- Article Written By Arvin Niknia, Independent Author
Culture refers to the shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that define a group or society and result from human interactions. People who are together in one place create their subculture. Over time, many things change. Man has lived on earth for thousands of years. Like many other animals, humans live in herds. This increases the human’s chance of survival. Herd creates identity. Several human species do not live today, such as the Denisovans and Neanderthals.
Humans created the Yamnaya culture, which ruled over the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, which extends from north-eastern Bulgaria and south-eastern Romania through Moldova and eastern Ukraine, through the North Caucasus of southern Russia, and into the Lower Volga region, where it straddles the border of southern Russia and western Kazakhstan. Humans created Maikop culture, Samara culture, Novosvobodnaya culture, Ezero culture, Usatovo culture, and others. The Sarmatians, who migrated to Europe, were part of the Scythian cultures. Man created civilizations.
While some still beat each other in the head with clubs and stones, the advanced civilizations made coins in gold and silver. Peasants worked and paid taxes, and in return, they were promised security by the rulers. Assyria, Urarto, Hittites, Hurrians, Gutian, Akkad, Babylonia, et cetera. They were in constant wars with each other, so they also learned from each other and copied from each other. The gods were copied to the extent that the Persian god of wisdom, Ahura Mazda, is very similar to the Assyrian god Ashshur in appearance. Assyrian and Babylonian laws, myths, and the idea of paradise were copied into civilizations and religions worldwide. Other civilizations took over many civilizations. Example: Assyria was taken over by Medes, Kurds.
One of the most influential civilizations in history is the Phoenician civilization. Among other things, they helped build a civilization that ruled over the water. They created the first international trading cities across the Mediterranean and Carthage in north-west Africa. They built city-states such as Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Aradus, and Berytos. The Phoenician alphabetic writing system became the root of the Western alphabet when the Greeks adopted it. Later, they were subject to the Assyrians, Persia, and the Greeks. The new civilizations took control of the old ones and represented themselves to the world. All in their name. Rich empire in Africa before western colonialism: kingdom of Kushan, Mali Empire and kingdom of punt. The Maya civilization with their pyramids and sacrificial culture. Vikings with their goods and sacrificial culture which later created a common Union. Polish–Lithuanian Union. Kyiv and Slavic culture.
When Islam came into the world, a new ideology was created. An ideology that created welfare for Muhammad’s followers. All scientific books now had to be burned so that the holy book, the Qur’an, could be represented as the divine to the outside world. The Persians no longer existed, and several other civilizations lost their identity. I explained in my previous articles how old beliefs and gods became part of Islam and Christianity.
Before Muslims, Persians had been at war with the Greeks and later Romans, which triggered the first religious world war in history. Later, Pope Urban, after the Battle of Manzikert (1071), started the second religious world war in history, which was between Muslims and the Christians who carried the cross. In order to separate the Christians from the Muslims, the Pope chose to divide the world into two worlds, Europe and Asia—them and us. Indeed, before the Pope, the Romans did not realize themselves as Europeans because Europe did not exist in their time. Moreover, the word racism, or racial division, was also very unknown in their world. Racial division only took place after
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) classified the species. The Holy Roman Empire created a new identity for itself after Christianity. Before Islam, the ideology of Christianity was created. These two ideologies created a common identity and culture, which helped to separate men from one another. The two ideologies of Communism and capitalism created two poles that were constantly at war. Islam and Christianity defeated Manichaeism. Those in power decided which direction of Islam and Christianity was right and what the followers must worship and accept. Those in power decide what the truth is and must be. The internal religious war in Europe ended in the Peace of Westphalia. They ended the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648).
The Treaty of Westphalia granted religious tolerance to Lutherans and Calvinists in the Holy Roman Empire. It was a great day in human history when Europeans learned that tolerance is essential. Long before, Muslims had chosen a form of tolerance for religious minorities, but high taxes conditioned their tolerance. Privatization first existed in the Islamic world under the concept of waqf. This made it possible to draw a protection for a purpose. Muslims adopted modern technology from the Persians and Romans. The Romans were defeated in the war by Yarmuk. The advanced tax systems made the Muslims strong and rich. After destroying scientific books, they later began to collect science in the House of Wisdom, Bayt Al-hikma. They represented science in their name to the outside world.
