Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Secret History #13: Mandate of Heaven

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Secret History #13: Mandate of Heaven

Today we discuss the idea of civilization. And first I want to present to you the general understanding of how we get civilization. Then I will present to you an alternative. Okay? So the traditional understanding is the Marxist understanding. This is the idea proposed by Karl Marx and it's the dominant idea. So in the beginning, we were hunter-gatherers, and it sucked to be a hunter-gatherer because you could not find food. And then we discovered agriculture, farming, and that allowed for surplus food.

Surplus just means that you have more food than you can eat. And so now you have people who don't have to work. work, an elite. And as such, they can engage in activities that improve the well-being of everyone and which create the basis for civilization. These things include religion, which is just myths and stories. But also, arts, dance, music, songs,

songs, paintings. And then of course, you have science and technology. And with these three things in place, now you can grow as a society. You can now build cities. Why? Because now you can have irrigation and farming. Okay?

You can now direct the river flow so you can use more farmland. Okay, you can now have a hereditary elite. And so if these people can focus their entire time on innovation, on science, on progress. Okay? And then you have writing. Because only a heritage elite has a time

and the resources to learn how to write. Because remember back then, writing is a very difficult activity you have to spend your entire life learning it and practicing it and then you have the idea of money and property okay and together these four things are what we refer to as civilization okay now there are good things that come civilization religion arts and science but they're also bad things as well which include war, slavery, and debt. And that is the historic civilization that you're taught in school and that most mainstream academics understand.

Today I want to propose an alternative and I think this is a much more compelling alternative than this one. The idea is this, from the very beginning, we were religious, artistic, and capable of science. We did not need an elite to do this for us. We are all capable of doing this ourselves. And the examples, of course, are the cave paintings that we discuss, as well as these religious settlements.

Go play tap play, kind of hoiak. Okay? And as we discussed before, people come together to practice their religion, building temples, building monuments. And then slowly around these temples, you have development of farming in order to sustain these temples in order to practice the religion. But over time, what happens is that the temple people become corrupt, rather than me being elected by the people rather than serve the people,

they become hereditary, okay? They engage in rent seeking. And so what people do is they just leave and build a temple somewhere else. And for all this time, all these temples are being built. But in certain locations, the temples can also engage in trade. Why? Because they're the meaning of the meaning.

place of many many other communities and as such their real estate is the most valuable in the world and so it's hard for people leave and the place just grows and grows and grows and that's this civilization grows the people in charge is something called a temple economy and this is just a prudent form of taxation basically what happens is that everyone brings food to the temple and the priest then redistribute the food amongst everyone else okay that allows for public works projects like irrigation mainly irrigation but also more temples okay and because of this economy now you need writing you need

to record how much food you have you have to record who gets what food the rations You also need to record trade, right? How much grain you're getting from here, how much cows you're giving it over there, okay? And if a running system, then you have money. But as this civilization develops, a strict hierarchy emerges. And the hierarchy goes against the natural order. Also remember that people at any time can just choose to leave. So how do you make people stay where they are

and just follow the natural order? Well, now you have to create mythology, which then you encode or write down. So that seems as though it's coming from the gods themselves. Okay, does that make sense? In other words, civilization did not give us religion, arts, and science. We already had these things. We could at any time in our history,

do all these things. Civilization is a device meant to gaslight or fool people into believing that a hierarchy is legitimate when it is not legitimate. It is meant to fool people into thinking

that this hierarchical system is divinely ordained. So that's the argument I will make to you today. Before I continue, are you clear about this framework. This is a traditional framework. This is what you've been taught in school.

The problem with this framework is that it assumes that we're all stupid. And if we're all stupid, it's hard to explain how we did the cave paintings, how we built Cabot-Tape, how we did Kada'a. It assumes all these things. This new understanding is that we're all capable of creativity, but eventually because of social development, we have these

large cities and now the people are in charge need to create civilization in order to justify the hierarchy. Okay? All right, so having said that, let's look at the four earliest major civilizations in our history and they are of course Egypt, Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq, the in this valley civilization, this is also referred to as the Harappan, okay? Harappan civilization, because their capital is Harappa. And then the last one, of course, is China, right?

Now the question then is, why is that these four are the early civilizations? And they have three unique characteristics, okay? The first is their latitude. They're actually in the same latitude. They're not too hot and they're not too cold, which makes them perfect for agriculture. That's the first characteristic.

Second characteristic is that they are by major rivers, right? So Egypt is, of course, by the Nile. Mesopotamia has been called the Tigris and the Euphrates. In this valley, of course, has the Indus River. And China has, of course, the Yellow River, okay? That's the second major characteristic. This allows for you to build a fairly large city, okay?

