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Short Sketch Outline of US History

  July 22, 2005

The USA is the cultural leader of the world. She is riding the crest of the evolutionary impetus of the 20th & 21st centuries. A famous historian wonders that there was no hint of America leading the world 100 years ago. De Toqueville, about 170 years ago saw the world being led by the USA and the USSR. He saw what this historian failed to see. The French aristocrat saw not what was happening in the USA but why it was happening and perhaps he saw HOW it was unfolding. To a theoretical view such courses of history disclose its nature. The super excessive abundance of energy as Gunther describes it was because the shackles of class were shed. America was anxious in the 16th and 17th century to make it. They also desired to catch up with Europe. He who thus catches up will excel is one rule of this Theory. Such a view would have led to an inkling of America's future eminence.

History is a chronicle of facts. There can be no logic in it is a common view. Paul Johnson who wrote the American history feels so. The view of this Theory is there is a logic, a well-defined self-explanatory logic that is eminently reasonable to the intellectual experience of human existence. Further the theory assumes that MAN has lived for long on earth a subconscious life of sensations felt in his body and nerves. What we know as civilisation, progress, change, march of Time is that subconscious existence becoming a conscious perception. The basis of this statement is the recent discovery of the Theory of creation. After Darwin came to be recognised the whole body of knowledge gradually tilted to recast itself into his mould. Discoveries in Physics have that dominating tendency over human thinking. Someone doing research in the theory of chaos is now in Management extending her findings in Physics to Management. The scientific awakening of the past few centuries, we can boldly say, if not assert, have moulded human thinking largely. The Spiritual Experience of how the universe was created in the first Quarter of the 20th century is the theoretical basis of this Theory of Social Evolution. Our perceptions extend beyond this domain but our enquiries are limited to Social change. The laws governing the existence of the Universe and its functioning, the laws of social progress, the laws of individual human growth of consciousness are the same is our BASIS. These laws can be minutely and accurately discovered in the psychological structure of an ACT - a complete act - however small it is even as the atom is the material microcosm of the macrocosm, the universe. This need not be a mere assertion. It can be practically affirmed when we see that ONE small significant act thus understood and moved MOVES the whole of that context. Military Generals, know this in their experience. All those who have had consummate personal practical experience of any intense field of action have seen this truth after the issue. Occasionally they have made such moves with benefit. Doctors are known to have done so. Art Buchwald refers to a doctor who refused to treat a patient of kidney stone. The doctor diagnosed the patient on hearing his voice. As he was a lawyer and he had sued him earlier for diagnosing without testing, the doctor refused to treat him now.

One who has consummate knowledge of human health can diagnose without tests. A retired last grade employee famished all his life fainted and was on oxygen. As it was the third recurrence, he was given up. One who knew him personally and knew the springs of human energy that can revive a dying body, offered him hope at that point. He survived and lived for another 25 years. This Theory styles such phenomenon Small Significant Acts. The winning of the Second World War by Britain was accomplished by one such strategy for which Winston Churchill was a political instrument.

  • American history of the last few centuries reveals it is a string of such acts unconsciously adapted as a general strategy and a personal attitude.

One major event of 1901 can be so cited. The slide in the Stock Exchange had created a panic. It was obvious that the experience of 1825 will repeat. Several Trusts and corporations had lost heavily and various degrees of that phenomenon was the experience of the rest of the corporations considered sound. 1901 was 30 years before the crash. Those 30 years were years of an unprecedented BOOM in the USA and in the world. But, viewed from now, 1901 looked a year of doom. It could have ushered the Great Depression 30 years earlier, 28 years to be exact. This Theory says such a catastrophe could be averted by ONE small but significant act if only he who monitors it is one endowed with the knowledge of the whole, here the whole economy. By then the American economy was one of money economy. The nation's production has a way of gathering all the strings of national existence. In a money economy all those strings are centred in the power of MONEY. The work of corporations is to organise and guide the national production by the life lines of Money Power. That money power rested essentially with the banks.

  • The stock exchange plays with the fluctuating power of money to produce more Money really or artificially. It serves a positive instrument as long as it creates real money. It turns negative when it chases negative money that is artificial.
  • It is a critical MOMENT in the life of the American society. Depending upon HOW that moment was responded to her future could be one of brilliant expansive riches or one that crashes.
  • There was no Fed at that time, but there was ONE man who had all the knowledge of money - movements which means the courses the productive energies could take. He was an individual, not an institution. He had knowledge and that knowledge was POWER. That power was in his eyes. He controlled and dominated people by his Masterful Looks. He called the major corporations, asked for their accounts, scrutinised them by expert accountants in 24 hours, chose that deserved saving and wished the Banks to give them Funds. He was obeyed. America was saved and ushered into a 3 decade - booming Prosperity. It was J.P.Morgan. That is the POWER of a Small Significant ACT.

