Human Revolutions: The Cold War

Human Revolutions

More than ten million years ago, our ancestors survived through hunting and gathering. Other types of societies are believed to have evolved in the last 10000-15000 years ago. Oblivious to the fact that these societies have been there for too long, they may become extinct soon as they can hardly cope with the ever advancing technologically motivated modern societies. Societies have since the Neolithic period evolved through the agrarian revolution to the modern day industrial revolution. During the era of hunter and gather, human beings would trap wild animals and kill them for food, and they would also collect and prepare wild plants for survival. The plants they collected included fungi, berries, and nuts. In order to find

food with ease, the man was too mobile and would move from one area to another in small groups for security reasons (Zmolek, 2013).

Evolution to the agrarian revolution started the small group’s settlements at first for safety reasons, and finally they found areas with plenty of foods and favorable climate that ensured that there was plenty of food throughout the year. The man slowly started settling for the available food and would soon start to initiate programs for irrigating and driving out floods during heavy rains. He did this through building canals, and later he builds irrigating canals, and it is important to note that the early man settled by the riverside. Therefore when the dry spell set in, the man would still cultivate and grow plants through irrigation. The first man settled and specialized in growing grains such as millet, maize, beans, and peas. The invention of fire in the previous stage more initial stage of evolution was a significant milestone for the survival of man (Zmolek, 2013).

After settling and adapting agriculture as the way of food production, man invented and improved his way of food production such that soon there would be adequate and actually surplus food. This necessitated the need for other activities. In particular, trade in terms of barter trade came up, and this made man to start specializing slowly, that is, some people specialized in commerce while others specialized in agriculture (Zmolek, 2013). Discovery of iron, coal and other metallurgy made human to diversify their economic activities. Soon there was the invention of steamship and railway which were quite profound in the development of transport. This era continued and soon man started to create factories mainly textile factories and technology sets in. Railroad construction and the emergence of companies in Britain and other European countries were quite significant in the industrial revolution in the modern societies.

Civilization

Civilization can be measured in one way with regards as to how societies punish its offenders. For instance, civilized nations do not allow any form of punishment that touches the human body. Prisons are built in remote areas where they are far from the public view, and the authorities are responsible for controlling the inmates, and this act is seen by many as quite unpleasant. Norbert Elias, however, states that civilization is a standard that did not merely fall out of the sky in one day, but rather it has been a process that took many years. Therefore culture should be understood as a product of a very long-term historical process capable of resulting in uncivilized consequences itself and that which is capable of being interrupted at any time as its nature is fragile and contingent (Elias, 1978).

There are inherent characteristics and features intrinsic to a society that makes it become a civilized one. Such qualities include a well and fully functioning democracy, provision of high standards in terms of health care and also literacy rates and levels in society. In addition, a civilized society is considered to have very low levels of infant mortality rates, and it has laws restricting child labor and forced labor as well. It also abhors cruelty to animals and such societies are quite relaxed about sexual identities and preferences (Elias, 1978). Lastly, the manner in which prisoners and offenders are treated and punished speaks volumes about the civilization of a country. There is the need to civilization as from the characteristics signifying culture shows that with civilization there is the guarantee of a high-quality life and also there is utmost respect of human nature. Moreover, civilization calls for peaceful existence complimented with tranquility and mutual respect from everyone in the society. Therefore such things as violence are perceived as a thing of the past and majorly it is seen as utmost uncivilization and backwardness (Elias, 1978). Modern societies seek peace at all cost and these communities firmly believe that war has long disappeared and that it will be part of the history of modern man all these thanks to civilization.

Cold war

The cold war occurred as a result of the relationship between the United States of America and the USSR just after the Second World War two.

The cold war came to dominate most of the international affairs for several decades, and actually many crises occurred following it including the Vietnam, Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis among others. The major worrying issue for many was the escalating production of weapons of mass destruction. The cold war formed the grounds of an international power struggle and was a clash of different ideology and beliefs-communism versus capitalism-each deeply held with almost religious conviction with both sides seeking for dominance by exploiting every opportunity for expansion and diffusion of doctrines and beliefs everywhere in the world. The major differences between the American ideology, capitalist, and the USSR communist were among others; the capitalists advocated for free and democratic elections, while the communist believed in an autocratic or dictatorial type of leadership with no elections. Moreover, the capitalist supported for what would be termed as survival for the fittest type of economy while for the communist who was too much against this believed in everybody for one another. There was the whole question of personal freedom and freedom of the media in capitalism while in communism such freedom was highly denied and instead there provided for society controlled by the secret police and the total censorship (Pinker,

2011).