, the evidences for two stages mass extinctions, two cycles of eustatic sea level changes at least in large part of globe if not all the whole globe, black shale deposits, sulfide and sulfate {Barite deposits (Jewell et al., 1994)} deposits, increased Pedogenesis and change in characteristics fluvial sediments and fluvial systems show unusual conditions in Late Devonian that could be link to rise of forests. Having said that it is noteworthy that all these events were not linear and solely as a result of rise forestation but forestation played a major role to accelerate these events. Hence it is more logical to not overlook other processes during Devonian when constructing a model for marine-terrestrial teleconnections.

References:

Andrew C. Scott & Timothy P. Jones, “Fossil charcoal: a plant-fossil record preserved by fire”, 214/Geology Today, November-December 1991.
2. A.Hallam, P.B. Wignall, “Mass extinctions and sea-level changes”, Earth-Science Reviews 48_1999.217–250.

3. Bickle, M. J., 2002, "Impact of the Himalayan Orogeny on Global Climate", American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #GC61A-04 Time Table of Devonian Period

4. Berner, R. A., Lasaga, A. C. & Garrels R. M. (1983) Am. J. Sci. 283, 641-683.

5. Beerbower, R., Boy, J. A., DiMichele, W. A., Gastaldo, R. A., Hook, R., Hotton, N. III, Phillips, T. L., Scheckler, S. E. & Shear, W. A. 1992 Paleozoic terrestrial ecosystems. In Terrestrial ecosystems through time (ed. A. K. Behrensmeyer, J. D. Damuth,W. A. DiMichele, R. Potts, H.-D. Sues & S. L.Wing), pp. 205^325. University of Chicago Press.

6. Bridge, J.S., 2006. Fluvial facies models: recent developments. In: Posamentier, H.W., Walker, R.G. (Eds.), Facies Models Revisted SEPM: Society for Sedimentary Geology, pp. 85–170.

7. Buggisch, W., 1991. The global Frasnian–Famennian ‘Kellwasser event’. Geol. Rundsch. 80, 49–72.

8. Cotter, E., 1978. The evolution of fluvial style, with special reference to the central Appalachian Paleozoic. In: Miall, A.D. (Ed.), Fluvial Sedimentology: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Memoir, vol. 5, pp. 361–383.

9. Eriksson, P.G., Bumby, A.J., Brümer, J.J., van der Neut, M., 2006. Precambrian fluvial deposits: enigmatic palaeohydrological data from the c. 2–1.9 Ga Waterberg Group, South Africa. Sedimentary Geology 190, 25–46.

10. Frank R. Ettensohn, “Rates of Relative Plate Motion during the Acadian Orogeny Based on the Spatial Distributionof Black Shales”, The Journal of Geology, Vol. 95, No. 4 (Jul., 1987), pp. 572-582.

11. Gray, J. 1985 The microfossil record of early land plants: advances in understanding of early terrestrialization, 1970^ 1984. Phil.Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 309, 167^195.

12. Hallam, A., Wignall, P.B., 1997. Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.

13. Hiscott, R.N., James, N.P., Pemberton, S.G., 1984. Sedimentology and ichnology of the Lower Cambrian Bradore Formation, coastal Labrador: fluvial to shallow-marine transgressive sequence. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 32, 11–26.

14. J.S. Bridge, B.J. Willis, “Marine transgressions and regressions recorded in Middle Devonian shore-zone deposits of Catskill clastic wedge”, Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 106, p. 1440-1458, November 1994.

15. McGhee, G.R., Jr., 1996. The Late Devonian Mass Extinction. Columbia Univ. Press, New York.

16. Neil S. Davies, Martin R. Gibling, “Cambrian to Devonian evolution of alluvial systems: The sedimentological impact of the earliest land plants”, Earth-Science Reviews 98 (2010) 171–200.

17. Paul W. Jewell, “Paleoredox conditions and origin of bedded barites along the Late Devonian North American continent margin”, The Journal of Geology, 1994, volume 102, p. 151-164.

18. Peter H. Raven, Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn, “Biology of Plants”, Seventh Edition, W. H. Freeman and Company Publishers, 375.

19. Ranganathan, V., 1983. The significance of abundant K-feldspar in potassium-rich Cambrian shales of the Appalachian basin. Southeastern Geology 24, 139–146.

20. Sepkoski, J.J., 1996. Patterns of Phanerozoic extinction: a per-spective from global data bases. In: Walliser, O.H. _Ed..,Global Events and Event Stratigraphy. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 35–52.

21.Schumm, S.A., 1968. Speculations concerning paleohydraulic controls of terrestrial sedimentation. Geological Society of America Bulletin 79, 1573–1588.

22. Thomas J. Algeo and Stephen E. Scheckler, “Terrestrial±marine teleconnections in the Devonian: links between the evolution of land plants, weathering processes, and marine anoxic events”, Phil.Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B (1998) 353, 113^130.

23.Thomas N. Taylor, Edith L. Taylor, 1993. “The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants”. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, pp. 201, 208, 221, 235- 239, 352, 451-452, 380, 444, 307.

24. Vandenberghe, J., 2001. A typology of Pleistocene cold-based rivers. Quaternary International 79, 111–121.Vandenberghe, J., 2003. Climate forcing of fluvial system development: an evolution of ideas. Quaternary Science Reviews 22, 2053–2060.

Why siblings fight so viciously?

There were four schools (Hairesis) of Philosophy in ancient Greco-Roman civilization, The Academy of Plato, Lyceum of Aristotle, The Garden of Epicurus and Stoa (Porch) of Zeno (Zeno of Citium). These schools were originated in same Hellenistic civilization but from different Philosophers. Those of us who are not so young know that the Communists and Capitalists were battling, competing and refuting each other very viciously though these both politico-economic ideologies were born mostly in Britain (Though Karl Marx was educated in Germany –University of Bonn and University of Berlin- but he spent from 1843 till his death -1883- in London and used British museum as resource to develop and support his “theories of surplus value”…. Similarly, although Capitalism has not very known origins but father of Capitalism, Adam Smith (known for his famous book, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” was a Scottish Political economist and Philosopher who was educated in University of Glasgow and University of London… so we can say that both Capitalism and Communism were largely born in Britain). If you do know that how communists and capitalists were battling each other very bitterly then you have to just extend the same level of bitterness to the two schools of Philosophy in ancient Greco-Roman Civilization, Stoicism and Epicureanism. In fact all four schools of Philosophy were battling each other but these two have well recorded rivalries. Coming back to our modern time people who reads academic papers sometimes wonder, why academicians battle to refute each other so viciously? Or for those who do not read academic papers but watch news may think, why Sunnis and Shiites are battling so bitterly and murderously despite both claim to be Muslim and in principles have no differences? Or even closer, sometimes people wonder, why siblings compete so bitterly with each other (Though not all ;)…

