Dropping the British term "Middle East" and remembering Sumer might give young people a new goal

grasping the after wind

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[QUOTE="Tom 1, post: 74758732, member: 404020"


I don't think it was that bad, comparative to its time no better or worse than any other city in it's own context.[/QUOTE]
I agree Sumerian cities were no better or worse than any other unsanitary city.
 
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summerville

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One of the saddest ironies of history is that the area where humanity first unified to give us the very first civilisation, Sumer, is now so divided and constantly on the verge of war. The Sumerians built the world's first capital city Uruk which housed between 40 to 80 thousand people. Uruk developed agriculture but also a large enough population to encourage specialisation. This lead to metallurgy, money, mathematics, and writing. The Sumerians developed these 2000 years before the Babylonians took over! All because a small collection of city states cooperated and traded. More on their history here.


Sadly different religious and political empires have divided the region for centuries, often resulting in bloodshed and war. Young people in the Middle East are starting to dream a bigger dream for the entire region.

Remembering what was achieved in their glorious deep past, they look to the future. Let's abandon the names of the British Empire as it unimaginatively called the region the "Middle East" to distinguish it from the “Far East”. Dreams are not born in names of servitude, but of greatness!

Sumer is where their great ancestors invented the very idea of civilisation itself, so #Sumer should become their new dream, their new movement.

Modern day Sumerians dream of trade, not terror;
of conversation, not combat;
of building, not barbarism;
of wealth, not war.
Indeed, they want to end the proxie wars.

They want to build fast rail and travel and trade and jobs and economies and mutual interdependence. Modern Sumerians remember how Europe bombed each other back to the stone age in WW2. But through unity and increasing trade they prospered and in just 65 years have grown into a new superpower!


After the divisions of sects and sectarianism, a new generation of young people are tired of the old battles. They want to throw off the shackles and side effects of history. They are prepared to compromise. They are prepared for a secular government that guarantees freedom of religion and the special religious holidays of participating nations. They want their region to be appreciated for its rich history – and maybe encourage tourism? They want their shared identity as an ancient peoples to protect them from future proxie wars. They want #Sumer-now to become the greatest trend on social media, even if they don't know that's how it will happen. And they want it now.

REFERENCE (and there are many like it).
Arab Youth Survey: Religion 'too influential' in Middle East, say young people

What exactly is the issue? If its any comfort to you, when I was a kid it was called the "Near East".
 
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summerville

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Yes, I didn't realise you were quoting the OP, I wasn't sure what you meant by that phrase.



I don't think it was that bad, comparative to its time no better or worse than any other city in it's own context.

Ancient Sumer had irrigation, a written language and sailboats.
 
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Larniavc

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One of the saddest ironies of history is that the area where humanity first unified to give us the very first civilisation, Sumer, is now so divided and constantly on the verge of war. The Sumerians built the world's first capital city Uruk which housed between 40 to 80 thousand people. Uruk developed agriculture but also a large enough population to encourage specialisation. This lead to metallurgy, money, mathematics, and writing. The Sumerians developed these 2000 years before the Babylonians took over! All because a small collection of city states cooperated and traded. More on their history here.


Sadly different religious and political empires have divided the region for centuries, often resulting in bloodshed and war. Young people in the Middle East are starting to dream a bigger dream for the entire region.

Remembering what was achieved in their glorious deep past, they look to the future. Let's abandon the names of the British Empire as it unimaginatively called the region the "Middle East" to distinguish it from the “Far East”. Dreams are not born in names of servitude, but of greatness!

Sumer is where their great ancestors invented the very idea of civilisation itself, so #Sumer should become their new dream, their new movement.

Modern day Sumerians dream of trade, not terror;
of conversation, not combat;
of building, not barbarism;
of wealth, not war.
Indeed, they want to end the proxie wars.

They want to build fast rail and travel and trade and jobs and economies and mutual interdependence. Modern Sumerians remember how Europe bombed each other back to the stone age in WW2. But through unity and increasing trade they prospered and in just 65 years have grown into a new superpower!


After the divisions of sects and sectarianism, a new generation of young people are tired of the old battles. They want to throw off the shackles and side effects of history. They are prepared to compromise. They are prepared for a secular government that guarantees freedom of religion and the special religious holidays of participating nations. They want their region to be appreciated for its rich history – and maybe encourage tourism? They want their shared identity as an ancient peoples to protect them from future proxie wars. They want #Sumer-now to become the greatest trend on social media, even if they don't know that's how it will happen. And they want it now.

