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Secret History #13: Mandate of Heaven | Predictive History | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Secret History #13: Mandate of Heaven
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Summary
Core Theme
The lecture challenges the traditional Marxist view of civilization's origins, proposing instead that civilization arose not from agricultural surplus enabling elites, but as a mechanism to legitimize emerging hierarchies and control populations, driven by human ingenuity and the need for social organization.
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Today we discuss the idea of civilization
and um first I want to present to you
the general understanding of how we get civilization
civilization
and then I will present to you an
alternative. Okay. So the traditional
understanding is the Marxist
understanding. This is idea proposed by
Carl Marx and it's the dominant idea. So
in the beginning we were hunter
gatherers and it sucked to be hunter
gatherer because you could not find food
and then we discovered agriculture
farming that allowed for surplus
surplus food.
food.
Surplus just means that you have more
food than you can eat. And so now you
have people who don't have to work.
Okay? An elite.
And as such, they can engage in
activities that improve the well-being
of everyone and which create the basis
for civilization. These things include
religion, okay, which is just myths and stories,
stories,
but also arts,
dance, music, song, songs,
um, paintings, and then of course you
And with these three things in place,
now you can grow as a society. Okay? You
can now build cities. Why? Because now
and farming.
Okay? You can now direct the river the
river flow. So you can use more farmland.
farmland.
Okay? [snorts] you can now have a
heredit her hereditary elite
and so that these people can focus their
entire time on innovation on science on progress.
progress. Okay?
Okay?
And then you have writing
because only a herited elite has the
time and the resources to learn how to
write because remember back then writing
is a very difficult activity. You have
to spend your entire life learning it
and practicing it. And then you have the
idea of money and property.
Okay. And together these four things are
what we refer to as civilization.
Okay. Now there are good things that
come from civilization, religion, arts
and science. But there are also bad
things as well which include war, slavery
slavery
and debt.
Okay. And
that is a story civilization that you
are taught in school and that most
mainstream academics understand.
Today I wanted to propose an alternative
and I think this is a much more
compelling alternative than this one.
very from the very beginning we were
religious, artistic and capable of
science. Okay?
an elite to do this for us. We are all
capable of doing this by ourselves. And
the examples of course are the cave
paintings that we discussed as well as
these religious settlements. Go play
temple koak.
Okay. And as we discussed before people
come together to practice their religion
building temples, building monuments.
And then slowly around these temples you
have development of farming in order to
sustain these temples in order to
practice the religion. But over time
what happens is that the temple people
become corrupt rather than be being
elected by the people rather than serve
the people they become hereditary. Okay?
They be they engage in rent seeking and
so what people do is they just leave
and build a temple somewhere else. Okay.
And throughout this time all these
temples are being built. But in certain locations
locations
the temples can also engage in trade.
Why? Because they're the meeting place
of many many other communities. And as
such, their real estate is the most
valuable in the world. And so it's hard
for people to leave. And the place just
grows and grows and grows.
And as this civilization grows, the
people in charge create something called
a temple economy.
[snorts] Okay? And this is just a primal
form of of taxation. Basically what
happens is that everyone brings food to
the temple and the priest then redistribute
redistribute
the food amongst everyone else. Okay.
That allows for public works projects
like irrigation mainly irrigation but
also more temples. Okay. And because of
this economy now you need writing.
You need to record how much food you
have. You have to record who gets what
food, the rations. You also need to
record trade, right? How much
um grain you're getting from here, how
much cows you're going giving to over
there. Okay, they have a running system.
and but as this civilization develops a
strict hierarchy emerges
and the hierarchy goes against the
natural order. Also remember that people
at any time can just choose to leave. So
how do you make people stay where they
are and just follow the natural order?
Well now you have to create mythology. Okay?
Okay?
[snorts] Which then you encode or write
down. So that seems as though it's
coming from the gods themselves.
Okay? Does that make sense? In other words,
words,
civilization did not give us religion,
arts, and science. We already had these
things. We could at any time in our
history do all these things.
Civilization is a device meant to
gaslight or fool people into believing
that a hierarchy is legitimate when it
is not legitimate. It is meant to fool
people into thinking of a that this
hierarchal system is divinely ordained.
Okay. So that's the argument I will make
to you today. Before I continue, are you
clear about this framework? This is this
is traditional framework. This is this
is what you've been taught in school.
The problem with this framework is that
it assumes that we're all stupid.
And if we're all stupid, it's hard to
explain how we did the cave paintings,
how we built kabe,
okay? How we did ko. It assumes all
these things. This this new
understanding is that we're all capable
of creativity
but eventually because of
um social development we have these
large cities and now the people in
charge need to create civilization in
order to justify the hierarchy.
Okay. All right. So having said that,
let's look at the four earliest major civilizations
civilizations
in our history and they are of course Egypt,
Egypt,
the Indis Valley civilization.
This is al also referred to as the
Harapen. Okay, Harapen civilization
because their capital is Harapa. And
then the last one of course is China. Right?
Right?
Now the question then is why is that
these four
are the early civilizations and they
have three unique characteristics. Okay.
