Flattening the Curve: Learning the lessons of world history to mitigate societal crises

The world is experiencing myriad crises, from global climate change to a major pandemic to runaway inequality, mass impoverishment, and rising sectarian violence. Such crises are not new, but have been recurrent features of past societies. Although these periods have typically led to massive loss of life, the failure of critical institutions, and even complete societal collapse, lessons can be learned from societies that managed to avoid the more devastating and destructive outcomes. Here, we present a preliminary analysis of outcomes from periods of crisis in 50 historical societies and examine closely four cases of averted crisis in world history, highlighting common features. A key observation is that the structural-demographic cycles that give rise to societal crises typically incorporate a ‘gilded age’ during which more future-minded governance could avert future crises. To accomplish more forward-thinking public policy, capable not just of ‘flattening the curve’, but of actually breaking the cycle that produces societal crises in the first place, we argue that systematic quantitative analysis of patterns in world history is a necessary first step.

‘The Troubles' and the peace process in Northern Irelanda in Seamus Heaney’s "The cure at Troy"

Based on Philoctetes, the tragic play by Sophocles, the poet Seamus Heaney creates his own version in The Cure at Troy to present the political and social problems in Northern Ireland during the period that became known euphemistically as ‘the Troubles’. This paper aims to highlight the significance of Heaney’s play in the final years of the conflict. Heaney uses the classical Greek play to bring to light the plight and suffering of the Northern Irish people as a consequence of the atavistic and sectarian violence between the unionist and nationalist communities. Nevertheless, Heaney also provides possible answers that allow readers to harbour a certain degree of hope towards peace and the future in Northern Ireland.

Bog Bodies: Archaeological Narratives and Modern Identity.

<p>Lindow Man, the British Bog Body discovered in 1984, and the Danish examples Tollund and Grauballe Men, discovered in 1950 and 1952, represent quite literally the violent face of a confrontational past. But what exactly do the archaeological narratives say? When presented with the forensic evidence can we explicitly conclude they were murdered as human sacrifices to appease the Germanic and Celtic gods and goddesses during times of affliction? Or are they simply an example of our own imposition of modern assumptions onto the past in a flare of sensationalism and mystical dramatization of the tumultuous affairs of noble savages? How have these narratives played out in the public sphere, particularly museum and heritage, and in modern culture such as the Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s bog poems. Do they reinforce harmful myths of an excessively violent past dominated by innately uncivilized natives? Who does the past really belong to and who has the authority to voice it? Many facets of bog body scholarship remain hotly contested including the human sacrifice interpretation, the usage of Tacitus as the only remaining historical source and Heaney’s use of the bog victims as a metaphorical analogy for the Northern Ireland sectarian violence. My contribution is precisely to present these interpretational narratives from a critical perspective and question scholarly assumptions of ritualism. Further, I will explore how archaeological narratives are presented to the public through the unique heritage that bog bodies embody. Lastly, I will investigate the conceptualization of the “other” through Tacitus’ Germania and Heaney’s bog poems.</p>

Bog Bodies: Archaeological Narratives and Modern Identity.

<p>Lindow Man, the British Bog Body discovered in 1984, and the Danish examples Tollund and Grauballe Men, discovered in 1950 and 1952, represent quite literally the violent face of a confrontational past. But what exactly do the archaeological narratives say? When presented with the forensic evidence can we explicitly conclude they were murdered as human sacrifices to appease the Germanic and Celtic gods and goddesses during times of affliction? Or are they simply an example of our own imposition of modern assumptions onto the past in a flare of sensationalism and mystical dramatization of the tumultuous affairs of noble savages? How have these narratives played out in the public sphere, particularly museum and heritage, and in modern culture such as the Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s bog poems. Do they reinforce harmful myths of an excessively violent past dominated by innately uncivilized natives? Who does the past really belong to and who has the authority to voice it? Many facets of bog body scholarship remain hotly contested including the human sacrifice interpretation, the usage of Tacitus as the only remaining historical source and Heaney’s use of the bog victims as a metaphorical analogy for the Northern Ireland sectarian violence. My contribution is precisely to present these interpretational narratives from a critical perspective and question scholarly assumptions of ritualism. Further, I will explore how archaeological narratives are presented to the public through the unique heritage that bog bodies embody. Lastly, I will investigate the conceptualization of the “other” through Tacitus’ Germania and Heaney’s bog poems.</p>