In 1901 there was one J.P.Morgan who worked wonders. Unfortunately in 1929 when the society was at a higher peak of BOOM there was no one who could act thus. Today, if this Theory is of any value or if economists discover such a value in this Theory every economist can play the role of Morgan. Such is the power of knowledge.

  • Mind is emerging in America in the very physical ORGANISATION that is of ultimate practical value. The world is replete with inconceivable material benefits.
  • Mind can emerge in the vital organisation of Money or Political POWER. In that case all problems caused by money or its lack can vanish from the earth. Such a Power in politics can solve all existing political conflicts or political conflicts expressing as military engagements.
  • In Ireland we see its unconscious expression - Economic Power moving in the right direction solving political conflict and reducing or eliminating the expression of violence. (Ireland has come out of it, not England. That is why as soon as Ireland gives up terrorism, AL-Qaeda comes to England.)

What happened in Ireland is a pointer to all the world. On the face of it, it appears she was catapulted into Prosperity - from being the sick man of Europe to being No.1 in EU except for Luxumberg - because she availed of a TOOL, a tool of social change that has in it the highest intensity of social energy. When a German engineer caught a glimpse of this truth, he wrote a book "All Electricity State" which was the dynamo of ideas for California to steal a march over all USA. It also caught the imagination of Lenin who saw his formula of Soviets + electricity = Socialism. What the automobile did to America, electricity did to California and computer is trying to do to all the world now. It is one law of this Theory to which Paul Johnson gives a different expression.

  • Paul Johnson says in times of transition TALENTS rise from the bottom to the peak.
  • What talents do to the individual in periods of transition the latest technology does it to the population.
  • The latest technology is pregnant with energy of change. Any poor nation fully availing of it moves not up but to the top.

Stated as a law,

A conscious work ORGANISED to express the energy of the highest intensity available has the character of proliferation where each individual item of accomplishment can take on itself the power of self-multiplication.

It can be put differently:

Society at any level, even at the lowest level, coming into contact with the forces of the highest social change, moves to its top skipping all the intermediate stages.

J.P Morgan once said that Market is the regulator of the best interests of people. It is true, though partially. It was true in his times and remains partially true even now. Now regulations have come to stay for good. A law that will be true at all stages of social growth can be extracted from these two experiences. Before a society is organised regulations will stifle initiative which we witness in India since 1947. America enjoyed a freedom from regulations in the earlier periods which acted as a stimulant. Later in the 20th century regulations became necessary. Suppose the society is mature again regulations may not be of use, rather, they will be obstacles. So a law can be,

Social energy can benefit by regulations in the measure it helps organise its productive resources, or,

Discipline and freedom should blend to accelerate accomplishment.

Greece, Rome, Europe, America

Greece gave birth to a mental culture of poetry, philosophy, scientific thought because she was in a hot climate. Thought develops where the climate is hot. In narrow confines of a small peninsular nation thought easily finds birth. It stirred the vitality of Rome giving birth to an empire and LAW. When the impetus was lost in its execution Europe entered the Dark Ages. Emerging from it we witnessed Renaissance, Reformation. Its important contribution is the birth of Mind in Europe in philosophic and scientific enquiry. In the European atmosphere of socially stratified constriction the wave of evolutionary impulse could not find sufficient expression. It bursts forth and landed in America and endeavoured to give birth to MIND in practically beneficial work and result and emerged as Efficient Practical Organisation whose material results rule the world today for over 50 years.

The hope of this work is to lay down the large outlines of the historical movements and fit the historical occurrences into the developing lines of national growth. Should this effort successfully reveal the validity of this Theory, Social Studies will turn into Social Science. So far in our initial efforts we see the large as well as minute lines emerging precisely. This Theory is summarised into 32 major principles and expanded into 357 minor versions which can expand several times in number. The first principle is the society gathers its experience sub-consciously and it is consciously expressed by a pioneer or pioneers who are later followed by all. The creation of the American nation comes under this principle.