The first is their latitude. They're
actually in the same latitude. They're
not too hot and they're not too cold
which makes them perfect for
agriculture. Okay. That's the first
characteristic. Second characteristic is
that they are by major rivers. Right. So
Egypt is of course by the Nile. Uh
Mesopenia has been called the Tigris and
Um Indis Valley of course has the Indis
River and China has of course the Yellow
River. Okay,
that's the second major characteristic.
This allows for you to build a fairly
large city. Okay, because now you can
solve the water and transportation
problem. Okay, and also agriculture. And
the last characteristic which is the
most important is they're by the sea or
they're by the ocean which allows for
them to engage in trade. Okay,
transportation bringing in new goods,
new people and new ideas. So uh Egypt
has the Mediterranean
as well as the Red Sea. Mesopotamia
goes into Arabian Sea which goes into
the Indian Ocean. And so the India is
the same situation. Okay? Goes in the
urban sea and then the Indian Ocean.
[snorts]
All right? So what will happen over time
is that because of the trade location
they're able to build a very large city
okay over time. So um but then what will
happen is that as larger city becomes
larger and larger they will develop colonies
colonies
upstream and downstream of the river. Okay.
Okay. Um
Um
so they will build more colonies and
this is how you get civilization. Okay,
you you always have a major city and as
it becomes too big, you have other
places in order to
um expand your trade reach. Okay, so the
the priority is trade and as you can see
what's happening is that these now these
areas are able to connect the entire
world, right? So Egypt is able to
connect Europe and the Leavant and
Africa. Okay. Uh Mr. is able to connect Anatolia
Anatolia
um Asia, Central Asia and then Inis
Valley is able to do the same thing.
Okay, China is a special case because of
the Himalayas.
So there is trade actually between China
and these other parts but not as much
and so China is a special case and we
don't so that's why we don't we don't
discuss China in this class. Okay. So
this is these three places are what we
collectively call western civilization.
So you may have thought that western
civilization is just Europe and America.
That's not true. Okay. If you just look
at the history
um these places have always been in
contact with each other and collectively
they built a foundation for western
civilization. Let me ask you this question.
question.
Looking at this map
where is the most strategically located
>> it's here, right? Does that make sense
you guys? This is right in the center of
global trade. And guess what? This place
is where human civilization began. This
place is what we call Samaria. Samar, okay?
okay?
And this is where writing was invented.
Okay? And this is where a lot of trade
happened because if you just look at
this map, Samaria is what connects
everyone to everyone else. Right? If
you're in the in civilization and you
want to get through Egypt, you have to
first transport your goods to Samaria,
which then overland takes it to Egypt.
Same thing with Egypt. Okay? Same thing
if you want to reach everywhere else.
Does that make sense? That's why Samaria
was um the first major civilization.
Okay? and they invented writing as well
as irrigation as well as a lot of
technology. And there's been a lot of
debate about Samaria because one thing
that puzzles scholars and historians is
the language that Samarans speak is not
the same as the surrounding areas. Okay?
So that's why a lot of historians
believe that the people in Samaria came
from somewhere else and that may be
true. Why? because
this is the major trade route, right?
And it's possible that what happened was
that different people came together in
this area to trade and they form their
own language. That is possible. Okay. Um
also scholars have been surprised or
amazed at the rapid development of
Samaria and that's why okay I don't know
why why but there are some people on the
internet who believe that aliens came to
Samaria and created humans okay these
aliens called are called the anunnaki
and it's a really stupid idea and what
you learn in this class is that if you
put humans together and they need to do
something they will do it very Okay,
does that make sense?
>> Okay, necessity is the mother of
creativity. It's because they have to
come together to trade during an act
that they create their own writing system.
system.
Okay. So, if I were to take different
people from from the world and just dump
them on an island, you guys would really
quickly be able to develop your own
language, your own writing system, your
own civilization because again,
necessity is the mother of invention.
All right. All right. So that's the
general framework we're working with.
Any more qu any questions before I cons
continue? Okay, good. All right. So
All right.
So in this class I want to talk about
how because of civilization development
they start to uh promote writing and
promote mythology. Okay. And what I will
show you is that by studying mythology
properly, you can actually uh decode or
uncover or reveal the history of the
civilization even though it may be lost
to us. Okay. All right. Let's continue.
All right. So, um, one principle that I
want you to learn about human history is
that it's a constant process of
inversion. Okay. And what I mean by that
is that as humans progress or as humans
as human society grows and grows they
need to constantly re innovate in their
system and they do it through inversion.
So um during the caping era it was an
egalitarian society uh which was fluid
which was dynamic and they were
animistic which which meant that they
believed that um everything had god in
it. Okay, they were all part of God. And
then agriculture, you had the mother god
of civilization because you needed
fertility, right? The mother goddess um
is able to give you more children as
well as help you grow crops. But over
time, as
as societies became larger and larger,
they start to go war with each other.
Okay? And now the male overtakes the
female. Rather than worship the mother
goddess, they now worship the sky god.
And before during the mother goddess, it
was assumed that the mother goddess
serves us because she's kind, she's
compassionate. But now the sky god, we
have to serve the gods. Okay. Um and
then as society becomes more hereditary,
what happens often are civil wars where
the prince kills the king. Okay. The son
kills the father in an aversion. Okay.
