Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #6 - Elite Overproduction and the Bronze Age Collapse

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #6 - Elite Overproduction and the Bronze Age Collapse

Okay, so today we will discuss the Bronze Age collapse. I want to paint you a picture of the world in about 1200 BC. Okay, about, so in this world, the center of this world is what we call Mycenae in Greece. Across from the Maecene in Greece, across the Aegean, across the Aegean Sea, okay? This is the Aegean, is what we call Anatolia. Today we refer to Anatolia as Turkey, okay? And in the Anatolia, the Haight Empire rules Anatolia. Further south is a place called Canine.

Canine is important when we do the Bible, because that is the birthplace of the Israelite. Israelites. So, Canaan today is what we refer to as Lebanon, Syria, and Israel today. Kahnon is a province of the Egyptian Empire. So this is Egypt. Okay? Over here, it's a place called Mesopotamia. And we today call Mesopotamia, and we today call Mesopotamia Iraq. Over here, Here is today what we call Iran.

Back then, it was basically Persia. Over here is Afghanistan. The next to Afghanistan is India. And of course, remember, these are the steps. So for Mason and Greece, you also had the Mediterranean. And over here are the islands of Cyprus and Crete. And then over here is a place called Liberia, and over here is Britain.

So this is a map of the world in 1200 BC. And what's really important for you to recognize about this world is it's interconnected, meaning that they are trading and communicating with each other. This is what we call the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age. And why is it called the Bronze Age? because they're trading basically bronze during this period. Back then, bronze is like oil today.

It is the basis for the economy, the very structure of their economy. Bronze is an alloy made of copper and tin. Copper and tin, you have to mine, okay? And only a few places will have these resources. So, tin is found in Britain, in Iberia, in Anatolia, in Afghanistan. Okay? Popper is mainly found in Cyprus and Crete and also in Anatolia. Now, meaning, and what this means is in order to make bronze, you basically have to trade with

the entire world okay so India this world the trading would go as far as from India to Britain even China over here was part of this world but not to the degree as these other places okay in this world there are different ways that you can profit or make money okay the first eat the first way is mining. So basically extracting resources, tin and copper in order to make bronze. Second way is industry manufacturing, right? So turning, so making bronze from tin and copper,

and then turning bronze into weapons, into pottery, to be sold elsewhere. The third way you can make money is by what? trading right so in this world if you look at this map who basically profit the most from trading if you look at this map who would make the most money from trading this area right does that make sense because it is the center of the world you have to pass through this world in order to access everywhere else okay and this place over here you look at the map it becomes the center of the world because this place

becomes the logistics hub of the world, right? To get to anywhere, you have to pass through this place, and so this place can basically collect tolls, right? This place is called what? Do you guys know? To me? Yeah, it's the toll gate of the world, right? You have to pass through this place in order to access other places. Therefore, this place is very wealthy.

This place, can you guess what this place is called? You guys, can you guys guess? Troy. Have you heard of the Trojan War? Okay, we will do the Iliad. Next semester, we will discuss the Iliad next class, but I want you to understand this place is called Troy. And because this place is so important,

for centuries, they've been fighting wars over this place, because it's really the center of the universe, right? If you can control this place, you become very wealthy because everyone has passed through you. You can collect tolls. You can trade, okay? Does that make sense? And the last way you can make money off this world is what? What's the last way in which you can make a lot of money in this world?

You can do it through mining, industry, trading. What else can you do to make money? Piracy, right? Does that make sense? Steel. piracy. So when we read the Elyat, what you will discover is the Greeks who attacked Troy,

they were basically pirates. Troy made a lot of money of trading, and pirates went to steal a lot of their resources and well. Does it make sense? So the main point is that this world was interconnected. It was a globalized world. We call this globalization. For the same time, it was very chaotic, it was very dynamic, okay?