The first reason that might come in our mind may be commonality. Because those Philosophical schools, ideologies, religious sects, siblings, colleagues are so much in common that they have very small things or very little things to fight over and it would only make sense if they fight very aggressively, very viciously or murderously to make those battles look important.
Well, Dan Ariely (who is famous for his bestselling book, “Predictably irrational” …This website allows to download it for free, if you are interesting to read it, http://search-ebooks.eu/p/predictably-irrational-pdf... ) has an interesting explanation for it (though he is not talking directly on the same topic),

He says that people who are very similar with each other affect drastically the image or position of each other by influencing on others’ judgments and decisions. This is really interesting and somewhat counterintuitive. For example, if two persons or things have all in similar then a small difference though negligible but highlighted, will influences the decisions drastically. In other words, people who are very different try to project their commonalities while people who are similar try to project their differences. Following is Ariely TED talk. If you watch it till end, I am sure you will be amused…

Having a second culture

It would be interesting to compare the Project of Hellenization (as a culture of logic) to globalization as secondary culture (which has pushed logic in culture become mostly counterintuitive)… To me here is, how this comparison goes,

Aristotle is known as the father of logic and it is not uncommon that commonly the name of Aristotle comes immediately in talks when one talks about the logic. Aristotle was the pupil of Plato whose biggest idea was that of “Philosopher King”. Aristotle became Philosopher but not King however he tutored a King, Alexander the great. So logically he was a big influence on this King who wanted to Hellenize the ancient world. In a way he wanted to open up the world for Philosopher kings through Hellenization. Though Greeks were worshiping many Gods and Goddesses but Greek societies were structured in a way in which Philosophy had the biggest influence, of course indirectly. We can compare the influence of Philosophy in ancient Greece to that of corporations in our time on cultures. If today we look back we see only relics of Hellenization in conquered areas of Alexander. At least people of conquered areas could have preserved Hellenic culture as their second-culture.

Why Hellenization was not adapted as second culture? Was it because Ruling period of Alexander was short or was it because the communication means were very primitive that the project of Hellenization was not so successful? I think all these things matter however the main cause of failure was that, the project itself was against natural law of diversification. Nature tends to bounce back and stabilize. As we know there were Silk Road in place and that was the main source of connections and communications between ancient civilizations and cultures. The same road was used to spread Buddhism and Christianity.

Now we live in a very different time. It is different because it is no more Tribal elders, religious authorities and Philosophers who are producing and leading cultures but the corporate businesses and Medias. As multinational companies are transnational and transcontinental so they are providing people with an additional culture, the second-culture. It is common to have second language or third language and so on beside the native language same is becoming true about the culture. The cultures that corporate world are producing are becoming the second-culture and it is global in nature. It is how globalization is making sense. As most of the corporate businesses are originated and grown out of West so it is also taken as Westernization.

My general thinking is that unlike Hellenization project of Alexander, this corporate culture will sustain and becomes deep over time. There are two main reasons for it, firstly corporate businesses have become integrated into societies and have emerged as a class in society that is going to grow. Secondly, it is not taken as something foreign but as outcome of technological advances and that is also going to deepen over time. While the second-culture is growing at much faster rate than native cultures, there are already concerns of overtaking of native cultures by secondary culture. My understanding is, while there are conflicts between the two however it is also galvanizing the native cultures as people are becoming aware of their identities and trying to preserve them. So in a way the secondary culture is modernizing the native culture and native cultures, whose people are conscious of the process, will benefit a lot out it.

An interesting question would be, does second culture or corporate culture make people more logical (as Hellenization were supposed to do) by increasing the choices? Well, I doubt that and I doubt that because corporate cultures are mostly short lived and are intended to increase the consumerism. And of course consumerism have turned the survival adaptations that human have evolved for millions of years (?) into weaknesses. One interesting example is that of “Survival of the Fattest”. Fat genes have been selected as a survival mode in famine but the consumerism culture has turned the same survival mode into danger mode. In the same way, collecting stuffs were a survival mode in ancient times when products were scarce however consumerisms have turned this survival strategy into something disastrous both financially and in terms of time management. You can just think on the same line of thinking to find more of how, what were logical are becoming illogical. I mean consumerism has pushed logic as something counterintuitive. And that is really interesting.

Strong VS Weak

All is one

Playing strong though looks desirable but is wrong. Playing weak on other hand is utterly wrong. No, I do not want to prove wrong everything. These two extremes are wrong because they depict imaginations and conceptions that we have created and like to play rather than depicting reality. Playing strong is wrong because, the moment you start looking at you as strong, you will start feeling your position in danger from others. You will start worrying about keeping your strong position in place and will see every progressive move by others as a threat to your strength. It makes you to focus on countering others rather than focusing on yourself, on your real needs, on your real issues and your potentials. Keeping an eye on others’ backyards while neglecting yours is by no measure could be counted as right. On other hand, playing weak is utterly wrong because it is the denial of reality. The reality is that strong lose its meaning without weak. It is the weak which makes strong to believe in their strength. The fact is, when one submits or accepts defeat then the other one gets a triumphant feeling, gets a sense of winning. Of course, you can lose a game, a battle or a deal or a series of them but these losses do not disqualify you to not play again or to not challenge again.

Simply we have the choice to play strong and feel threaten or accept defeat and provide the chance to others to feel that way. Besides these two choices, there is also a third option and that is accepting support and help from others irrespective of their strengths or weaknesses and to be ready to support and help others again irrespective of their strengths and weaknesses. In short, instead of playing strong or weak we have the option to play as helpful and open to receive help and support from all. The third option is the acceptance of reality and becoming an agent of peace and at same time, be blessed by it. It might look to be more ideal but it is the new reality that we are moving towards. By bursting off of cultural, economic, social and political boundaries, everybody got a role to play and with the same coin, we all became more interdependent. If all have a role to play and have an impact and we are becoming more dependent on each other, then the third option is what closer to reality than other two options.

Cultural identities are the basic units of global culture but unfortunately we see that, there are cultural conflicts in every part of world and it is really unfortunate that, in some parts of world, there are violence, Human Rights abuses and discriminations based on the cultural identities. The roots of these conflicts are again the roles that these cultural identities play. Majority or groups of cultural identities that are in power feel that their positions are threatened and try to maintain their power by discriminating against others and on other hand minorities seeing themselves in existential struggles, try to isolate themselves to protect their identities. This situation puts one cultural identity against others or cultural identities against each other.

Naturally they feel in competition with each other. What comes out of these competitions? Of course, no one get anything out it as it only helps to increase fear and feeling of insecurity and keep occupying the minds with negative thoughts and negative activities and result in great loss of very needed potentials that these cultural identities need to pace in their contemporary world with dignity.