Man who works physically energises himself vitally and later organises his Mind. It is not a linear growth as it spills over vertically and horizontally in various degrees seeking a growth in any line which the society permits. The early man developing a riverbed civilisation in central Asia enabled humankind to develop Mind and Thought in any other place suitable for its birth. Mind finds it convenient to grow in confinement. Thought is an activity of the Mind when the emotions are warm. The tiny peninsula of Greece in a comparatively warm climate when it came in touch with the stable rich agriculture civilisation of Mesapotomia developed Mind. That development symbolised by Socrates was taken to its logical culmination in the 400 books Aristotle wrote. In many areas of logical thought, the world has not yet fully absorbed the thought of Socrates or gone beyond the mental capacity of Aristotle. Earlier it is said how this birth of Mind in Greece traveled via Rome and Europe to America as Scientific technology. The Greeks created the abstract thought. It was the Romans who applied them to wider population as law. To this day the basis of our law in most places can be traced to Rome. To offer the benefit of that law to the population, they founded the empire. Thought is power. The thought that conceived law generates the power to practise that law - the power to found an empire. This was Mind in life. Growth is followed by decay when the original growth expands its boundaries. Hence the decay. Again Mind was born in Europe as pure thought of philosophy and Science. Its rigid class structure prevents the entire population to benefit by the efflorescence of Mind. History or Nature will not permit partial growth. Seeking a geographical area of freedom where ALL can benefit MAN reached the continent of America. For the high acute thought to expand to all population, it had to convert itself into scientific technology a thing for which there was an insistent immediate demand and use.

The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution are the major landmarks of history. The one was created to abolish the gap between aristocracy and the people so that Liberty, Equality and Fraternity could flower. They were essential mental values for Man who came by the Thought of philosophy and science could progress. The political freedom acquires meaning in an atmosphere of economic viability. The purpose of the Russian Revolution was to attain that. Both were bloody revolutions. Blood was to be shed either in Revolutions or in Wars when the physical man wants to progress to mental thinking. The body is epitomised by the brain. It cannot give up a thought once it has accepted it. It has to be destroyed. The brain will be destroyed when the body dies. It is the significance of 60 to 70 million people dying in these wars and revolutions. Hereafter Man need not die to accept a new idea. What he once achieved by the exertion of the physical body, now he can acquire by brain work, an exertion of his Mind. It is a progress for him. In the growth of individual nations, local communities, large families and even in the individual we can witness the same LINES of human development. It is one thing to study and learn. It is another to explain, justify and prove these studies by 1) Facts and 2) Figures wherever possible. The enormous classified data available in the USA is a great help in this direction.

The figures for upward movement are clear. Slum dwellers entering into the middle class apartments from 7 to 77 weeks is one such. Wages are 10 times the European wages directly quantifies the change. An industrial worker earns in 3 years enough to buy a farm is another figure. When a man breaks his fetters, ventures to seek new pastures, he risks his all. He who risks his all, if it is in work not in greed or folly, will MEET with a circumstance commensurate to his aspiration. Our Theory is in the case of the USA this is infinite. We say so and believe it because our perception is America is in the evolutionary movement. All movements of evolution are in the plane of infinity. According to the Theory all the planes are infinite. Shipbuilding, during wartime, reduced a work of 196 days to 10.3 hours. This statistics explains the scope in the physical plane of work is so great as to resemble infinity, a 400 times abridgement of time is 'infinity' in this context of work. In this history book we find more than half a dozen such figures.

The Theory of upward social movement is when one exhausts his own energies in that direction he will move up when the potentials of that level is exhausted. This is exactly the law of liquid becoming vapour or any change of state. To illustrate these two conditions of exhausting his own energy potentials and the potentials of the plane the example of the slum dwellers directly serves.

About the theory of infinity we have to add some qualifications. Infinity is 1) not the boundless finite 2) different in different contexts. The boundless finite extends endlessly preserving its own character. A retailer multiplying his shops goes on increasing the number without end, but remains a retailer. On the other hand what we call infinity is as it expands horizontally there comes a stage where MAN fulfills the above two conditions of exhausting his potential as well as the potential of the plane. At that point, he rises to the next higher plane. This is what happens in the cases of all successful people who started in their generation but reached the top. Incidentally this sort of expansion cannot occur in an atmosphere not charged with the energy of evolution - infinite energy. The movement comes to an end after a few steps. In America we see no end in sight.