They traded with each other, but they also fought wars against each other. Does it make sense? And these places in the center of the universe, Mycena in Greece became very wealthy because they traded and they engaged in piracy. The high types became very wealthy. Egypt became very wealthy, okay? because they were the center of the universe. But a couple of decades later, this entire world collapsed.

This world disappeared, meaning that my city in Greece was destroyed. It was completely burned down, and they lost about a quarter of their population. The Haighted Empire destroyed. And even though Kainan disappeared, and even though Egypt was not destroyed, it ceased to be a hegemont, it ceased to be a global power, and a few decades later,

they were conquered by outside powers. Okay? After 1200 BC, Egypt ceased to be a power. So this is what we call the Bronze Age collapse. And for the decades, scholars have been trying to figure out what happened. Why is it that in 1200 BCE, this world was wolfy, it was interconnected, and then a few decades later, it all disappeared, it collapsed. And that's a great mystery that no one has been able to solve.

So let me tell you what we know. We know that what caused this collapse are what we call the Sea peoples. And we know because Egypt has written records of battling the sea peoples. So basically over the course of few decades, people were coming in from the West and attacking Egypt, okay? This was not one people, this was a series of different peoples attacking Egypt from the sea. And Egypt had to spend decades in order to repulse. repulsed the sea peoples. What we know is the sea peoples, whoever they were, they didn't destroy Egypt, but they did destroy the Haightites and they did destroy the

Micein in Greece. So and what we figure, what we know is the sea people, they were basically a combination of pirates and also refugees. These people attacked Egypt because Egypt was the breadbasket of the world. That's where all the food was. So they were attacking Egypt for the food. Okay? These are people who are hungry. They join with pirates had ships and they were trying to take over Egypt together. They destroyed Macedia and Greece. They destroyed the high tides and they failed to destroy Greece. They were stopped. They were stopped in Egypt. Okay. So another question then is what's driving this population movement from west to east? That's a great mystery. And over the past few decades, different solutions, different ideas have been proposed.

Before we thought it must have been an invasion. So the idea is that what's happening is you had people from the north of Europe invade in Greece, which drove them westward. Okay, that's the first idea that we had, but we have not found any evidence to this, we have not found any evidence this is the case, okay? So even though this was one of the first theories, there's actually no evidence to support this.

Second theory that we had is basically a natural disaster. So the idea is maybe there was a volcanic explosion somewhere, okay? And this caused the weather to change. And now farmers could no longer feed themselves, so then they start to move westwards and attack Egypt, okay? There's a second theory. And there's more evidence for this, but the theory that we have today is a perfect storm, okay?

Or a systems collapse. And the idea here is that it was not one thing in one year that caused this system to collapse. it was a series of events over decades. Okay? And these three major events are natural disasters, or so basically earthquakes. So we have archaeological evidence

that there is a series of earthquakes in this region at this time, which destabilized the region, okay? So earthquakes happen. We also have evidence of climate change. Okay, so the weather became cooler over the weather over the course of this period, which meant that it was harder to grow crops. Okay? And we also have evidence of eternal revolt, okay? Meaning that people rebel against the elite overfrew kings and there was a lot of war and violence, okay?

So the theory that we have today is what caused the bronze age collapse was a perfect storm, basically a multiple factors which led to systems collapse. Okay, does that make sense, guys? Any questions so far? Any questions so far? Are we clear? All right. So one thing that you have made it, you, that you have made notice in this class is that

I have a very different understanding of history than other people, okay? So I happen to disagree with this theory of the perfect storm, even though it is the scholarly consensus. census. All right? So I want to explain to you today my theory of what happened. All right. So the first thing you need to understand is this system collapse even though it was traumatic

for Europe. It is not unique in human history. This sort of stuff has happened before, okay? So if we go over here to North America, to the Mayas, okay, so the Maya civilization existed in Central America. Guatemala, basically. And so we find a similar pattern where in about 200 AD, in the year 200, their civilization started to explode, okay?

