THE MYTH BEHIND CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION

the limits of life

The Epic of Gilgamesh:

The world’s earliest civilization arises around 3,000 B.C.E., in Babylonia, the valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Writing and pottery are invented. Agriculture, commerce and systems of government and law thrive. Advanced science, mathematics, literature and the arts flourish, as do technologies such as the sickle, the plough, the hoe, irrigation methods, wheeled transport, the potter’s wheel, stone-building, metallurgy and the sailing ship. Mythology is grounded in a polytheistic, animistic religious practice focused on (female) fertility, and a belief in the fundamental correspondence between the human experience and the rhythms of nature.

By 1,750 B.C.E., Babylon is the capital of the kingdom. The first code of civil and criminal law have been formulated under King Hammurabi (1792-1750), and an anonymous poet has written the Epic of Gilgamesh, a saga which recounts the exploits of King Gilgamesh, of Uruk, Sumaria, said to have lived 1000 years earlier (that is, around 2750 B.C.E.).

The interest in Gilgamesh endures. The Epic survives the fall of Babylonia to the Hittites soon after it is written, then to the Kassites who hold it until 1,180 B.C.E. It survives the anarchy which sets in after the fall of the Kassites. The tale is edited around 1,150 B.C.E. The old, and especially the new form of the tale survive when, around 800 B.C.E., Babylonia becomes part of the Assyrian Empire, and both versions again survive when, in 538 B.C.E., Babylonia it becomes part of the Persian Empire. Around 250 B.C.E., the Epic is still treasured as representing the spirit of the first permanently settled human society.

The Epic of Gilgamesh imparts the wisdom of place, the worldly sense of a society in which people live in cities and cultivate the land. It rejects as futile and foolish the quest for immortality and transcendence, counseling instead acceptance and celebration of the human condition – its joys, its losses, and its limitations, including death.

The young, half-divine King Gilgamesh, afraid of death after his friend’s premature death, sets out to find Uta-napishti, the immortal sole survivor of a great flood (the Deluge), so as to obtain for himself the secret to eternal life. At the boundary between the world of mortals and the eternal realm of Uta-napishti, Shiduri, goddess of wisdom, warns him:

“The life that you seek, you never will find.

When the gods created mankind

Death they dispensed to mankind

Life they kept for themselves.”

Subsequently, Uta-napishti echoes Shiduri’s message. Having failed in his quest for transcendence, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, re-awakened to the wonders of home.

The tale thus affirms life in the here and now, and, in recognition of the fundamental and inescapable unity of humanity and nature, counsels acceptance of mortality.

Historical Evidence: Ancient Sumerian kings include a King Gilgamesh. There is no way of knowing if whether was the actual protagonist of the Epic which bears his name.

Point of View: The point of view from which the Epic is written, is presumably that of an inhabitant of the Empire.

Creation Myth: The creation myth assumed by the author is one in which humans were created by the mother goddess out of clay and the blood of an (alas!) errant god. Humans were thus created from defective material. They are from the outset, innately and irrevocably flawed – wayward.

The Meaning of Death: Death carries no moral significance. It simply defines the condition of life. Hope lies in the acceptance of death and mortal limits. This is the only path to peace and happiness.

The Deluge: The great flood has no moral significance for human affairs. It was sent by Enlil, god of the earth (and storms), to try to stifle the din of humanity. Enlil’s rival, Ea, god of water (and wisdom), who considers the flood a mistake, spares Uta-napishti. In a gesture of divine repentance, the gods later grant Uta-napishti immortality.

Central Message: The central message of the Epic is “Go home!” Gilgamesh receives this message after a fevered quest and many trials. He is urged by the goddess Shiduri to return to his family and friends, and embrace the life he does have. After first rejecting the advice, Gilgamesh comes to understand and accept its soundness.

“He came a far road, was weary, found peace”

(Pp. 11-17, 21-23, 145 and 209. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).

The Tale of Abraham*:

In 550 B.C.E., a new Babylonian kingdom (the New Babylonian Empire) arises in that same fertile land as the original Babylonian kingdom which produced the author of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The new kingdom produces another literary master who writes a saga about a man, Abraham, said to have lived more than 1000 years earlier (that is, around 1750 B.C.E. (1812 to 1637 B.C.E. by Jewish dating). Abraham is said to have lived, therefore, at about the time that the author of the Epic of Gilgamesh was writing (1750 B.C.E.). Abraham was a resident of Harran, Mesopotamia (a town sometimes spelt Haran, and also known as Carrhae, in present-day southeast Turkey, near the Syrian border).

Historical Evidence: There is no historical evidence for the existence of Abraham beyond the internal evidence of the Hebrew Bible. There is no corroborative evidence for the historical accuracy of Abraham’s tale outside the Hebrew Bible.

The date and source of the Hebrew Bible is in question. The faithful date it from the time of Moses (c.1250 B.C.E.) or the time of David (d. c.970 B.C.E.), King of Ancient Israel (c.1010-970 B.C.E.). Many scholars, however, believe that it was first compiled during, or soon after, the Babylonian Captivity (from the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonia, in 586 B.C.E., to the reconstruction of a new Jewish state, in Palestine, after 538 B.C.E. During this time, some thousands Jews lived in exile in Mesopotamia, where they were deported when the City fell). Other scholars place the compilation of the Bible at an even later date, such as during the Persian Empire (546-331 B.C.E.) or even the Hellenistic period (331-30 B.C.E.).