An example is the Arabic numeral system. The Hindu number system was further developed by the Persian-speaking al-Khwarizmi but was represented by the world as the Arabic number system because it came from the Arab world to the West. In addition, after the Renaissance, all Arabic works were translated into the West. This means Arabs adopted science from Persians, Romans, and Greeks, while Persians adopted from Assyrians and Romans took from Persians, while the West adopted from the Arab world. The West further developed science, and the Arab world retook it from the West.
Many books were shipped to Greece and the Roman Empire during Alexander’s conquest of Persia. The Hellenistic culture became mixed with the Persian culture, which has been influenced by the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Elamaian mardi, sousii, and uxii. Later, the Elamite people are conquered by Persians. The Nazi symbol, the Svastika, was used as decoration on ceramics from the Minoan culture in Crete a few thousand years before the birth of Christ, but it turns out that in the ancient Marlik civilization, they also enjoyed that sign. Many symbols and colors throughout history changed meaning—for example, crosses and scarves.
Before the Turks conquered Constantinople and established the Ottoman Empire, they lived in Iran under the Seljuk Empire. They take a Turco-Persian culture to Constantinople. The population in those places would not become Turks, but the language would become Turkish because now it was no longer Arabs but Turks who had the power. That is why Arabs now had to learn Turkish under the Ottoman Empire. Turks spread Islam and made Islam a part of their identity. Before the Turks, it was Mongolia that did the same.
Tamerlane (1336–1405) conquered and killed many people in the name of Islam. Islamic culture was influenced by Mongol culture when the Mongols were in power. For example, the Islamic toilet is the Mongolian toilet. Many cultures, such as Persians and Greeks, have influenced Islam throughout history. This means, among other things, that the patriarchal society in the Islamic world is gradually being created, and the scarf becomes an Islamic symbol. In the Western world, it is thus the same as committing holy wars in the name of Jesus. For example, the Danish bishop Absalon (1128–1201) orders and burns the city of Arkona. He is considered a national hero and protector of Copenhagen.
The Prohibition era (1920-1933) was proof that prohibition of alcohol is not only limited to a certain religion or a specific culture. Furthermore, child marriage cannot be linked to certain cultures in the East, as the West has also cultivated it throughout history, Agnes of France.
Conversely, I can mention the Iranian king Nader Shah (1688–1747), who threw the Russians, the Ottomans, and the Afghans out of Iran and made a great massacre in India, Armenia, and Georgia. The Ottomans and the Afghans had carried out a tremendous religious massacre in Iran. Nader Shah is considered a national hero by the Iranians, while he is considered a tyrant by the Georgians; therefore, they do not like Iranians. I can also say the same about Sweden and Denmark, England, which bombarded Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon brought peace to Egypt; this was just a policy for the Egyptians not to fight hard against the occupation, the Battle of Abukir. This policy did not work the same way in the war siege of Acre, ending his dreams of having an empire in the east. The French Revolution was a failure, and when Napoleon (1769-1821) took over power, life did not improve in France.