The value of statistics needs no explanation. When Peter Drucker projected the population movement of some towns and offered valuable advice to educational institutions, except two colleges no one took notice of him. 15 years later it was a matter of serious regret for all those who ignored him. Statistics are of value. They become more valuable when they are seen in relation to other related aspects. In that sense, the developments in the field of statistics are vast. Still there are further fields which are now not thought of. Scales of evaluation can be created in hundreds of ways which will serve the Theory well. Such tools and indices are now unknown or insufficiently conceived. For example do we know what part of one's potential a boy uses in his lessons or an executive employs in his work. Knowing that a worker can quickly rise in the scale of his profession. The Theory we have has infinite scope. "Early readers are future leaders" is what the children hear in schools. Reading is a help upto a point. Beyond that point reading hurts, blunts the capacity to think. How do we know the point of transition? According to this Theory and the general American experience, any one can be trained to do any thing in any time if only the right methods are employed. 300,000 of soda clerks and housewives were trained as welders.

  • Is it not worthwhile erecting a scale about training in several fields?
  • One who wants to train himself now goes about according to his uninformed idea. There is no studied field of facts, scales, tools to measure scales available. That is the limitation to Theory.
  • In the absence of such scales we have to resort to SYMPTOMS to judge of an event.

After India attained independence on August 15, 1947 and the Viceroy Lord Mountbatten was on a holiday in Simla in October of the same year exodus of uprooted humanity in millions started arriving in Delhi, a situation unprecedented which the new leaders were unable to handle. The exodus mainly started from Amritsar. After the event has happened, knowledge of the Theory instructs us of the value of the symptom given to Indians in 1919 JallianWallah Bagh massacre. It now explains. It gains in significance when we know the tribal invasion of Pathans in 1947 into Kashmir came exactly from the place from which Ghazini Mohammad invaded in vain 16 times several centuries ago. A comprehensive study can break new ground in putting every historical event into the theoretical perspective. It can raise valid issues as to what scales and what tools will be necessary in future. Presently with the available data, it is possible to pronounce on every historical aspect such as the Depression causes hitherto unknown or unthought of. My study touches upon several of them in a token suggestive sense.

The American delegation at Versailles was the best-informed team. Walter Lippmann said that the treaty would have been far better had it been drafted by the American team. Whatever job they undertake the Americans have a reputation of doing it more efficiently than others. The world has a lot to learn, even Europe from the USA. Oxford and Cambridge no longer retain their old reputation against Harvard and Princeton. Nor the best German universities once held in esteem are seen by the world in the same light. They gave way to the American supereminence. Still, to use this Theory to a greater extent, the world's present tools are inadequate. John Gunther writing in 1945 concludes his 'Inside USA' saying, 'People in this country who think 1929 can ever come again are very rare'. Though this confidence is welcome, it is by no theoretical knowledge. The cause of 1929 Depression is not conclusively identified and theoretically defined. This theory can attempt that successfully if tools and measurements are available. Further Gunther asks why the American people cannot work for an evolution in which freedom and security are combined. In his view, creative good will, coherent large minded planning, clarity of vision, grasp of the realities of the nation as a whole, spring-mindedness, education and more education, a fixed national purpose will make it possible. It is true that it will be a pragmatic empirical effort and may succeed in a greater measure. It will be an unconscious serious method pursued dynamically. It will not be a conscious organised method of one who knows the course of social evolution basing himself on a valid theoretical approach.

1000 years ago well-to-do men paid greatest attention to their health and a few lived very long though the longevity of the general population was lower than 30 years. Now man lives up to 75 or 78 years as his taking care of health is based on higher knowledge and is protected by better medicines.

Employed conscientiously the power of this Theory is great. In Yugoslav run away inflation was brought to Zero in one week. The poverty of all nations can be wiped out in one stroke within a few decades. In the West the social ills of violence, drug addiction, etc. can be brought down to the barest minimum. All the present military conflicts can be solved and terrorism wiped out from the face of earth in one sweep.

In the present study, apart from pronouncing theoretically on the major events in the American history, we try to bring to the surface as much facts as possible to justify this view. This is the first attempt to present the Theory in a written shape

Chicago from 300 people rose to 800,000 in a bare 50 years with 11 railroads bringing over 100 trains a day. The whole city erected on marsh ground was raised 4 feet, a feat in Paul Johnson's experience could not happen in Europe. The elevators of the city would move from steam to hydraulics to electricity and count 3000 in 1900. A boatman in his lifetime could build a steel empire. In 6 months a trestle costing $1.4 million could be constructed and pour 36 million tons of cement claiming the title of the world's largest cement factory. A hotel of 5 storeys weighing 22,000 tons was lifted up while it was working! John Gunther speaks of super excessive energy of the Americans. These are FACTS, very striking, some times unbelievable facts. Can the Theory pronounce on these things?

