All Great Civilizations - by Clement Walsh

As I look around me at the greatness of modern day Western Civilization, I find myself asking questions. What is the origin of present day society? Where did we acquire all the knowledge that we now posses? How does past civilization relate to modern day accomplishments? After some reading and searching for information I came upon most of the answers I was looking for.

It quickly became apparent to me that all great civilizations are discernible by what they have built. These projects of building often took colossal efforts and vast amounts of time. But interestingly enough, these projects represented not only a major goal for the people of the civilization to achieve, but also a hallmark of their visionary ideals, for whatever reasons those might have been. Even more astounding is the fact that these civilizations were able to complete what they did with the rudimentary tools that were available to them.

Relief depicting a Phoenician ship from the first century CE

Indeed, each great civilization of recorded history has had its own unique contribution in the fields of science, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, engineering, politics and religion. But, most noticeable it was the engineering, which was not only very prominent, but also has withstood the tests of time. Here is a brief sampling: the Sumerians and their ziggurats, the Egyptians and the Great Pyramids of Gaza, the Phoenicians and their ships, the Babylonians and the great Chaldean Empire, the Persians and the Royal Road, the Greeks and the Athenian Acropolis, the Romans and the aqueducts, the Byzantine Empire and its architecture, the Chinese and the Great Wall of China, the Mayans and their stone temples, the Islamic Empires and their mosques, on so on and so forth.

Additionally, the knowledge and expertise gained in the creation, production and construction of these achievements has been passed down to us through the ages. Today, our achievements include; bridges a mile long, skyscrapers over a thousand feet high, large dams that provide hydroelectric power, intercontinental air travel, massive road, rail and airport systems, global communications, super computers, robotics, space travel, the harnessing of nuclear energy, bioengineering, aircraft carriers, rocket engines that deliver millions of pounds of thrust, manufacturing and assembly plants, undersea tunnels, gigantic tools for the excavation of the soil, desalinization techniques and giant telescopes that explore the cosmic frontier.

The Mighty Saturn V Rocket blasts off toward the Moon. - Image courtesy NASA

In the United States of America, which is (or was, depending upon how you look at it) the direct heir of Western thought and culture, it can be logically concluded that the crowning triumph of all the skills, proficiency, and capability of human fortitude and human engineering was manifested in the 20th century by the Apollo moon program. This great enterprise was underlined by the sheer size and scope of the program. Almost half a million people from all the fields of science and all walks of life, were commissioned to work on the great and comprehensive undertaking. Inspired and brought forth by far-reaching and visionary minds, such as Wernher Von Braun and John F. Kennedy, the grand mission was rushed forward with much enthusiasm, passion and an almost breakneck pace. Futuristic spacecraft, rockets and components that hadn’t even existed before the program, were conceived, assembled and tested. The greatest journey in Mankind’s history was being envisioned, fabricated and prepared in a remarkably short time. To this day, over thirty years since that enterprise, the structures, facilities, pictures, lunar rocks and other artifacts of that now seemly distant era bear mute testimony to what can be accomplished, if we so will it to be.

Since those heady days of Apollo, we here on Earth have settled or subjugated all of our major environmental challenges, become overpopulated, begun to stagnate and to languish. So, what has happened? What went wrong? Why are we still here after three decades and no colonization of the Moon ever took place? Was it the safety concerns, budget cuts or technological difficulties? No. It was because we let our yearning for adventure and new worlds escape like helium out of a balloon. We became complacent about the future and decided to leave the task to others. We didn’t demand that we strive for higher goals. We failed to accept the new and even greater challenges that awaited us.

Indeed, our current society has become one of stifling bureaucracy, counterproductive laws and politics, infringement upon and losses of freedom, shortsighted politicians, harmful regulation, lack of scientific funding, loss of visionary minds, the stagnation of scientific research and breakthroughs, the locking up and denial of Earth’s resources for human consumption, loss of productive and progressive endeavors, energy expended in unfavorable crusades against science, inauspicious education of the youth, the hostile menace of religion and beliefs in the supernatural within men’s minds, the injurious loss of rational thought and lastly, detrimental arguments between various fractions of the public in general.

An artist's conception of an early human outpost on the Red Planet. - Image courtesy NASA

How is Humanity ever to break free and fracture the chains that bind us to this planet and its innumerable problems? Whilst there can certainly be no absolute solution to solve human strife, bickering and contention, there is hope for mending and bringing together the threads of greatness in civilization again. This can be found in the horizon-broadening endeavor of manned missions, colonization, exploration, study, understanding and subsequent development of the solar system, with Mars being the first objective.

The motive for this are many and basis for Mars as the first logical step even stronger. For, ever since Humankind has known what a horizon is, we have always wanted to see over the next hill and beyond the next valley. Those new horizons are now in our solar system and on the planets, moons and asteroids therein. From this third rock of the Sun, tethered to it by an invisible force, our exodus shall begin. Directed toward the planet Mars, for it represents far more then just a destination. Mars holds the key to the ingredients for a new branch of civilization. Everything from axial tilt, rotational speed, gravity, seasons, distance, water, and soil are suitable for human colonization and utilization. Mars also includes natural wonders unique to it. The largest mountain and valley in the entire solar system, Olympus Mons, an extinct volcano and Valles Marineris, a complex valley structure.

But the abundant assets, resources and technological innovations that await us can only come within our grasp if we are willing to become conscious, attentive and responsive to attaining the goal of putting the grand plan of mass human migration to Mars and beyond into action. It can be said with reasonable certainty that it is Humanity’s destiny to colonize our solar system and by the very feat and nature of this process, we will learn and discover a myriad of information and undeniably, inspiration about ourselves and our exact place in the cosmos.

However, a strong stirring of the Human spirit must first occur, insomuch that the heart and mind yearns for the quantum leap that will have to come about. This “cognizant progression” will enable full understanding of the science and concepts, which will lead to the accurate application of technology, so that the goals of space exploration can unfurl in a precise and suitable manner.

The repetitive west-east rotation of the Earth causes the Sun to set once more; a clam breeze rustles the dry grass, birds roost in the pine trees as they sway slightly, heat begins to radiates back out into space, as another night falls. The Moon is up and down again, its continual phases as seen from Earth locked everlastingly in showing the same side. Our blue orb we call home, completes yet another trajectory about a yellow ball of hydrogen and helium gas, the Red Planet beckons us, its dust storms forming, brewing then dissipating, polar ices caps growing and shrinking, asteroids rotate haphazardly, the celestial symphony of the Solar System played out for millennia patiently awaits our awaking, a stellar nursery cultivates the birth and grow of countless stars, the luminosity of young stars light up otherwise dark cosmic gas, other stars burn, lose color, shed their outer layers, some collapsing into tiny objects of extreme density, the arms of the Milky Way revolve slowly, its nuclear bulge glows, the Local Group progress together leisurely in their mutual gravity, distant galaxies and quasars become ever more red-shifted, dark matter pervades galaxy clusters, extra dimensions, inconceivable to the Human mind, reside just beyond the experience of familiarity, what could be, what should be, what will be, time fades, providence calls, magnitude grows, fate and chance pressure…


Clement Walsh

Copyright © August 2002 by Clement D. Walsh
Santa Barbara, California USA

All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced in any form without expressed written permission from the author.
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