Like the French one, the Iranian revolution (1979) was also a failure because people did not have a better life, but the opposite. The British wanted to get rid of the Iranian king because of his high demands regarding the new oil deal in 1979. In addition, the traditional society saw modernity as a threat, which created dissatisfaction. This shows that as long as a country’s culture is unchanged, a revolution cannot improve people’s lives. The Russian Revolution (1917) was partially successful when the Russians pulled all their soldiers out of the Middle East and Europe and ended their colonial history. The Russians’ loss to the Japanese created discontent and the revolution. It was partly successful because it did not take long for the Russians to start again on their colonialism. People in Russia also did not get a better life after the revolution. It may well be that Communism made significant progress and provided an ordinary life for the people, but it did not take long for them to experience oppression. This happened when Communism and capitalism were at war, and Communism did not want the influence of capitalism. Socialism in Denmark, Germany, and other countries chose to cooperate with capitalism even though they were also anti-capitalist. It was perhaps mostly because of the anxiety due to Communism from both sides. The incumbent powers in these countries did not want to lose their power, while the US also did not want Communism to win; therefore, the US chose to help all countries both economically and militarily. The US believed that poverty in countries would increase Communism. Populism started on both sides. Although the Soviet Union tried to blockade Berlin after the Potsdam Conference, stopping the Western Allies was impossible. After the wall’s fall in 1989, you could clearly see the cultural differences created between the two parts of Germany just after years. Although Germany was reunited, they were never actually reunited.
For the US, it was important to keep the Soviet Union away from the oil in the Middle East. Like socialism, Communism brainwashed the children at school to become communists. It was important that the parents worked and paid taxes.
Before nationalism, ethnicity played a major role. Nationalism suppressed ethnicity and created a common identity. It was no longer about ethnic groups or clans but a nation. The countries started their brainwashing and changed history. They created a new story that everyone had to learn at school. All those who opposed the nation were now called and branded as traitors. In the Persian Constitutional Revolution, many people moved from Armenia and Azerbaijan to fight for the revolution, but afterward, they were forgotten in history because now it was all about being Iranians and Iran and no longer ethnicities. Many Kurds also fought for Turkey as they wanted to be part of Turkey and not Iraq, but they were also forgotten in history because Turkish nationalism was now about being Turks. Turks forgot that a third of Kurds lost their lives in British aircraft bombardments. The southern parts of Denmark have much more history than the northern parts of Germany, but that was also now forgotten because they had set up boundaries and created an identity that separated reality from the truth.
However, the ethnic groups that found themselves before the borders were called minorities, and a new catastrophic phenomenon was created. Before the borders, we only had religious minorities. For example, the Mexican areas that the United States had conquered after the borders were called minorities. Most minorities were suppressed by nationalism as they did not represent the identity, color, and religion of the majority. Even in the so-called democratic systems, they were oppressed because of inequality, which created an unequal influence of power. If those in power do not represent the majority, the majority will fight until they take over power, just like in Afghanistan. The people in power represent the majority because they are the ones who have the power in a country. This made it impossible for the minority to overpower the majority. This created a kind of tyranny of the majority, bureaucracy, and state violence. In a country like Lebanon, inequality was created in the country when the number of Muslims outnumbered the Christians. It created war and destruction in the country. The same thing happened in Palestine when the number of Israeli citizens increased due to the large immigration of Jews from Europe. When Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin (1922–1995) was assassinated after the Oslo Accords, it was a result of Israeli extremism. When there were several attacks on refugee camps, hospitals, and journalists in Lebanon and Gaza, it was a clear picture of an Israeli cultural problem. Israeli settlements are another clear picture of the problem. As long as the US sits on the UN Security Council and holds its hand over Israel with the right of veto, nothing will happen.
On the other hand, the Palestinian struggle to overthrow the state of Israel and liberate Palestine is also a cultural problem. Israel has become a reality and must be recognized. The same was the case with the countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Bahrain, which were recognized. Both Turkey and Iran repeatedly claimed Bahrain as theirs. Historically, Bahrain has been part of the Persian Empire but later became part of the Ottoman Empire with the siege of Bahrain in 1559. Bahrain continued the conflict between the Portuguese and Ottoman empires, which had begun in earnest in 1538, the siege of Dieu. Militant groups, which were often minorities, were called terrorists by the majority to legitimize the oppression. News agencies worldwide, including the Western ones, continued to claim neutrality. An organization or a person can never be neutral, as it is all about interests and interpretation of a situation. Therefore, indirect terms were used to brainwash the viewers, and selected images were shown. We interpret images from outside our culture and upbringing, which form our ability to interpret. An image tells many things as long as we can identify it, and since the state forms the culture, state media can better manipulate the majority.