The third option is wise as it makes us to accept each other’s’ rights and support and help each other in achieving our rights. While globally cultures tend to assimilate into a “global culture”, competing with each other locally does not make any sense.

If globalization is the fate of humankind as the current trends are showing and earth is our home then we are one. And not any individual can call it healthy or stand as one when its organs are competing against each other. Unfortunately, humanity was born sick (its organs competing against each other) and has progressed a lot but still is sick. The worst thing is that there is no indication that humankind has realized the sickness and thinking seriously to cure itself. Our heroes are those who divide us and kill us under names of cultural identities. Patriotism and nationalism should become a mean of curing by becoming helpful and open to others’ help and support rather than playing Strong or Playing Weak….

There is nothing more effective force to make relations strong than helping/supporting others and getting help/support from others………….

Capitalism without capital; What's the alternative?

Gold and silver are the metals that have been used since ancient times as standard trading metals. In the period that we are living in, inflation has become a common reality and has been accepted as a form of indirect taxation. On the other hand, the prices of these two precious metals are generally rising and people who fear losing money in inflation (dropping value of unit currencies) tend to buy gold and silver. 

On the other hand, the internet is emerging as a new marketplace where it is not possible to do business with traditional precious metals. Banks and other financial institutions are the backbone of online businesses. Technology is changing rapidly our habits, expectations, and perceptions about things. It is not just money, bullion gold, and silver that appear as digital numbers, but personal libraries and intellectual properties are also nothing more than digital texts, figures, graphics, and so on.

While the digital form of currency gives Governments and financial institutions the enormous capability to track and control the finances of people or manipulate markets, the gigantic size of the transactions and the ease of printing money can also create bubbles that can ruin economies and the lives of people.  Look at the decreasing distance between the economic bubbles in modern times;

- Tulip Mania ( (1634-1637)

- Dot-com bubble (1995-2000)

-U.S. housing bubble (2000-2007)

- Bitcoin bubble (2017-2018)

By adding to this list, the collapses of the banks in 2023, I am just wondering if the banks and financial institutions so easily turn into bubbles, and keep bursting at decreasing distance of time, then what are the alternatives?

Effect of Moharram on Pakistani Economy

I am not an economist but "recession" is scary for me as it means a collective hard time, a time when one sees worrying faces become the dominant species and people with smiley faces go to the verge of extinction. It is Christmas season and also the biggest shopping season in Western world where usually sales go higher from 30 to 40% than other months of year. The end of shopping season is the beginning of new year so economists look to sale season as a determinant of a "good" or "bad" year for economy. Big sales will stimulate the economy in a new year and small sale will slow down economy in new year. So it is why Christmas became almost a corporate Christmas... Whether it is ethical or not, is another issue but Christmas is the biggest turnover in economy, that is a fact....

Muharram is the first month in Islamic calender and also the beginning of Ashora festivals that lasts almost 48 days but the peak days of festivals are from 1st to 10th Muharram. There is no study in overall impact of Muharram on economy of Muslim world but Geo TV made an interesting report on impact of Muharram on Pakistan's economy that was almost unbelievable for me at first glance..... According to this report Muharram festivals stimulate the economy with 125 billion Rupees that is almost equals 1/4th (22.1%) of country's annual budget (Pakistan federal budget for 2011-2012 is " 2767 billion" rupees. That seems the biggest turnover in the country's economy and works like that of Christmas season in the Western world...

According to Wikipedia, there are 30 million Shia Muslims which is 16.1% of total population (180 million). The size of economic turnover indicates a large participation of Sunni Muslims in Ashora festivals and that is a positive indicator of religious harmony between these two big sects of Islam at grass roots level which needs to be tighten in order to prevent country from sectarian chaos.

Of course some people do not like (It may be even offensive for some) to look at it economically and also there might be some people who think more individualistically to this large expenditure as somewhat waste of money (Perhaps they are thinking of other social aspects like education, health and so on). I am not discarding their points of views but by thinking in a bigger picture, the overall economy of country matters to all and affects everything from per person income to employment to social developments. If the economy of a country goes to recession then budget cuts, downsizing, flight of capital/investments and general tendency of people to limit their expenditure will shrink the size of smiley faces irrespective of their faith or ideologies...

Reactionary thinkers; Do they need to think anew

I don’t know why instead of mature and real historical stories, I turn to childish folk stories that I used to and loved to read when I began to explore the literary world. Perhaps the main reason is attitude. We hear a lot of good pieces about means and goals but when boil them down, we see attitude in all them. Those seemingly childish folk stories had stuck with my heart because they were about attitudes, not about means and goals as means and goals are time and need related issues and change accordingly. What really persist are attitudes which are not bound to any particular time and place.

From one side if we are historically condemned to face tragedies after tragedies, from another side we are also seeing some sparkles of hopes trying to not let these tragedies write our fate. One of these sparkles of hopes is writing of intellectuals who try to share their parts in a time of chaos. Is it really worth to give consideration to writing of few intellectuals? I am not going to put my judgment but rather let you to draw conclusions based on work of a single individual, Faiz Muhammad Kateb, a thin man with small body who used his intellect a century ago to record what oppressors wanted to eliminate forever. Information is not the same as facts as information have been used as the most effective tool of oppression. No one can stop the flow of information and it is what oppressors knew very well so they instead spread false information to make oppressed look to be deserved of what have been done to them.

While I am really glad that these intellectuals come forward to write but it is also natural to get opinion out of readings so I got an opinion and wanted to share it. Again, it would be funny if one starts suggesting what to write and how to think but having opinion is quite natural. It seems to me that most of these writings are “REACTIONARY” in nature. By reactionary, I mean that an event happens and then some come forward to say what it means and how should we react. No doubt that we need them but having said that it is my opinion that it is not the only job or only thing that intellect can do… Why am I saying this? It is just because it reflects an attitude. As I mentioned in the beginning that attitude does not reflect time but “means” and “goals” do. Writing as means of recording and guiding are among the best of means and they could be used for great goals yet attitudes will determine the directions and outcomes….

Abraham Lincoln says, “The dogmas of the quite past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew”…. It is what Abraham Lincoln said one and half century ago… If today America is standing tall among nations of world, it is not because they are different from others, it is just because “THEY THOUGHT AND ACTED ANEW”… Thinking and acting anew is an attitude that is valid all the time…. One really wonders when sees ancient Greek city names and ancient Greek architecture so prevailing in Northeast of USA… These prevailing of ancient Greek culture are reflecting the determination of then young nation to stick with attitude of “thinking and acting anew” just as ancient Greeks did… It would be repetition but again “Attitudes are not bound by time, whether it is in ancient Greek city states, Early Muslims, 13th century Mongols, Europe in Renaissance period and in newly founded American nation… it works and it works perfect”…

Wise were ancient people that instead of giving list of do and not to dos (which always have the danger of to be challenged) were telling them stories which were working as guides to their attitudes and no doubt that these guides are so simple and so common in appeal that were fitting to all ages and to all levels of intellects.

