Genghis Khan was the newt to my world

Saying goodbye to Susquehanna County for the season I returned to Ithaca in a "vista blue" Ford Focus equipped with Sirius satellite radio, a real fleet treat. It took me a while to figure out how to even work the radio, but when I did I came across Deepak Chopra's radio show and imediately became enthralled. He had Michio Kaku, the mind behind string theory and author of Physics of the Impossible. They devoted a full hour to discussing the theory of the "impossible."

Kaku depicted his first experience with the complex subject as a young child. He was peering into a goldfish pond and wondering what the societal structure of a goldfish community was like. Was there government? Were there teachers or scientists among them? As a goldfish scientist, he thought, the world above the water line must seem impossible. They know left, right, forwards and backwards, but above the surface was an unthinkable world sans gills or fins. To enter into the world as we humans know it was the impossible for the goldfish community and yet to us, it is commonplace and trivial. Kaku thought that the modern unthinkable things like alternate universes were the dry-land impossibilities of the human mind.

The two brilliant and soothing radio voices went on to describe the contents of Kaku's book in which he deliniates three classes of civilization. The first is a planetary civilization in which humans or the dominant population can harnass the power of the planetary systems. The second class is a stellar civilization in which the population can control the stars. The third, galactic. He said that we, the dominant population of the third rock from our sun, don't even qualify on this scale. We are essentially a class zero civilization as we are dependent on the energy of other organisms, be they live or fossilized. However, we are slowly approaching the transition and the internet is just one example of our strides of progress. The internet has begun to connect the world, share information and transform our kind into a unified, planetary, cooperative species. But to the tech-savvy be warned, Kaku said that the transition to a class one civilization is the most dangerous of all, nuclear weapon threats being an example.

A prominent glitch in our current civilization is the default to human emotion: anger, fear, passion, jealousy. In order to become a cooperative planetary civilization we need to adapt and mature mentally into the new global consciousness. While the modern world is full of borders and limits, the planetary world is unified. Until we can attain that paradigmatic view, our stuggle to globalize will be full of conflict, thus the dangerous transition.

I haven't read Kaku's book yet, but I hope to soon. In preparation for Mongolia, I've been coming up with questions I want to explore and Kaku's insight into the struggles of globalization have peaked my interest. Gaining independence and entering the global market both within the last century, Mongolia is experiencing the effects of rapid development and growth on its small, pastoral culture. What other nations have done over centuries, Mongolia has done in decades.

After answering the geographic inquiries of people I've told my upcoming travels to, I've realized that Mongolia has received very, very little attention. Despite the low frequency in national borders within Eastern Asia, Mongolia's presence has been somewhat ignored. Which is funny to me, because without Genghis Khan, our world would be totally different. Genghis Khan built more bridges, both literally and figuratively, than any other leader in history. He introduced the world at large to societies who thought their region was all there was. He connected the Eastern most points of Asia to the depths of Europe and the Middle East. His empire was the size of Africa. In my opinion, at a time when having a global consciouness was truly impossible, Genghis Khan had a stronger grasp than many current leaders today and we've mapped the sphere. And yet, he has been dismissed as a malicious conquerer who cared little for intercultural relations.

I think that this semester I'd really like to study the Mongolian mentality towards globalization and the development that's been sweeping through the country. The nomadic culture that has maintained its presence for centuries sees few borders. They read and listen to the land. To Genghis Khan Eternal Blue Sky was God. The Sky is not compressed into a single building or book, it is omnipresent and transcendent. It has no borders or limits. It is ever-present and watches over the planet. I think this sort of consciousness is critical for globalization and if still dominant, would be of great benefit to the nation's shift into the world economy.

A week from today, I'll be starting my journey from the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. I have much to do between now and then, but I really cannot wait. What a world Mongolia must be without gills.