The historical accuracy of the Bible is in question. The historical claims it makes are not corroborated by any outside evidence, including any archaeological evidence. For instance, after 150 years of determined exploration, no tangible trace of the “great Kingdom of David” (1010-970 B.C.E.) has been found. This is in stark contrast to other ancient civilizations which have left a reliable archaeological record – the Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Canaanite, Assyrian, Hittite, Egyptian, Minoan, Persian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Scandinavian, Olmec, Mayan, Indian and Chinese.

It is as a myth rather than history that the Hebrew Bible is of central importance to the understanding of Western civilization – as an arresting amalgam of legend, folktale, religious belief, and tribal custom.

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* See “Brief Historical Chronology of Judea”, p. 51 of the present document.

Point of View: The point of view from which this new saga is written, is that of a people (the Hebrews) who are exiles – people who have been forced from another land and whose fabled fortunes have long since faded. The text reflects the outlook of a displaced people struggling with a profound sense of estrangement and a restless longing for another place. Humbled in the present, the exiles imagine great empires, in the past and in the future. The tale eventually becomes the Hebrew Bible, its wisdom, the myth of the “Promised Land.”

Creation Myth: The creation myth of the Hebrew Bible describes humans as having been created from clay by a male God, in his own image. They were, therefore, originally perfect. Their subsequent waywardness is not an innate trait but rather an aberration in behavior which constitutes disobedience (sin), and was punished by exile from paradise. The Hebrew tale thus begins with mankind’s loss of divine grace, and estrangement from its true, God-given identity and existence.

The Meaning of Death: Death is a curse, the penalty for sin, the divine punishment for disobedience. It is due to the loss of the original perfection – which presumably included the prospect of eternal life through access to the Tree of Life, denied Adam by his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Death is rejected and hope lies in redemption, that is, the restoration of perfection. Mortality is un-natural. Mankind is never quite at home in life. Mankind is in exile. Redemption is the goal of life.

The Deluge: The great flood is about mortality. God sends the flood to punish a depraved and faithless humanity. He selects Noah for survival because of Noah’s moral righteousness. But in the end, seeing Noah failings, God forsakes him also.

Central Message: The central message of the saga is “Go forth!” Abraham receives this message without having first traveled or undergone a trial. A command is uttered out of the blue by a disembodied voice which no one else hears:

“Go forth from your native land, and from your father’s home, to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, bless you, and make great your name, that it may be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And through you shall bless themselves all the communities on earth.”

The patriarch of the Israelites is thus enjoined to quit the settled life he has as a native in the advanced civilization of Mesopotamia, and embark upon the life of a stranger in other lands, wandering in blind faith toward a destination both unknown and unknowable.

The promise is that of being great, blessed, and having power over others. Later, the promise comes to include also the imprecise bequeathing of some land – the “Promised Land.” However, this land is never just some worldly territory, a precious piece of real estate. It is a divine space.

In defiance of all ancient wisdom, Abraham believes in this strange new god. He complies and takes leave of all he knows. Henceforth, his identity and that of his descendants, would no longer be defined by attachment to place, but rather by the belief of having been chosen to communicate with the new god.

Abraham’s fate is pre-determined, and thus assured. The promise is unconditional and irrevocable, no matter possible lapses in behavior or belief. The promised greatness and blessedness are guaranteed and inevitable.

The promise both recalls the original immortal incarnation of mankind, and presages the instauration of this immortality. God’s command to Abraham overrides in one swoop Gilgamesh’s hard-won acceptance of the natural limits of life.

Henceforth, hope would be bound not to home but to flight from home, not to what is stable, but to what changes. Hope would thus be displaced from its immanence in life itself to immaterial mechanisms of deliverance and transcendence – otherworldly “promised lands” and the ordered universe they would all reflect. The greater the literal displacement from the land, the greater the displacement of hope to immaterial promises.

By 100 B.C.E., with exiles (real and/or imagined) in Egypt, the Sinai and Babylon, and after successive conquests of Babylonia by Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, Abraham’s descendents have lost all realistic expectation of an earthly empire. They now change the nature of the “Promised Land” – from an actual to a transcendent one.

Examples of the changed nature of the “Promised Land” include:

* The belief of the Pharisees, anticipating that of the Christians, that eternal life and resurrection would be given to those who keep the divine law, as revealed to Moses (c.1250 B.C.E.), and handed down by him through Joshua (successor to Moses, said to have led the Battle of Jericho).

* The apocalyptic redemption prophecy of Daniel, made at the time of the Maccabean Revolt (167-164 B.C.E.), when Judas Maccabeus occupied Jerusalem and re-consecrated the Temple destroyed by King Antiochus IV of Syria (King of Syria 175-163 B.C.E.) (See also under The Promise understood concretely, Christianity, Redemption, The Deliverance).

