It is not "history" which uses men as a means of achieving -- as if it were an individual person -- its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends. ~ Karl Marx

It is said that history repeats itself or may be not. May be our needs and interests remain the same and we need to make the same mistakes repeatedly. Watching this recent movie made me think that something in history is repeating itself. The movie 'Good Night and Good Luck' depicts the state of paranoia that america found itself in, in the 50's. In this particular case there was only one character which it is attributed to: Joseph McCarthy. This quote from wikipedia describes the situation:

McCarthyism took place during a period of intense suspicion in the United States primarily from 1950 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively countering American Communist Party subversion, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. During this period people from all walks of life became the subject of aggressive "witch-hunts," often based on inconclusive or questionable evidence. It grew out of the Second Red Scare that began in the late 1940s and is named after the U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of Wisconsin.

Communism held a special place in the first half of the previous century and it was the focus of attention and concern for the western world. Certain paranoia and xenophobia had developed against the communists and the second half of the century was spent in fighting the 'Cold War', finally to the break up of russia.

To me it seems that one episode ended for the west and another started. Eighties represented the end of the obsession with communism (at least symbolically through break up of russia) and the Nineties mark the beginning of Islamophobia. Events such as 9/11 have made the west afraid of the "Islamic" extremism and the threat of Islam "spreading" within it.

As the movie shows that the people in america were able to see through the propaganda and realized the persecution that was being carried out. Due to which there was a state of fear and many innocent had to suffer the consequences. Islamophobia is currently prevalent in the same way. There is constant fear of what these "muslim" extremist may do. How they hate the freedom people have in america. Because of all that muslims are being persecuted and discriminated against in general. This rouses feelings of suspicion among the people of the land and hostility among the expatriates who had to suffer because of this, especially among the youth. America itself has a cherished history of young people revolting against all kinds of injustice. I believe that people must once again stop those who are trying to use them. They must once again see through the propaganda and make rational and reasonable assessment of the situation.

Good Night and Good Luck McCarthyism Joseph McCarthy

I just finished reading Dr Mahathir Muhammad's book Reflections on Asia. The book discusses mainly how the current currency trading system destroyed the asian economies in 1997. Malaysia set out on an open policy toward currency trading and stock exchange investments but short-selling and pull-out of investment brought the whole Malaysian economy down.

 

I particularly loved the last chapter that discussed the nature of european nations and how the asian nations should make progress in the next century. Apart from that he also discussed how they adopted the japanese management model and the differences between eastern and western management ethics. I find that there are important lessons in this book for the asian countries and Malaysian success is a case in point. Although their mistakes led to some loss and difficult time but they recovered and are moving forward. They learned the lesson and we should learn from them. Success is not in blindly following western schemes or in the dictation of IMF or World Bank but in self-reliance and in understanding of needs and capabilities of our people and utilizing it to the maximum.

Worcestershire Sauce, or simply referred as Wooster Sauce was originally produced here by the Lea and Perrins company in the 19th century. Now its produced by Heinz, though they still call it "Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce". Like all good things it was produced by accident and the rest is history.

Worcester is a small town in the area referred to as the midlands. Its populated by less than hundred thousand people, so you see what I mean. Despite being small, its a lovely place with courteous people who don't seem to suffer from the fears of big city residents. They are not cynical and less individualistic. I suppose that comes with the size of the city you have. The more people there are, the less you know them and the bigger the city the easier to do bad and get away. Every news is big news. Every event is heard of. Life is simpler. Families are stronger. People are generous. Cycles are common. People walk to this and that place. There are fewer traffic jams. Less pollution. Less noise. People live in houses rather than apartments and their houses have chimneys. People have faith. People have hope. There is less depression. People go to church. They believe that tomorrow will be a better day. No one is in a hurry. People care about the environment. May be I am seeing too much in this small place or is it just that I was born in a similar place and miss the joys and peace of living in a small town.

Let me take you to a tour of the town. Like all other places in UK this town too has High Street and the name gives the purpose away, its the shopping district, the Tariq Road of Worcester. Something about this street reminds me of the Istaklal street in Istanbul. I suppose they took the idea from Britain and modeled it the same way.

Two salient features of this town are the river Severn and the Worcester Cathedral. The river Severn is the longest river in the UK and passes through many counties and towns including Worcester. Its a nice river but like other rivers is also responsible for occasional flooding, though nothing of the Bangladesh kind.

In the back you can also see the famous Worcester Cathedral. Now Worcester Cathedral's full name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to Wikipedia, its been here for around 14 centuries but the current structure is from the 12th or 13th century. The Cathedral stands tall at the center of the town on one end of the High Street. 

Without further ado lets take you to it.

This probably is the front gate or may be this just where we went in from. On entering to you left is a residential block and some that look like offices. I presume they belong to those who either work here at the cathedral or take care of it.  

 

On the other side you are looking at the iconic Cathedral building. It has the tower that was most visible from the distance.

