The pursuit of blame toward people can be a real annoyance because it is distracts from real issues. It is characteristic of the cult of personality we have today. Those who are obsessed with ego quickly take the shortcut of passing blame rather than taking the effort to objectively look at an issue. But realistically, most people are trying to do the best they can with what they know. We also have different passions and different things that are important to us. When we come together to make laws, they should cover common interests. But but if we allow ourselves to become crisis mongers and personality worshipers, we become ineffective at finding this common ground. Parents find out that the problem isn’t the kid who knocked over the lamp, it is the fact that all the kids were too rowdy and needed to take their energy outside. Each individual needs to tone it down and be considerate of their surroundings when we use principles over blame. Even in ourselves, it is only when we get past that unattainable perfect character we all expect to be and look objectively at what works best for us and what we enjoy, that life can become enjoyable. Guilt is the product of blame. Although we should be responsible for our actions and not blame others, it is counterproductive to beat ourselves up too. The same goes for those around us. We can recognize principles and the ramifications that usually follow but really don’t know their motives and circumstances. Examining other cultures works the same way.

The issues among people have striking similarities throughout history and that is what makes ancient writings and history fascinating. We can see how they dealt with things and what the outcome was for them. Since no one can see into the future and see the effects of what we put in place, we can at least look at what happened historically and avoid the pitfalls they ran into. Rather than looking for characters to assassinate as today’s custom is, we can observe actions and principles and see what happened.

The Greeks thought it important to record their history and perspectives so others could build on them. They are considered the ones who started looking objectively at governing systems that get the most out of human potential and writing down their observations. We see the fruit of their endeavors still today through their philosophy, writings and archaeological remains. The history of these regions is a fascinating one too. Traveling Europe can spark ones interest. Many areas were settled, conquered and resettled by different people at different times. Our minds like to think that everything stays the same, but history shows otherwise.

The eastern coast of Turkey along the Aegean sea was the stage for much of the Greek ancient history. Ancient Troy was located along that coast as was Constantinople. It is called Istanbul today. The Greeks first and then the Romans settled and controlled the area and it eventually became Christianized. Afterward, the Latin and Greek part of the Christian church separated. The area around the Aegean sea became a powerhouse and the Greek center of Christianity was Constantinople for a thousand years. The Muslim incursion into the east sparked crusades and help was given from the Latin side of Christianity. But power struggles broke their unity, Constantinople was sacked by the Latin side and the Muslims eventually took over the entire area and westward. The Muslim Ottoman empire lasted until World War one when it was broken up since they supported the Germans on their eastern border. This is a very vague summary. But you can see that conquering lands and taking them over happened over the years in every country. America’s natives were no less conquering each other before Europeans settled and took over themselves.

It was normal for the middle class in ancient Greece to own slaves. This was the practice for mankind for most of history. The reason was due to large projects that required little skill that needed to be completed. Mundane tasks that brought income to middle class people could best be done by servants so the owner could improve everyone’s lives by attending to management. It also made it possible for advances in writing, architecture and produce. The mindset was that slavery was better and held more hope than the barbaric or impoverished system they would otherwise be trapped in. Some ancient cities distributed food from central areas to feed their population. Certain foods were free such as grain. Slaves provided the backbone to have a city-state structure where citizens could give themselves to governing, science philosophy and protection. Today we have harnessed chemical energy from carbon to do the work that slaves used to do. But when we look at other civilizations, they didn’t have what we have today. This is something we have to consider today when we study other cultures.