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| Re: Western Civilization... and its place in the world -- Federal Farmer | Post Reply |  |
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Posted by: crossbowman 05/13/2008, 00:10:13  (About author)
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First, the advent of writing itself created no "revolution" at the time. The earliest writing was simply a way for the powerful to keep records of who owed them what, what rules they wished to impose, what agreements they wished to make, etc. It helped them organize and solidify their power - but they were powerful before it arrived. In fact, it came into existence because they were already powerful and needed that "tool". The true first basis of the elite was simple force. People in all cultures, including the hunter-gathererers, have always gathered aound someone they saw as charismatic or powerful, the kind they figured would enhance their own prospects if they followed him. Prior to the advent of agriculture, this didn't mean much - the influential person led his tribe, and that was the extent of his power. If he marshalled his power against another tribe, the threatened tribe would either beat him or, if defeated, head off for safer territory. The advent of agriculture changed that equation. You could no longer simply walk away because to do so meant abandoning your crops, and herds made tempting targets for raiding. If someone threatened you and you didn't have the power to fight him off, you had to buy him off - or pay some other powerful person to keep him off your back. The recipient of your payment and his followers gained wealth, you essentially became his "subject", and he used your payments to increase his strength and threaten - or potect - others in turn. Leaders fought each other for such subjects, increasing their own wealth by defeating other leaders and absorbing their subjects - and some eventually grew to the point that they needed some sort of record-keeping system to keep track of who owed them and what promises they'd made. THEN came writing. Even then, writing wasn't about control - it was about organization. Spears were about control. If the leader's men came to collect your tax twice, it didn't matter that some tablet somewhere proved you'd already paid once. You paid them twice 'cause they had the spears and the numbers to wipe you out if you didn't, and they had orders they weren't about to ignore just on your say-so, and neither they nor you could even read the tablet assuming the clerks let either of you get within a hundred yards of the thing. The wise ruler tried to avoid that, lest his subjects decide that hitting the road was healthier than starving on your own farm. However, if he needed a little extra cash, then the records "said" whatever he commanded that they say - and of course whoever actually did the reading and writing could likewise doctor the records to gain a little for themselves. Pity the poor farmer. On the other hand, so long as you were paying protection money to one "ruler", he had an incentive to keep you healthy and paying. Thus, the ruler would use his force to try to keep you safe from competition - not just other rulers, but bandits and raiders as well. The early foundations of the modern state, law, and policing lay in what amounts to a primitive protection racket. "Robbins’s claim fails because the Hobbs Act does not apply when the National Government is the intended beneficiary of the allegedly extortionate acts." WILKIE ET AL. v. ROBBINS. David H. Souter, Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
with John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy,
Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer, and Samuel Alito concurring. |
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