As we enter the Cathedral the I notice something about the architecture that would seem consistent throughout. The entrance door to the building was very small and in fact every door inside the building was small and a little cramped as well. This differs completely from the ceilings of the building, which are grand and high. I found that contrast a little odd but I suppose there is some history and philosophy behind it, about which I have no idea.

While walking along this path, on the right you see the Chapter House which to me just seems like a circular area but is supposed to be the place in the church where meetings are held. Monks gather here and the abbot reads the chapter, in which the matters of the monastry and its inhabitants are read aloud.

 As you enter the Cathedral, it seems to be divided into two wings, if you would. On the east side, there is the prayer area, called the Nave.

I would like to show you the window on the east end that you see right in front of you.

On the right you have the Choir area, very beautiful.

 

Between the East and West wings sits this grand organ, which is placed temporarily here and does not work right now. It is being rebuilt and would be moved to the choir area.

At different places in the church you see these tombs. I suppose a lot of people are buried here as well.

 

Somewhere here and below the Choir area is the Crypt where a number of people are buried and there is a special prayer area as well.

 

At the other end you have this special prayer area.

 When you leave the crypt through the following exit you come out somewhere around the organ and from there we actually traced our way back out.

 On our way out probably something to remember the places by with me there.

Last but not least lets look at another aspect of this town's history, the military one. This is said to be the place where the last battle of the English civil war was fought and people held there ground here. Because of this the motto of this town is: CIVITAS IN BELLO ET PACE FIDELIS, meaning, The faithful city in war and peace.

A four part series on BBC 4 that charts the history of the protestant faith and its effects, till the modern day.

The Protestant Revolution - Part 1: The Politics of Belief

The Protestant Revolution - Part 2: The Godly Family

The Protestant Revolution Part 3: A Reformation of the Mind

The Protestant Revolution - Part 4: No Rest for the Wicked

Though it tells the history of Protestantism but I see much resemblance between the revolution in their faith and departure from Catholicism and the impact of Islam in Europe. Islam preached the religion with no icons and protestants became the iconoclasts when they destroyed all icon and idol from catholic churches. Islam started in the 7th century while Protestantism is a phenomena of the 16th and 17th century. Islam had spread to Europe in its first 200 years and started to have impact on their societies though indirectly because Europe was being protected by the papacy and the holy wars a.k.a the crusades were taking place. Still I cannot ignore the fact that in the next ten centuries Islam did not have the influence to spark off this revolution?

Christianity was marred by papacy with the pope being a God appointed guide and responsible for the religion. The church could only interpret what the word of God was, ordinary people were even forbidden to read the book. Ordinary people were not worthy of interacting directly with God, rather the priest was their way to Him. The church offered salvation rather than God. This was everything that Islam broke down and created an egalitarian religion where everyone had the right to read the book. Everyone could interact directly with God and achieve salvation through good actions rather than blessing of some priest. There was no God appointed pope in Islam.

This is a great documentary as far as it traces the origin and impact of Protestantism but someone should make a documentary that links the arrival of Muslims in Europe and their impact, which I believe infused these familiar ideas in them.

In a previous post titled 'Knowledge and Capacity', I tried to highlight the fine line between confidence and delusion. While watching a tv program, I came across the life of the father of silicon valley, William Shockley. Which, I believe is a great example of how a mind, as great as his, can mistake a theory for the truth and delusion for confidence.

[Blocked Ads] After his Phd from MIT he joined Bell Labs like so many other names, either it was a great place to be at or may be that was just in fashion. Today, we can fit a radio on anything, but if any of you have seen a radio of 50's then you would agree, that something had to be done about it. Shockley knew that too. Based on his ideas, two other collegues Bardeen and Brattain (who later shared the Nobel with him as well) developed the first transistor. Later, he explained the working of this device in detail and developed the transistor, called "junction transistor", which is the main cog of today's machines.

He left Bell Labs and formed his own company, financed by Beckman Instruments. Einstein is called the father of atom bomb, which he did not make, and he is called the father of silicon valley, which he quite literally did start by creation of this company. His management style was'nt the popular one and he is known to be paranoid. The crisis reached its height when he had his employees pass the lie detector test, as he was suspecting conspiracy. After this, many left his company and formed their own, known as Fairchild. Some of these people, like Gordon Moore would later leave Fairchild and creat Intel.

His company was'nt that great a success. In later life he acquired other interests for which he would become notorious. His new found interest was population development and control, how to create the best breed. With not much knowledge and great conviction he started preaching this idea that better breed needs to be promoted. There could be misinformation in the resources I used, as he was not the most loved personality, but two things are enough evidence for me that he had lost track. First is that he put forward the idea the people of low intelligence be paid to go through voluntary sterilization and second, that he donated his sperm to a sperm bank created to spread this intelligent race.

Although he was a great man, responsible for such great progress of today, but his confidence and conviction (delusion) about matters which he did not have any solid proof or rigorous research led him down. He was forwarding his views without critically examining his own methods and motives. He was a genius and a visionary but that did not guarantee that any view he strongly believed would, necessarily be true.

Times 100 Noble Foundation Wikipedia