Because now you can solve the water and transportation problem, okay, and also agriculture. Now the last characteristic, which is the most important, is thereby the sea or thereby the ocean, which allows for them to engage in trade, okay? transportation bringing in new goods new people and new ideas so Egypt has the Mediterranean as well as the Red Sea Mesopotamia goes into Arabian Sea which goes into the Indian Ocean and so the India is the same situation okay goes in the Arabian Sea and then the Indian Ocean China of course goes into the Pacific all right so what will happen over time is that

Because of the trade location, they're able to build a very large city over time. So, but then what will happen is that as larger, city becomes larger and larger, they will develop colonies upstream and downstream of the river. Okay? So they will build more colonies, and this is how you get civilization. Okay? You always have a major city, and as it becomes too big, you have other places in order to expand your trade reach. So the priority is trade.

And as you can see, what's happening is that these now, these areas are able to connect the entire world, right? So Egypt is able to connect Europe and the Levant and Africa, okay? Mr. Pidon is able to connect Anatolia, Asia, Central Asia, And then Innes Valley is able to do the same thing, okay? China is a special case because of the Himalayas. So there is trade, actually, between China and these other parts, but not as much. And so China is a special case.

And so that's why we don't discuss China in this class. Okay? So this is, these three places are what we collect that we call Western civilization. So you may have thought that Western civilization is just Europe and America. That's not true. Okay. If you just look at the history, these places have always been in contact with each other. And collectively, they've built a foundation for Western civilization.

Let me ask you this question. Looking at this map, where is the most strategically located place? You guys know? It's here, right? Doesn't make sense, you guys. This is right in the center of global trade. And guess what? This place is where. human civilization began. This place is what we call Samaria, Samarra, okay? And this is where writing was invented. And this is where a lot of trade happened. Because if you just look at this map, Samaria is what connects everyone to everyone else, right?

If you're in the inner-s-valu civilization and you want to get through Egypt, you have to first transport your goods to Samaria, which then over and then takes it to Egypt. Same thing with Egypt, okay? Same thing if you want to reach everywhere else. Doesn't make sense. That's why Samaria was the first major civilization. And they invented writing as well as irrigation, as well as a lot of technology. And there's been a lot of debate about Samaria because one thing that puzzles scholars and historians is the language of Samarans speak is not the same as the surrounding areas.

So that's why a lot of historians believe that the people in Samaria came from somewhere else. And that may be true. Why? Because this is the major trade route, right? And it's possible that what happened was that different people came together in this area to trade and they formed their own language. That is possible. Also, scholars have been surprised or amazed at the rapid development of Samaria. of Samaria and that's why, okay, I don't know why,

but there are some people on the internet who believe that aliens came Samaria and created humans, okay? These aliens are called the Anunnaki. And it's a really stupid idea. And what you learn in this class is that if you put humans together and they need to do something, they will do it very well.

Does that make sense? Necessity is the mother of creativity. It's because they have to come together to trade to internet, enact that they create their own writing system okay so if I were to take different people from the from the world and just dumped on the island you guys would really quickly be able to develop your own language your own writing system your own civilization because again necessity is the mother of invention all right

all right so that's the general framework we're working with any more questions any questions before I can sit continue okay good all right so let's do the PPP All right. So in this class, I want to talk about how, because of civilization development, they start to promote writing and promote mythology. And what I will show you is that by studying mythology properly, you can actually decode or uncover or reveal the history of the civilization, even though it may be lost to us. Okay? All right. Let's continue.

All right, so one principle that I want you to learn about human history is that it's a constant process of inversion, okay? And what I mean by that is that as humans progress or as humans, as human society grows and grows, they need to constantly innovate in their system and they do it for inversion. So during the Cape Haping era, it was in a egalitarian society, which was fluid, which was was dynamic and they were animistic, which meant that they believed that everything had God in it, okay? They were all part of God. And then agriculture, you had the mother goddess civilization because you needed fertility, right? The mother goddess is able to

give you more children as well as help you grow crops. But over time, as as civilizations became larger and larger, they started to go war with each other, okay? And now the male overtakes the female, right? And then, worship the mother goddess, they now worship the sky god. And before, during the mother goddess, it was assumed that the mother goddess serves us because she's kind, she's compassionate. But now the sky god, we have to serve the gods, okay? And then as society becomes more hereditary, what happens often are civil wars where the prince kills the king, okay? The son kills the father, in aversion.

The last process is that over time, as society becomes more populated, you need a bureaucracy. What will happen is that the bureaucrats will collude together to steal power from the king. The servant rules the king. So this is a major pattern of historical development that I want you guys remember.