The last process is that um over time as
society becomes more populated you need
a bureaucracy. What happen will happen
is that the bureaucrats will collude
together to steal power from the king.
Okay. The servant rules the king. Okay.
So this is a major pattern of historical
development that that I want you guys to
remember. Remember that history is a
constant process of inversion. Okay.
where the old order is being dethroned
by the new order. Okay. So that's one
idea I want you guys to remember. Okay.
All right. So basic uh framework we're
working with is that before we saw that
the mother goddess where women were in
control and they focus on balance and
harmony, okay, and fertility. And their
understanding of the mother goddess is
that she's kind and she's she's
compassionate. Okay. So you don't really
have to work that much. You just have to
uh respect her and she will provide you
with a lot of babies and a lot of good
food. Okay. Now we go to the sky god and
different societies have different sky
gods but they're basically the same
concept. So in Egypt they have Rah. In
Babylon they have they have Marduk. In
Greece they have Zeus. In Rome they have
Jupiter. Right? And the sky god demands
struggle and toil. Okay. to rape,
exploit, control the earth, to take the
mother goddess and to control her. Okay?
And you do that by building canals, by
building farms. So it's a constant
process of exploitation. Okay? Not only
exploiting nature, the mother goddess,
but you're also exploiting each other.
You go to war, you conquer other people,
you enslave them. Okay? It's a constant
process of sacrifice and discipline.
All right?
So the four major civilizations we
talked about, as you can see from this
map, they're the same latitude, right?
China's over here. Again, because of the
Himalayas, they're blocked from the rest
of the world. Okay? But these three
areas, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Inis
Valley, you can see how close they are
to each other and how they can easily
access each other through the sea,
right? And once they are able to access
each other, they can then access other
parts of the world as well. So right
from the beginning guys this is really
important. Western society was
integrated through trade through
communication and so the ideas the
people were always in exchange with each
other. Okay. So you cannot understand
development of Egypt in isolation from
Mesopotamia and the Indis Valley. Okay.
They were all um influence each other.
Unfortunately, because of Western
prejudice, you're often taught that
these things are separate from each
other. Okay? But they existed in
dialogue with each other.
All right? Um so the critical
civilization is the Middle East. Why?
Because of the fertile crescent. Okay.
So um Samaria Sumer is where we where we
can sort the cradle of civilization
because as I mentioned to you it is the
center of all global trade. It's where
all civilizations meet as but as you can
also see it's also extremely fertile.
Okay. So this this is this has
historically been the wealthiest part of
the world. Strategically is the most
important part of the world and it's
still true even today. Okay. That's why
you have all these wars in the middle
Middle East. That's why America is so
Okay. So as I mentioned to you um what
will happen is that because of trade
Uric will become a large city and then
as the city becomes larger and larger it
will establish colonies elsewhere as
well and these will become the major
city states of Mesopotamia and for
thousands of years they will fight each
other until um Sarum Akad unifies this
Sumer is impressive. Um, they're known
for their canals. They're known for
their irrigation. And again, scholars
are sort of mesmerized by how they're
able to do this. But one thing that you
learn this class is that when humans
come together for religious purposes,
These are zagurits. They're temples.
Okay? And these zagurites were the
center of their civilization. Remember
that also they start off with a temple
that then builds out outwards. Okay? And
these zagrates are important because
they are literally considered the home
of their gods. And these places are
sacred. So only priests are allowed to
go inside it. People can deliver gifts
to the gods through the priest. But the
people themselves are not allowed to
interact with the priest. That's how the
priests are able to keep control over
the cities. Okay?
And the priests themselves are
considered servants of the gods. This is
kuneao form, right? This is kuneao form
which is the first writing system ever
invented. [snorts] Um what's interesting
about this is how they did this. So what
they did was this. They just took clay
from the river beds. Okay? And then
before it hardens, you just take a read
and you write down some marks in the
clay. And then what you do is this. You
just put out in the sun and then it
hardens, right? And it's it's there
forever. That's why we still have them
today because rock does not decay. Okay?
And that's why we know more about
Um for most of agricultural history we
celebrate the mother gods. Okay. But
then as I mentioned over time as society
um becomes larger and larger the men
start to take control and so they in
they inverted [clears throat] the
mythology of the mother goddess. Now the
sky god who is monarch here kills the
mother goddess to create the world.
Um so to understand this process we will
read the most famous
epic from Mesopotamia called the enuma
allesh and alesh means from up high. So
it's a bible basically it's like what
god told us and this is a story of the
creation of the world. [snorts] Okay. So
what's really important to understand is
that all the stories are written down in
stone. Okay?
And again guys, they didn't have to do
this because everyone was able to
memorize the story line for line and
that's what we did historically. So why
did they um write this in stone? For
propaganda purposes, right? It's the
same as in today's world, you go see a
film. When you see a film, you're
mesmerized. You're hypnotized by the
beauty of it. And you must think that
this film must be the gods speaking themselves.
themselves.
