Reflections on Ch. 3: State and Empire in Eurasia / North Africa

Part II

Globalization of civilization – let us see how these civilizations die off and renew.  Surely warring is involved.

Evidently, people were in a mood of complacency, or maybe stagnation, since no new “breakthroughs” occurred.

We can certainly count on the circulation of diseases and plagues when people come into contact.

Chapter III

I had never heard of the U.S. being compared to the Roman Empire, but the points made about corruption, political life, military expansion, etc. are tough to argue against.

Why is violence always a usual suspect throughout history?  I believe it was Rodney King who surmised, “Why can’t we all just get along?”  People have been control freaks since the beginning of time.  Thankfully, the author does point out that there were “substantial periods of peace and security.”

I love the word ‘Persian.’  It just flows nicely.

So deforestation and soil erosion are nothing new.  I wonder what the Greeks and Persians would think of fracking.

Gee, all it takes is some friendly, organized competition, like the Olympic Games, for people to simmer down a bit!  I wonder if the ancient folks experienced people like Tonya Harding.  My guess is yes.

Citizenship – something for which most immigrants to the U.S. strive and what many take for granted.

Alexander and his conquests at the age of a mere 24 years – admirable.  How did he die?  How old was he when he died?  I will have to research this information.

Who would have thought that the Romans and Chinese empires would be compared and contrasted?  Not I.

Values of the republic!  Now this I do like.  If only we could all follow these rules every day: rule of the law, rights of citizens, absence of pretension, upright moral behavior, keeping one’s word – particularly, ‘upright moral behavior’ while behind the wheel of a car.

Of course the army built the Roman Empire because people are not just going to give in to a new regime; it requires force.

Wow.  A man’s control swings from absolute control over wife and kids to the extent of killing them if he so desired, to the other end where women had “almost complete liberty”   - quite the turnaround.  Of course, the ‘complete liberty’ pertains to the ‘elite classes.’  Money talks.

‘Empire in disguise’ – what a perfect description for the Roman emperors – just emphasizes the fact that we all wear masks.

The good of Shihuangdi:  standardizations and implementations; the bad:  executions and book burnings; the ugly:  the Great Wall of China.  It was a good idea at the time.

Interesting statement that “many Chinese in modern times are in fact descended from people who at one point or another were not Chinese at all.”  Would that concept not apply to other ethnicities?

Urban sprawl and pollution were matters of concern back then as they are today.

A triangle of civilizations:  Roman – Chinese – Indian; similar in some ways, yet widely contrasting in others.