“I will obey, if you take care and protect me.”
What is normal: a society with- or without class distinctions? Hunter-gatherers lived in an egalitarian society. But in agrarian cultures cities, city-states, kingdoms and empires arise with all sorts of ranks – from slaves to noblemen. And from 2500 BC onwards there is usually one man at the top with absolute power. Why so?
Dominance is as old as the animal kingdom. And also among humans there has never been a shortage of power hungry men. But why do people sometimes accept this power? Primarily because of a threat from outside. People will cooperate in order to fend off a common enemy. Power is a form of cooperation. Even today politicians are still using challenges from abroad to gain or maintain power at home. Large power blocks can be formed, if the animosity between two opposing cultures is strong and permanent enough. Kingdoms are kept together by common language and culture and coordinated by hierarchy, power, authority and obedience. The deal is: “ I will obey, if you take care and protect me.”
This is exactly what happened in many places along the boundaries of the Eurasian steppes. The most striking example in history is the conflict between Mongol nomads and Chinese farmers. Those two cultures are totally different. Just look at ploughing and harvesting. The farmer thinks this is obvious and needed. But the nomad sees this grubbing the soil as a cruel abuse of nature. Even today Mongols wear boots with curved toes to avoid hurting the earth. On both sides denigrating inscriptions have been found. Nomads called farmers grass eating goats. Farmers compared nomads with jumping and stealing apes. Nomads were faster and military superior with their horses and wagons. But farmers were many more in numbers. In the biblical story of Cain and Abel one can still hear the faint echo of this old conflict between settled farmers and wandering herdsmen. Along China’s frontier with Mongolia an enormous wall was built to protect the Chinese empire against the Mongol hordes. Six million lives were lost during it’s construction.
The first state originates in China, complete with officials who were selected fortheir talent rather than family- or friendship ties. The emperor has absolute power and is elevated far above the people and the law. Until 500 BC religion and politics can hardly be separated from each other. In the eyes of his subjects , the ruler was god, son of god, representative of god or servant of god. Religion’s main task was to affirm and maintain the existing political order. But at the time of Israel’s prophets (and also elsewhere), the social order starts is getting criticized and religion increasingly becomes a matter of ethics rather than politics. And this is only too good, because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The almighty king who by threat of coercion can enforce obedience, is a unique and radical way of social organization that until our own times has continued to exist in many placxes. Later we will see how in the West the modern state arises with separation of executive, legislative and judicial power; with the constitution as the highest authority for all including the government; and with the executive power accountable to (representatives of) the people.