Okay? You don't think about, okay, how
do they put this together? Your mind
doesn't think like that. Your mind's
like, oh my god, this is an image before
me. Therefore, it must be true. Okay?
And that's why they wrote stuff down for
propaganda purposes. Now, what's
interesting is that there's different
writing systems around the world. So, in
Mesopotenia, they had the these K
tablets, right? But in Egypt as you may
know they have papyrus. Okay, papyrus
are just are these these plants they
take out they take out the plants and
then uh put them together in the sun.
Okay, and then they become like these
scrolls that you can write on in China
of course have the paper. So what's
interesting is that when the need arises
for writing we always find find of like
creative ways to express ourselves in
writing. Okay, papyrus scrolls don't
really last that long. That's why we
know less about Egypt than we know about Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia.
All right. So the Emirash was written on
K tablets. So let's go over um the story
the Enimash.
So um in the beginning there are two
major gods. Absu and Tiiamat.
Absu means fresh water. Tiiamat means
salt water. Okay. Fresh water of course
is the river. Um salt water is the
ocean. Okay. When they come together,
they create all possible life, including
their children, the new gods. Tiiamat
and Absu create these new gods, but
they're children. So, they're really
loud. And Absu is like, "You know what?
These children are really annoying. I
want to kill them." Tiamat overhears
this and Tiamat tells her children who
rebel and kill Absu. But then Tmat's
like, "You know what? They killed my
husband." So now she's pissed. Okay. So
she decides she's going to go kill her
children too. She has a general and
there is this huge army and they start
start to attack the their children.
These children are
um thrown back by Tiiamat. So they elect
a new champion called Murdoch, the
thunder god, the sky god to lead them
into battle against Tiiamat. And in the
final battle um um Murdoch who's al also
called BL he kills Tiamat. Okay. Now
what happens afterwards is really
interesting because after he kills
Tiamat the mother goddess he takes her
body and then from her body he builds an
entire world. He builds both the sky and
the planet earth. Okay so let's read
some lines. be out rested serving the
corpse in order to divide the lump by a
clever scheme. He split her into two
like a dried fish. Okay, so he literally
cut her like a fish. One half of her he
set up and stretched out as the heavens.
He built the sky from her body. He
stretched the skin and appointed a watch
while the with the instruction not to
let her waters escape. He crossed over
the heavens, surveyed the celestial
parts and adjusted them to match the
absu nominates abode. So Absu was the
husband who was killed. Be measured the
shape of the Absu and set up Ezra a
leprecha of Escala and Escala Ezra which
he had built in the heavens. He settled
in the shrines anu ll and l. Okay. So
what's important to understand is this.
He's doing this to the mother goddess.
Okay. So not only is monarch proclaiming
a new order but he's also proclaiming
new values. New values of struggle, exploitation,
exploitation,
toil. Right? Before the mother gods was
a religion of balance and harmony. Don't
destroy things. Worship the animals as
they're your friends. If you kill them,
make sacrifices to them. And now this
new religion is no, destroy the world
and make it yours. Okay? So, this is a
civilization that practice irrigation,
right? Because irrigation really is
about controlling the earth.
All right. Let's continue.
All right. So what happens now is that
after Marduk
um creates the world he has to establish
a bureaucratic order okay an order a
hierarchal order so he says he fashioned
heaven stations for the great gods and
set constellations the patterns of the
stars he appointed the year marked up
divisions and set up three stars each
for the 12 months okay so he's bally
building a calendar the idea here is
that all these were bureaucratic
inventions in Samaria in order to better
govern the people
What this myth is doing, the eminish is
doing is proclaiming that the
bureaucratic world is divinely ordained.
Okay, this didn't come from the priest.
It came from the gods. The priests are
just the messengers.
All right, let's continue.
All right, so
now that Mark has built this world, he's
like, you know what? I'm tired and I
want a place to rest. So what I'm going
to do now is I'm going to build a house
which is my temple and then I'm going to
make slaves in order to serve me. And
these slaves are called humans. Okay?
>> That's why we're invented to to serve
the gods before we understood that the
gods served us helped us or loved us.
And now we must become slaves to the gods.
gods.
Beneath the celestial parts whose floor
I made firm, I will build a house to to
be my luxurious abode. Within within I
will establish a shrine. I will found my
chamber and establish my kingship. Okay.
All right. So now he's going to turn
humans into slaves. He conceived the
desire to accomplish clever things. He
opened his mouth addressing eel. He
counsels that which he had ponder in his
heart. I will bring together blood to
form bone. I will bring into being Lula
whose name shall be man. Okay.
All right. The gods, by the way, are
called the Anunnaki. Okay. That that
that's why there are conspiracy
theorists on the internet who say that
All right. So, what Marduk does is that
he takes his enemy uh Tingu and then he
kills him and then from his blood uh he
will create mankind. Okay. They bound
him holding him before ale. They
inflicted the penalty on him and severed
his blood vessels. From his blood he
created mankind on whom he imposed the
service of the gods and set the gods
free. Okay. Now it's really interesting
for us to remember is that throughout
this poem the monarch has different
names be eel. Okay. And the reason why
is that what happens in these epics is
they take different traditions and they
combine together into one composite
All right.