World politics resulted in migration. Migration is both good and bad and can create cultural and economic change. Nationalism is a feeling, and not everyone grew up with that feeling similarly. The immigrants who were nationalist and religious presented great challenges to Europe. Nationalists did not want to change and had a dream to be able to go back to their country one day. This opposition to European state violence strengthened racism. Religious people did not want to be part of the European culture at all and created their religious communities. Cosmopolitan did not create the big challenges, as they were only interested in a better life. Jews, before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1968, did not have nationalist feelings but only religious ones. As religious minorities, they were often blamed for the country’s failure. The Germans created the word ghetto about Jews. Immigrants were used as weapons by anti-western countries. Authoritarian regimes use the death penalty against their people to maintain their power. This is against the original idea of capital punishment, which was created to bring order to a society. The death penalty and the brutality of authoritarian regimes increased immigration. In France, the death penalty was abolished in 1981. This was not easy, as the majority of French were in favor of the death penalty due to cultural issues.
Furthermore, it was difficult for the French to give women a place in the labor market. The Germans also had this problem until the end of the Second World War. Although women in Iran had the right to vote before many European countries, this did not mean that equality was created. Therefore, European countries still discuss equality since equality and democracy are about culture and hierarchy. Because of immigrants, European countries introduced tough immigration policies. Populist parties became more and more popular, and dehumanization became more and more accepted. It became difficult to obtain citizenship and enter the country.
Alternatively, the old systems in Europe were not intended to accept a large number of immigrants, while on the other hand, the American hegemony attempt in the Middle East meant that the allies had to take responsibility for their illegal wars in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Germany also participated in Afghanistan and northern Kunduz and broke its promises regarding wars. The immigrants who entered Europe now had to be integrated. This meant that they had to be dissolved among the majority so they could no longer threaten the majority. They now had to learn the language, accept the norms and values of the majority, and become like them. The harsh immigration policy in the West meant that the so-called democratic countries moved more towards inclusion than integration. This meant they became more like countries like Turkey, with its strong nationalism that does not allow the Kurdish identity. This is undemocratic. The populist party in Denmark used the word Danishness. Being Danish and feeling Danish” On the other hand, these immigrants had to work and pay taxes. It challenged European countries because these immigrants were not brought up in European countries and had a different understanding of life. The populist party in Austria, the Freedom Party, got great election results, which is not a cultural surprise in Austrian history.
Although the borders were now a reality after the Sykes-Picot Agreement in the Middle East, countries such as Saudi Arabia would not accept that it, too, widened their territory by taking part in Iraq. Iraq never became a nation because of the many conflicts. Iraq did not recognize Kuwait, and Syria did not recognize Lebanon. Borders create countries; therefore, many small Arab countries were created by the Persian Gulf. These countries gained their independence in cooperation with the British. The British wanted to increase their influence around the Persian Gulf because of the Ottomans and Persians; therefore, small Arab countries like Bahrain were created. Later, these new countries tried to change the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Gulf. This is nothing new, as the Sea of Makran became the name of the Sea of Oman. The British created Afghanistan and Pakistan as buffer countries, Durand Line.
The city of Mosul, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, was given to Iraq when those in power decided. The British and French also left behind the new state management model in the Middle East. Control, hegemony, and state violence. This became even worse when the US tried to reduce British influence in the Middle East with the Monroe Doctrine and launched several coups.
However, Islamization and dictatorship were supported directly by the United States because of Communism. The Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 was a result of the Cold War, which again unfolded in the Ukraine-Russia war. When American President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) came to power, he sacrificed Ukraine in favor of American policy. He got Ukraine to neutralize itself and hand over its weapons to Russia. In addition, he and European countries chose to continue selling weapons to Russia. After the Soviet Union disintegrated, the United States chose to strengthen NATO rather than dissolve it. The expanding NATO even though the Soviet Union no longer existed.