It started to increase. And reach its peak at about 900 AD. In the year 900, its civilization was overplace in Central America. But then after 900, it went all the way down, okay? So about 30 years time by 1,200, they're basically their entire civilization almost collapsed. So it's a very similar pattern to what's happening in the Bronze Age. So the question then is, why does this happen? All right?

And so to understand this, I am going to present you with a new theory that we will use a lot in this class. So I want you to understand this theory, okay? But it comes from a historian by the name of Peter Turchin. Peter Turchin. Who's a historian? He's American, but he came from Russia. He's basically Russian American. And he has a theory called elite overproduction.

And elite overproduction, the theory is very interesting because it's arguing against the way we traditionally understand why society's collapse. So the way we usually understand why society's collapse is we get up in Karl Marx. And basically what Karl Marx says is eventually your society collapses because the people revolt, okay? So basically people rebellion.

So in other words, Karl Marx believes that society collapses because it is a bottom-up process. It's a bottom-up process. If you treat workers badly, they will stop working. If you're forcing the work, they will go on strike. If you force them to work again, they will fight against you. They will rebel, okay? A worker revolution.

That's what Karl Marx argues. And Peter Turchin says, okay, that's a really interesting theory. But if you look at the historical data, if you look at the evidence, the problem is in the bottom. If you look at what society's collapse, it's not because of the people rebelling, it's because there's infighting among the elite. Okay?

So there's civil war among the elite. Doesn't make sense. That's his theory. It's a problem with society isn't that you, there's too many poor people, the problem is there are too many rich people. That's the real problem. And that's why society is collapse.

All right. All right, so let me explain to you this theory slowly, okay? All right. Elite overproduction. All right. So, in this world about 12 hundred BC, we have something called a permanent hereditary elite, permanent, hereditary elite. Permanent just means they're always there, okay?

Hereditary means they pass on their status. and their privilege and their wealth to the children. And this is new in human history, because before there was an elite, but they were not permanent, meaning they could be changed over time. And they didn't pass their privileges on to their children. Everyone had to earn their privilege and power.

So the elite was constantly shifting in society. But now in about the year 1,200 BC, you had a, permanent territory elite. When you have that, you have three advantages. What the elite gives society are three major advantages. The first major advantage is the idea of organization. Basically think of the elite as your brain, as society's brain. They can help orientate resources, okay?

That's good for war. If you find an enemy, you need an elite to lead you into battle, okay? It's also good for public works. Okay, so think of the pyramids in Egypt, in the Great War of China, right? You need an elite to organize your resources in order to create public works that benefit all society. So the main thing here would be irrigation, right? So you need elite in order to have irrigation. So that's the first major benefit of having a permanent territory elite.

Second major advantage is because you have better organization, you have more wealth. So it becomes wealthier if you have a permanent elite. People work harder. And even though there's more inequality, inequality also forces people to work harder. Does that make sense? Okay? And because you have these two things, organization and wealth, you also have scale. And what scale basically means is your population now can move up.

Before in the egalitarian society, when you didn't have a permanent elite, at most society could reach about 10,000 people. But now when you have a permanent elite, you can reach about a million people. So now you can scale up. So these are three major advantages to having an elite, okay? But there's a problem with having an elite. And the problem is they engage something called rent-seeking behavior. All right?

I want you guys to remember this term rent-seeking behavior, which is very important for our class. So what does this mean? It means basically, to think of a landlord, right? A landlord doesn't really do anything, but a landlord has land. It can rent to you, the farmer, in exchange, you give me a share of your crops. Right? So I don't do anything, but because I have land, I can rent it out to you.

