RE-THINKING ALOUD : In the last days of America’s hegemony (19)

If we learn from deeds than words – because actions speak louder – we have got a school in what the Old Persian King Cyrus the Great (and his Achaemenid dynasty) did than Greek, British and American philosophies of power.

They lived earliest phases of human attempts to run vast states – with multivariate communities wherein power was coveted, feared and tricky to maintain. The dynasty is collegiate.

Cyrus II et al ruled when humanity delighted in heroism. People famed bloodshed, martyrdom and sacrifice.

Wars raged on as if they were human’s rites of passage. Men lived at loggerheads and killed with abandon. Patriotism that communities enshrined then would ‘outrightly’ scare the hell out of us today – it was de facto for one community to annihilate another only to grab one’s resource patch.

War was a means to an end whereas fear was the biggest ally to mail to a neighbour. Plains were fields of swords. Empires were maintained by edges of daggers. Cyrus hoped to correct all this…

So, Cyrus became founder of human rights. He allowed people to believe in whatever they liked and exercise respective religious dogma. Implied therein is, he was originator of ‘secularism’ for no way one could exercise diversity if the state takes side.

He called on respect for ‘community-others’ liberating those in captivity - Jews recorded this. Cyrus was first to allow foreigners to traverse his kingdom for greener pastures – Greeks recorded this. Greeks were the cheap labour of Persia.

On introducing Satraps all over the Persian Empire, they invented indirect rule or smartly, the puppetry system. Allies are puppets under a dominating power – at play between the two is ‘undue influence’.

Mazidaysm and/or Zoroastrianism are frankly, Persia’s export to the world – converging in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Zoroastrianism invented ‘monotheism’- one god – and other elements now raised high by Christianity and Islam. ‘Day of Judgment’ believed by Abrahamic religions is Zoroastrian. A lot others are… that Iran has bequeathed the world.

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam for example words ‘lord of lords’, ‘lord of hosts’, ‘king of kings’ and hundreds of attributes of God were originally virtues given to Cyrus the Great (Greeks called him Cyrus the Elder while Jews called him ‘the anointed of Yahweh’).

Still there was ‘the fall’

Cyrus II had great ideas about ruling an empire. He lived those ideas and acted them yet the damn appetite for prolonged conquering didn’t stop.

That is how he acquired the epithet “lord of hosts’ (overall head of armies) and because he ruled above lesser kings (vassals/satraps) he was named ‘king of kings’.

He was first to do reflections to find out what was wrong in empires. He discovered that he could press ‘subjects’ too much. The tighter the subjects’ lives were made, riskier the peace.

Some false consciences he introduced included human, economic, legal and cultural rights. These are ‘political outsmarting’ we inherited from Persia – they invested in propaganda and pioneering psychological warfare.

It would take two hundred years for subjects of Persia to rise. After decades of external conquering and militarism – while internal wrangling grew by the day – the empire became too powerful for outsiders but weaker for citizens.

Times varied until the inside got wreaked in violence, terrorism and competition for power – sometimes usurpers took up. Darius II for example reclaimed power after overthrowing an usurper.

The empire had become so weak internally and full of mistrusts. Glories were waning. Alexander of Macedon saw that display and moved defeating Darius at Gaugamela.

The root

Empires rise and fall that is universally evident. Whether from most ancient to classical periods, many were powers that came and went. Even when they had best brains put together, working and effective, empires came to pass.

So, what is wrong with empires? Is the answer for this question reflective of where America stands today?

The root of empires’ decline is ‘humanism’. It is because we are humans that we are fated to hang on ambitions until we are finished – read the last two parts of this series.