Remember that history is a constant process of inversion, where the old order is being defined. by the new order. Okay, so that's one idea I want you guys to remember, okay? All right, so basic framework we're working with is that before we started the mother goddess where women were in control and they focused on balance and harmony, okay, and fertility. And their understanding of the mother goddess is that she's kind and she's compassionate. Okay, so you don't really have to work that much, you just have to respect her and she will

provide you with a lot of babies, a lot of good food. Now we go to the sky god. And different societies have different sky gods, but they're basically the same concept. So in Egypt, they have Ra, in Babylon, they have Mardark. In Greece, they have Zeus, in Rome, they have Jupiter, right? And the sky god demands struggle and toil, to rape, exploit, control the Earth,

to take the mother goddess and to control her, okay? And you do that by building canals, by building farms. So it's a constant process of exploitation. Not only explaining nature, the mother god is, but you're also explaining each other. You go to war, you conquer other people, you enslave them, okay? It's a constant process of sacrifice and discipline.

So this is the major transition. All right, so the four major civilizations we talked about, as you can see from this map, there's the same latitude, right? China's over here, again, because of the Himalayas, They're blocked from the rest of the world, okay? But these three areas, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Innes Valley, you can see how close they are

to each other and how they can easily access each other through the sea, right? And once they're able to access each other, they can then access other parts of the world as well. So right from the beginning, guys, it's really important. Western society was integrated through trade, for communication.

And so the ideas, the people, were always, in exchange with each other. Okay, so you cannot understand the development of Egypt in isolation from Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. They all influenced each other. Unfortunately, because of Western prejudice, you're often taught that these things are separate from each other. Okay? But they existed in dialogue with each other.

All right. So the creative civilization is the Middle East. Why? Because of the fertile crescent, okay? So Samaria, Sumer, is where we consider the creative civilization. Because as I mentioned to you, it is the center of all global trade. It's where all civilizations meet. But as you can also see, it's also extremely fertile.

So this has historically been the wealthiest part of the world. Strategically is the most important part of the world. important part of the world and it's still true even today okay that's why you have all these wars in the Middle East that's why America is so supportive of Israel okay so as I mentioned to you what will happen is that because of trade Eric will become a large city and then as the city becomes large and larger it will establish colonies elsewhere as well and these will become the major city states of Mesopotamia and for thousands of years they will fight each

other until Sargon of Akkad unifies this region okay summer is impressive they're known for their canals they're known for their irrigation and again scholars are sort of mesmerized by how they're able to do this but one thing that you learn this class is that when humans come together for religious purposes they're capable of doing amazing stuff these are Zacharits their temples and these Zachary were the center of their civilization remember that also they start off with a temple that then builds out outwards, okay?

And these Zagoras are important because they are literally considered the home of their gods. And these places are sacred. So any priests are allowed to go inside it. People can deliver gifts to the gods through the priest. But the people themselves are not allowed to enact with the priest. That's how the priests are able to control over the cities, okay? And the priest themselves are considered servants of the gods. This is Cunea form, right?

There's a Cunea form, which is the first writing system ever invented. What's interesting about this is how they did this. So what they did was this. They just took clay from the riverbeds, okay? And then before it hardens, you just take a reed and you write down some marks in the clay. And then what you do is this. You just put out in a sign,

and then it hardens, right? It's there forever. That's why we still have them today because walk does not decay. Okay? And that's why we know more about Sumeria than we know about other places. For most of agricultural history,

we celebrate the Mother Goddess, okay? But then as I mentioned, over time as society becomes larger and larger, the men started to control. And so they inverted the mythology of the Mother Goddess. the sky god who is Mardark here kills the mother goddess to create the world okay a process of inversion um so to understand this process we will read the most famous epic from Mesopotania called the Enuma alesh and Emuamalesh means fall up high so it's a

Bible basically it's like what God told us and this is a story of the creation of the world Okay, so what's really important to understand is that all the stories are written down in stone, okay? And again, guys, didn't have to do this because everyone was able to memorize the story line for line, and that's what we did historically. So why did they write this in stone? For propaganda purposes, right? It's the same as in today's world, you go see a film. When you see a film, you're mesmerized, you're hypnotized by the beautiful.

of it and you must think that this film must be the God speaking themselves okay you don't think about okay how do they put this together you mind doesn't think like that you mind's like oh my god this is an image before me therefore it must be true okay and that's why they wrote stuff down for propaganda purposes now what's interesting is that there's different running systems around the world so in Mesopotamia they had these K tablets right but in Egypt as you may know they have papyrus Papyrus are these plants, they take up the plants and then put them together in the sun. And then they become like these scrolls that you can write on.