REFERENCE (and there are many like it).
Arab Youth Survey: Religion 'too influential' in Middle East, say young people
The Sumerian pantheon was very cool. Enki seemed a lot of fun according to the Enumu Elish.

He’d be my god if I was back then.
 
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summerville

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Maybe, and maybe not. Iran was once heading towards a liberal democracy but then the CIA messed them up. Now they're trying to find their way in the world again. I once wondered whether the old Persian empire might be relevant to build their dreams, but it is too parochial in an area with such a recent history of conflict (again a proxie war) between Iran and Iraq. But Sumer?

While it probably had its own civil strife now and then, it seems so innocent and pristine from this tired old vantage point. It was the dawn of the world, and we had built our first capital city and developed writing for the first time. That's a vision to stir the heart!

Have you read this?

History Begins at Sumer is the classic account of the achievements of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq during the third millennium B.C. They were the developers of the cuneiform system of writing, perhaps their greatest contribution to civilization, which allowed laws and literature to be recorded for...

History Begins at Sumer | Samuel Noah Kramer
www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1059.html
 
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grasping the after wind

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Ancient Sumer had irrigation, a written language and sailboats.

Sandusky , Ohio has irrigation , a written language and sailboats plus a world class amusement park. I'll take Sandusky over Sumer please.
 
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summerville

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Sandusky , Ohio has irrigation , a written language and sailboats plus a world class amusement park. I'll take Sandusky over Sumer please.

In 3,000 BC?

Top 10 Sumerian Inventions and Discoveries
  1. Fabrication of Copper. Copper was the earliest non-precious metal first used by the Sumerians,...
  2. Board Games. The Royal Game of Ur was invented sometime between 2600 and 2400 BC.
  3. The Wheel. The oldest existing wheel in Mesopotamia can be dated back to 3500 BC.
  4. Number System. Invented by the Sumerians...

More ...
Top 10 Sumerian Inventions and Discoveries
www.ancienthistorylists.com/mesopotamia-history/top-10-sumerian-inventions-followed-many-ci…
 

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grasping the after wind

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In 3,000 BC?

Top 10 Sumerian Inventions and Discoveries
  1. Fabrication of Copper. Copper was the earliest non-precious metal first used by the Sumerians,...
  2. Board Games. The Royal Game of Ur was invented sometime between 2600 and 2400 BC.
  3. The Wheel. The oldest existing wheel in Mesopotamia can be dated back to 3500 BC.
  4. Number System. Invented by the Sumerians...

More ...
Top 10 Sumerian Inventions and Discoveries
www.ancienthistorylists.com/mesopotamia-history/top-10-sumerian-inventions-followed-many-ci…

Thankfully, I don't live in 3000BC. I'm not saying the Sumerians did not achieve important and useful things previously unknown . My point is that I am not interested in copying the lifestyle of an ancient Sumerian. The OP seems to have a totally unrealistic view of what it was like to live then and there.
 
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summerville

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Thankfully, I don't live in 3000BC. I'm not saying the Sumerians did not achieve important and useful things previously unknown . My point is that I am not interested in copying the lifestyle of an ancient Sumerian. The OP seems to have a totally unrealistic view of what it was like to live then and there.

Its been my experience that young people in the ME are eager to embrace modernity... and they want it to reflect their culture and traditions.
 
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faroukfarouk

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What exactly is the issue? If its any comfort to you, when I was a kid it was called the "Near East".
Years ago many Arabs from the Levant were referred to generally as 'Syrians'.

John Greenleaf Whittier in 'Dear Lord and Father on Mankind' refers to Galilee as 'the Syrian sea'.
 
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Max Headroom

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Thankfully, I don't live in 3000BC. I'm not saying the Sumerians did not achieve important and useful things previously unknown . My point is that I am not interested in copying the lifestyle of an ancient Sumerian. The OP seems to have a totally unrealistic view of what it was like to live then and there.
I honestly don't know how you get that from what I wrote!

It's all about looking for an ideal, a dream, an identity beyond today's sectarian divisions and apart from the actual muck of history. Think of the way most American's celebrate Thanksgiving today, without having just gone out and killed some indigenous Americans themselves!

It's about a meme and dream to bring the Middle Eastern nations together: not recreating some kind of historical amusement park! (Although an 'Ancient Sumer' amusement park might be part of a tour of the region one day. I'd go there!)

It's about looking at the fact that civilisation first rose in Sumer because a critical mass of people got themselves organised.