Ecclesiastes: The point of view expressed in Ecclesiastes is unique in the Hebrew Bible. Ecclesiastes (Greek for the Hebrew “Koheleth,” teacher, preacher), written around 250 B.C.E., most probably describes the conclusion reached by the post-exilic, now settled society of the Kingdom of Judah, Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital (c.930-586 B.C.E.). The central message is, “Embrace the worldly possibilities of the here and now.” Its author, an anonymous, aged teacher, thus rejects outright the divine order as revealed in the promise to the patriarchs and the chosen people.

Relocating hope in a love of life rather than a longing for apocalyptic redemption, Koheleth enjoins:

“For him that is joined to all the living, there is hope.”

At the same time, however, Koheleth acknowledges the natural boundaries imposed by a universe not cut to human specifications:

“The race is not to the swift,

Nor the battle to the strong,

Neither yet bread to the wise,

Nor yet riches to men of understanding,

Nor yet favor to men of skill –

But time and chance happens to them all”

(Pp. 18-28. Wikipedia “Battle of Jericho,” 2008, pp. 1-3. Wikipedia “Daniel,” 2008, pp. 1-7. Wikipedia “Judea,” 2008, p. 3. Wikipedia “Maccabean Revolt,” 2008, pp. 1-2. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).

The Promise UNDERSTOOD concreteLY

Christianity:

Descent: Around 100 B.C.E., with the recurring defeats and destruction of the Hebrews, and divine destiny seemingly denied them, the early Christian Church, calling itself the “New Israel,” takes it upon itself to continue the Hebrew story – actually, not only to continue it, but to see in the advent of Jesus, its very culmination. There is one proviso. The “Promised Land” is no longer earthly. It is other-worldly, spiritual.

To be among the chosen, the emergent, renegade Christian sect has to demonstrate lineage to Abraham. Only as his descendents can Christians claim to be among the chosen – hence, part of the divine covenant, and entitled to the “Promised Land.” God has made his pledge clear, repeating it to both Abraham’s son, Isaac, and Isaac’s son, Jacob:

“And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land . . .”

Lineage to these patriarchs is essential. The early Christians prove their descent from Abraham through Jesus, tracing his lineage to Abraham – as detailed by Matthew in the first chapter of the New Testament.

Redemption: Now among the chosen, the early Christians see in Jesus the actualization of the promise. Jesus is both another Adam (that is, a progenitor of the Garden of Eden, now redeemed), and the Messiah (who would righteously restore the Kingdom of Israel).

Jesus is the personification of:

* The redeemed perfection destined for Abraham and his descendents.

* The eternal life prophesized by priest Ezekiel, during his preaching (593-563 B.C.E.) to the Jews of the Babylonian captivity (586-538 B.C.E.).

* The deliverance, that is, the vindication by God of his beleaguered people on earth, prophesized by Daniel, one of the victims of the Babylonian captivity and champion of the Kingdom of God. Daniel envisioned the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel while in Judea, at the time of the Maccabean Revolt (167-164 B.C.E.), against King Antiochus IV of Syria (King of Syria 175-163 B.C.E.) (See also under The Tale of Abraham, Central Message, The apocalyptic redemption prophecy of Daniel).

Eternal Life: For the Christians, the realization of the promise of eternal life depends in particular on the resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection means the conquest of death, the triumph of man over the limits placed by nature on human existence. This is the triumph denied King Gilgamesh. The resurrection of Jesus means that eternal life has been achieved – provided the “Promised Land” is a spiritual space, not an earthly place.

Thus, for Christians, the “Promised Land” consists of not only (as previously) the restored Garden of Eden and the original land of Israel, but now also the ethereal Kingdom of God, a heavenly New Jerusalem.

The Promise Universalized: The Christian universalize the promise by divorcing the covenant from kinship. Given the requisite faith, all people are rendered potentially chosen people. This first universalist appropriation of the Abrahamic myth would subsequently be followed by a second, in the seventh century, the Islamic faith.

Pre-determination: The promise is inevitable. Revelation (or Apocalypse), the last book of the New Testament, is written around 95 C.E., on Patmos Island, off the coast of Asia Minor, by an exile named John, in the wake of local persecution by the Roman Emperor Dominitian (51-96 C.E.). The Book foretells the fulfillment of eternal life in heaven for believers. The damned will be destroyed and the righteous resurrected. The salvation of mankind is foreordained, the course of events inevitable. As revealed to Abraham, there is an order to the universe, an unseen harmony in human affairs. One has only to believe, heed the divine commands, and adhere to the pre-determined script.

Historical Evidence: The actual historical existence of Jesus is uncorroborated outside the Gospels, and, therefore, remains doubtful (pp. 30-32. For the Book of Revelation, see also under The Promise understood abstractly, History, the Christians; under The Promise understood abstractly, History, A religious Template for History, Joaquim of Fiore; and under Conclusion, In God’s Image, Dwight Jones).

The Sword more than the Word:

Rome: With the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine I (288?-337), Christianity becomes a lawful religion in the Roman Empire (313 C.E.). Henceforth, Roman imperial adventures would be cloaked in the mantle of the divinely ordained advance of the Israelites toward the “Promised Land.” Rome is a chosen nation progressing toward Christ. The fulfillment of the promise is made manifest in the glory of Rome.

[A lone voice, Saint Augustine (354-430), theologian from Cappadocia (present East central Turkey), insists that the New Jerusalem is other-world only].