After the wise eel had created mankind
and had imposed the service of the gods
upon them, that task is beyond
comprehension. For Nima performed the
creation with the skill of Mardok. King
Mard divided the gods of the Anunnaki.
Okay, the gods into upper and lower
groups. He assigned 300 in the heavens
to guard the decrees of Enu and
appointed them as a god. Okay. So now
he's going to create this hierarchy. So
yes, all humans are slaves but there are
some humans who are better slaves than
other humans. Okay, that's what explains
the hierarchy. So as you can see the
lash it was written in order to justify
the existing power structure and
honestly this is a concept that's still
true today. Right? Why do we have
schools? Why do we have media? Why do we
have entertainment? It's to justify the
existing power structure and social
order. Okay. All right.
All right.
Now we get towards the end and this is
to establish that Babylon is the divine
city. If it's divine, it means you can't
leave it. You all want to be here. Even
though being in Babylon means your
enslavement. Okay. Let us make a shrine
of great renown. Your chamber will be
our resting place wherein we may repose.
Let us erect a shrine to house a
pedestal wherein we may repose when we
finish the work. When Mark heard this,
he beame as brightly as the light of
day. Build Babylon the t you have
sought. Let bricks for it be molded and
raised a shrine. The Anunnaki wield the
pig for one year. They made the needed
bricks. Okay, so Babylon, the capital is
a city made by the gods for the gods and
then humans are there to serve the gods.
Okay. So this is the divine order. This
Okay. And as you will as you will see
this is not just true for Mesopotamia
for Babylon but also true for all major
civilizations including Egypt. Okay. So
this is a tapestry from Egypt. You can
as you can see the gods are in control.
The gods are the public masters and the
kings are just being controlled by the
gods and then humans just do what the
gods demand of them. Okay. This is just
the natural order. This is the minute of
heaven. This is the way that it should
be. Okay, now let's talk about the epic
of Gilgamesh. So there are two major
literary achievements of Mesopotania.
The first is the emir lash. The second
is something called the epic of
Gilamash. As you can see, Gilgamash,
he is a giant human. He's a king. He's
considered the first king of Eric. Okay?
And he's so big that he that a lion is
his pet. Okay?
Okay?
Um what happens is that Gilgamesh is a
king but he's a tyrant. So he takes the
men to war and he sleeps with all the
women. So the people cry to the gods for
relief from Gilgamesh. So the gods
create Inkadoo from uh clay. Okay. And
this is very similar to the story of
Adam in the Bible. And Incadoo is like
an animal. But then Giggle Mash sends a
prostitute to seduce him and then become
civilized. Okay? And now Enkodu and
Gamash fight. And when they fight, they
realize that they can't beat each other.
So they decide to become best friends.
They're best friends now. And they
embark on all these adventures together.
They go kill um these divine beings. Um
they go kill the protector of the
forest. Um they kill a divine bull. The
gods are now kind of pissed at them
because they're disrupting the natural
order. Okay. So, the gods have a
meeting. They decide that one of them
must die. So, they kill Ankodu. When
Ankodu dies, Gamash is heartbroken. And
he's scared because he's afraid that he
will die as well. So, he sets on a quest
for immortality. Okay, he goes and tries
to figure out how to live forever. He
ultimately fails. Okay. And it ends with
Gil actually returning home and he sees
happiness in the walled cities and his
people being happy. Okay. So the moral
of the story is that immortality is not
about living forever. Immortality is
about doing great things for your people
so that you'll be remembered forever.
Celebrate forever. So the irony is that
even though Gilgash failed in his quest,
he ultimately succeeded in his mission
because because we have his epic and so
we're able to celebrate him even today.
Okay, so it's a story that um is being
told. The question now is why is a story
being told and one theory is that this
is a concept of kingship. Being a king
means not doing whatever you want. Being
a king means to serve the people so that
people will celebrate you and remember
you forever and immortalize you in
All right, but ultimately Gilgamesh is a
bureaucratic creation and I'm going to
explain to you how this creation works.
Through this creation process, we can
understand how human society develops
over time. So in the beginning what
happens is that each region has local
legends okay and these local heroes are
celebrated through stories. So stories
of demagogues like Hercules right and
the epic heroism
um they have these stories because each
region has a local king and this local
king says well I'm a descendant of
Hercules and therefore I should rule
over you. Okay. And what will happen is
that these stories become a test for the
king. If Hercules can fight a lion, then
you are his ances uh descendant, right?
You are his descendant. Therefore, you
shall fight a lion. Okay? And that's how
you justify your kingship through these
acts of heroism that's relayed to you in
stories. Okay? That's the first step.
Second step is what happens is that as
these different areas become
consolidated into a much larger area,
these stories themselves become consolidated.
consolidated.
So, Google Mash was basically different
heroes. um one come one king comes to
dominate a region then then what happens
afterwards is that as the region becomes
larger and larger you need a
bureaucracy. So bureaucratic priests
come into power. They add in morality
and messaging control the people and the
king. Okay. The major message is the
king must serve the people and then the
priests control the king. Um but what
will happen is that these different
bureaucrac bureaucratic factions will
fight each other and they will have
different versions of the story. Okay.