Right? It turns out the elite mainly make their money through rent, seeking behavior. So let me give you another example of rent-seeking behavior. All of you want to go to university, right? Why do you want to go to university? What's your purpose? What's your purpose in going to university? Be honest. It's to get the degree, right? Okay? The degree. Okay? And the degree is your ticket to success in society, okay? You believe that when you go to university you are getting a ticket the degree in order to access social mobility okay to access wealth and society in other words the universities are charging you

rent okay so the degree is basically rent doesn't make sense okay now some of you may say wait that's wrong because I'm going to university to learn right it's about learning well guess what when you actually go to university you're gonna discover they don't actually teach you that much okay they don't have to teach you that much and the reason why is you're stuck paying the rent you need the degree right so you don't have to actually teach you anything you have to come to class anyway doesn't make sense the same thing for the school where in order to get to university you have to go through this high school so you're here paying tuition and you're paying rent doesn't make sense you're not here in a school to learn

you're here in school to get the degree so you can access university and get that degree. Okay? And all this process, all you're doing is paying rent, right? So if you are, if you have a school, you can charge full rent. Just as if you're a landlord, you can charge people rent for renting your room or real estate property. Okay? Does that make sense? This is what we call rent seeking behavior. Now, you're like, okay, well, This kind of sucks, okay? And it does suck, but what keeps the system together is the idea of a social contract. Basically, the idea of social contract is yes, we need elite, we know we are charging you rent and we know this sucks for you, the people, but we have a contract. So as the elite, I'm obligated to help society. Okay, so the way they help society is, you know, the way they help society is, by giving back to society.

So what the elite do throughout society in the past is they organized public feasts, and also public temples. So in today's society, you know, like the parks, the schools, they're built by the government, right? But back then, they didn't have a government that the elites who were responsible for building temples, for building, for holding public,

like fees okay so this this idea of a social contract okay and the reason why you need a social contract is because if you don't have a social contract and you just charge rent people will leave it doesn't make sense okay so in this world it's very chaotic but there are different places there are different social organizations you can go to so you are in Egypt and you don't really like Egypt guess what you can go to Mesopotamia. So these cities were in competition with each other

for people, because people provided labor and resources, okay? Does that make sense? All right? So this is how it usually works, but over time, this system will break down. This system will break down. And it's because of red-seeking behavior, okay? So the first issue is this.

With rent-seeking behavior, you create something called debt. So I'm a landlord and you are paying me rent in order to use my land, right? And that rent is usually a portion of your crops, okay? So it doesn't make sense, maybe 10% of your crops. But let's just say, for example, it's a bad year, it doesn't rain, okay?

And you don't have any crops to pay me rent. So what do you do? You're supposed to pay me a rent, but you don't have the money, so what do you do? No, that comes later. What do you do first? Exactly, thank you. Yes, okay?

So the first thing that happens is boring, okay? You basically go into debt, okay? So you promise to pay me double in the next year. And I'm like, okay, fine, right? But you get unlucky in the next year, it's also a bad year. And so for five years in a row, you are in debt.

The problem with debt is this, something called compound interest, okay? Meaning like over time, the debt becomes so large, there's no way you can pay it off. If you can't pay it off, what happens now? Okay, good, yeah, so the idea is debt slavery, okay? So if you can't pay me back,

you become my slave, okay? You promise me that your children will work for me for free, okay? And so debt slavery becomes the natural product of rent-sicking behavior. Does that make sense? Over time, you're always going to have a percentage of your population who go into debt slavery. And this creates a lot of instability in society because obviously they'll either want to run away or they want to rebel.

Does it make sense? The other problem is elite overproductive. An idea here is everyone wants to be the renter, right? Everyone wants to be the landlord, right? But there's only so much land. So now people are competing for the power to charge rent. Doesn't make sense? Okay?

So over time, in any society, as a population increased, As the population increases, the number of people who go into that slavery increase, and therefore people at the bottom are very angry. But at the same time, the elite, the number go up, but there's only a set amount of land, and therefore they have to fight over the land. Okay? Doesn't make sense. And so eventually what happens is the society,

goes into war, okay? As the elite fight each other for the right to charge rent. Doesn't make sense. And so the main message of elite production is, unless you can control the amount, the number of the elite in society, your society must collapse. Doesn't make sense. It must collapse because you have too many people fighting for too little power. it must collapse.