The Franks:

Saint Gregory of Tours (538-594), French historian and Bishop of Tours, characterizes Clovis (c.466-511), converted leader of the Franks, as the “new Constantine,” thereby identifying the Franks as the heirs of the Israelites.

Charlemagne (742?-814): Charlemagne, Emperor of the Franks, declares himself not only the restorer of the Roman Empire, but the “new David,” restorer of the Kingdom of Israel.

England:

Saint Gildas (d. 570): Saint Gildas, English historian and monk, identifies the Britons, who are fleeing the Romans, as the “true Israelites, guided in their trials by divine providence.”

Saint Bede (673?-735): Saint Bede (known as the Venerable Bede), English historian and Benedictine monk, sees the Saxons as the “new Israelis,” chosen by God to supplant the Britons in the “Promised Land” of Britain.

The Normans:

Ordericus Vitalis (1075-c.1143): Ordericus Vitalis, Norman monk and chronicler, characterizes the Norman conquerors as “God’s chosen people,” the true heirs of Israel.

United States:

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): Christopher Columbus, master of the marine arts, names his voyages,

“The Enterprise of Jerusalem.”

The Puritans: The Puritans (beginning around 1560), declare themselves the children of Israel, chosen to deliver the seed of Abraham to the shores of the “Promised Land.” Facing insurmountable opposition to the establishment of the Kingdom of God in England, these militant millenarians, in the spirit of Abraham, take flight from their native land to live in exile as strangers in a new world.

Ezra Stiles (1727-1795): Ezra Stiles, Congregational clergyman, theologian and president of Yale College, declares, in 1783:

“The Lord shall have made his American Israel high above all nations.”

Lyman Beecher (1775-1863): Lyman Beecher, American Presbyterian clergyman, in his book, Plea for the West (1835), affirms the nation’s manifest destiny to conquer the continent:

“If this nation is, in the providence of God, destined to lead the way in the moral and political emancipation of the world, it is time she understood her high calling, and were harnessed for the work.”

Albert Beveridge (1862-1927): Albert Beveridge, U.S. Senator from Indiana and historian, asserts:

“God marked the American people as the chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world.”

President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924): President Wilson declares, at the end of the First World War:

“The stage is set, the destiny disclosed. It has come about by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God, who led us into this way. We cannot turn back. We can only go forward, with lifted eyes and freshened spirit, to follow the vision. It was this we dreamed at our birth. America shall in truth show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead, and nowhere else.”

President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945): President Roosevelt, during the Second World War, calls upon citizens to:

“cleanse the world of ancient evils, ancient ills. We are inspired by a faith which goes back through all the years to the first chapter of the Book of Genesis . . . We, on our side, are striving to be true to that divine heritage.”

John Foster Dulles (1888-1959): John Foster Dulles, U.S. Secretary of State, declares, in 1954:

“Our nation was conceived with a sense of mission, assigned by Providence.”

President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969): President Eisenhower, upon signing the act of Congress which provides for the addition of the words, “one nation under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, declares, in 1954:

“From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”

President George W. Bush: President George Bush, condemning the decision of the San Francisco Federal Appeals Court that “one nation under God” violates the principle of separation of church and state, declares, in 2002:

“We received our rights from God . . . [The decision] is out of step with American tradition and history.”

Thus is the template of the Old Testament on American history. It is the telos of a displaced people, estranged, but chosen by God to possess transformative powers of perfection, and deploy them upon both nature and mankind.

The ideological and psychological association of the United States with the mythological chosen people of Israel is deep, and remains at the core of American self-identity (pp. 30-32, 34-39 and 73, CNN 2002, pp. 1-4. Wikipedia “Judea,” 2008, pp. 1-4. Wikipedia “Stiles,” 2008, pp. 1-2. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).

Islam:

Descent: Like the Christians, the followers of Muhammad (570?-632, sometimes spelt Mohammed) trace his lineage back to Abraham. Abraham is mentioned in nearly a quarter of the Koran’s “suras.” Abraham is thought to have constructed the holy Kaaba, site of Islamic pilgrimage in Mecca.

Exile: Just as the biblical story begins with the departure of Abraham from Harran, so in Islam, the story (and time itself) begins with Muhammad’s hejira of 622 C.E. – his flight from his native Mecca to Medina.

The Promise: For Muslims, as for Christians, the promise of a great and blessed nation is combined with that of transcendence.

The Promise universalized: Like the Christians, Muslims universalize the promise to Abraham. All are potentially chosen, provided they have the requisite faith.

One absolute God: Just as Abraham blindly obeyed the call (and law) of God, so Islam is centered upon an utterly uncompromising, monotheistic worship of one God, Allah, who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. There must be absolute submission to His laws by strict adherence to specified religious practice.

Pre-determination: For Muslims, as for Christians, a person’s life culminates, not in death but in angelic judgment, and (potentially) in heavenly resurrection with eternal bliss in paradise. All aspects of existence, including individual and collective human experience, operate according to an inherent set of laws bestowed upon the Islamic faithful by God. Knowing these laws, and submitting to them, form the essence of the Islamic faith – the only mortal means of fulfilling the promise.

