The pace of change.

The pace of change.

The evolution of social change.

The land we now call Britain was, 2500 years ago, inhabited and so ruled over, by various Celtic tribes. Exactly how long they had been there is unknown probably since the end of the ice age. So their origins may have been started about 6000BC. Each tribe or family. had their own territory and, as far as can be understood, they chose a tribal chieftain who may originally been a shaman. Some one who it was believed could transform themselves into an animal and guide the hunters to their prey. They left no written reports and so much of what we think we know about these people, is based on expert opinion, made from interpreting what physical objects still remain from this period, some information is based on much more recent reports written by the Romans, who invaded and enslaved the Celtic population. Since any such reports have to be viewed with the understanding they had to be “political” and show the Romans in a beneficial light while painting the Celtic civilisation as barbaric, peopled by savages, thus justifying the occupation and enslavement. So it is hard to get a real understanding but the Celtic “civilisation” lasted for several thousand years and they appear to have had female leaders and warriors, at least in some tribes. It is a reasonable assumption they they spoke slightly different languages and certainly must have had local dialects. It has been found that they had more contact and trade, with other countries and more sophistication than previously (200 years ago) expected. The expectation was “coloured” by the Roman records and reports.

They had evolved a quasi religion controlled by the Druids. While they too avoided written languages it does appear the Druids were not bound to stay within the tribe of their birth and so travelled about the land, connecting the various tribes. This must have been the start of amalgamation of tribes into larger “kingdoms” although it was doubtful that the idea of hereditary kings ruling over every one, by divine right became accepted until after the Romans invaded. Since the Druids had many “Gods” any person claiming divine right given by God; would have to explain which Gods. We probably never will know the truth but it seems that over 3500 years they evolved a system of governance that allowed the people to settle and gain relative prosperity. It is considered that during this evolutionary period, they built such places as Stonehenge and the wooden henge on the Suffolk coast and the multitude of stone circles around the land. The construction of such places indicate an ability to work together for a common end, it also indicates some form of engineering leadership and management. In the later parts of their 2000 years, they also mined for tin silver and lead, which is believed to be one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, they wanted these metals.

Modern humans are said to have evolved from origins 50,000 years ago so we are a slow process. Slow relative to each human life span. Because of this slowness we in Britain, (those presently titled “indigenous” people,) are a mixture of ancient Celt, Romans, Saxons, Nordic and Norman. Later arrivals of the various religious refugees such as the Hugenots, the Jews and others, must have also had localised influences. Some of the original Celtic tribes driven out by the Roman invasions, initially settled in the areas we now call Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

The Roman emperors adopted Christianity, a somewhat different Christianity from any of the modern versions as, since it is widely accepted, that the early Celtic Christians blended in some of the pre-Christian beliefs such as reincarnation and the use of pagan festivals adapted to the evolving church's needs. It was only after the Roman Christians imposed their earthly, human, system of control, did the Celtic versions of Christianity, one that had accepted the union of religion and the natural world, get forced out and crushed. The Roman church used written records, ones obviously favourable to themselves. But they did introduce the concept of written laws and records

After the Roman occupation ended, the Saxons invaded, It is understood they also had tribal variations, between the Angels and the Saxons The Saxons dominated and enslaved the remaining Celt tribes and “de-Romanised” Britain to some extent; but then they also became Christians and as they settled, the feudal system of regional governance became established and saw the creation of kingdoms such as Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria. They were followed by Norse invaders, some Danes, some Franks, The term Vikings covers several different “nationalities” but they initially came to steal and then to settle and enslave the Saxons, the war between these invaders saw the start of regulated written rule of law that was not only in Latin. This came about as Alfred- King of Wessex; fought to unite the various kingdoms into one nation- England- with one set of rules and laws (and one religion, the then prevalent Christianity dictated by a hierarchy in Rome)

The forming of Britain took a very long time and a great deal of bloodshed, wars, civil wars and general mayhem (including the setting up of a separate version of Christianity with King Henry the 8th as it's leader, not the pope) People talk of the civil war in Britain meaning the war between parliament and the King as if it was the only one but there were others. The war of the roses, the war between King Steven and Empress Maud etc. The civil war between parliament and the king did result in the start of the formation of what we now have (a constitutional monarchy with a version of democracy to govern the people.)

The Victorian period and the industrial revolution saw such changes to the whole of “British society” that they were a form of revolution. The two world wars imposed even more social and structural change to Britain so it can be said that our modern society did not start to form until about 1960, it is still being formed today, year by year it is evolving (or regressing depending on your personal opinion)

The pace of change appears to be accelerating, consider how many years between the first Celtic tribes establishing humans in this land and the imposed change due to the Roman occupations; think how long it took from the reign of Henry the second; to the advent of our parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch. Now the globalisation, of everything, the mass transportation of people, the speed of travel and more importantly, the speed of information and misinformation, the ability to spread chaos and disorder as well as law and control, have all accelerated compared to 2500 years ago. We now have incredible transference speeds. Certainly faster than evolution can cope with. Despite the efforts of the terrorists and other antidemocratic groups, we now actually have less killing of humans associated with our political and social changes, than we did in our previous history.

What of the future? Will we continue to have social change at an ever increasing speed? Will humans evolve fast enough to cope with the effects of pollution, caused by there being unsustainable numbers of humans? Will we all end up, a 100 generations from now, as all with the same coloured skin, one racial type, with one religion (or no religion) and one common language? There have been many attempts to create a unified world, particularly those with a left of centre political view, seem to wish to construct or force a totally united world. Observation suggests that those with this political view are generally people who like there to be control and it may be that they consider the control to be more important than the final objective. Viewing history and human nature would suggest this, an enforced united world, is futile. Forcing union has never been a good idea and it usually ends in a destructive break up. Allowing union to evolve over a relatively long time is a much better bet. Such an evolved union has far more chance of being stable and successful. The planet Earth, Gaia, has finite resources, and in the very very long term, a finite life span. If the population of humans keeps expanding it will ultimately, (whatever technical advances we make in food production, recycling etc.) exhaust those finite resources. So at some time in the future human kind has to migrate to other planets or reduce human population on Earth to a sustainable level. By the time this comes about, sustainability on Earth, will be for a relatively low number of humans. It is probable that planetary migration and a reduction home planet population, will both be necessary for the survival of the human race. There is an alternative opinion that humans will kill themselves off with pollution, over population, global warfare using biological weapons and sheer stupidity. Then Earth can resume an evolutionary path without the interference of humans.