Secret History #13: Mandate of Heaven

today we discuss the idea of civilization and first I want to present to you the general understanding of how we get civilization then I will present to you an alternative okay so the traditional understanding is the Marxist understanding this is idea proposed by Karl Marx and it's the dominant idea so in the beginning we were hunter -gatherers and it sucked to be a hunter -gatherer because you could not find food and then we discovered agriculture farming and that allowed for surplus 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 but also arts dance music song songs paintings and then of course you have science

and technology and with these three things in place now you can grow as a society okay you can now build cities why because now you can have irrigation and farming okay you can now direct the river the river flow so you can use more farmland okay you can now have a hereditary elite and so at the time we But these people can focus their entire time on innovation, on science, on progress. And then you have writing, because only a heritage 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. And together, these four things are what we refer to as civilization. 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, and debt.

And that is the story of civilization that you are taught in school and that most mainstream academics understand. Today I want to propose an alternative, and I think this is a much more compelling alternative than this one. And the idea is this. From the very beginning, we were religious, artistic, and capable of science. We did not need religion. We wanted to become an elite to do this for us. We are all capable of doing this by ourselves. And examples of course are the cave paintings that we discussed, as well as these religious settlements, Goplataple, Karahoyak. And as we discussed before, people come together to practice their religion, building temples, building monuments. And then slowly, around these temples, you have 전통교회, the memorial of those 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 being elected by the people, rather than serve the people, they become hereditary, okay? They engage in rent -seeking. And so what people do is they just leave and build a temple somewhere else, okay? And for all this time, all these temples are being built. But in certain 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, okay? And this is just a permanent form of taxation. Basically what happens is that everyone brings food to the temple, and the priests then redistribute the food amongst everyone else, okay? And 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 grain you're getting from here, how much cows you're giving to over there, okay? Now you have a writing system, then you have money. 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? Which then you encode or write down, so that it seems as though it's coming from the gods themselves. Okay, does that make sense? In other 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 hierarchical system, this 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 a traditional framework. 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 Cabelo Tepe. How we did Catahouya. It assumes all these things. This new understanding is that we're all capable of creativity, but eventually, because of 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 in our history. And they are, of course, Egypt, Mesopotamia, which is modern -day Iraq, the Indus Valley civilization. This is also referred to as the Harappan, okay? Harappan civilization, because their capital is Harappa. And then the last one, of course, is China, right? Now the question then is, why is that these four are the earliest 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. Mesopotamia has been called the Tigris and the Euphrates. Indus Valley, of course, has the Indus 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 Egypt has the Mediterranean, as well as the Red Sea. Mesopotamia goes into the Arabian Sea, which goes into the Indian Ocean. And so the Indus is the same situation, okay? Goes in the Arabian Sea and then the Indian Ocean. China, of course, goes into the Pacific, 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, but then what will happen is that as the city becomes larger and larger, they will develop colonies upstream and downstream of the river, okay?

So they will build more colonies, and this is how you get civilization, okay? You always have a major city, and as it becomes too big, you have other places in order to expand your trade reach, okay? So 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 Levant, and Africa, okay? Mesopotamia is able to connect Anatolia, Asia, Central Asia, and then Indus 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 so that's why 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, these places have always been in contact with each other, and collectively, they've built the foundations for, you know, Western civilization. Let me ask you this question. Looking at this map, where is the most strategically located place? You guys know? It's here, right? Does that make sense to 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? 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 inner civilization, and you want to get through Egypt, you have to first transport your goods to Samaria, which then overnight 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 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 Samarians speak is not the same as the surrounding areas, okay? So that's why a lot of historians believe that the people of Samaria came from somewhere else. And that may be true. Why? Because this is the major trade, right? And it's possible that what happened was that different people came together in this area to trade, and they formed their own language. That is possible, okay? Also, scholars have been surprised or amazed at the rapid development of Samaria. And that's why, okay,

I don't know why, but there are some people on the internet who believe that aliens came to Samaria and created humans. Okay? These aliens 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 well. Okay, does that make sense? Okay? Necessity is the mother of creativity. It's because they have to come together to trade, to interact, that they create their own writing system. Okay? So if I were to take different people from the world and just dump them on an island, you guys would really quickly be able to develop a system, 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 questions, any questions before I continue?