In its most uncompromising form, the spirit of earthly triumph and heavenly salvation impels the fundamentalist Islamic suicide bombers in their jihad against the empires of the West. The mythological foundation of their strivings is the same as that of the West.

The Sword more than the Word: After Muhammad, Islamic warriors quickly extend the great nation of Allah to the whole Middle East, Near East, North Africa, and eastward as far as India (pp. 32-34 and 48. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).

God’s original Israel:

Zionism: In the 20^th century, Zionism asserts anew the identity of the Israelis as God’s chosen people, and their claim to the “Promised Land.” The establishment, in 1948, of a State of Israel in Palestine, would have been unthinkable, had it not been for the enduring resonance of the Hebrew mythology, which both inspires the Zionists, and favorably predisposes their patrons in England and the U.S. These patrons themselves have empires rooted in the same myths.

The Zionist movement recalls the three signal episodes of Hebrew lore, and adds a fourth one:

1. The call to Abraham to go forth to Canaan (c.1750 B.C.E.).

2. The exodus from exile in Egypt, and the subsequent conquest of Canaan (ancient Palestine), the “Promised Land” of the Israelites (c.1250 B.C.E.).

3. The return to the Kingdom of Judah (the southern kingdom of the Jews) from exile in Babylon (538 B.C.E.).

4. The rebirth of ancient Judea (Southern Palestine), lost to Rome in 70 C.E. – the region occupied by Israel in 1967.

Historical Evidence: There is no compelling evidence that, as the Hebrew Bible proclaims, the Hebrews had a state in Palestine around 1000 B.C.E. The present horrific consequences of the hijacking of the Palestinians’ native land were predictable, yet the mythology of the “Promised Land” persists undiminished (pp. 39-46).

The Promise UNDERSTOOD abstractLY

In Western civilization, the most influential modern expression of the myth of the “Promised Land,” is in its secularized, abstract ideas of automatic redemption and deliverance. Concepts such as history, technology, and the market, which together comprise the foundational framework of contemporary Western thought, are grounded in the Hebrew myth of the divine order revealed to Abraham and his successors. These concepts are the modern, abstract, secularized form of the old myth.

History:

Time: Linear time assumes a major importance in the Abrahamic tale, and hence for Christians. God’s Promise to Abraham – restored perfection – made time the medium of divine deliverance.

Location in time would henceforth be more important than location in space, and within this time, the future (the moment of fulfillment) would be more important than the present (the moment of the offer). The mind would re-focus itself on expectation rather than experience, on the potential rather than the actual – the present ceasing to exist in its own right, henceforth existing only in relation to the future. Experience would be funneled into a destiny-defined, future-oriented temporal framework designed to diminish the present and defer life. The measure of human experience is its movement toward its destiny.

The passage of time is invisible and not apprehensible. To apprehend time, we build clocks with faces which transform the passage of time into the traversing of space by a needle. Invisible time is made visible by turning it into space.

Past time no longer exists. It is no more. We invent history to transform it into space. We see a panorama of past experiences. History reified (that is, conceived of as a thing it itself, apart from the human beings that have experienced it), permits time to be reified and rendered apprehensible. The past is arrested and given a new lease on life, albeit as hostage to the present.

The account of the movement of human experience toward its destiny would be called history. History would be the chronicle of the unfolding of the universal divine plan.

Thus, in their retrospectively ordered realm of history, the chosen people find a second guarantor of the promise. The first was God. Now time, through history, is the second. History, linear and teleological, is designed to deliver them to their appointed destination, and validate the claim that time itself is on their side. By heeding the logic of history (which they themselves have constructed) and attuning their actions accordingly, the chosen people are guaranteed the greatness and redemption promised them (p. 69).

Through history, time guarantees redemption.

The Hebrews: For the Hebrews, history, as the index of the inevitable advance toward the “Promised Land,” becomes all important. Their sacred texts, although following a transcendent script, are written as if they were a historical account.

Their story begins with the Fall and follows the journey of Abraham and his descendents – from the Call to Abraham (c.1750 B.C.E.), the time of the patriarchs (Isaac and Jacob), the Exodus (under Moses, c.1250 B.C.E.), the Conquest of Canaan (Ancient Palestine, the “Promised Land”), and the Kingdom of Joshua (successor to Moses), through to the Exile in Babylon (586 B.C.E.), the Return (538 B.C.E.), and Exile once again (after the conquest by Rome, 70 C.E.). The overarching linear framework is the transcendent trajectory toward redemption (pp. 49-51).

The Christians: Christians inherit the historical orientation of Jewish texts. The New Testament recapitulates the epic biblical journey from Fall to Redemption, though now it is encapsulated in the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Saint Augustine, for instance, historical experience is the tenure of humankind during its exile from perfection. It is homogeneous and unchanging, of little interest and without consequence, no more than a filler in the larger story of salvation. The only spiritually significant moment in a person’s life is death, the gateway to the transcendent.

The Book of Revelation (written around 95 C.E.) is of great interest. By providing a detailed chronicle of the final episodes in human history, it reveals the divine agenda, enabling the reader to correlate historical experience with the divine plan, and predict the advent of the Millennium. The Book is the indispensable guide to all millenarian expectation (For the Book of Revelation, see also under The Promise understood concretely, Christianity, Pre-determination; under The Promise understood abstractly, History, A religious Template for History, Joaquim of Fiore; and under Conclusion, In God’s Image, Dwight Jones).

