Geopolitics

Between mountain ridges lies a valley.

A river wanders through it,

Farmland on both sides.

Who will control this fertile landscape?

A rich, abundant soil,

Capable of growing fruits and vegetables,

Grains – wheat, corn, and rice; beef, pork, and lamb.

A civilization can sprout between those mountains,

Families, homes, gardens, factories, and schools,

The water flowing through it, its source of wealth,

Churches, markets, roads and more.

This valley is but one of many.

Empires are supported within its means.

Taxes, soldiers, scientists, and scholars,

Create advanced civilizations, and

Vie in competition with each other.

Great cities where there is adequate water,

Rivers and lakes, oceans providing fish,

Each region benefitting from its resources,

Societies become stratified,

The wealthy ruling ruling from the top.

These economic centers begin to trade,

Each selling its surplus to somewhere else,

But none can deny that human evolution

Has created diversity across the planet.

So there are six continents and three oceans,

Excluding the poles which are uninhabitable

For any but the hardiest breed.

Each continent developed its own humanity,

Varying in color, shape, and size.

From villages to cities, to nations and empires,

Each region developing its own culture,

Language, art, science, and religion,

But then, having conquered the earth’s nature,

Wild predators falling under domestication,

Agriculture around the world,

The cradles of civilization-

From Mesoamerica and Peru to Europe and Mesopotamia,

To Nigeria, India, and China,

Having been unified through war and peace,

Through rivalry in strength and intelligence,

Femininity and fecundity,

The planet is finally getting full.

Each civilization standing up for itself,

While globalization interconnects,

The United Nations and the World Bank,

Religions taking root across the world,

Separating and uniting in equal parts.

Meanwhile the human race pushes out Nature,

While simultaneously altering the climate.

The global ecosphere reels in shock,

Reeves bleached and Arctic tundra melting,

Releasing methane and making matters worse.

Thus the competition for resources goes on,

Waters flowing from glaciers that are melting,

Rivers running dry from super droughts.

How will the various nations divide the rainfall, and

the snow that falls in the mountains and on the plains.

The races of the world mix together,

Whilst nations fight each other over land.

Historical claims of adjacent property,

Hitler’s Lebensraum, Austria and Czechoslovakia,

In Africa borders were shifted by colonialism,

In India the British created Pakistan.

Empires come and empires go,

Borders vanish and then are absorbed

Into the latest expanding empire,

Another great general at its helm,

A Pharaoh, a king, an emperor,

A Caesar, a Charlemagne,

Alexander, Moctezuma, Santa Ana,

Napoleon, Stalin, Genghis Khan,

So many more going back ten thousand years.

The Soviet Union, a huge empire,

Lasted until it collapsed, internal borders disappearing.

The United States, the People’s Republic of China,

The European Union, the OAU,

The major supernations of the world

Cooperate with each other,

Mining the resources of the Earth.

So what happens when those resources

Shrink in size and kind?

When overpopulation burgeons at the seams,

Drives diversity to extinction,

When rivers run dry or course through towns,

Causing unprecedented floods, 

When refugees are driven by war and famine,

By fears of totalitarianism,

To Greece and Turkey, Spain and Italy,

Texas and Arizona, escaping poverty,

From El Salvador and Honduras, escaping crime,

While cattle ranchers burn down the rain forests of Brazil.

What happened to the old world when

Population and technology have driven

The human species to the edge of every ecosystem,

To invade and dominate

Every last refuge of birds and butterflies,

Of wolves and prairie dogs.

When nations and empires

Compete with each other for resources,

Economies fail and war returns.

When religions and ancient values,

Crossborder hatreds and mores conflict,

The questions are to human psychology and sociology.

Then philosophy and religion must do

The job they were invented to perform.

Where are the values of the prophets?

The Ten Commandments and the 8-fold path?

The Holy Trinity and the seven deadly sins?

When greed and lust lead to narco-governments, 

Human trafficking, private armies, and

Ecological destruction, there must be a change.

There’s nothing sustainable about resource depletion,

Mass extinction, pandemics, and superstorms.

The time has come for global cooperation,

Cultural integration and religious tolerance.

Every religion believes it has a monopoly on truth.

None does.  ‘Tis a bitter pill to swallow, pride.

You spend your whole career saying that you have the answer,

The best solution, the absolute truth,

While stuffing your ego with feathers,

Only to find that you are a victim of foolish denial,

Yet that it the secret of greatness, humility.

Only by tossing the ego into the fire

Can one see truth unclouded, unvarnished.

Humility is the only way to save the human race, and

A good portion of life on Earth.

Christianity is not the only way,

Mohammed is not the only prophet,

Jews were not singled out by God,

Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains are not devoid of truth,

Buddhists have no right to burn Muslim villages in Myanmar,

Religion is not the opiate of the masses.

All religions have something to teach.

Hatred is never justified.

Clinging to values that don’t work anymore

Is unreasonable, unwise, and unkind.

NBS

9-21-21

MLH