Okay, good, all right. So let's do the PPT. All right, so in this class, I want to talk about how, because of civilization development, they start to promote writing and promote mythology. Okay? And what I will show you is that by studying mythology properly, you can actually 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 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 human society grows and grows, they need to constantly innovate in their system, and they do it through inversion. So during the Capian era, it was an egalitarian society, which was fluid, which was dynamic, and they were animistic, which meant that they believed that everything had God in it, okay? They were all part of God.

And then with agriculture, you had the mother goddess civilization, because you needed fertility, right? The mother goddess, is able to give you more children, as well as help you grow crops. But over time, as civilizations became larger and larger, they started 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 goddess. So now, the sky god, we have to serve the goddess. There might be few more gods, okay? And then attest that it becomes more hereditary, what happens often are civil wars, where the prince kills the king, okay. The son kills the father in the version, okay. The last process is that, over time, as society becomes more populated, you need a bureaucracy.

What happen, what happened 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 I want you guys to remember. Remember that history is a constant process of inversion, where the old order is being dethroned by the new order. So that's one idea I want you guys to remember. All right. So basic framework we're working with is that before, we started with the mother goddess, where women were in control, and they focused on balance and harmony and fertility. And their understanding of the mother goddess is that she's kind and she's compassionate, okay? So you don't really have to work that much. You just have to 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 Ra. In Babylon, they have Marduk. In Greece, they have Zeus. In Rome, they have Jupiter, right? And the sky god demands... struggle and toil 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. Not only are you 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. So this is the major transition. 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 the Indus 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're able to access each other, they can then access other parts of the world as well. So right from the beginning, guys, it's 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 the development of Egypt in isolation from Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, okay? They will all 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, so the cradle of civilization is the Middle East. Why? Because of the fertile crescent, okay? So Sumeria, Sumer, is where we consider the cradle of civilization because as I mentioned to you, it is the center of all global trade.

It's where all civilizations meet. But as you can also see, it's also extremely fertile, okay? So this has historically been the wealthiest part of the world. Strategically, it's 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 East. That's why America is so supportive of Israel. Okay, so as I mentioned to you, what will happen is that because of trade, Uruk 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 Sargon of Akkad unifies this region, okay? Sumer is impressive. 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 in this class is that when humans come together for religious purposes, they're capable of doing amazing stuff. These are Zagorites. They're temples. And these Zagorites were the center of their civilization. Remember that also they start off with a temple that then builds out outwards, okay? And these Zagorites 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 priests. But the people themselves are not allowed to interact with the priests. 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 cuneiform, right? This is cuneiform, which is the first writing system ever invented. What's interesting about this is how they did this. So what they did was this.

They just took clay from the riverbeds, okay? And then before it hardens, you just take a reed, and you write down some marks in the clay. And then what you do is this. You just put it out in the sun, and then it hardens, right? And 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 Sumeria than we know about other places. For most of agricultural history, we celebrate the mother goddess, okay? But then as I mentioned, over time, as society becomes larger and larger, the men started to take control. And so they inverted the mythology of the mother goddess. Now the sky god, who is Marduk here, kills the mother goddess to create the world, okay? A process of inversion. So to understand this process, we will read the most famous epic from Mesopotamia called the Enuma Elesh.

Enuma Elesh means, fall 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. 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 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. 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 Mesopotamia, they have these K tablets, right? But in Egypt, as you may know, they have papyrus. Okay? Papyrus are these plants. They take out the plants and then 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 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. All right. So the Enumerated Lash was written on K tablets. So let's go over the story, the Enumerated Lash. So in the beginning, there are two major gods, Apsu and Tiamat. Apsu means fresh water. Tiamat means salt water.