And China, of course, have the paper. So what's interesting is that when the need arises for writing, we always find a kind of creative ways to express ourselves in writing. Okay? Papyrus scrolls don't really last that long. That's where you know less about Egypt than we know about Mesopotamia. All right, so the eminidonelage was written on K tablets. So let's go over the story, the enumerary lash. So in the beginning, there are two major gods,

Apsu and Tiamat. Apsu means freshwater. Tiamat means salt water, okay? Fresh water, of course, is the river. Salt water is the ocean. When they come together, they create all possible life, including their children, the new gods. Tiamat and Apsu create these new gods, but they're children,

so they're really loud. And Apsu is like, you know what? These children are really annoying, I want to kill them. Tiamat overhears this, and Tiamat tells her children who rebel and kill Apsu. But then Tiamat's like, you know what? They killed my husband. So now she's pissed, okay? So she decides she's going to go kill her children too.

She has a general, and there is this huge. army and they start to attack their children. These children are thrown aback by Tiamat. So they elect a new champion called Mardok, the Thunder god, the SkyGuard, to lead them into battle against Tiamat. And in the final battle, Murdoch, who's also called B.L., he kills Tiamath, okay? Now what happens afterwards is really interesting because After he kills Tiamat, the mother goddess,

he takes her body and then from her body, he builds the entire world. He builds both the sky and the planet Earth, okay? So let's read some lines. Be outrested serving the corpse in order to divide the lump by a clever scheme. He split her into two like a dried fish, okay? So he literally cut her like a fish. One half of her, he set up and stretched out as the heavens.

He built the sky from her body. He stretched his skin and appointed a watch with the instruction not to let her waters escape. He crossed over the heavens, surveyed the sexual parts, and adjusted them to match the absinu. So Absu was the husband who was killed. Beatt measured the shape of the absinu and set up Ezra, Abelika of Eskala. In Eskala, Eserau, which he had built in the heavens. He settled in the shrines, Anu, NL, and L. Okay? So what's important to understand is this.

He's doing this to the mother goddess. So not only is Mardark proclaiming a new order, but he's also proclaiming new values, new values of struggle, exploitation, toil, right? Before, the mother goddess was a religion of balance and harmony. Don't destroy things. Worship the animals as they're your friends. If you kill them, make sacrifices to them.

And now this new religion is, no, destroy the world and make it yours. So this is a civilization that practice irrigation, right? Because irrigation really is about controlling the earth. All right, let's continue. All right, so what happens now is that after Mardock creates the world, he has to establish a bureaucratic order, okay? An order, a hierarchical order. So he says, he fashioned heavenly stations for the great God

and separate constellations, the patterns of the stars. He appointed the year, marked up divisions, and set up three stars each for the 12 months. Okay? So he's basically building a calendar. The idea here is that all these bureaucratic inventions in Samaria in order to better government of people, right? What this myth is doing, the Amnale list is doing is proclaiming that the bureaucratic world is divinely ordained. Okay? This isn't come from the priest.

It came from the gods. The priests are just the messengers. All right. Let's continue. All right. So now that Mardark has built this world, he's like, you know what? I'm tired and I want a place to rest. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to build a house, which is my temple,

and then I'm going to make slaves in order to serve me. And these slaves are called humans, okay? That's why we were invented, to serve the gods. Before we understood that the gods served us, helped us, or loved us. And now we must become slaves to the gods. Beneath the celestial parts, whose floor I made firm, I will build a house to be my luxurious abode. Within, I will establish a shrine.

I will find my chamber and establish my kingship. Okay? All right, so now he's going to turn humans into slaves. He conceived the desire to accomplish clever things. He opened his mouth, addressing eel. He counsels that which he had partnered in his heart. I will bring together blood to form bone. I will bring into being Lula whose name shall be man.

Okay? All right. And the gods, by the way, are called the Anunnaki, okay? That's why there are conspiracy theories on Innet who say that we're invented by the Anunaki. All right. So what Marduk does is that he takes his enemy, Tingu, and then he kills him,

and then from his blood, he will create mankind. Okay? They bound him, holding him before ill. They inflicted the penalty on him. and severed his blood vessels. From his blood, he created mankind, on whom he imposed the service of the gods and set the gods free. Okay?