When Great Britain disintegrated, everyone thought colonialism was over, but the Falklands War 1982 showed the opposite. In addition, France continued to control Africa and seek influence. Formerly French Guinea, it achieved independence in 1958 but not completely. The French currency also continued to dominate in Africa. There is no doubt that the African ex-dictator Idi Amin (1925–2003) was a result of colonialism.
On the other hand, colonialism in both Africa and the Middle East left cultural problems. An excellent example of that is Lord Evelyn Baring Cromer (1841–1917), who intensified cultural problems in Egypt. Later, these cultural problems were linked by Western countries to being Middle Eastern, which had nothing to do with the West. In other countries, they strengthened superstitions, while in India, they abolished some superstitions for their benefit. The Indian Gunga Rao is a good example of this. Some foreign powers reinforced this tradition. Spreading intoxicants such as hashish to further its colonial intentions was also a tool used by the British.
As I said, those in power wrote history and decided what the truth should be and what people should read in school as history. That is why I only read about the Jewish Holocaust in school history books. World War II was a result of nationalism. The Germans wanted the territories back from France that they lost to in the First World War. To preserve German pride, they blamed the Jews for not accepting defeat. The catastrophic race war, which was also a continuation of colonialism and a struggle for hegemony, resulted in millions of human lives. The Second World War was a result of a cultural problem. The Germans lost the war and had nothing to say. After the war, the USA stole knowledge from Germany and Japan. Some criminal scientists were pardoned and taken to the United States. In the Yalta Conference in 1945, the victorious powers decided what should happen to Germany, and many German soldiers were put into forced labor, starvation, and death. It was mostly the Soviet Union and France that did not comply with the Geneva Convention regarding German prisoners. The Iranian and Irish Holocaust is a result of British colonial intention, but I never read about it in the school history books.
By contrast, the books at school taught me that I should be a nationalist and worship the kings. Statues of kings and national heroes were erected. They created an identity by creating nationalist figures and named roads after them. Countries such as Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan fought over the well-known poet Rudaki (858-940).Pakistan tried to make history. They were created because, in reality, they could not be nationalists when borders did not exist in their time, but certain people were linked to nationalism, and a false history of the states was created.
On the other hand, in a country like Iran, religious figures were created by the state to strengthen the religion, and nationalism was suppressed. Indeed, nationalism brought down the Soviet Union. Nationalist and religious beliefs created wars and destruction. They helped to oppress the woman. Nationalism protected women from the enemy but, at the same time, oppressed women with its norms. Religion promised women a better life but, at the same time, oppressed women with its norms. Socialism created a community and promised equality, but at the same time, it created inequality as not everyone had equal access to the benefits due to hierarchy. Democracy promised justice but, at the same time, created injustice in the legislation. Capitalism created inequality, and Communism created state control and infringed on the right to self-determination. Yugoslav civil war (1991–2001), which was disastrous and many atrocities were committed. Unlike the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the China, Oman, and Spanish Civil War, the Yugoslavia Civil War was not an ideological war between Communism and nationalism but an ethnic war opposite to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a nationalistic border conflict. The 2018 Nicaraguan protest, 2019–2022 Chilean protest, Women’s March (2017) Anti-Iraq War protests (2003) Tiananmen Square (1989) The Baltic Way (1989). Women, Life, Freedom movement(2022) and arab spring(2010).
After the fall of the Communist Party and the execution of Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989), globalism could now take over Eastern Europe. Globalism pushed the boundaries, and everyone thought nationalism was history. It turned out that both Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) were wrong about nationalism and religion because these elements do not seem to disappear. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) fought all his life against colonialism, but he failed when he did not fight against injustice in his own country. Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) fought for a better world, but he failed when he supported the violent behavior of the PLO. Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) fought for women’s equality but failed when she supported the Iranian revolution in 1917.
In this article, I explain why a cultural revolution is essential. A cultural revolution means discarding reactionary thoughts and working to create a better world. The Me Too movement was a kind of cultural revolution partially to prevent sexual abuse.