…………“ A MISER sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at daily. One of his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it. The Miser, on his next visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations. A neighbor, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said, “Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of it.”… Story from Aesop’s Fables…

To me, limiting intellect only for reaction is like burying gold underground. I think it is the result of an attitude… The attitude of oppressed people who perhaps fear that thinking anew is dangerous and will add to their chaos…who want to stick to whatever small circles of stability left for them… Again, I am saying it is just my opinion and I like to see my opinion goes wrong by works that are beyond reaction and under a spirit of thinking and acting anew….

Web picks on Economic Inequality

Occupy Wall Street is still going on. If you have read occasionally about this movement you know that this movement is evolving, though its evolution is more of reactionary than under tactics. Nobody knows, how it will look in its final form. Popular movements are usually unpredictable and it is what we are seeing in Egyptian Revolution. Currently we are witnessing the beginning of second phase in Egyptian Revolution while it was thought to have ended by general election. I thought it is interesting to learn the ideology behind the OWS movement...Here is a talk about the ideology of OWS movement,

Heidegger, Sartre and identity crises (Is it going to repeat?)

Ancient Romans believed that, “Out of nothing, comes nothing” and ancient Indian, perhaps didn’t agreed with them because they were considering nothing as something of higher value and that was peace and tranquility. Muslims borrowed the idea of nothing from Indian and made it global in usage by speaking mathematics through it. Zero! Science can’t think nothing without it.

Western Philosophy were chiefly based on observations and were so absorbed by this method that almost missed to see that there is something also as “self” and for studying of that one doesn’t need observations but meditation. As observation requires something to be observed so nothing was missed in the process and yet even more importantly as observation requires something, other than the individual itself so the “self” was also missed.

Guess, when one turns to “self”? Of course one turns to self when self asserts its existence. When self’s voice becomes so loud then it becomes almost impossible to ignore it. And that is what happened in Europe by rise of Sciences. Science that begins with observations became dominant thinking mode and it deepened/strengthened the tradition of observation to only valid mode of thinking. In fact, Sciences in general were empowering men and there were senses of triumphant and zeal towards big successes. These great ambitions materialized in form of imperialistic behaviors and it turned European nations into competitors. The result was WWI and killings of 9 million people. The defeat of Germany in WWI was a shock to Germans and it caused an identity crisis (And you the rest of story).

I guess the German Philosophers (Existentialism was born in Germany and grown up in France) in general felt that Science is not Almighty and not always a good insurance policy for triumphs and they turned to self in a search of a perspective in a time of national despair. .”… Heidegger felt that Philosophers have missed the main point, what German people were feeling and expressing in language but was not able to be clear about it and he says it this way, “The German language speaks Being, while all the others merely speak of Being”… In other place he expresses the need for thinking about missing point, “The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.”… The problem is that one can’t bind “self” strictly with time and space in measurable manner and that makes it very difficult to put it in a logical manner and perhaps it is why most of Philosophers were shying away from it. Realizing this Heidegger says, “Thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the stiff-necked adversary of thought.”… OR, “When modern physics exerts itself to establish the world's formula, what occurs thereby is this: the being of entities has resolved itself into the method of the totally calculable.”… I think, one can see the uneasiness that he was feeling regarding existence of two distinct worlds, “Physical world” and “being” and no way to link them together in a coherent entity. Though Sciences have an advantage of simplicity and applicability but “being” is also very sticky thing and asserts its existence. Heidegger even one time questions, “Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing”… By coming so close to Eastern Philosophy, Heidegger also misses the point as he can’t disconnect himself from Western trends so instead he turns to “time” and “language” (two external things; how naïve :( …) to find being and he writes his most famous book, “Time and being”… “Language is the house of the truth of Being.” He says but I guess he was realizing the mistake and it is why said, “Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy.”…..



By rise of Nazis, there comes a hope for a comeback of German national pride so Heidegger joins Nazis. His hopes were so high for German Nazis under leadership of Adolf Hitler that he said, “The Fuhrer alone is the present and future German reality and its law. Learn to know ever more deeply: from now on every single thing demands decision, and every action responsibility.”…
While Germany national socialist reasserted Germany identity, it created crises for other European identities, especially French whose pride was down by German pride. Sartre a French Philosopher was the contemporary of Heidegger. The German occupation of France provided him with a new insight to look into “being” and that was “Freedom”. Instead of understanding “self” or “being” let it free. Freedom is expressed mainly by actions so he stresses on actions and of course actions require responsibility. All we see in Sartre is Freedom, Responsibility for action and Becoming as a result. So clearly he denies that there is something as “Being” in advance. “Being” is actually what we becomes. Of course, Existentialism is what he became to live freely because French collapse was convinced him that freedoms insured by societies can fall anytime to any power and he says it, “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”… May be you say it is a common tragedy of mankind and has nothing to French occupation so let’s see what Sartre says more about freedom, “Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.”…

Why am I calling works of Heidegger and Sartre as products of identity crises?

The main reason is that their Philosophies are mostly reactionary to events of their time and also we don’t see anything serious about “being”. If one reads them it becomes clear that they tried to look to something that was overlooked but could not disconnect from Western roots and that was observation and as “being” was not observable (but rather something to be felt) they turned instead to external things, “Time and language” in case of Heidegger and “Freedom, responsibility and action” in case of Sartre.

German occupation made Sartre to become very sensitive about Freedom and he knew that only thing that can restrict freedom is fear, “You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.”…. “Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.”…. so for him, being simply means existence and of course existence could only be felt by life , “Life has no meaning the moment you loose the illusion of being eternal.”…” Life begins on the other side of despair.” And here you go, Sartre comes to nothing but very with different results than Ancient Indian Philosophers. If for ancient Indian Philosophers, nothing means peace and tranquility, for Sartre it means, meaninglessness and Despair.