Now, what's really interesting for us to remember is that throughout this poem, Marnok has even names, B.L. Eel. Okay? And the reason why is that what happens in these epics is they take different traditions and they combine together into one composite story. Okay? All right. After the wise eel had created mankind and had imposed the service of the gods upon them,

that task is beyond comprehension for Nimrodot performed the creation with the skill of Mardok. King Marduk divide the gods or the Anunaki, okay, the gods, into upper and lower groups. He assigned three hundred in the heavens to God the decrees of Ennu and appointed them as a god. Okay, so now he's going to create this hierarchy. So, yes, all humans are slaves, but there are some humans who are better slaves than other humans, okay? And that's what explains the hierarchy. So as you can see, in the immediate ledge, it was written in order to justify the existing power structure. And honestly, this is the concept that's still true today, right?

Why do we have schools? What do you have media? What do we have entertainment? It's to justify the existing power structure and social order. Okay? All right. Now we get towards the end. And this is to establish that Babylon is.

is the divine city. If it's divine, it means you can't leave it. You all want to be here, even though being Babylon means your enslavement, okay? Let us make a shrine of great renown, your chamber will be our resting place wherein we may repose. Let us erect a shrine to house a pedestal

where we may repose when we finish the work. When Marduk heard this, he beam as brightly as the light of day. Build Babylon, the tachshu have sought, that bricks for it be molded and raised a shrine. The Anianaki wield the pig for one year they made the needed bricks, okay? So Babylon, the capital, is a city made by the gods for the gods.

And then humans are there to serve the gods. So this is the divine order. This is the mandate of heaven. Okay. And as you will see, this is not just true for Mesopotamia for Babylon, but also true for all major civilizations, including Egypt. So this is a tapestry from Egypt. As you can see, the gods are in control.

The gods are the public masters. and the kings are just being controlled by the gods and then humans just do what the gods demand of them. Okay? This is just the natural order. This is the mandate of heaven. This is the way that it should be. Okay. Now let's talk about the Epic of Gilgamesh.

So there are two major literary achievements of Mass and Tenia. The first is the Emory Lesh. The second is something called the Epic of Gilamash. As you can see, Gilgamesh, he is a... giant human. He's a king. He's considered the first king of Eurik. And he's so big that he, that a lion is his pet. What happens is that Gilgamesh is a king, but he's a tyrant. So he takes the men to war, and he sleeps with all the women. So the people cry to the gods for relief from Gilgumash. So the gods create Incidu from Climbabu from Climbabon.

And this is very similar to the story of Adam in the Bible. And Agadu is like an animal. But then Giggumash sends a prostitute to seduce him and then become civilized, okay? And now Agadu and Gygimash fight. And when they fight, they realize that they can't beat each other, so they decide to become best friends. They're best friends now, and they embark on all these adventures together.

They go kill these divine beings, beings, they go kill the protective of the forest, they kill a divine bowl. The gods are now kind of pissed at them because they're disrupting the natural order. So the gods have a meaning to decide that one of them must die. So they kill Enkidu. When Anka Duktu dies, Gilgamesh is heartbroken. And he's scared because he's afraid that he will die as well. So he sets on a quest for immortality.

He goes and tries to figure out how to live forever. he ultimately fails, okay? And it ends with Gilgumash returning home and he sees happiness in the walled cities, in his people being happy, okay? So the moral of the story is that immortality is not about living forever. Immortality is about doing great things for your people so that you'll be remembered forever, celebrate forever.

So the irony is that even though Gilgamesh failed in his quest, he ultimately succeeded in his mission because we have his epic and so we're able to celebrate him even today. So it's a story that is being told. The question now is, why is the story being told? And one theory is that this is a concept of kingship.

Being a king means not doing whatever you want. Being a king means to serve the people so that people will celebrate you and remember you forever and immortalize you in writing. Okay? That's a theory. All right. But ultimately, Gilgamesh is a bureaucratic creation. And I'm going to explain to you how this creation works.

Through this creation process, we can understand how human society develops over time. So in the beginning, what happens is that each region has local legends, okay? And these local heroes are celebrated through stories. So stories of demagogues like Hercules, right? And the epic heroism. They have these stories because each region has a local king. And this local king says, well, I'm the descendant of Hercules,

and therefore I should rule over you. And what will happen is that these stories become a test for the king. If Hercules can fight a lion, then you are his ancestor, descendant, right? You are his descendant, therefore you should fight a lion. And that's how you justify. your kingship through these acts of heroism that's related to you in stories.

Okay, that's the first step. Second step is what happens is that as these different areas become consolidated into a much larger area, these stories themselves become consolidated. So Gilgamesh was basically different heroes. One king comes to dominate a region. Then what happens afterwards is that

as the region becomes larger and larger, you need a bureaucracy. So bureaucratic priests come in the power, They add in morality and messaging to control the people and the king. The major message is the king must serve the people and then the priests control the king. But what will happen is that these different bureaucratic factors will fight each other and they will have different versions of the story. So bureaucratic priests take power, the morality and messaging changes.