A religious Template for History: Joachim of Fiore and Giambattista Vico describe the internal movement of history as led by divine laws outside human agency. History is linear and teleological, driven by Providence, and it leads us to the renewed perfection of Adam. This view of the movement of history toward a millennium would be a template followed by later, even secular, thinkers.

Joachim of Fiore (c.1132-1202): Joachim of Fiore, Cistercian abbot from Calabria, Italy, in his book, Exposition on the apocalypse, puts to rest the uncertainties left by the Book of Revelation. On the basis of his own revelation, Joachim of Fiore gives history a pre-determined, dynamic, linear course, set by providence and irreversible.

History consists of three stages which correspond to the elements of the trinity, and these stages proceed in a fixed sequence toward the Millennium.

1. The first stage is that of the father (initiated by Adam).

2. The second stage is that of the Son (initiated by Jesus).

3. The third stage is that of the Holy Spirit [initiated by the Italian monk and founder of the Benedictines, Saint Benedict of Nursia (c.547)].

Mankind has already reached the end of the third stage – the period of transition to the Millennium. History is a moving belt in motion, carrying mankind inexorably and automatically to its inevitable destination.

Joachim of Fiore’s apocalyptic conception of history is a potent variation on the theme of the “Promised Land,” and in the future, it would be a major influence on Western thought. The theme of the millenarian mythology of redemption would continue in various forms in the interpretation of “history.” By 1700, as the laws of celestial motion would be discovered [such as by the German Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)], and as the laws of mechanical motion would be discovered [such as by the English Isaac Newton (1642-1727)], and as these laws would be heralded as the irrefutable foundation of religious belief, observers of history would search for a similar order in human affairs (pp. 53-56, 59, 62-64 and 66. Noble 1997/1999, pp. 202-203, summarized in Hall 2004, p. 4. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000. For the Book of Revelation, see also under The Promise understood concretely, Christianity, Pre-determination; under The Promise understood abstractly, History, The Christians; and under Conclusion, In God’s Image, Dwight Jones).

Giambattista Vico (1668-1744): Giambattista Vico (also known as Giovanni Vico), Italian philosopher and historian, professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples, in his book, New science (1725), bases his theory of history on a more solid epistemological foundation than did Joachim of Fiore.

Like Joachim of Fiore, however, Vico interprets “the inherent dynamic of history”, as pre-determined by providence. History is, in essence, independent of the purposes and will of those who experience it. As in the Hebrew myth of the “Promised Land,” and the Christian myth of the Millennium, history has a transcendent purpose. The divine agenda for humanity is pre-determined, only set in motion by unwitting human agency. The destiny of humanity is to discover the divine laws and heed them.

The study of history (the “new science”), Vico maintains, is the study of human societies, the “world of nations.” It includes both the conscious thoughts and actions of the historical actors, and their unreflective “common sense,” as manifested in language, literature and lore. But Vico’s interpretation of the unreflective “common sense,” becomes his proof of an outside “divine” force:

“A true history is a history of the forms of order which, without human discernment or intent, and often against the designs of men, providence has given to this great city of the human race.”

Vico identifies a steady succession of progressive “modifications of the human mind,” proof of an inherent dynamic in history. Again, Vico’s interpretation of this dynamic, is that it is “a demonstration of the historical fact of providence”:

“Once these order were established by divine providence, the course of the affairs of the nations had to be, must now be, and will have to be such as our Science demonstrates. For though the world has been created in time and particular, the orders established therein by providence are universal and eternal.”

Vico sees history as both an immanent and a transcendent process (pp. 56-58).

The secular Version of the religious Template: Kant, de Condorcet, Hegel, Comte and Marx describe the internal movement of history as responding to forces outside human agency – Nature, Reason, Freedom, the Good, empirical science, modes of production. History is linear and teleological, driven by universal laws which lead us to the pre-determined perfection of mankind.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): Immanuel Kant, German metaphysician, also searches for “the secret plan” of history – the “determinate plan . . . the universal purpose of nature” behind the surface events and conscious designs of the historical actors. Like Vico’s, Kant’s perspective is universalist, independent of place.

Kant defines Nature as, in fact, God:

“Nature – or, rather, let us say, Providence.”

Kant finds three decrees of Nature:

1. All capacities with which humanity is endowed as a species must inevitably unfold to the fullest.

2. Reason, the source of human capacities, exists in the species rather than in the individual.

3. Reason impels mankind to produce a more perfect world, based on civil order. Paradoxically, Nature achieves this through a mutual antagonism between people – an antagonism which spurs them to establish laws, which are the foundation of freedom and justice.

The pre-determined, ultimate goal of Nature is a “perfect Civil Union.” In his essay, “Idea of a universal History from a cosmopolitan Point of View,” Kant declares:

“The history of the human race, viewed as a whole, may be regarded as the realization of a hidden plan of nature to bring about a political constitution, internally and externally perfect, as the only state in which all the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully developed . . . Philosophy may also have its millennial view.”

