TODAY'S WORLD

Today's world

Today's world

Introduction

Humans across all cultures have venerated, observed, and studied the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars for thousands of years. The Maya developed astronomical tracking systems and detailed calendars spanning many generations. Astronomical knowledge is reflected in the architecture of ancient buildings in thousand-year-old archeological sites and monuments in México, Guatemala, Honduras, and other areas of Mesoamerica.

Thesis statement

From long ago, the Maya civilizations of Mesoamerica have been keenly attuned to the cycles of nature. The Maya have always been careful observers, and more than a thousand years ago, they recorded the motion of the planets, the Sun, and the Moon, and predicted eclipses.

Discussion

Liberalism was developed during the Enlightenment. This was a period of time when writers, scientists, and philosophers began to openly question certain aspects of society and the role that they should or should not play. Attacked were the kings and queens, the clergy and feudalist system as a whole. The ideas of this time formed the basis of revolutionary thought. The goal of the revolutionaries was to build a new society based on liberal values of the Enlightenment. 'Liberal politicians in Europe wanted to establish a framework of legal equality, religious toleration and freedom of the press.' It was the deprivation of these principles, by the monarchical leaders, which led to discontent among the people of France. Above all, liberalism stresses the primacy of individual rights. One can see that these ideals were at the forefront of French revolutionary thought by examining the Declaration of rights, which in 1789 stated that, 'All men are equal by nature,' and brought republican concepts such as liberty, equality and fraternity into awareness.

When one looks at the motives behind the great revolutions of our time, a recurring theme seems to prevail in all of them. There is a part of human nature which makes freedom almost as much of a necessity as food and water. When people's freedom is somehow oppressed or taken away, discontent emerges. 'As soon as discontent is generalized a party is formed which often becomes strong enough to struggle against the Government.'4 The conditional nature of this statement can be attributed to the fact that discontent among a minority of people is not enough to cause a revolution. There are other factors which are necessary for a complete revolution to transpire. First, there must be a medium whereby the masses are able to learn about the principles which will be fought for. Second, there must be a means by which the masses can acquire sufficient knowledge of the wrongs that have been perpetrated against them, in order to foster and unite support for the cause. Third, there must be a way for the masses to receive information about the revolution all the time, so that support does not wain, and so the revolutionaries can organize itself. The best and easiest way for these factors to be satisfied is through the news media.

The strong and rich astronomical traditions that still thrive in ...