As different bureaucratic priests take power. The king must learn humility. So this is a hard thing to understand. But it's really important for us to understand, otherwise you can understand the Bible and other literary creations. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you an example to help you better understand this process of storytelling. So let's imagine three universities.

Ohio State University, Connecticut and Middlebury. And they all have their own local legends, okay? So in these places, something happened that captured the imagination of all the students. So maybe at Ohio State University, Michael James gets drunk the night. before examination and he still matches passive. And the students are like, that's a great story, okay? What happens over time is that basically this is great story,

as a story is told more and more, becomes exaggerated. Why? Because it becomes exaggerated, it's much more interesting, it's become much more memorable, okay? And over time, people add color to it to make even more memorable. If you don't do that, the story becomes forgotten, okay?

So the only way to keep a story alive is by constantly exaggerating it and bringing color to it. Let's see what happens. Over time, the story becomes, Michael James gets drunk before every examination, and he scores 100, okay? That's an exaggeration. And then, over time, naturally, through the oral tradition, the story becomes even more exaggerated. Michael James bet his professor

that he could get 100 on the exam while drunk. After James finished the exam, he bombed on the professor. He flew up on the professor. The professor could not do anything because James had got 100 on the exam. Okay? Okay, all right? So human beings just do this naturally. If something happens, they think it's interesting, it becomes a legend, becomes a story, okay?

And this happens everywhere. So Connecticut College, a football player scores a winning touchdown, okay? And then it becomes exaggerated. The guy scores touchdown every game, and then even more exaggerated, the guy hits a home run to help his team win the championship, and then later that day, he scores a touchdown

to win another, okay? So it becomes more exaggerated, And then let's look at Middlebury College, Pat Jack, George to Canada take a piss, okay? He just does that for no reason. Becomes more exaggerated, he goes to a new city every day to take a piss, okay? And then it becomes to be more exaggerated.

And now you have color detail to it. Pat Jack drove to Canada and accidentally pissed on a sleeping beer, okay? He ran up a tree about his pants and Forest Rangers had to come rescue him. Okay, all right? So this is what happens naturally. The story becomes funnier, the story becomes

more colorful, more detailed, more exaggerated, so that we're able to remember it, okay? And then over time, what happens is that these stories become consolidated, combined together to form a new story. Okay? Harvard's most legendary student was Pitbull James. He once rolled an exam that no professor could pass. He wants to hit a home run with one arm.

He once pissed on a sleeping bear just so he could knock down the bear with one punch, okay? So it becomes even more exaggerated, becomes consolidated. Just as the epic of Gilgamesh, okay? But then what happens is the bureaucrats take over. The people are in charge to go over and they have to change the story in order to better control people.

And there are different versions of this process. So let's look at three. All right, you got this one line and you change the story, right? In the first version, when he became a billionaire, he gave it all to Harvard, okay? So obviously Harvard wrote this story to say, you know what, we don't care what you do as you give us money, okay?

That's the first version. Second version is, when he wrote, he found his true love, he settled down in the woods right full time. Okay, so this is seemingly the primacy of writers over athletes, okay? The smart over the brave. And the third is the bear ate him, okay?

So he punched a beer and the bear decides to eat him, which is like, don't be a stupid athlete. And so when you add these actually lines, you make the story less interesting, less colorful. But you do so in order to better control how people think. And this is a process that we see throughout human history. So think of these classics, of these Chinese classics, right? San Guan Yan Yi, Romans of Three Kingdoms,

Sea Yogy, right? Journey to the West, Shuihu Duan, right? Bandits of the water margin. water margin. If you read them, they're not that interesting. But before, you can imagine that they were interesting. But the bureaucrats took them and changed them into boring stories that they can now teach school children to brainwash them. Does that make sense? Okay, so that's a process of civilization. All right. So another example is he assaults theogyny. And he's talking

about Greek mythology, Greek religion. So the process goes like this. At first, Gaya, who's like the mother goddess, in chaos, they gave birth to the gods. Gaea marries one of these gods, Uranus, and they give birth together to 12 titans. But Uranus doesn't really like children, so he beats up his children.

So these children with helping the mother, decides to rebel against Uranus. The youngest son, Kronus, kills Uranus. Then Uranus marries Rhea, and now Kronis is king, but he's afraid that his children will eventually rebel against him, just like he rebelled against his father. Therefore, he eats all his children. Ria, the mother, is upset about this.