Though Existentialism has lost appeal as people have forgotten the bitter days of two world wars and “long” break in any big scientific breakthroughs but I think, the world is moving towards another big identity crisis and this time, it is going to be global. There are two main causes besides other small ones for seemingly coming global identity crises, the failure of capitalism as global economy and failure of US to stay as a superpower. If capitalism survives the economic meltdown and US does not take it as a defeat or simply she maintains her position then the identity crises is not going global but will be national or at least regional. I don’t know what kind of Philosophy will emerge out it but my guess is, the time is ripening for emergence of a new one… Let’s see…

Pakistan; a victim of identity crises

Intelligence has its costs and questioning stands at the core of the intelligence. If intelligence has benefited human to question about the nature, learn, discover and master it in their benefits, the same intelligence had also questioned the “self”. The children are so occupied to learn and discover whatever they encounter that when they grow enough to reason, they find themselves, “preoccupied” with a coherent set of beliefs, culture, ideas and behaviors through which they picture themselves and the world around. This is a critical stage in the life of every individual because it requires a very messy calculation of value ratio between “me”, “ours” and “others”. Let me dare to say that there is no accepted or universal formula to say what is the “right” proportion between “me”, “ours” and “others”? Why”? The answer is very simple, the gravitational force and here the gravitational force is unfortunately “power” or what Nietzsche was coined, “Will to power” (My next knol will be “Heidegger, Sartre and identity crisis”)…

If today modernization means “westernization”, it is because West is the superpower. It is a fact that nobody can deny and people across the globe like to be westernized even if they categorize the west as “others”. In areas that “our” is rising, powerful or distinct, it is beyond doubt that we are quick to take pride and identify ourselves with. Coming from others to ours to “me” is very sensitive. “Me” starts with a search for a “role” as early as one step in adolescence. This is actually an effort to see “me” fitting within “ours” and somewhat within “others”. I think, this is just the beginning and “me” slowly grows to discover and assert more of “me” later in his/her life.

So, overall the ratio between “me”, “ours” and “others” depends on the position of one. There is a constant struggle over the ratio both within and externally. All this is not just fitting to individuals. Nations also pass through this struggle. Nations are different than individuals in the sense that they go through “succession”. Though succession is an ecological process but it is how nations define their birth. With every crisis, nations are reborn and the process of value-ratio restarts. That is a luxury that individuals can’t have though some religions teach reincarnations.

Because I was born and grew up in Pakistan so I tend to give reference to Pakistan and I think as young as the nation is, so is deep the identity crisis. And to me the main reason for identity crisis in Pakistan is “self-deception”. Pakistan has inherited an “enemy” by her birth, India that is bigger than Pakistan in every regard and this has been the source of existential threat. So the case of Pakistan as a nation is much severe than individuals who face identity crisis at adolescent. Pakistan was “preoccupied” with identity crises even before her inception. Pakistan was in need of a strong and coherent “ours” to counter India that is one of the world’s most ancient and rich civilizations. Of course, Islam was alternative civilization that could counter Indian civilization but the problem is that, Islam is a religion, not an indigenous civilization to Muslims of Subcontinent and there are more than 56 countries recognizing themselves as Muslims.

As I pointed in previous paragraph, to make problems even worst, Pakistan inherited identity crises even before her birth. The educated layer of subcontinent Muslims who were mostly from North India were converted Muslims who couldn’t disconnect themselves from their Indian civilization and at same time couldn’t embrace it and still couldn’t come up with an alternative indigenous culture. This had been the source of divisions and identity crises among educated core of Muslims that have not been resolved to this day. The Part of Northwestern India that was mostly rural a tribal was so self-absorbed in their own world that were harshly resisting to changes going on in modern world.

In short, Pakistan since her birth inherited a society that was moving with different speeds. Self-absorbed tribal areas were “too proud” of their own identity that to them outside world were not making sense to them at all. The rural areas and large cities that had to come up with a coherent indigenous Pakistani culture or identity remain busy with same identity crises that they were struggling in sub-continental India (India before partition).

May be, it doesn’t look so serous to you but let me give you just one example so you could feel, how deep it the problem. When Ottoman Empire collapsed, there was a Khilafat movement in British India for restoration of Ottoman Empire. There was no way to restore the Ottoman Empire because Turkish people already had rejected it but in 90s, soon after Soviet Union’s collapse, while US was looking for a new world order, at same time some religious scholars were selling their own world order to restore Khilafat and all know the rest of story. Mullah Omar was declared Caliph (Ameer Al Monin). Here is a video to learn about the root of these identity crises,



I don’t know how much did you get out of it, but in fact this is actually the denial of Pakistan as a nation state because accepting Pakistan as a nation state means rejecting the concept of Khilafat and it is the main cause that these forces try to assert “Islam” as a system beyond the border of country. Here is an interview by Dr. Israr Ahmed where you can clearly see this mindset (Pakistan as a state is an obstacle to Islam as a system),



Now to neutralize this thinking there are scholars like Javed Ahmed Ghamidi who believes that it is the right of people to choose what kind of system they want rather than individuals or organizations to force them for a system.



Though, these thinking is much helpful in dealing with identity crises however it takes much time until Pakistanis realize that identity crises is posing an existential threat to Pakistan. The radicalization of Pakistani society as a result of identity crises has demoralized the nation by terrorist attacks, economic crises and rise of tribal nationalism. Though late but some bitter responses are coming from intellectuals,



I am not sure where all these are going to end? Whether, Pakistan will resolve the identity crises that are the mother of all other problems (Economic crises and tribal nationalism are side effects of identity crises) or not? Let’s time decide.
Intelligence has its costs but it also helps in resolving the crises to come victorious. I think, it is time that Pakistani Society focuses more on developing a coherent identity than struggling with Indian ancient civilization, countering the West or serving for Ottoman or Arabian Empire.

Can we blame evolution for terrorism?

May be the quote of Martin van Creveld, "War is the greatest fun you can have with your paints on" seems improper to a lot of people but I like to repeat it because it reminds us of a tragedy that is the gift of nature (evolution). Creveld says this evolutionary tragedy as, "Men love war and women love warriors" and as you know well that "female preferences" in evolutionary studies are popular driving force for a lot of bizarre evolutionary trends in male animals that have evolved at cost of lowering their survival rates. Some well known examples are bright coloration, elongated tails, feathers, fins, horns etc. Males in order to attract female mate also compete with each other and sometimes these competitions are fatal. When it comes to men, men have not evolved horns, bright coloration, long feathers and tail but instead have evolved cultural products. Among these cultural products are "glory" and "honor"... Glory and Honor are actually the same as coloration, long feathers and horns in animals...

Some pictorial presentation of evolution in response to female preferences,
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But what it does mean to us? That is the key question. If warrior nature had evolved only as a matter of defense and protection, we could expect that by growing awareness the levels of wars would drop and we could hope for an ultimate peace but the fact of matter that the love of war is something also linked with female preference is dangerous. Because it makes wars glorious and sadly it is the case. Most of time wars are not fought based on necessary (defense) but for glory, national glory or personal glory and we unfortunately we can blame evolution for this....

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Almost all cultures both ancient and modern saw war as a source of glory and it is also indicative of the fact that it will remain so in future. Though Sports present an alternative to this evolutionary need and both nations and individuals are earning glory through sports but I don't think that sports have been successful as an alternative to war so far...