Okay? Fresh water, of course, is the river. Salt water is the ocean. Okay? When they come together, they create all possible life, including their children, the new gods. Tiamat and Apsu create these new gods, but they're children, so they're really loud. And Apsu is like, you know what? These children are really annoying. I want to kill them. Tiamat overhears this, and Tiamat tells her children who rebelled and killed Apsu. But then Tiamat'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 to attack their children. These children are thrown back by Tiamat. So they elect a new champion called Murdoch, the Thunder God, the Sky God, to lead them into battle against Tiamat. And in the final battle, Murdoch, who's 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 the entire world. He builds both the sky and the planet Earth. Okay? So let's read some lines. BL 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 with the instruction not to let her waters escape. He crossed over the heavens, surveyed the celestial parts, and adjusted them to match the Apsu, Numenet's abode. So Apsu was the husband who was killed. BL measured the shape of the Apsu and set up Ezra, a leprechaun of Escalah. And Escalah, Ezra, which he had built in the heavens, he settled in the shrines Anu and El.

Okay? So what's important to understand is this. He's doing this to the mother goddess. Okay? So not only is Marduk proclaiming a new order, but he's also proclaiming new values. New values of struggle, exploitation, toil. Right? Before, the mother goddess 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 to destroy things. No. Destroy the world and make it yours. Okay? So this is a civilization that practiced 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 hierarchical order. So he says, he fashioned heavenly stations for the great god and set up constellations and patterns of the stars.

He appointed the year, marked off divisions and set up three stars each for the 12 months. Okay? So he's basically building a calendar. The idea here is that all these were bureaucratic inventions in Samaria in order to better govern the people. Right? What this myth is doing, the Ammonite List 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 Marduk 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 were invented to serve the gods before we understood that the gods served us, helped us or loved us.

And now, humans become slaves to the gods. Beneath the celestial parts whose floor I made firm, I will build a house to be my luxurious abode. 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 Eo. He counsels that which he had pondered 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. And the gods, by the way, are called the Anunnaki. Okay? That's why there are conspiracy theories on the internet who say that we were invented by the Anunnaki. All right. So, what Marduk does is that he takes his enemy, Tingu, and then he kills him and then from his blood, he will create mankind.

Okay? They bound him, holding him before Eo. 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, what's really interesting for us to remember is that throughout this poem, Marduk has different names, Biel, 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 story. Okay? All right. After the wise Eel had created mankind and imposed the service of the gods upon them, that task is beyond comprehension for Nimrod had performed the creation with the skill of Marduk. King Marduk 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 Anu and appointed them as a guard.

Okay? So now, he's gonna create this hierarchy. So yes, all humans are slaves but there's some humans who are better slaves than other humans. Okay? And that's what explains the hierarchy. So as you can see, in the Middle Age, 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. 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 already have what you 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 Marduk heard this, he beamed as brightly as the light of day. Build Babylon the task you have sought. Let bricks for it be molded and raise the shrine. The Anunnaki wield the pick. 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 is the mandate of heaven. Okay. And 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. 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 mandate 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 Mesopotamia. The first is the Anemone Lash. The second is something called the Epic of Gilgamesh. As you can see, Gilgamesh, he is a giant human. He's a king. He's considered the first king of Uruk. Okay? And he's so big that a lion is his pet.

Okay?

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 Enkidu from clay. Okay? And this is very similar to the story of Adam in the Bible. Enkidu is like an animal but then Gilgamesh sends a prostitute to seduce him and then becomes civilized. And now Enkidu and Gilgamesh 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 these divine beings. They go kill the protector of the forest. 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 and they decide that one of them must die.