So historically, what are ways you, what are things you can do to control the elite? What are things you can do to control the number of the elite? Do you mean? Kill the elite? Okay. So, but then where does the property go? Okay, so, okay, so one possible thing you can do

is the idea of land redistribution. Okay? So historically, this is one mechanism you can use to control the growth of the elite. And this is how kings came into power. So most societies have an elite, and then one person from the elite said, listen, this society is not working, let me redistribute the land and cancel debt in order for our society to keep on going, okay? And this person became the king.

So that's one possible solution, okay? What's another possible solution? Excuse me? So you can also have a civil war, okay? Civil war, okay? The elite can fight amongst themselves and whoever wins gets everything, okay? So it's the second possible solution. What's another possible solution?

What's another possible solution? Okay, empire building, right? Does that make sense? Empire building. In other words, let's not fight amongst ourselves, let's go and conquer new territory. It doesn't make sense. So because you have a permanent territory elite, okay? Over time, they're going to reach a mass, too many people. We have too many elite, you have to resolve this issue through three ways, okay? The first thing you can do is kill

the elite and redistribute the land. That's what a king does. Secondly you can do is have a civil war. Okay? The third thing you can do is create an empire. But these three solutions by themselves are also unstable, okay? Because language distribution is basically a revolution, right? So war is war. Empire building is also war. Does that make sense?

So no matter how you do these things, you're always going to create instability. eventually your empire, your society will collapse. Doesn't make sense. Alright? So let me give you another example of how this works to clarify for you, okay? So there's a book called Capital in the 21st century by Thomas Piccany. Thomas Piccadie is a French economist, and this is a very famous book that's been recently published. published. And in the book, he looked at the past 100 years of economic growth. And when he

discovered that over time is the financial economy grows faster than the real economy. Capital grows faster than manufacturing. Okay? So if you look at capital, grows at 5%. Real economy grows at 2%. If things stay stable over time, this will happen to all society, capital will grow faster than the real economy. What this means is, let's just say you have a million dollars, okay? I have a million dollars.

I have given options to invest my money. I can start a factory, or I can put all my money into real estate or the start market. Where should I put my money? I can open a factory, right? Or I can put it in a stock market. Where should I put my money?

Yes, and why? Exactly. You understand. If you have money today, you do not put your money into the factories. You do not open a new business. You put it in the stock market because you make more money that way. What's the problem with that? Yeah, exactly.

It's just a bubble, guys. Okay? Why is it a bubble? Because money isn't real. Capital isn't real. It's a fiction. You understand? So in other words,

you don't work anymore. You understand? You're just renting now. You're engaging in the rent-seeking behavior. We have too many people doing that. You have a society where nobody works. Doesn't make sense. Nobody does any work

because all the well is being put into rent-scentry. sinking behavior. It's being put into speculation. So no one's doing any more work. No one's creating more wealth. And this eventually leads to social collapse at some point. Okay? Doesn't make sense?

All right? So Peter Torchon's theory of elite overproduction is, because the number of rich people can only go up over time, your society must collapse at some point. unless you choose to have a revolution or you have a civil war or you go invade other countries. Okay? Those are your three options. But if you need, but if you did that, that creates more instability. So over time, no matter how you structure your society, it will collapse.

Does that make sense? Okay? So that's what happened during the branch it's collapsed where the societies must in Greece, tights Egypt, Kenin, they were fundamentally unstable because of rent-seeking behavior, okay? Same with the Mayans where, okay, they were going very fast, but eventually they collapsed. All studies will do this at some point. No society is stable, okay?

And the reason why is you have an elite in charge who help society grow, but over time, they will just engage in rent-seeking behavior, which will eventually lead to collapse of society. Doesn't make sense. And this is a pattern that we'll see over and over again in human history. And we'll discuss this idea throughout this semester. All right?