The biggest concern is the shifting modes of wars. As armies are increasingly shying to face each other they use proxies to harm each other and this method has emerged as main cause for rise of terrorism. It is said that evolution is blind and this concept sadly looks true when we see a link between terrorism and evolution. When I see terrorists take pride of the killings of innocent unarmed citizen and pose themselves as heroes, I can see the true drive under their skin. Though they try to legitimize their acts based on religion or ideology but their acts are more than simply driven by ideology or religion. It is the "Peak experience" or "sense of glory" that drives the killings... In a way poverty is also makes terrorism attractive. Poverty denies or reduces the chances of having "Peak experiences" through constructive achievements and as terrorism provides very cheap chances to fill the "empty experiences" with "Peak experiences" so individuals with weak psyche get attracted to it.......

Following is a talk from Aljazeera and I thought it has some link with our topic...
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Illiteracy VS ill literacy

There are intellectuals who are not easy with Socrates' concept of "Examined life" so they try to play around by questioning his existence by saying either he was just a character in Pluto's Republic or questioning the ascetic life of Socrates. I would say that these questions have their weights but how if we look from purpose perspective. One of the darkest period for Philosophy is post-world war second when existentialist Philosophers were considering meaninglessness and suicide as most serious Philosophical questions. Now we know that, it was just because of lost hopes in good nature of human being after widespread destruction at global scale. Just rethink about WWII. It was not started and fought in some remote lands of illiterate and savage people. This war was started by world's center of modern civilization and was fought at the heart of "civilized world". How is it possible that the most literate part of world go such insane and act savagely to massacre 17 million people? If it was not because of illiteracy then wasn't it because of "ill literacy"? Now again consider ancient Athens. It was the world-center of ancient civilization. Athens was the most educated and civilized part of ancient world and yet Socrates goes from street to street to question people about their beliefs. It wasn't because Socrates was insane but rather he knew that "ill literacy" is dangerous for Athens and he wanted to help his fellow citizen. Examining life is worthy when it is linked with purpose as it allows to accept the fallibility and incompleteness of humans and in this way it makes easy to accept help and also more importantly to help others..

I like Jawed's column (link at the end, Urdu) not because it refers to a psychological study in which the importance of purpose in life is demonstrated but because it tells one big fact. It talk about retired officers who take refuge in religion after their retirements. Soon after retirements, the officers don't see much of purpose in their lives and with same coin they see death closing to them. In order to escape death, they take refuge in religion by frequenting in reciting holy Quran, prayers, Hajj and also visiting more often to doctors.. The beautiful comparison is to that of Abdul Sattar Edhi (Founder of Edhi Foundation; The world's largest Ambulance service provider to emergency cases besides other humanitarian services) who is more active than youths because his purpose is young.

This is really beautiful in the sense that it allows us to think, if we can't help the "imperfect fellow human beings" how can we expect that we are going to please (and of course those who have made it their mission to subjugate people to God's rule are "helping" God in His mission) an Almighty and Perfect God? It doesn't make sense to me at all. Does it make sense to you? I think we can look at it another way also, "If we can't connect ourselves with imperfect fellow human, how can we connect with Almighty and perfect God? This is the biggest tragedy of Pakistani Society where religious extremists are selling "High Purpose" that is killing and harming people with "wrong beliefs" (Just difference of belief is enough to be called "wrong")to please God. In a country where lack of awareness (not because of illiteracy but because of "ill literacy") have denied good purposes to live for, selling "High Purpose" is a hot business and have overshadowed the kind of humanitarian purpose that "Edhi" is perusing. It is really an unfortunate that in a country where Edhi is living, she is famed for suicide bombers :(

When individuals face "Meaninglessness" they do not bring much harm and it is easy to help them but when a nation, especially if it is a nation of 180 million people faces "meaninglessness" then the harm is of course disastrous and it is disastrous for all.. I am not sure if "literacy" is of much help as much of spreading awareness about "ill literacy"....

Daily Express News Story

Angela Merkel makes Adolf Hitler look stupid

It is really amazing that, what Hitler couldn’t achieve after sacrificing 17 million people including himself and by destruction and occupation of Germany, today Angela Merkel achieved that very easily, not even by firing a single bullet. Wikipedia writes Hitler’s main goal as, “Hitler's avowed aim was to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe.” And today New York Times writes, “BRUSSELS — Europe’s worst financial crisis in generations is forging a new European Union, pushing Britain to the sidelines and creating a more integrated, fiscally disciplined core of nations under the auspices of a resurgent Germany.”… the title read, “German Vision Prevails as Leaders Agree on Fiscal Pact” ….

Did you just read “New European Union” under auspices of resurgent Germany? Isn’t what Hitler was looking for? Truly Angela Merkel makes Hitler look stupid by choosing the right weapon. Angela Merkel’s effective weapon is economy… Weapons buy hatred and economy buy everything… that is what Hitler failed to understand… But Nixon an Ex-president of USA was believed that, “Stateswomen are tougher than Statesmen”… He gave this remark about Indira Gandhi, ex-prime minter of India who defeated Pakistan in 1971 India-Pakistan war and “liberated”/broken East Pakistan as Bangladesh. But Now Angela Merkel proved that stateswomen are not only tougher than statesmen but also smarter.



New York Times continues to write about British Prime minister, “Prime Minister David Cameron, a Conservative and self-acknowledged “euroskeptic,” was isolated in his refusal to allow the German prescription of “more Europe” — to give teeth to fiscal pledges underpinning the euro.”… Today British Prime minister is isolated and it is quite opposite to Winston Churchill’s time when Britain succeeded to bring unlikely States like Soviet Union and United States on her side against Germany. Angela Merkel even made France to sit on the lap of Germany.

I don’t know if today Simon De Beaver, the French Feminist and Existentialist Philosopher who wrote, “Second Sex” and was actively participated in resistance against French occupation by Germany was alive today, what would her reaction? But I can fancy that at least as a Feminist she would celebrate Angela Merkel’s victory…

References,

Adolf Hitler

New York Times

A Philosophical commentary on Muharram

“Economics is what economists do”.. Jacob Viner (an eminent international trade theorist, 1892-1970).. A lot of economists look at this definition with anger and bitter criticism as to them, this is not a scientific definition of economics but at the same time they also cannot refute this definition as it is not wrong either…Unfortunately there were, there are and there will be a general trend to look at other cultures, ideologies and religions through Jacob Viner’s definition… For example, what is Islam? “Islam is what Muslims do”….What is Judaism? “Judaism is what Jews do?”…What is Hinduism? “Hinduism is what Hindu do”…What is individualism? “Individualism is what individuals do?” … Do all these definitions make sense? Of course, they are not making sense… One only becomes an economist after years of intensive education, training and working experience in the field while the same is not true for Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, individuals and so on…Simply, if one is born in a Muslim family, he/she grows Muslim irrespective of whether he/she goes through Islamic education or not… the same is true about other religions or cultures… So, “Christianity is what a Christians do” is not the same as “Economics is what economists do”….