So they kill Enkidu. When Enkidu dies Gilgamesh 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 Gilgamesh 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 to remember forever. Celebrate forever. So the irony is that even though Gilgamesh failed in his quest he ultimately succeeded in his mission because we have his epic and so we're able to celebrate him even today. Okay? So it's a story that is being told. The question now is why is this 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 the people will celebrate you and remember you forever and immortalize you in writing. Okay? That's a theory. All right. But ultimately Gilgamesh is a bureaucratic creation and I'm gonna 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. 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 ancestor, descendant, right? You are his descendant therefore you should go fight a lion.

Okay? And that's how you justify your kingship through these acts of heroism that's related 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. So, Gilgamesh was basically different heroes. One king comes to dominate a region. 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 to control the people and the king. Okay? The major message is the king must serve the people and then the priests control the king. But what will happen is that these different bureaucratic factors will fight each other and they will have different versions of the story. Okay? The morality and messaging changes. Okay? As different bureaucratic priests take power. Okay?

The king must learn humility. So, this is a hard thing to understand but it's really important for us to understand otherwise you cannot understand the Bible and other literary creations. 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 Middlebury and they all have their own local legends. Okay? So, in these places something happened that captured the imagination of all the students. So, Ohio State University, Michael James gets drunk the night before examination and he still manages to pass it and the students are like that's a great story. Okay? What happens over time is that because it's a great story as a story is told more and more it 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, the only way to keep the 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 vomited on the professor. He threw up on the professor. The professor could not do anything because James had got 100 on the exam. Okay? Alright? So, human beings just do this naturally. If something happens they think it's interesting it becomes a legend it becomes a story. Okay? And this happens everywhere. So, Connecticut College a football player scores a winning touchdown.

It's exaggerated. The guy scores a touchdown every game and then even more exaggerated the guy hits a home run to help his team win the championship and then later that day he scores a touchdown to win another. Okay? So, it becomes more exaggerated. And then let's look at the last one. At Middlebury College Pat Jack drives to Canada to 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 have color detail to it. Pat Jack drove to Canada and accidentally pissed on a sleeping bear. Okay? He ran up a tree by his pants and forest rangers had to come rescue him. Okay? Alright? 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? 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 a sleeping bear just so he could knock down the bear with one punch. Okay? So, it becomes even more exaggerated it becomes consolidated. Just as the epic of Gilgamesh. Okay? But then what happens is the bearcrats take over. Okay? The people in charge take over and they have to change the story in order to better control people. All of this process. So, let's look at three. All right. You add just 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 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 to write full time. Okay? So, this is seemingly the primacy of writers over athletes. Okay? The smart over the brave. And the third is the bear ate him. Okay? So, he punched the bear and the bear decides to eat him which is like don't be a stupid athlete. Okay? 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. San Guan Yan Yi Romance of Three Kingdoms COG Right? Journey to the West Shui Hu Zhuan Right? Bandits 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 read and brainwash them. Okay? Does that make sense? Okay, so that's a process of civilization. All right. So, another example is Hyasal's Theogony. And he's talking about Greek mythology. Okay? Greek religion. So, the process goes like this. At first Gaea who's like the mother goddess in chaos they give birth to the gods. Gaea marries one of these gods Uranus. Okay? And they give birth together to twelve titans. But 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 Cronus kills Uranus. Okay? Then Uranus marries Rhea and now Cronus is king but he's afraid that his children will eventually rebel against him just like he rebelled against his mother therefore he eats all his children.

Rhea the mother is upset about this so she decides I'm gonna give birth to Zeus in secret. So, she runs off to an island 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 Cronus he becomes cut bearer to Cronus 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, Sargon of Akkad who founded the Akkadian Empire Romulus and Remus who founded Rome King David who founded Israel and Genghis 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 is the animistic layer. Okay? So, different gods come together and they create humans. The second layer is when Cronus rebels against Uranus and establishes the kingship. Okay? Right? The third layer is this. If you're a 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 political factions behind him. But often what happens is that this foreign mercenary is so talented that he's able to build a political faction to overthrow the king and become king himself because he's really talented. This is true for Genghis Khan. This is true for King David of Israel. This is true for Sargon of Akkad.