Doesn't make sense. Any questions? All right, so let's look at a very specific example of renting behavior. My sitting in Greece. Niceney in Greece. So mycen in Greece, and you may remember this from last class, it was a long time ago, but last class, we talked of the Yamaya, right? The Yamaya, right? They conquered Europe. So the Meissen in Greece and the Haightites are direct descendants of the Amnia. And as you remember, this is a warrior culture. So these societies are warier societies, meaning like the warriors are in charge.

And they have a system called a palace economy, a palace economy. A palace economy is basically the palace is at the center of society. And everyone brings their wealth to the palace to be redistributed to everyone else. Okay, so the idea here is we're all farmers, right? And maybe you have 100, 100 bushels of wheat, maybe 20,000,000, maybe 20 bushels of corn, okay? Everyone brings everything to the palace, and then the king redistributes everything to you, okay?

But obviously he takes a cut. Understand? So this is called reticking behavior where you're basically paying taxes, okay? Doesn't make sense? Okay? Now, this is fine when things are good, okay?

But if the weather becomes bad, this system starts to collapse. Why? If the weather is bad, things start to become chaotic. Why? Okay, the reason why is the elite still want their cut.

You understand? It's not like, oh, this year the weather is bad, So let's just suffer together, okay? Let's make sacrifices together. No, it's like, no, we don't care whether it's bad. You still have to pay our cut, okay? You still have to pay your taxes, right? And that creates strain on the people.

The people get very angry, okay? So we have evidence that during the Bronze Age, there was a internal revolt in Mycenae in Greece. And the reason why is we can dig up My saying in Greece, okay? The palace, and what we see is the palace is burned down, but the surrounding houses are fine. Okay, does that make sense?

We also have written records from my saying in Greece that show how the palace economy worked, okay? We can also dig up the graves of the kings and show that over time they became wealthier and wealthier, because when they were buried, the things they were buried with were very expensive. Does that make sense? Okay.

So that's my saying in Greece. Any questions so far? Okay, it's clear about this idea. So what a lot of scholars believe is that this is, the Buncheon's Collabs was a unique event in European history. And what I'm trying to show you is, it was not a unique event, it was not a revolution,

it's just part of the natural cycle of history. Because when you have the elite who engage in retic behavior, eventually this society will collapse. Because you have too many elite who want their cut. And when we look at other societies, you would discover this pattern repeats itself. So this is Peter Turchin, his theory of elite over production.

Are we clear? Yes? Okay. All right, so, okay, let me clarify about my city in Greece, okay? All right. The problem is that you have too many rich people who want to charge rent, right? And that creates pressure on society. And this instability means that your society is no longer resilient, okay?

Resilient. And the idea of resilience is that it survives disasters. So think of a tower that's about to collapse, okay? It will not clap on its own, something must hit it for it to collapse. But this one thing could be anything, okay? It could be the people get angry and they riot. It could be the weather turns bad, okay? It could be there's an earthquake.

It could be there's an invasion. Does that make sense? So these different societies, okay, mostly in Greece, high tights, the Canaanites, they collapse for different reasons. But the fundamental reason is because of societies were unstable. The reason why they were unstable is you had too many elite people trying to charge rent on everyone else. Does that make sense?

Okay. Any more questions? That's a good question. Thank you. Excuse me? Oh, can you avoid the cycle in today's society? Okay. That's a great question and the answer is no.

Okay? It is impossible to build a society that is stable over a long period of time. In fact, you can make the argument that it is good for societies to rise and fall. Okay? It's the same thing as, it's really the same question as, question as is it possible for us to live forever? Is it possible for us to live forever? The other question then is, why would we want to live forever?

You understand? Innovation happens when we die. So what's amazing about the Bronze Age collapse is because of the branch age collapsed, Mycenae in Greece changed into a new society that gave us Greek civilization, which then gave us Western civilization. Okay? So in other words, if my saying in Greece that collapsed,

we would not have today. Also, because Kyna collapsed, a new society came into being called the Israelites, Israel. And Israel gave us what? Do you guys know? The Bible. Right?