The disclosure of the divine order in history helps humans know the true purpose of their existence, and thereby helps them contribute to its fulfillment – the promised restoration of human perfection (pp. 58-60).

Antoine-Nicolas de Condorcet (1743-1794): Antoine-Nicolas de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher and political leader, also predicts the ultimate perfection of man.

While eschewing any explicit reference to divine agency, de Condorcet nevertheless reaches the conclusion that the march of reason and freedom (the principles of the French Revolution) is inevitable. Science, equality, education, suffrage, laws, justice based on natural rights, the expansion of commerce, and developments in language, literature and arts, all point to the superiority of moderns over ancients.

Behind the turmoil of human affairs, natural laws, akin to those of nature, inexorably drive the advance of progress through the unwitting agency of human reason.

In his essay, “Sketch for a historical Picture of the Progress of the human Mind,” de Condorcet writes:

“Nature has set no limits to the realization of our hopes. This progress will doubtless vary in speed but it will never be reversed. [It will lead to] the true perfection of mankind.”

Knowledge of these law enables people to hasten the fore-ordained future (pp. 60-61, 64, 67 and 81).

Georg Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831): Georg Hegel also sees history as the unfolding of “universal divine reason,” working “behind the backs” of historical actors, and using their passions to advance itself.

In his essay, “Lectures on the Philosophy of History” (1820), Hegel notes how great accomplishments (such as those of Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon) reflect the coincidence of human agency with the underlying evolution of Reason. This coincidence proceeds dialectically from one historical “moment” (incomplete intellectual incarnation) to the next, on the way to its inevitable, universal realization.

Just as, in Abraham’s time, the promised fortunes of the chosen people reflected their being in accord with the divine plan, so now, freedom consists in the recognition of the necessity to be in accord with the divine plan:

“The truly good – the universal divine reason – is not a mere abstraction, but a vital principle capable of realizing itself. This Good, this Reason, in its most concrete form, is God. God governs the world. The actual working of His government – the carrying out of His plan – is the History of the World. This plan philosophy strives to comprehend” (pp. 61-62).

Auguste Comte (1798-1857): Auguste Comte, French engineer and philosopher, founder of positivism, and “Father of Sociology,” heralds the triumph of science over both superstition and the supernatural. Comte insists on a rigorously empirical approach to knowledge, grounded on observation and verifiable facts.

Like Joachim of Fiore, however, Comte views history as a succession of three stages, leading inevitably to perfection. These “epochs of the general mind” reflect the evolution of the sciences, and thus the intellectual maturation of humanity – the “natural progress of civilization”:

1. The theological stage corresponds to mankind’s “childhood.” Causation is thought to be supernatural and divine.

2. The metaphysical stage corresponds to mankind’s “youth.” The intellect is focused on abstractions, absolutes, and essences.

3. The scientific (“positive”) stage corresponds to humanity’s “manhood.” Through the close study of cause and effect, mankind finally confronts the concrete reality of phenomena, reasons from observation, and discerns the laws of nature.

Humanity is in this final stage, one of:

“transition to the true and final doctrine” [positivism, empirical science, which] will afford the only possible, and the utmost possible satisfaction to our natural aspiration after eternity. [As such, it constitutes] the restoration of religion [which will bring about] a perfecting unity [with the] Great Being, [and the] ultimate regeneration [of mankind] . . . The regeneration of the world by positivism [signals a transformation which is] as indispensable as it is inevitable . . . Successive modifications of society have always taken place in a determinate order. We see only men, never the forces which irresistibly compel them.”

The new science of “social physics” would reveal the inevitable tendency toward progress. Human purposes and actions are for naught, unless they are exerted in the same direction as the underlying forces. Only then are they effective (pp. 62-64).

Karl Marx (1818-1883): Karl Marx shifts attention from thoughts to the products of thought. Where, in their study of history, Vico, Kant, de Condorcet, Hegel and Comte focused on intellectual concepts (the progressive evolution of the human mind, providentially pre-programmed to bring mankind to the “Promised Land”), Marx focuses on the concrete means of production which humans have created, and which, in turn, condition their intellectual concepts.

The course of history is inevitable, both because it is rooted in technological and economic progress, and because it itself is propelled by this technological and economic progress.

Like Joachim of Fiore and Auguste Comte, Marx sees history as evolving through successive stages. In his preface to his book, Contribution to a critique of political economy, and in his book, The communist manifesto, Marx divides history into periods which correspond to particular modes of production – primitive communism, antiquity, the “Asiatic,” feudalism, capitalism, and socialism. These culminate in a return to communism, this time at a higher level of development – Marx ’s materialist millennium. Marx considers the Paris Commune (1871), as the premier, if premature, eruption of the emergent proletariat.

The “wheel of history” is turning irreversibly:

“What the bourgeoisie produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers . . . Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”

Like his forebears, Marx thinks that disclosing the imperatives of history will help leaders move its process forward along the path to socialism and communism – Marx’s “Promised Land.”

Like Vico, Kant, de Condorcet, Hegel and Comte, Marx believes that historical actors are themselves blind to the fundamental movement of history, because it takes place “behind their backs.” Humans are, therefore, unaware of the true significance of their own actions (pp. 64-69).

