There's Nothing New Under The Sun

by Zvi Baranoff

There is a tendency for each generation to think that they created something new, for each culture to believe that they developed on their own and for each nation to believe that they are unique beyond words. However, when a couple of thousand years ago or so someone proposed that “There is nothing new under the sun” was Biblical wisdom, they were most likely quoting someone else from a far earlier age that had drawn the same conclusion!

The ideas, technologies and practices that take us forward will come out of our shared experiences and shared knowledge. We are all in this together and we have a lot to learn from each other.  As we move forward into our collective future, it’s a good idea to at least occasionally reflect on our collective past.

Any innovation in thought or practice, whether in science, religion, culture or enterprise either grew out of, developed from or heavily borrowed from something that came before. There is no shame in that. In fact, the best we have in human culture comes when we are not afraid to share. The greatest jumps forward in civilization come when we are most tolerant and open to the ideas of other cultures. Stagnation happens during periods of intolerance and fear.

When we use the World Wide Web, we may think we are doing something incredibly cutting edge and new, but we are merely following in the footsteps of our ancestors sitting around the fire telling stories – or perhaps when the first person showed another how to make fire. It is the sharing of information that enriches us.

Paper may well have been a technological advancement of importance equal to the internet today. When combined with the genius of movable typeface a revolution in communications became possible. Paper was introduced to Europe by way of the Arab world. The Arabs learned about it from the Chinese. Also introduced around the same time were Arabic numerals (the numbers we use today instead of X’s and V’s and I’s in complicated combinations) and the concept of zero.

We have to give credit to the Islamic world as well for continuing to study the Greek Classics while Christian Europe suppressed all pre-Christian knowledge as Pagan. When Europe once again opened itself up to the Classics, the Renaissance was made possible. Of course, the works then needed to be translated from the Arabic. Some Jewish scholars helped out with that little project!

We may think of South America when we drink our morning coffee, but Juan Valdez wasn’t the first to cultivate it. Coffee comes from Africa. “Chinese” tea originated in India. Irish potatoes came from the Americas. Hot and spicy peppers in Indian and Chinese foods also came from the Americas. And did the Italians learn about spaghetti from the Chinese and pizza from the Arab pita? Food for thought, eh?

More than just recipes were also exchanged along the trade routes and in the marketplaces of our predecessors. The direct relationship between the three biggies of Monotheistic religions should be fairly obvious. There may be more subtle examples of religious cross pollinating that haven’t crossed your mind.

For instance, one may see that Buddhist understanding of Tantra comes from the Hindu Kama Sutra. Have you considered that the same source may have influenced the Jewish development of Kabala with its erotic imagery? Other aspects of Kabalistic thought seem to greatly parallel a Buddhist worldview. While we are at it, did early Christians pick up a thing or two from the Buddhists? Christian monasteries are likely rooted in Buddhism as there is no Jewish historical precedent. The Devil may be in the details but my guess is that the Apocalyptic elements that found their way into Jewish thought and later became so central in Christianity with the powerful, Deity threatening  Satan taking a central role developed from Hebrew contact with the dualistic Zoroastrians during the first exile.

Hindu Indians and Sephardic Jews share the custom of henna painting of brides before the wedding. Moslems and Jews share the use of the hamsa to ward off the evil eye. The tam that Rastafarians wear comes from Scotland. The cowboy of American western lore is largely born from Mexico. Of course the horse he rode and the indigenous peoples of the continent adapted to so well is not native to the Americas, only first arriving with the Spanish. Yet, the horse seems as at home on the American Plain as the camel is at home in the Sahara. The North African Berbers used camels for centuries as the “Ships of the Desert” but camels are from Asia and were introduced to Africa by the Arabs.

Part of American cultural mythology is that Columbus convinced the Spanish Monarchy on the idea of financing his voyage while most people believed the world to be flat. Hard to say how widespread that idea was, but educated folks certainly knew otherwise for centuries. Columbus indeed took on a significant enterprise, but he probably had a much better idea of what he was heading into than our elementary school teachers let on. He had the maps and travel records of the Vikings.

There has certainly been a long history of struggles and competitions, battles and wars, but there has also been centuries of exchange and learning, sharing and growth. If we are as adaptable as I think we are, we can choose a future that skips the xenophobia and the bloodletting. We can find in our histories much common ground.