The Sumer meme may or may not be the most inspiring idea to promote a secular Middle-Eastern Union. It may or may not be marketable and palatable. But I in no way mentioned copying their lifestyle! I honestly despair of the reading capacity of some supposedly modern people. I don't know how and where you got the idea that I was recommending a Sumer lifestyle from what I wrote. Indeed, let me make bold certain key phrases from the OP:-
_____________________

Remembering what was achieved in their glorious deep past, they look to the future. Let's abandon the names of the British Empire as it unimaginatively called the region the "Middle East" to distinguish it from the “Far East”. Dreams are not born in names of servitude, but of greatness!

Sumer is where their great ancestors invented the very idea of civilisation itself, so #Sumer should become their new dream, their new movement.

Modern day Sumerians dream of trade, not terror;
of conversation, not combat;
of building, not barbarism;
of wealth, not war.
Indeed, they want to end the proxie wars....

...They want their shared identity as an ancient peoples to protect them from future proxie wars.
_____________________

All I was suggesting is a rallying cry for them to move forward into a new, self-protecting geopolitics rather than self-destructive proxie wars.

I mean, imagine all these nations in the British named Middle East were looking out for each other rather than doing this and allowing other superpowers to play proxie wars across their lands like some bizarre game of chess?
 
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Max Headroom

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From the OP article I linked to, the conditions seem right in some of the countries. When the conditions are right, tiny slogans can start a whole movement. #metoo.
Or what about the boy who started the Syrian war? Graffiti on a wall started the revolution? Well, no. The dictatorship was harsh, a million refugees from earlier Iraqi wars were in Syria, the Arab Spring was spreading across the region as social media gave Arabs a glimpse of a better world while they lived under dictatorships and corruption. Then some say a climate change induced drought moved Iraqi refugees off the farms into the cities where social tensions and economic privation made the place tinder dry for a revolution: like the Australian droughts, all it would take was a spark, and it would blow.
Then a boy wrote some graffiti on a wall.
Where this graffiti caused a war, I'm wondering if some other graffiti or memes could start a Union?
 
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Ophiolite

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I honestly don't know how you get that from what I wrote!

It's all about looking for an ideal, a dream, an identity beyond today's sectarian divisions and apart from the actual muck of history. Think of the way most American's celebrate Thanksgiving today, without having just gone out and killed some indigenous Americans themselves!

It's about a meme and dream to bring the Middle Eastern nations together: not recreating some kind of historical amusement park! (Although an 'Ancient Sumer' amusement park might be part of a tour of the region one day. I'd go there!)

It's about looking at the fact that civilisation first rose in Sumer because a critical mass of people got themselves organised.

The Sumer meme may or may not be the most inspiring idea to promote a secular Middle-Eastern Union. It may or may not be marketable and palatable. But I in no way mentioned copying their lifestyle! I honestly despair of the reading capacity of some supposedly modern people. I don't know how and where you got the idea that I was recommending a Sumer lifestyle from what I wrote. Indeed, let me make bold certain key phrases from the OP:-
_____________________

Remembering what was achieved in their glorious deep past, they look to the future. Let's abandon the names of the British Empire as it unimaginatively called the region the "Middle East" to distinguish it from the “Far East”. Dreams are not born in names of servitude, but of greatness!

Sumer is where their great ancestors invented the very idea of civilisation itself, so #Sumer should become their new dream, their new movement.

Modern day Sumerians dream of trade, not terror;
of conversation, not combat;
of building, not barbarism;
of wealth, not war.
Indeed, they want to end the proxie wars....

...They want their shared identity as an ancient peoples to protect them from future proxie wars.
_____________________

All I was suggesting is a rallying cry for them to move forward into a new, self-protecting geopolitics rather than self-destructive proxie wars.

I mean, imagine all these nations in the British named Middle East were looking out for each other rather than doing this and allowing other superpowers to play proxie wars across their lands like some bizarre game of chess?
Hi Max. I'm not sure if you are an enthusiastic dreamer who wants good things for all, or a weird nutter masquerading in that guise. I've given your posts your first two "Likes" because I lean towards and hope for the former.

It's only the presence of Dreamers in our society that's stops the rest of us having nightmares. Keep on trucking!
 
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Max Headroom

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Hey, who says idealistic dreamers can never also come across as nutters! ;-)
Thanks for the upvote.
It's the changing mood of the young in Iraq and Iran and Saudi Arabia that gives me some hope. Also, the geopolitics of the region must change as the oil starts to plateau and decline, whether by climate change policy or production itself one day dropping off. They're going to have to change.
 
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