Recently I come across some comments about Muharram that were supposed to be “intellectual” and logical in nature but were really not making sense at all. Although I appreciate questioning but questions like answers have to be logical in order to make sense. I am not a religious scholar and I don’t like two categories of “sermons” and “confessions” that are peculiar to religious way of expressions. But I wanted to express my opinion on the issue and I as mentioned earlier, “Islam is not what Muslims do” so my opinion in no way either justify or refute anything. It is just my personal opinion.

Before talking about Muharram and how I look to it, I am going to construct a context so it becomes easy to grasp the way I look at it. Beginning by foundation, what it really means to be alive? That is the most basic question. Life has certain requirements that make us do almost same things (what we call routine) every day and growths come from very small changes. (When I was teaching at school, majority of complains were about, why the rate of learning is so slow? We study every day for long hours but we learn so little out of it. It is not just learning, all processes of life are very slow). So again, what does it mean to be alive? I want you to watch this part of documentary by name of “Examined Life”. This part is 7 minutes 17 seconds long and I want you to watch from 5; 50 till end of the video that is going to take just 1 minute and 27 seconds, fair enough. In this part Professor Cornel West talks about, what it means to be alive. He says that if you are in library and reading some interesting books, you may be so intensely alive that you might need a break.



I am sure that you have heard that we have two kinds of ages, one is physical and one is mental? A boy may show higher mental maturity than an adult or an adult might possess the mentality of child. You might say that well, all these constructions may be amusing but it is also true that ignorance is bliss. Haven’t you experienced the intensity of life in childhood? Don’t you agree that we lose that intensity in living by growing and understanding more? I say yes, definitely we lose the intensity but we get new ones. How? During childhood we depend on our senses and by growing up, we depends more on our mental life. Growing up means a shift from sensual life to mental life…Still shaky? Let’s have a break by another example,




In this short talk of just 3 minutes and 51 seconds, Demon Horowitz tells how Philosophy (mental life) liberates of a prisoner (mentally) who is charged with murder case and he starts living a life of a Philosopher. It is one of powerful examples as it allows us to rethink about prisons that we have created for ourselves and how can we liberate ourselves.

You might still say, well again, I want some real hard life examples outside of individual pursuits.

Good then let’s take some really hard realities. It is more than true that majority goes after money and power, of course in their own ways (and some like to cover them by good names of service, sacrifice or so on). Let’s talk first about money. Money in the sense we know it today is called fiat money that drives its value from government regulation or law. Before 1970, the currencies were backed by gold but no more. The authority of government to print fiat money made Soviet Union to collapse and it is the core reason for 1998 economic meltdown in United States and current crises in Europe. In 1991 Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR), at that time one of the 15 constituent republics of the Soviet Union while Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the head of Soviet Union. In 1991 while 14 other constituents of Soviet Union were in economic trouble, the Boris Yeltsin as president of Russian constituent refused to pay its due to central bank so practically it became impossible to run Soviet Union and Soviet Union was dissolved on December 25th of 1991. Of course everybody knows, what happened to Ruble then? It lost its buying power. Why this was happened? The reason is simple that Soviet government was borrowing money to spend on large projects like gas pipelines projects and defense. The central bank was printing money beyond the real values production to fill the gaps and once borrowing reached the ceiling, the whole system collapsed under its weight. The same is happening in US and Europe. The governments have borrowed more than their GDPs and are trying to control the shortage by printing currency. Of course, this is misuse of the power by governments. What if the system collapses then all people will suffer and have to pay in many ways…

I am not trying to say that “We” that are always toiling our lives for earning money and that is in a way equals to deceiving ourselves but instead I am saying that the value of “money” that we are working so hard to earn is in control of an authority that we call government. Check this point as I am going to come back to it..

Let’s go to another hard reality, power. Nietzsche believed that it is “Will to Power” that drives men in their life. So nothing could be more as hard a reality for men than power. What is power? It is authority that people give to some individuals either directly as their representatives or indirectly as civil servants to protect their certain rights. These rights are varied by among varying systems. Let’s suppose that democracy is the highest form of system because it protects our certain liberties. But we know that “Will to power” is so seductive that a lot of forces try to gain power by deceits (for example, corporations’ roles are currently the cause of troubles). Still those who are in power do not content to the power assigned to them and want to have more power by snatching the very basic liberties they are supposed to protect, again through deceits. It would be repetition that why people in Middle East, US and Europe have come on streets.

OK, now that we are clear that values of money and our basic rights are in the hands of government, I like to add one more point. Though governments have the authority but their authority is based on the participation of people. If people do not participate, no government, I mean no government in the world can survive. Gandhi knew this fact and it is why he presented his practical theory of Satyagraha “insistence on truth” or what is well known as “non-violent movement” the core of which is “civil disobedience”. If people go for civil disobedience through non-violent means that will do two things simultaneously, delegitimizing government (taking back the authority/power) and practically making government become nonfunctional.

So until now we discussed four basic things, what it means to be alive? The role of government in our hard earned money, our basic liberties and how people can check back on government if government misuses the power.

One more short point and then I go to my opinion on Muharram. Evolutionary speaking among all animals, human have the longest period of parental care before becoming able to participate as a capable individual in society and largest and most costly part of it takes in form of education. The largest forms of education come through culture. Culture is a common education for all, irrespective of age, gender, social and economic orientations. Proper schooling may be biased towards social, economic and even based on gender however culture is something that all benefit, based on their interests and aptitudes. Authorities may use culture against some but culture is a mandatory form of learning that all benefit in their own ways.

I think, I am now ready to tell my opinion about Muharram. Muharram is a religious festival that is totally devotional and people do not participate based on philosophical inclinations and that is including me but still I have my opinion.

It is an event we find almost all characters that all can link with, men, women, children and diversity of ways in which each had struggled against misuse of authority. There were times when there were the opportunities to exercise the power of will freely or freedom of choices to fight or leave and yet they chose to fight. Everyone has a breaking point (It is an old tactic, keep pushing, there will reach a point where they will break), So we see a bunch of women and children who have lost their most valued things, family, being oppressed, misrepresented, arrested and yet insisting on truth. The insisting on truth had led in illegitimacy of authority and it followed by four revolutions.

