For the last six months I’ve been watching a Great Courses overview of ancient civilizations. Forty-eight episodes covering all early development, from Mesopotamia to Egypt and the Chinese, Greece and Rome, to Mesoamerica and the Incas in southern Peru. At one point, the instructor makes the point that in every instance, the vast majority of the population were the farmers, the food producers.

He does not, unfortunately, go on to develop the ironic corollary: In every civilization, the largest and most foundational part of society has been the least powerful. The minority of rulers and powerbrokers, the royalty and clergy, the legalists have always been the exploiters. But those who actually feed them get walked on. It had never occurred to me before, but it has always been true. Only perhaps in today’s industrialized countries where mechanized farming has become the norm, has this maybe changed.

The irony is that the farmers could survive easily without the others; but the overclasses wouldn’t last ten days without the farmers.

I’m sure this is some reflection of our basic tribal nature and our need to be led. Whatever its roots, it’s a profound observation.

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