So bureaucratic priests take power the
morality and messaging changes. Okay. As
different bureaucratic priests take
power. Okay. The must the king must
learn humility. So this is a hard thing
to understand but it's really important
for us to understand otherwise you can't
understand the Bible and um other
literary equations. So what I'm going to
do is I'm going to give you an example
to help you better understand this
process of storytelling. All right. So
let's imagine three universities Ohio
State University, Connecticut and
Mberry. And they all have their own
local legends. Okay. So in these places
something happened that capture the
imagination of all the students. know
maybe Ohio State University, Michael
James gets drunk the night before
examination and he still matches passive
and the students are like that's a great
story. Okay, but what happens over time
is that because it's such a great story
as story as a story is told more and
more becomes exaggerated.
Why? Because it becomes exaggerated.
It's much more interesting. It's become
much more memorable. Okay? And over time
people add color to it to make it even
more memorable. If you don't do that,
the story becomes forgotten. Okay? So
only way to keep a story alive is by
constantly exaggerating it and bringing
color to it. So let's see what happens
over time the story becomes Michael
James gets drunk before every
examination and he scores 100. Okay,
that's an exaggeration. And then over
time naturally through the oral
tradition the story becomes even more
exaggerated. Michael James bet his
professor that he could get 100 on the
exam while drunk. After James finished
the exam he bombed on the professor.
Okay, flew up on the professor. The
professor could not do anything because
James had got 100 on the exam. Okay. All
right. So, human beings just do this
naturally. Something happens. They think
it's they think it's interesting. Then
it becomes a legend, becomes a story.
Okay. And this happens everywhere. So,
Connecticut College, a football player
scores a winning touchdown. Okay? And
then it becomes exaggerated. The guy
scores touchdown every game. And then
even more exaggerated, the guy hits a
home run to help his team win a
championship. And then later that that
day, he scores a touchdown to win
another. Okay, so it becomes more
exaggerated. And then let let's look at
the last one. At Middle Berry College,
Pat Jack drives can take a piss. Okay,
he just does that for no reason. Becomes
more exaggerated. He goes to a new city
every day to take a piss. Okay, and then
it becomes even more exaggerated. And
now you add color detail to it. Pat Jack
drove to Canada and accidentally pissed
on a sleeping beer. Okay. He ran up a
tree without his pants and forest
rangers had to come rescue him.
>> Okay. All right. So, this is what
happens naturally. The story becomes
funnier. The story becomes more
colorful, more detailed, more
exaggerated so that we're able to
remember it. Okay.
And then over time, what happens is that
these stories become consolidated,
combined together to form a new story. Okay?
Okay?
Harvard's most legendary student was
Pitbull James. He once rolled an exam
that no professor could pass. He once
hit a home run with one arm. He once
pissed on sleeping bear just so he could
knock down the bear with one punch.
Okay, so it becomes even more
exaggerated becomes consolidated
just as the epic of Giggamash. Okay, but
then what happens is the bureaucrats
take over. Okay, the people in charge
take over and they have to change the
story in order to better control people.
And there are different versions of this
process. So, so let's look at three. All
right, you're at this one line and you
change the story, right? In the first
version, when he became a billionaire,
he gave it all to Harvard. Okay, so
obviously Harvard wrote this story to
say, you know what? I don't we don't
care what you do as long as you give us
money. Okay, that's the first version.
Second version is when he wrote he found
his true love, he settled down in the
woods, right fulltime. Okay, so this is
signaling the primacy of writers over
athletes. Okay, the the smart over the
brave. The third is the bear ate him.
Okay, so you punch the bear and the bear
decides to eat him, which is like don't
be a stupid athlete. Okay, and and so
when you add these actually lines, you
make the story less interesting, less
colorful, but you do so in order to
better control how people think. And
this is a process that we see throughout
human history. So think of these
classics of these Chinese classics,
right? Sangu Romance of Three Kingdoms. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh CG, right?
>> Journey to the west,
right? Banners of the water margin. If
you read them, they're not that
interesting. But before you can imagine
that they were interesting but the
bureaucrats took them and changed them
into boring stories that they can now
teach school children to brainwash them.
Okay. Does that make sense? Okay. So
that's a process of civilization. [snorts]
[snorts]
All right. So another example is he
assolds theogyny and he's talking about
Greek mythology. Okay. Greek religion.
So the process goes like this.
At first, Gaya, who is like the mother
goddess, and Chaos, they give birth to
the gods. Ga marries one of these gods,
Uranus. Okay? And they give birth
together to 12 titans. But
But
um Uranus doesn't really like children,
so he beats up his children. So these
children with help from the mother
decides to rebel against Uranus. The
youngest son, Cronis, kills Uranus.
Okay, then Uranus marries Ria and now
Cronis is king, but he's afraid that his
children will eventually rebel against
him just like he he rebelled against his
father. Therefore, he eats all his
children. Ria, the mother is upset about
this. So, she decides, I'm going to give
birth to Zeus in secret. So, she runs
off to an island um and she gives birth
to him in secret and he leaves Zeus
there to grow up. Okay. Eventually he
grows up and then he goes back to
Cronis. He becomes cupbearer to Cronis
and then poisons him. Okay. And that's
how Zeus becomes the ultimate king.
