A WARNING LABEL FOR HISTORY BOOKS

by Ray Jason

“Warning: The Historian General has determined that most of the information in this book is FALSE.  This is not accidental.  This is deliberate.”

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The societal operating system that almost all history textbooks praise and defend - which we call Civilization - should actually be mocked and replaced. About 10,000 years ago it destroyed the previous template for human organization which was Tribal Living. 

That prior system existed for over a million years as Homo Habilis became Homo Erectus and then Homo Sapiens.  During that immense span of time, most people lived sustainably and peaceably.  Sometimes there were skirmishes involving territorial boundaries, but there was no expansionist warfare.  There were no Tribal Imperialists seeking to rule the world.

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In what was known as the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East a system that I call Conquest Agriculture, swiftly replaced hunting and gathering as the dominant method of procuring food.  The impact of mono-crops was so destructive, that after only a few hundred years the area could more appropriately be called the Desolate Crescent, and the leading crops would be dust and rocks.

The term “Conquest Agriculture” is tragically accurate because in order to cultivate their single crop, these agriculturists decimated all of the other plants and animals that inhabited that parcel of land.  This was the birth of the false belief in the human psyche that the Earth is here for our species to dominate and harvest.    

Hunter-gatherers viewed their world as a WEB in which every strand was important to the integrity of the Community of Life.  This was a highly stabilizing worldview that might be summarized with the phrase “Harm thy neighbor and harm thyself.”  But the Neolithic farmer-herders saw the geometry of Life as a PYRAMID with Humanity as the apex and all other life forms as subservient.  The operative phrase in this system might be “As the zenith of creation we can do whatever we please with the planet and its riches.”

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This Agricultural Revolution introduced some powerful and disastrous concepts into human social organization.  Suddenly “hierarchy” appears with its system of social stratification.  Instead of the widespread equality that characterizes tribal groups, the population is now divided into those who rule and those who are ruled.

 The dominators do so under the banners of State and Church.  Almost overnight, the human race, which had flourished for a million years, is suddenly cursed with Government and Religion.  And the hand-maiden of hierarchy - Patriarchy - also rears its ignoble head at this historical moment.  Almost all of the controllers were male.   

Division of labor also enters the cultural paradigm.  The Paleolithic tribes-people were extremely self-reliant due to their ability to hunt and gather their food.  The Neolithic ruling class almost immediately recognized that such self-sufficiency undermined their ability to wield totalitarian control.  So specialization was imposed via division of labor.  One group tilled the fields, another wove the baskets, and another fought the wars of conquest.  Dependency was imposed which led to a few rulers at the top and a vast underclass of serfs.

This inequality was utterly staggering when contrasted with the egalitarian hunter-gatherer model which had been the human social template for a million years.  Initially this disparity was imposed through brute force.  “I am the Pharaoh, King, Caesar, Emperor, etc, and my wish is your command.”  Such harsh domination was underpinned by the myth that these human rulers were either direct emissaries of the gods or actual gods themselves.

Most of the time, the popes and mullahs were co-conspirators with the kings and ayatollahs in this massive subjugation of humanity. But there were also eras when the religious dictators gained ascendancy.  Thus there would be Holy Roman Empires or Grand Caliphates.

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With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the difficult living situation of the vast underclass became even more disastrous.  Horrific working conditions and extremely long hours reduced much of humanity to indoor slaves.  Instead of toiling hopelessly on outdoor plantations, these new industrial serfs labored hopelessly in dark, loud and dangerous factories.

The American and French Revolutions seemed to offer a glimmer of hope for the oppressed masses in the late 18^th century.  But the democratic ideals of equality and brotherhood were short-lived. Soon the most ruthless elements of society managed to recapture most of the power positions. 

The Socialist Revolutions of the 20^th century also proved to be false utopias.  It wasn’t long until the most vicious “leaders” proved that they were “more equal than others.”  The various failed social experiments of that era led to hundreds of millions of unnecessary deaths by war and genocide in the 20^th Century.

And conditions have continued to degenerate in the early 21st Century.  The income disparity between the tiny wealthy upper class and the enormous poor underclass has become astronomical and obscene.  Only a few hundred families own about half of the wealth of the planet. 

And the methods that the Ruling Elites now use to subjugate most of the world are more subtle and effective than ever before.  Their ability to shape public opinion through mass media and almost invisible public relations is astonishing.  The great quote by Goethe comes to mind in this regard: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

Their surveillance capabilities, that allow them to spy on everyday citizens, are so omnipotent that they would astound George Orwell.  And the oligarchs have gained further leverage through their ability to essentially buy elections with their campaign contributions.  Their methods are so insidious and unrelenting that I feel no remorse when I describe them as The Malignant Overlords.

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By this point in this essay I suspect that some of you are a bit taken aback by my analysis.  That is completely understandable. Modern Industro-Techno Civilization is ceaselessly praised, but there is an unwritten rule that does not permit people to look deeply at its actual consequences and criticize its impact on the world.  Daniel Quinn, who is one of the most insightful writers on the reality of Civilization, argues convincingly that our Mother Culture insists that there is only one right way to live and that advanced Civilization is that one way.

To demonstrate how unexamined the downside of Industro-Techno Civilization is, I will now provide you a bullet point list of problems that plague our modern way of life that do not exist in Tribal Societies.    

·        Slavery

·        Torture

·        Genocide

·        Insanity

·        Human Sacrifice

·        Plagues

·        Loneliness

·        Obesity

·        Homicidal Dictators

·        Industrial War

·        Laws

·        Profits Over People

·        Asylums

·        Lawyers

·        Habitat Destruction

·        Heart Attacks

·        Crusades

·        Cancer

·        Atomic Bombs

·        Inquisitions

·        Witch-hunts

·        Poverty

·        Diseases of Civilization

·        Drones

·        Suicide Bombers

·        Taxes

·        Alzheimer’s Disease

·        Drug Addiction

·        Robot Soldiers

·        Bankers

·        Missionaries

·        Junk Food

·        Overpopulation

·        Famine

·        Sexual Deviancy

·        Compulsive Consumption

·        Sweatshops

·        Disparity of Wealth

·        Serial Killers Extinction of Species

·        Child Molesters

Now that is one profoundly disturbing list.  For someone like me, who has been studying the downside of Civilization for many years, it is an unsettling catalog.  But for most people, who are shielded from any discussion of the problems of our societal operating system, it is a deeply alarming revelation.  To better understand just how taboo it is in our society to question the merits of our modern way of life, consider this evidence.

You will never see the nightly news teleprompter readers investigate whether civilization is good or bad for us.  You will never hear a sermon exclaiming that humans are not the Chosen Ones destined to rule over all else on Earth.  You will never read newspaper editorials urging the dismantling of modern civilization in order to save the planet and all of its creatures.

                                             

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The gatekeepers do not want you pondering whether Civilization is the solution for most of the world’s problems or whether it is the CAUSE of them.  They want you to obediently watch your TVs.  They want you to shop endlessly.  And they want you to dutifully vote in meaningless elections.  The last thing that they want you to do is to question whether even a hundred Mozarts can justify a single mushroom cloud.