And guess what, guys? the Greeks and the Bible are the two foundations of Western civilization. So we would not have Western civilization if these societies that collapse and new societies could come into being. All right? So you can make the argument that innovation, progress is driven by death and collapse. All right? Do you understand?

And if we did not die, if we did not die, if we did not die, besides that I collapse, there'd be no progress. Doesn't make sense? But that's a good question, okay? But, and people will have been debating this question for a long time, but I think the answer is it is impossible to build a society that lives forever, even though people have tried,

and also we shouldn't even try, okay, because collapse is good. Also think of a force-fire. Have you studied forced fires in school? school in science class, force fires. Force fires, guys. Each time there's a force fire, the force burns down, that's good because it allows the force to regenerate and become stronger. What happens if you don't have a force fire? Do you guys know? The resilience goes down. Okay, and also the ecosystem is less vibrant. There are less animals, the trees are less strong.

Do you understand? So that's why it's important to burn down the forest now and then. You don't burn down the forest and then it's less resilient. So there's a big forest fire, it will just spread and destroy the entire forest. Does that make sense? So it's good for societies to constantly change over time. Any more questions? Okay, that's a great question, okay?

All right, so before we talked about egalitarian societies, right? How they were at most 10,000 people. And they did have an elite, okay? They had an elite. They had people in charge, but this elite didn't own the property. There's no private property, okay?

So it's egotarian. And so these societies were pretty stable, okay? And the reason why is, usually it was, was the woman in charge and the woman could were good at controlling population okay because as a woman you have control over your body so you could choose not to have children or have less children and it was very peaceful right people didn't really fight because there's nothing to fight over everything was owned by everyone else okay the problem with egot attention societies are these three things okay they're less

organized meaning like they are less willing or less able to create public projects They have less wealth and therefore they have less scale. You can have that most 10,000 people. Which means what? Which means like eventually they will be conquered. Does that make sense? Because if you are one of these societies, you're an empire, you must constantly expand in order to please the elite, basically, okay?

Either you expand or you fight a civil war. war and so you take over egalitarian societies and you make them into your society okay do you understand so for most of a human history we're egalitarian but that's because we didn't have that many people right but over time as population increases then you are less egalitarian you become more unequal you stay egalitarian you will eventually be conquered by a Not an egalitarian society. Does that make sense?

All right? All right. But that's a great question. You're exactly right, okay? For most of human history, we're egalitarian. But once we start to develop elite societies, okay? Kingdoms, then it could easily conquer

egalitarian societies. Any more questions? But that's a fantastic question. Okay, any more questions. And when we do, so we are skipping ahead, but when we do Samaria, Sumeria, which is basically many different city-states in Iraq, Mesopotamia, what we will discover is that there are different social structures, okay?

There are different social structures, including societies that were egalitarian. But when you're in competition with each other, societies that are more organized, more wealthy, now bigger populations will always win out over other societies. you have these three things you need a permanent territory elite because then they are more incentivized in order to work harder okay does that make sense and then the question then is okay why is that true and it's true because for societies become welfare you don't need everyone to work hard you just need a certain number of people to work hard you just need a certain number of people to work hard you just

a small group of people to work hard. It doesn't make sense? So think of like China, right? How China became wealthier these past 30, 40 years. And the reason why is you had a small number of entrepreneurs who worked really, really hard, okay? Not everyone worked hard. But because you had these people who did work really hard, China became welfare.

Does that make sense? Okay? Any more questions? Okay, so great, okay? So again, what makes this class different from other classes is we are looking at the entire scope of human history. And so it's very important for you to not remember the facts, okay? I don't need you to remember the facts, okay?

I don't need to remember Moceney in Greece or the Sea People, but I do need you to remember the concepts and the ideas, how the world history is constantly in competition with each other and why is it that some ideas went out over other ideas okay so I'm not saying this is the best idea okay I'm not saying a permanent territory elite is a really good idea I don't think it's a good idea okay but I'm showing you why it wins out and how it impacts human history and the development of civilization does that make sense okay okay any more questions okay well that's it Oh.