What's really interesting for our
purposes is that this myth influences
the origin story of major historical
figures. Okay. So if you look at these
major historical figures, you will find
that it's a very similar story. So sir
of Akid uh who found the Aadian Empire,
Ramis and Reheis who founded Rome, King
David founded Israel and Genghask Khan
of the Mongols. Okay, they all share the
similar origin story. So where do we get
this origin story from?
Okay, so going back, we're seeing three
layers, right? So the first layer is the
original layer, which the animistic
layer. Okay, so different gods come
together and they create humans. The
second layer is when Cronis rebelss
against Uranus and establish the
kingship. Okay?
Right. The third layer is this. The
third is the most interesting. Usually
when you're king, you need a general.
And what often happens is that the king
likes to hire a foreign mercenary to be
a general. Why? Because first of all,
he's of low birth, right? Therefore, no
legitimacy. Second, he's a foreigner and
therefore he doesn't have any global
factions behind him. But often what
happens is that this foreign mercenary
is so talented that he's able to build a
little faction to overthrow the king and
become king himself because he's really
talented. This is true for Gangask Khan.
This is true for King David of Israel.
This is true for Sar of Akit. Okay? So
there are lots of historical figures
like that. Even in Chinese history, you
have quite a few historical figures like
this as well. So the founder of the Song
dynasty was this sort of person. The
problem though is that once you keep him
as king, he has a legitimacy problem.
He's of low birth. He's a foreigner,
right? So what do you do? You create a
myth of Zeus, right? That Zeus himself
was of low birth and a foreigner, but
not really because he's a secret son of
the king. Okay? And that's why you have
these stories to legitimize the
the
All right. So again um this follows the
dynastic cycle. Okay. So in the
beginning the high priestess who
represents the mother goddess she has a
consort and so they establish a
hereditary elite but this hereditary
elite makes people unhappy with the
system. So then one um prince or one of
the sons decides you know what I'm going
to form my own political faction. I'm
I'm become a warlord. I'm going to
overthrow the queen and the king. Okay.
And so he slays the consort and marries
the high priestess. Okay, which is
following the pattern of the mythology,
right? Then what happens is that after
warlord dies, his son relies on a
mercenary as general. The mercenary is
often a foreigner and of low birth.
mercenary slays the warlord and makes
himself king. Okay. Okay. Does that make
sense? This is a pattern that we see
over and over in history. This explains
why the myths are constructed the way
Okay. So another way a metaphor that we
can use is think of myths
and stories as like house renovation.
Okay. So when you renovate a house,
you're adding different layers to it.
Okay? That that's literally what's happening.
Okay. Um, so we we will look at one last
story to show you how this writing
process works. Remember they met writing
in order to basically gaslight the
people. So even though um Samaria
Mesopotain is developing really quickly
as you can see from this map, it's still
a very diverse place. Okay, they have
different forms of industry and economy.
So maybe in the green you have
agriculture but in the red it's
pastorial meaning it's you're raising
animals sheeps goats you're going over
the place okay so there are two
different types of agriculture the first
form is you are sanitary you just stay
one place and you grow your food you
grow your crops you grow your plants the
second is pastoral where you're going
around and you are um uh feeding your
sheep and your goats okay if you're a
king or if you're a priest if you're
bureaucrat Do you prefer agricultural
people or pastoral people? >> Agriculture.
>> Agriculture.
>> Obviously agriculture. Why? Because it's
better. It's easier to control them.
Okay. So, what they do now is um they're
going to create these mythologies to
convince people be to give up the free
happy lifestyle of a pastoralist and
become an enslaved farmer. Okay. All
right. And the question is how? Well,
this is how this is called the debate
between the sheep and the grain. Okay?
So, the sheep and the grain have this
debate and they appear before the gods
for judgment. The sheep says I am I'm
the better one. The grain says no, I'm
the better one. Okay, so this debate the
sheep says this
and king of the gods make me descend
from the holy place, my most precious
place. All the yarns about O2, the
splendor of kingship belong to me.
Second, king of the mountain embosses
the king's emblems and puts his emblem
in order. He twists a giant rope against
the great peaks of the rebel land. He
the sling, the quiver, and the long
boughs. The watch over the elite troops
is mine. Sustance of the workers in the
field is mine. The water skin of cool
water and the skinnos are mine. Sweet
oil, the fragrance of the gods, mix oil,
press oil, aromatic oil, cedar oil for
offerings are mine. Okay, so I'm the
sheep. Look how great I am. Okay. I
provide clothing for people. I provide
sandals. I have oil which makes people
more fragrant. I also provide food for
In the gown, my clothes are white wool.
The king rejoices on his throne. My clothing
clothing
um is worn by the king himself. Isn't
that proof that I'm the greatest? My
[snorts] body glistens on the flesh of
the great gods. After purification,
priests, the incarnation priests and the
babe priests have dressed themselves in
me for my holy lustration. I walk with
them to my holy meal. Okay. So the
priests when they make sacrifices, they
sacrifice the sheep. Not the sheep. The
priests are not going to sacrifice
grain. They sacrifice sheep. Okay.