So she decides, I'm going to give birth to Zeus in secret. So she runs off to an island. and she gives birth to him in secret and he leaves Zeus there to grow up. Eventually he grows up and then he goes back to Cronus, he becomes cut bearer to Cronus and then poisons him. And that's how Zeus becomes the ultimate king. What's really interesting for a purpose is that this myth influences the origin story of major historical figures. So if you look at these major historical figures, you will find that it's a very similar story.

So Sorgat of Akkad, who found the Akhenian Empire, Romus and Rheemus, who found it Rome, King David who found at Israel and Genghis Khan of the Mongols. They all share the similar origin story. So where do we get this origin story from? Okay, so going back, we're seeing three leers, right? So the first layer is the original layer, which is the animistic layer. Okay, so different gods come together

and they create humans. The second layer is when Kronis rebels against Uranus and establish the kingship, okay? Right? The third layer is this. The third layer is the most interesting. Usually when you're king, you need a general. What often happens is that the king

likes to hire a foreign mercenary to be a general. Why? Because first of all, he's of low birth, right? Therefore, no legitimacy. Second, he's a foreigner, and therefore he doesn't have any political factions behind him. But often what happens is that this foreign mercenary is so talented that he's able to build a political faction to overfall the king and become king himself. Because he's really talented. This is true for Gangas Khan.

This is true for King David of Israel. This is true for Sargham Acton. So there are lots of historical figures like that. Even in Chinese history, you have quite a few historical figures like this as well. So the founder of the Song Dynasty was this sort of person. The problem though is that once he becomes king, he has a legitimacy problem. He's of low birth, he's a foreigner, right?

So what do you do? You create a myth of Zeus, right? That Zeus himself was of low birth and a foreigner, but not really because he's a secret son of the king, okay? And that's why you have these stories, to legitimize the king. All right, so again, this follows the, dynamic cycle, okay? So in the beginning, the high priestess, who represents the mother

goddess, she has a consort. And so they established a hereditary elite. But this hereditary elite makes people unhappy with the system. So then one prince or one of the sons aside, you know what, I'm going to form my own political faction. I'm become a warlord. I'm going to overthrow the queen and the king, okay? And so he slays the consort and marries the high priestess, okay? Which is following the page. of the mythology, right? Then what happens is that at the warlord dies, his son relies on a mercenary as general.

The mercenary is often a foreigner and of low birth, mercenary slates the warlord and makes himself king. Okay? Does that make sense? This is a pattern that we see over and over in history, and this explains why the myths are constructed of the way they are. Okay, so another way a metaphor that we can use is think of myths and stories as like house renovation.

as like house renovation, okay? So when you renovate a house, adding different layers to it. That's literally what's happening. Okay, so we will look at one last story to show you how this writing process works. Remember, writing in order to basically gaslight the people. So even though Samaria, Mesopotamia,

it's developing really quickly, as you can see from this map, it's still a very diverse place, okay? They have different forms of industry and economy. So maybe in the green you have agriculture, but in the red, it's pastoral, meaning it's raising animals, sheep, goats, you're going over the place, okay? So there are two different types of agriculture. The first form is you are sanitary. You just stay in one place and you grow your food.

You grow your crops. You grow your plants. The second is pastoral where you're going around and you are feeding your sheep and your goats. Okay? If you're a king or if you're a priest, if you're bureaucrat, you prefer agricultural people or pastoral people? Obviously agriculture. Why? Because it's easier to control them. Okay? So what they do now is they're going to create these mythologies to convince people to give up the free, happy lifestyle of pastoralists and become an enslaved farmer, okay? All right? And the question is how? Well, this is how.

This is called the debate between the sheep and the grain. Okay? So the sheep and the grain have this debate and they appear before the gods for judgment. The sheep says, I am the better one. The grain says no, I'm the better one. Okay, so that this debate. The sheep says this. And king of gods made me descend from the holy place, my most precious place.

All the yarns of about Otu, the splendor of kingship, belong to me. Second, king of the mountain embosses the king's emblems and puts his emblems in order. He twists a giant rope against the great pig. the rebel land, he the sling, the quiver, and the long boughs. The watch over the lead troops is mine. Sucs of the workers in the field is mine. The water skin of cool water and the sandals are mine. Sweet oil, the fragrance of the gods, mixed oil, press oil,

aeronic oil, cereal, or oil for offerings are mine. Okay? So I'm the sheep, look how great I am, okay? I provide clothing for people. I provide sandals. I have oil which makes people more fragrant. I also provide food for your soldiers. I'm great. In the gown, my clove of white wall, the king rejoices on his throne.

