A Different World
Imagine that all life on earth didn’t exist on earth, but in Leila Daw’s “Calling the Earth to Witness.” Let’s imagine that, although all of the surroundings would be different, history occurs the same way, and time periods and general eras of earth have generally stayed the same. How would this new land effect the details of mankind’s history?
The very first empires would begin to arise within their own corners of this one big continent: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. However this history is initially much more peaceful than what actually happened. The three civilizations would live in mostly peace for years. The reasoning for the peace is due to the vast amounts of water systems that Leila Daw painted on this canvas. There is clearly ample water for each civilization. Growth and development of these cultures are majorly hindered, however. With no need or means to expand out, these civilizations continually rely on hunter-gatherer behavior. Eventually, over-population would cause the nations to have to expand. Egypt wipes out Mesopotamia, and China and Egypt remain dominant in their areas. Over time, more ancient civilizations begin to emerge such as Greece, Rome, and Persia. War ravishes the land for centuries. Art, science, education, and technology are all set back thousands of years as the land is constantly fought over. This “earth” is turned into one massive battlefield with each nation having their own city-states. This world sees no religion, nationality has become the new religion. People become loyal to their nations and fight only for the leaders of their nations. This war eventually comes to an end as a resistance compromised of people from all nations grows and defeats all the individual nations.
Peace is spread throughout the land and mankind develops at exponential rates. With all the greatest minds working under the same nation, mankind reaches a level of intellect and advancement that is far beyond ours. The renaissance, the age of discovery, and modern history is all fit into one or two centuries. By our lifetime, massive advancements in architectural design will allow us to build one massive city that fits all the people of earth in the Northern hemisphere. The city represents the mixture of all cultures into this one new immense culture. The Southern and Eastern hemisphere is used for food and resources, all flora is grown in this area and almost all fauna of the planet lives in this area, with the exception of pets in the city. The Western hemisphere is mostly desert and used as a place for people to travel to and go on vacation.
This world would be perfect, no economy, no violence, no hatred, no evil, just peace.
There is a perfected system for everything that allows everything to run smoothly. The ever-developing scientific discoveries keep life from becoming boring, and everyone’s job is only to make the world better in some way. Education and hunger are never worries that anyone in this society has, there is no need for military or police forces, all disease and illness have been cured, and genetic problems have been solved.
Maybe that’s what life in Leila Daw’s artwork would be like. Maybe that’s how history would have unfolded. However I am simply a 19 year old sitting in the library drinking a kiwi- strawberry Snapple so hey, what do I know? Living in my world would be nice though. What would your world be like?