But your hero plow shield binding and
sharps are tools that can be utterly
destroyed. What can you put against me?
Answer me what you can reply. Okay. So
that's the argument from the sheep. The
grain says, "When the beer dough has
been carefully prepared in the oven and
the mash ended tended in the oven,
Nikicoa mixes them for me while your big
bully goats and rams are dispatched for
my banquet. On the thick legs they are
made to stand separate from my produce,
your shepherd on the high plain eyes my
produce endlessly. When I am standing in
the furrow in the field, my farmer
chases away your herdsmen with his
cudel. Even when they look out for you
from the open country to the hidden
places, your fears are not removed from
you. Fang, snakes and bandits, the
creatures of the desert want your life
on the high plane. Every night your
count is made and your tally stick put
into ground so your herdsman can tell
people how many eels there are and how
many young lambs and how many goats and
how many young kids. When gentle winds
blow through the city and strong winds
scatter, they build a milking pen for
you. But when general winds blow through
the city and strong winds scatter, I set
up as a equal to iskar. I am grain. I am
born for the warrior. I do not give up
the churn the vat on legs. The
endorsements of shephering make up your
properties. What can you put against me?
Answer me what you can reply. Okay.
Well, what Green says is first of all,
you don't need to protect me. I can
protect myself. There are no animals
that want to eat me. Okay? And I'm
bountiful. Okay? So, I'm independent.
you do less work, you get more of me.
Okay, that's the argument. And of
course, the gods say that grain is
better. Even though people who raise
sheep and goats, they're stronger,
they're more free, they're more
independent, but kings don't want that.
So they they create these stories, these
mythologies in order to brainwash people
out of their freedom, of their independence.
independence.
Okay? And that's why we have writing.
That's why they invented writing.
Okay. Does that make sense to you guys? >> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> Um, so my first question is like earlier
you mentioned that there are three
ancient civilizations that are very
close to each other like Egyptian and uh
>> That's right. So they Yeah, that's
right. Yeah.
>> Yeah. And so my question is like are
there any connections between the the
the distance and how they made all of
this myth and their their methodologies
of creating the gods? Okay, that's a
really good question. Um so um it's
almost impossible us for to answer how
much they influence each other. Okay. um
because even if they were not in contact
with each other, they would still come
up with the myths that they had come up
with in order to justify their
hierarchy. It doesn't make sense. So
mythmaking is just a natural part of the
human process.
So do they share these stories together?
Probably. Okay. But what's important to
understand is that these elites are also
interested in differentiation.
So if I'm in Egypt, I need to prove to
my people that I'm superior to the
people in Mesopotamia in this valley
civilization. And that's why I create
the pyramids, right? Okay. If if I'm at
Mesopotamia, I need to prove that I'm
superior. That's why I create the zero
gods and the epic of Gilamash,
right? So the actual process it's it's
hard to say. Okay. So another way of
thinking this is how much are you
influenced by American popular culture?
probably a lot but how much? Okay, also
you whatever whatever influence that you
have you still also refract it for your
own personal needs as well. Okay, so
that's a great question and you know
scholars spend a long time decades
trying to figure out what the actual
influence of each culture is on the on
the other culture and from my
perspective it's not important. We just
have to assume that there is influence
that these c cultures aren't caught out
of each other. But ultimately at the end
of the day, what do they come up with
has to be unique to their own culture.
They want to prove that their culture is
superior and they want to um and they
have to address local needs as well.
Okay. Does that make sense?
>> Yes. Okay. And I have another question
is that uh I don't know how familiar you
are with the Chinese culture but in our
uh Chinese
uh culture there is a god who created
the earth like is his name is pangu
>> like there there is this mythology of of
how pangu creates the earth and so my
question is like you can notice that in
the Chinese culture pangu is a male and
he is the one who sacrificed himself to
in order to create the earth and in
other myths like uh in in Egyptians that
the creator is this female character. So
so in your opinion like do you think
there is like what what is the
why is this different between
>> Okay. Yeah. So it's hard for us to say
what the original myth was. Okay. The
process is this. In the very beginning
all m all gods should be asexual.
>> Okay. So they are almost they're either
nonsexual like it's not male or female
or they are uh both male and female.
Okay. Because in all traditions
um the god has to be a balance of forces
right? So the male force and the female
force. That's why we have ying and yang.
But over time what will happen is that
they will change certain characteristics
to reflect better the hierarchy. So
maybe in the beginning when females were
in charge um Pangu was a female
character but over time they'll change
it to a male character. All right. It's
almost impossible for us to go back and
um rebuild or reimagine what it was like originally.
originally. >> Okay.
>> Okay. >> Okay.
>> Okay.
>> Thank you.
>> All right.
Okay. Any more questions, guys?
Okay. Great. So um I hope this makes
sense and uh next class what what we're
going to do is we will talk about the
steps people okay the people in the
steps this is civilization so people who
do agriculture but remember that
throughout most of um human history the
major conquerors were people from the
steps okay so gangask con came from the
steps so we'll be discussing them next
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