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 he becomes 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 the secret son of the king. Okay? And that's why you have these stories. To legitimize the king. Alright. So again 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 once one prince or one of the sons decides you know what I'm going to form my own political faction.

I'm going to 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 the warlord dies his son relies on a mercenary as general. Mercenary is often a foreigner and of low birth. Mercenary slays the warlord and makes himself king. 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 they are. 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. That's literally what's happening. Okay? So we will look at one last story to show you how this writing process works.

Remember they invent writing in order to basically gaslight the people. So even though Samaria Mesopotamia 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 pastoral. Meaning it's you're raising animals sheeps, goats you're going all over the place. Okay? So there are two different types of agriculture. The first form is you are sanitary. You just stay in 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 feeding your sheep and your goats. Okay? If you're a king or if you're a priest if you're a bureaucrat do you prefer agricultural people or pastoral people? Obviously agriculture. Why? Because it's easier to control them. So what they do

now is they're going to create these mythologies to convince people to give up the free happy lifestyle of pastoralists and become an enslaved farmer. Okay? Alright? 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 I'm the better one the grain says no I'm the better one. Okay? So they have this debate. The sheep says this and king of the gods made me descend from the holy place my most precious place all the yarns about Otu the splendor of kingship belong to me second king of the mountain embosses the king's emblems and puts his emblems 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 the sustenance of the workers in the field

is mine the water skin of cool water and the sandals are mine sweet oil the fragrance of the gods mixed oil pressed 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 your soldiers so I'm great in the gown my clothes are white wool the king rejoices on his throne my clothing um is worn by the king himself is that proof that I'm the greatest? my body glistens on the flesh of the great gods after purification priest incarnation priest and the babe priest have dressed themselves in me for my holy lustration I walk with them to my holy meal okay? so the priest when they make sacrifices they sacrifice the sheep the sheep sacrifice grain they sacrifice sheep okay? but your hero plowshield binding and shops of tools that can be utterly destroyed what can you put against me?

and 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 Nikasha 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 herdsman with his cudgel even when they look out for you from the open country to the hidden places your fears are not removed from you fangs snakes and bandits the creatures of the desert want your life on the high plain 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 gentle winds blow through the city and strong winds scatter I stand 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 endowments of shepherding make up your properties what can you put against me and to me what you can reply okay what grain 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 powerful 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 create these stories these mythologies in order to brainwash people out of their freedom out of their independence okay and that's why we have writing that's why they invented writing okay does that make sense to you guys alright any questions

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

that's right so they that's right yeah

but to be honest like are there any connections between the their distance and how they made all of this myth and their methodologies of creating the gods okay

that's a really good question so it's almost impossible for us to answer how much they influence each other okay because even if they were not in contact with each other they would still come up in order to justify their hierarchy okay does that make sense so myth making is 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 and in this valley civilization and that's why I create the pyramids right okay if I'm in Mesopotamia I need to prove that I'm superior that's why I create the zero gods and the epic of Gilamash all right so the actual process 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 whatever influence that you have you still also have 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 cultures aren't caught up with each other but ultimately at the end of the day what 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 and they have to address local needs as well okay does that make sense yes okay

and I have another question is that I don't know how familiar you are with the Chinese culture but in our Chinese culture there is a god who created the earth like his name is Pangu like there is this mythology 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 in Egyptians that the creator is this female character so in your opinion like do you think there is like what is the why is this different between okay

so it's hard for us to say what the original myth was okay the process is this in the very beginning all myths all gods should be asexual okay so they are almost they are either non -sexual like it's not male or female or they are both male and female okay because in all traditions the god has to be a balance of forces right so the male force and the female force that's why we have yin 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 Pengu was a female character but over time they will change it to a male character alright it's almost impossible for us to go back and um rebuild or reimagine what it was like originally okay okay thank you alright okay any more questions guys okay great so that makes

sense and next class 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 human history the major conquerors were people from the steps okay so Genghis Khan came from the steps so we'll be discussing them next class okay alright thank you