Simply it allows everybody to go through a mental process of reconnecting to that revolutions and rethink of prisons that we have created (a chance every year to become alive) and to insist in truth so liberties of society remain intact. It also reminds that insisting on truth is a perpetual struggle that all times and all lands and all people need in order to live lively and freely (They might get oppressed and sanctioned but their minds and ideas will remain free, a constant threat and source of fear to authority). All aspects of Muharram from processions to self-flagellation to serving food and drinks to people are facing created fears… I don’t see any event in world paralleling the events of Karbala and I don’t see any culture parallel to Muharram to provide people a chance in making them ready to insist on truth and face the fears… Of course, Muharram is voluntary so those individuals who do not want to insist on truth or face their fears have the freedom of choice to stay the way they are and think the way they are pleased…..

The solution of an old man

I used to work during winter breaks of my school and college years. In one of such winter breaks, I was working with an old man whom I really respected for his real life experiences. He had spent his large part of life traveling by wandering, doing random jobs and interacting with people of different cultures. Of course, this type of life has its costs and the cost for him was that at the time that he was an old man and needed to rest, he hadn’t saved enough money to retire. He had to work to support his family having a decent life. It was the biggest regret of his life that was the source of pain for him.. But out of this regret he was thinking a way of out by looking towards his community that he was always proud of as well as boastful about its unparalleled uniqueness and qualities. He was saying that, “OK, I am an old man but still I have a skill that is paying me well but what about those old men (he was referring to his friends that he was meeting regularly on weekends and was sharing their views) who unlike of me stayed at one place and worked hard their entire life because life wasn’t kind enough to them to provide opportunity of learning a skill or a freedom to travel. They had to stay at one place and go every day to work so they could support their families. But now when they are old and their physical conditions hardly allow them to work as hard as they were doing, they can’t sustain their lives very well. They need a rest but they can’t afford it…

He had simple solution for it and definitely you don’t need to be genius to come up with such solution or not to understand its logic… He was saying that, the population of our community in Quetta is almost half a million.. If everybody just gives one rupee that even a child refuse to take as one rupee can hardly buy a candy then in each two days they can grant a decent retirement of 1000,000 rupees to an old man. That means 15 retirements per month and 180 old men per year. That is a real big figure for such a small community as Hazaras of Quetta. His idea stuck with me and I knew that our community was much generous than this and also had much more capacity but what he was realizing was the lacking of a mechanism. People are always more than ready to help to their vulnerable but they don’t know how to do it…

It was then, when there weren’t terrorism and there weren’t victims of terrorism.. Since last decade our community has been the target of non-stop terrorism and a lot of families have suffered in the process. I know there are some organizations that are helping these families but still the problem is much bigger than the capacity of such organizations and also this problem is getting bigger as terrorism is on rise. A recent TV interview of a family (You can watch it at end of this knol) whose head was a vegetable-seller and was killed in a terrorist attack on vegetable-sellers’ bus on by-pass road in October was really painful for me to watch. It was even more painful to learn that there is no mechanism through which people learn about such families and have their contributions… In the rest of world, people really come up with innovative ideas to help vulnerable parts of society... I was just wondering if our youths who really want to have their contributions to their community, start scratching their heads to think of innovative ways and roll back their sleeves to use the potentials of our community to support the vulnerable parts of our society who have no other way to look for support except their own community….

Neo-inequality...Is it scary?

Though we normally like to think that we are understanding the world more clearly as we are growing up but it seems (at least for me) that we are hardly catching up with reshaping of world and the events they unfold...

In 1991, before even I could understood class struggle as a teenager, Soviet Union collapsed but still it didn't push me to abandon my curiosity of why people revolted against Tsarists... This revolt or Revolution was not something fun as I realized by reading Boris Pasternak novel's "Doctor Zhivago" which is based on events of 1917 revolution. The revolution of 1917 lead to civil war in 1918 in which millions of people were killed without distinction of class or political affiliations. Famine, sickness, loss of jobs, homes and social bondage were just natural outcome of such big social upheaval... The biggest question for me was, what made people to go for a class struggle (classless society)? After almost a century, the pictures become vague and the only time-machine that is available for us to revisit that time are books and of course most of the books are more of personal opinions or documentation than real depictions of such a historical event....

I was not really sure that I was really understood class struggle as Philosophers and religious scholars were divided equally on them... On side, there were great French existentialist Philosopher "Jean Paul Sartre" and great British Philosopher "Bertrand Russel" and of course the great popular revolutionary Che Guevara who were supporting class struggle and yet I was not fully understanding why Soviet Union should go into WWII. It was not making sense to me because it was WWI which opened up the way for collapse of Tsarists Russia.... What made Soviet Union to go for same mistake because WWII turned Soviet Union into an imperialist state what she was born to stand against?

Well, the Collapse of Soviet Union and the great shifts into communist China were knocking on our skulls to accept the reality that class struggle was unnatural and was just an ideological myth that had a powerful message to let millions of people sacrifice themselves for it just to make the world more worst...

I was barely able to understand the fate of class struggle that economic melt down of 2008 alerted me as well as a lot of other people who were growing confused like me to leaf again into class struggle and see if there is something in it... Since 2008 to current economic crises of Europe and gaining momentum of Occupy Wall Street movement, one thing is becoming clear that Class Struggle is real... Class is actually a "structural perspective" of society... Communists were arguing that the way capitalism have structured societies are wrong and they provided an alternative structure... People revolted against capitalism in many countries (as you know), destroyed its structure and let communists build their alternative structures but we have seen that the communist structure is also didn't work....

Now, before moving ahead let me share some main parts of the current dominant politico-economic structure so you could understand where are the sources of problems,

It is fair to think that everyone should get what he/she deserves. It is natural that one who is working harder should get more or one who is more skilled should get paid for his/her skills as well... there is nothing wrong in it... As all do not work or acquire skills at same rate so the inequality is a natural outcome which results Class-structured society. This shouldn't be the source of problem but the problems come when,

1. Individuals compete with corporations;

This is not a fair race or competition...Take for example the most recent case that is unfolding right now.... As Walmart is marching into North India, the small businesses are fearing to go out of their businesses...simply because they can't survive to this unequal competition... This is what happened in US and Europe. Small family and individual businesses were just ruined by corporations in an unequal competition...

It is not just economical competition but also political competition where individuals lose the battle,

In democracy it is the collective votes of individuals that decide the future of society but the votes of individuals do not match with votes of corporations which decide the fate of economy... It is the trading centers which run the economy not the Assemblies and Senates.... They have the capacity to buy anything and set up organizations that do not come through voting but impact on the competitions...

In short there is a race between individualism and corporatism...

I am not an expert on economy but just wandering where lies our future and just scared to see that generations are coming who barely familiar with the world that are shaping to embrace them....

I liked the following You Tube demonstrations of socio-political structures and recommend to watch,