IN YESTERDAY'S POST I described the good old days—our natural human years as hunter gatherers in Eden, before the agricultural revolution.
In those days, in the time before kings and priests, we lived in community as the social creatures we are.
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We took care of each other.
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We shared our wealth, and the work which produced it.
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And we carefully guarded our liberty—especially from the kind of freeloader who accumulates a community's wealth and power at the expense of his friends and neighbors.
But then something went wrong.
We lost our heritage.
A handful of royalty—call them kings, or dictators, or just freeloaders—learned how to manipulate large numbers of people through the use of economics, religion, and power.
They managed to create a situation in which we were tricked into working very hard, and into turning much of the wealth we created over to them.
We wandered in the wilderness of kings and priests for almost twelve thousand years.
We broke free a few times, in various places, but never for long.
Then, recently by historical standards, we mounted a radical experiment—a kind of return to our heritage of freedom, sharing, and equality.
The modern democracy.
The United States was something of a pioneer in this endeavor.
We overthrew the trappings of royalty, we put a stop to state religion.
The powerful free loaders learned their lesson.
They realized that we still had those hunter gatherer instincts.
They learned that we still had the desire to overthrow anyone with too much power or anyone who took more than their fair share.
And they decided they were safer if we didn't realize what they were up to.
They dropped the trappings of royalty.
But they didn't go away.
They still know how to manipulate.
They do it now with fake news stations, designed to manipulate beliefs instead of spreading the truth.
They do it with contributions to political campaigns and enormous budgets for lobbyists.
They do it with twisted religious doctrines, designed to whip up our emotions and give us practice in irrational thought.
But most of all, they do it by misdirection.
I'll explain that next time...