Dante’s Influence on Seamus Heaney’s Poetry on the Troubles in Northern Ireland: “The Strand at Lough Beg,” “An Afterwards” and “Ugolino”

Dante’s Divine Comedy had an enormous influence on Seamus Heaney’s oeuvre, especially from Field Work (1979) onwards. Heaney exploits the great Dantean epic poem to create a framework that allows him to contextualise some of the most painful political and social episodes in Irish history, namely the Great Hunger and the secular clashes between Protestants and Catholics. Heaney pays special attention to the problems originating from the outburst of the atavistic and sectarian violence—euphemistically known as “the Troubles”—between the unionist and nationalist communities in Northern Ireland as from 1969, causing great suffering and wreaking havoc on the Northern Irish population for decades.

Bandits, Militants, and Martyrs: Sub-state Violence as Claim to Authority in Late Antique North Africa

Fourth Century North Africa was a site of intense religious and political conflict. Emerging from a period of persecution and newly legitimized by the Roman state, the Christian Church immediately fractured into two competing camps. Now known as the Donatist schism, this fracture was the result of competing claims to religious authority between two camps of bishops, but the doctrinal debate at its core precipitated a specific form of violence: attacks on clergy and property perpetrated by roving groups of militant bandits. Known as circumcellions, these bands acquired a perverse reputation for religious zeal, a desire for martyrdom, and what their opponents described as the ‘madness’ and ‘insanity’ of their violence. Here I analyze sources produced by both Donatists and Catholics to trace patterns of circumcellion violence. I draw on borderland theory and research on non-state violence to argue that such acts were not mad, but rather the result of strategic efforts to consolidate religious and political power. In this, Donatism and the sectarian violence that accompanied it provide important insights into how banditry and peasant rebellions can se.rve as alternate sources of social and political power, avenues through which heterodox movements challenge the power state and religious hierarchies alike

Weakening of Lebanon’s army risks sectarian violence

Headline LEBANON: Army weakening risks sectarian violence

Beginnings

This chapter portrays the pre-1840 history of Mount Lebanon. Using fresh archival sources, it discloses that, in contrast to the revisionist scholarship that attributes the sectarian violence in 1841, 1845, and 1860 to the Great Powers’ intervention in 1840 and the Tanzimat policies, sectarianism and class violence had already been in the making in Mount Lebanon before 1840. The chapter explains this by trailing the story of a leading feudal family, the Druze Jumblatts, in whose lands the Maronites and Druze had lived side by side in harmony for decades. It was in these very lands that internecine and inter-imperialized violence would erupt in the nineteenth century.

HOW CAN THE SURGE OF SECTARIAN INTOLERANCE IN PAKISTAN BE TACKLED? BRIDGING THE WIDENING DIVIDE

Problem and aim of the study: This article deals with the causes of the scary rise of sectarian Intolerance, violence, and prejudices in Pakistan. This article also investigates that how sectarian intolerance causes violence in society and what strategies should imply to curtail sectarianism from society? Research methods: The research is qualitative, and applies the inductive and deductive methodology to the collected data. The data has been derived from the South Asian Terrorism Portal and to analyze the authenticity the author has collected the shared information from published articles, researches, and government official website that provide the statistics about violence and terrorism. Main findings: The study concludes by arguing the dire need for the promulgation and dissemination of inclusive thoughts for attaining a tolerant society free from sectarian intolerance because the implications of sectarian violence are a great threat to the peace process in the country. Application of the study: This study has significant implications from both a theoretical and a realistic perspective. The present study would be useful for policy-makers, to curtail the sectarianism in State. Therefore, the banning of sectarian speeches, sectarian literature, has been strongly suggested. The government should place a moratorium on the printing of sectarian literature for sectarian unity. The study also has tried to make realize to the state actors, including security forces and intelligence agencies, to avoid blame foreign involvement in sectarian polarization and why they ignore the fault lines destabilizing Pakistan's social fabric since Pakistan's inception. Therefore, the study would doubtlessly help decrease unpleasant incidents and reduce religious fanaticism. Originality and novelty of the study: This is the fact that in the existing literature the least attention has been given to sectarianism in Pakistan. The present study aims to deals with the social, religious, and political aspects of sectarian violence. Therefore, this is the first study that has investigated sectarian violence by exploring the issue of sectarianism from a social, religious, and political perspective.