My clothing is worn by the king himself. Is that proof that I'm the greatest? My body glistens on the flesh of the great gods. After purification priest, the incarnation priest and the babe priests have dressed themselves in me for my holy lustration. I walk with them to my holy meal. Okay. So the priest, when they make sacrifices, they sacrifice the sheep. The, that's like The priest is not going to sacrifice grain, they sacrifice sheep, okay? But your hero plowshoe-shield binding and shops are tools that can be utterly destroyed. What can you put against me? And to answer me what you can reply, okay?

So that's the argument from the sheep. The grain says, When the beer dough has been carefully prepared in the oven and the mash ended in the oven, Nikisha mixes them for me while your big bullie-golds and ramps are dispatched for my banquets. On the thick legs they are made to stand separate from my product. Your shepherd on the high plain eyes my produce endlessly. When I am standing in a furrow in the field, my farmer chases away your herdsman with his cudgel. Even when they look out for you from the open country to the hidden places, your fears are not removed from you.

Thang snakes and bandits, the creatures of the desert want your life on the high plain. Every night your count is made and your tally stick plut into ground so your herdsman can tell people how many eels there are and how many young lambs and how many goats and how many young kids when gentle winds blow for the city and strong winds scatter they build a milking pen for you but when gentle winds blow through the city and strong wind scatter I set up as a equal to its car I'm green I'm born for the warrior I'm like give up the turn the bat on legs the endormance of shepherding make up your properties what can you put against me and to me what you can reply okay what what grain says is first of all you don't need to protect me I can

protect myself there are no animals that want to eat me okay and I'm powerful okay so I'm independent you do less work you get more of me okay that's the argument and of course the gods say that grain is better even though people who raise sheep and goats are stronger they're more free they're more independent but kings don't want that so they create these stories these mythologies in order to brainwash people out of their freedom of their independence okay and that's why we have writing. That's why they invented writing. Okay? Does that make sense? Get to you guys.

All right, any questions? So my first question is like earlier you mentioned that there are three ancient civilizations that are very close to each other like Egyptian and... That's right. So they, yeah, that's right, yeah. And so my question is like are there any connections between the, the, their distance and how they made all of this myths and their methodologies of creating the gods. Okay, that's a really good question. So it's almost impossible to answer how much they influence each other, okay? Because even if they were not incarnate with each other,

they would still come up with the myths that they had come up with in order to justify their hierarchy. It doesn't make sense. So myth-making is a natural part of the human process. So do they share these stories together? Probably, okay? But what's important to understand is that these elites are also interested in differentiation. So if I'm in Egypt, I need to prove to my people

that I'm superior to the people in Mesopotamia and Indian Valley civilization, and that's why I create the pyramids, right? Okay, if I'm Mesopotamia, I need to prove that I'm superior. That's why I create the Ziragat's and the Epic of Gilamash. So the actual process, it's hard to say. So another way, a thing is is, how much are you influenced by American popular culture? Probably a lot, but how much?

Also, whatever influence that you have, you still also refracted for your own personal needs as well. Okay, so that's a great question. Scholars spent a long time, decades, trying to figure out what the actual influence of each culture is on the other culture. And from my perspective, it's not important. We just have to assume that there is influence,

that these cultures aren't caught up with each other, but ultimately at the end of the day, what they come up with has to be unique to their own culture. They want to prove that their culture is superior, and they want to, and they have to address local needs as well. Okay, does that make sense? Yes. Okay.

And I have another question is that, I don't know how familiar you are with the child, Chinese culture but in our Chinese culture there is a god who created the earth like his name is Pangu like there is this mythology of how Pangu creates the earth and so my question is like you can notice that in the Chinese culture Pangu is a male and he is the one who sacrificed himself to in order to create earth and in other myths like in Egyptian that the creator is this female character.

So in your opinion, do you think there is, like, what is the, why is this different between that? Okay. Yeah. So it's hard for us to say what the original myth was. Okay. The process is this. In the very beginning, all gods should be asexual.

Okay. So they are almost, they're either non-sexual, like it's not male or female, or they are both male and female, okay? Because in all traditions, the god has to be a balance of forces, right? So the male force and the female force, that's what we have yin and yang. But over time, what will happen is that they will change certain characteristics to reflect better the hierarchy.

So maybe in the beginning, when females were in charge, Pangu was a female character. But over time, they'll change it to a male character. all right it's all it's impossible for us to go back and rebuild or reimagine what it was like originally okay okay thank you all right okay any more questions guys okay okay great so I hope this makes sense and next class what we're gonna do is we will talk about the steps people okay the people and the people in the steps this is civilization so people who do agriculture

But remember that throughout most of human history, the major conquerors were people from the steps. So Gangus Khan came from the steps. So we'll be discussing them next class. Okay? All right. Thank you.