  • It has the flavour of the impossible, the immense, can we say the infinite?
  • Such a phenomenon marks not one field or one period or one group of people. There is no sphere of activity or period or an area of the nation where this trait is missing. If so, what is it then?
  • The character of boundlessness verging on the infinite marks the people, their attitudes, their work, the scale of things they attempt, the type of results they produce. It comes from a sense of adventure, tryst with the exploding future, from a way of riding the crest of an evolutionary wave of ever increasing energy.
  • The land they were in was immense in expanse, its productivity was 1/3 higher than the European fields, the men took on the motto that there can be no problem that need defy solution. This hope of unfailing success comes from a Mind that had a glimpse of infinity. Man is unable to see himself limited. His attitude has removed the limits.
  • The optimism, the positive attitude, the hope, the experience of having tasted only success, the inability to anticipate failure, the basic GOOD WILL are characteristics of the future of Man.
  • It is not greed, but love of adventure, a love of danger for danger's sake, a romance of life is there in their life.

Man exists as a collective, but tends to act as an individual. His destiny is outgoing selflessness. His tendency is parochial selfishness. While in the family, he can think and act for his own interest. Inside the nation, instead of espousing the interests of the nation he thinks and acts on behalf of the family. His destiny is to create a united world of humankind, but his passionate urges are towards aggressive nationa- lism. There is an in built corrective. It breaks out of the present bounds and reaches out to circumstances where it can pursue the wider ideals.

Mental efflorescence could not be contained in Greece or the vitality of the rule of law can be confined to the Roman Empire. European stratified society was a fetter to spread the pure scientific inquiry all over the world. More than pure science, technology can easily be accepted by the wider population. Technology is itself an organisation of knowledge in matter. To make it effective in society, one needs an organisation which the society can absorb and assimilate. It must be one of practical use. So,

  • Science is welcome as scientific technology.
  • Society receives that technology through a social organisation.
  • When it is capable of yielding vast results.
  • It is called practical organisation.
  • What society thus receives is Mental Awakening.
  • What Greece gave the world 2000 years ago, the world receives through the USA now.
  • The part of the world population is to develop appropriate skills where this technology can operate beneficially.

The world is moving towards human unity. America has assumed the leadership. It is offered in the guise of practical organisation. In terms of theory it is MIND in the work or the physical body. Every nation has some thing essential to give to the pool of the world. Now each nation must relate to the USA offering what it can and receive the latest technology developed there. It is the path of human unity. It is preceded by the creation of World Union. Its creation is possible if security is established. Elimination of the nuclear weapons and elimination of terrorism are the essential foundations for the World Union. The nuclear weapons is the military-technological residue of the second WW as well as Cold War. Terrorism is the psychological reaction of the weak and poor wanting to be part of the whole. What prevents the elimination of the nuclear weapons is the JOY of possessing the powerful weapons. The technological means are there, but the political will, rather the military will, should arise. In other words the world should exercise the WILL it has. In the case of terrorism, the will is inverted. It is a subconscious perversion. It can be successfully handled if the other side has the purity of motive in this regard. The terrorist thinks that by shocking the world he can attain his aim misusing the 'power' he has. A similar attitude in all the nations that are now the victims of terrorism attracts terrorism to them. Mentally giving up such an attitude and actions based on such attitudes will wipe out terrorism from the face of earth.

Man cannot overdo his duty by others. How can he over employ the opportunities he has? When he does so, the evolutionary leadership will pass away from him. India lost it 3000 years ago, Greece 2000 years ago. Rome and Europe did so in their times. Britain who had such a pre-eminent position lost in the war the empire and the world leadership. Now it is the turn of America. How far she will rise to the occasion depends on the fact how far she is willing to rise in the evolutionary ladder along with the times. The World gives for a while its leadership to one nation. It is not the aim that anyone nation may lead the world forever. Mankind or humankind should rise having been served by several nations at several periods. The need for leadership is an immaturity. Even that should be shed. Already the world has shed the need for military, political leaders. To shed the leadership of nations may be the next step.



story | by Dr. Radut