Civilization? FEH.

David O' Bedlam (thedavid@clark.net)
1 Nov 1996 11:17:20 GMT

Joshua Fruhlinger <jfruh@uclink4.berkeley.edu> wrote:
[...]

>On the other hand, your point about grain storehouses is interesting.
>Perhaps civilization arises where there is need for large scale
>organization? (i.e. Egypt's tricky flood system, Sumer's large-scale
>irrigation works.)

I'd wager you've got that backwards: the climates gave the powerhungry
in Egypt and Sumer had a hard row to hoe -- as if Nature herself hated
the idea of costly courts, bloated bureaucracies and arrogant armies--
so the Nilotic and Mespotamian "nobles" just tried harder with intense
dedication to suborn the Earth and its people to their wills. Thus the
ponderous weight of the sword-wielders and stylus-pushers concentrated
their areas' available resources into creating and building a "System"
that reinforced their tyrannical egos -- not the other way around. Had
there been no "Mighty Lords" there would've been no call for big farms
or complicated waterworks or organized religion or any of that shit we
recognize as "civilized" -- as those few people who'd happened to live
in those inhospitable valleys would have simply wandered on to locales
where the living was easier once it became obvious that these areas we
speak of pretty much sucked as permanent "homelands."

The beginnings of "civilization" were to due to the arrogant cowardice
of the area's lawdly despots -- who should have lead their people into
nicer places to live instead of forcing them at spear-point to prop up
their comic-book pretensions with tremendous and unneccessary efforts.
Those "Mighty Lords" (like ours) were implacable brats -- whose "major
achievements" were basely inhumane and merit only revulsion. There are
no building projects worth a thousand human lives, nor can there be.

'TheDavid'

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if i had enough emotion | This Post Copyright (C) 1996 By TheDavid, UnLtd. 

IF I HAD ENOUGH EMOTION |  http://www.clark.net/pub/thedavid/trythis.html

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