History as a Vehicle to the “Promised Land”: Joachim of Fiore, Vico, Kant, de Condorcet, Hegel, Comte and Marx all subscribe to an inherent order in history, an order which leads to a “millennium” – a “Promised Land.” All view history as pre-determined by a force outside the conscious agency of the human actors who actually live it.

* For Fiore and Vico, the pre-determined end is the Millennium – redemption, the return of Adam’s perfection.

* For Kant, Nature (“Providence”) is leading humans to a “perfect Civil Union.”

* For de Condorcet, progress, in the form of reason and freedom, is leading to the ultimate perfection of man.

* For Hegel, “universal divine reason” (God) is realizing itself through history.

* For Comte, positivism (empirical science) would lead irresistibly to the regeneration of the world.

* For Marx, the means of production and the distribution of products would lead inevitably to the victory of the proletariat, and the ideal means to distribute products – communism (pp. 49-69).

A MATERIALISTIC MILLENNIUM:

Embracing the Concepts of Karl Marx: For Marx, the movement of history is driven by two forces outside the conscious agency of humans – the products created collectively by human beings, and the exchange of these products among human beings (their economic activities).

Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), Friedrich Engels, German socialist, in his book, Anti-During (Dialectic Materialism) (1878), summarizes the materialistic conception:

“Production and, with production, the exchange of its products, is the basis of every social order.”

By the same alchemy which turned time into history, Marx’s two forces (the creation and the exchange of products) would be reified – removed from their social moorings, and turned into “things” in and of themselves. Stripped of their human sinew, the core activities of production would become the autonomous mechanism of “technology.” Stripped of their human sinew, the core activities of exchange would become the autonomous mechanism of “the economy” (or its modern equivalent, “the market”).

The first guarantor of redemption (God, divine determinism), was followed by a second (time, historical determinism). Now, historical determinism itself would be reinforced by a third and a fourth guarantor, “technology,” and “the economy” (“the market”). Like God and history, both these latter concepts would be seen as determinants of the human fate, and yet, rooted outside conscious human agency.

The ingrained Abrahamic habit of obedience to divine direction, initially instilled with the call of God to the patriarchs, and subsequently inscribed in the very idea of history, would be transferred to these two new, disembodied concepts, now also considered deterministic imperatives. Deference and obedience would be called for. The dictates of “technology” and “the economy” (“the market”) should be heeded because they, in the end, will lead us to a millennium, albeit a materialistic millennium.

Now, not only history, but within history, “technology” and “the economy” (“the market”) would become keepers of the promise – surrogates for God.

Technology:

Disdain for the practical Arts: Before the Carolingian Empire, Christian thinking mirrors the classical disdain for the practical (mechanical) arts, both because of their association with lowly manual labor, women and servitude, and because of their association with mankind’s fall from grace. The various arts, crafts, and related scientific and technical innovations, are merely God’s gifts to fallen mankind so as to ease the curse of its mortal condition.

Saint Augustine (354-430): Saint Augustine, theologian from Cappadocia (present East central Turkey), maintains that, in its blessed state of renewed perfection, a saved mankind will have no further need for these arts:

“All these favors taken together are but the fragmentary solace allowed us in a life condemned to misery” (See the present document under The Promise interpreted concretely, Christianity, the Sword more than the Word, Rome; and under The Promise interpreted abstractly, History, Time, the Christians).

Spiritualization of the practical Arts: During the Carolingian empire, particularly under Charlemagne (742?-814), the practical arts become spiritualized.

The Utrecht Psalter (Book of Psalms): The Utrecht Psalter, illumined near Rheims around 830, contains an illustration of Psalm 63 of the Old Testament, including its injunction that the godless enemies of the righteous “shall fall by the sword.” The illustration portrays the enemies of God sharpening their swords with the traditional whetstone, while the righteous use a grindstone turned by a crank. There is no doubt that technical innovation is on the side of the righteous, in accord with the will of God, and the triumph (and ultimate redemption) of mankind.

John Scotus Erigena (c.810-c.877 ): John Scotus Erigena, Irish-born court philosopher to Charlemagne’s grandson, Charles the Bald [Charles II (823-877)], first fully articulates the spiritual significance of the “mechanical arts” (a phrase which he coins). Erigena maintains that full knowledge of these arts is part of mankind’s pre-lapsarian endowment, and that their development, therefore, contributes to a recovery of lost perfection:

“All men by nature possess natural arts, but because, on account of the punishment for the sin of the first man, they are obscured in the souls of men and are sunk in profound ignorance . . . [The arts are] man’s links with the divine, their cultivation a means to salvation.”

The Benedictines: In their iconography, the Benedictines [Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Benedict of Nursia (c.547)], popularize Erigena’s characterization of the mechanical arts as linked to the divine. They create, for instance, illuminated images of the creator God as a master craftsman, holding such artisanal apparatus as a carpenter’s square, scales, and compasses.

Reifying the practical Arts: Over the course of the next centuries, the practical arts become increasingly reified – abstracted from their actual social, spatial and temporal context of human enterprise. The process would eventually evolve into to our present concept of “technology.”

The practical Arts for Salvation: During the Renaissance (1600’s), the practical arts are fully incorporated into the mythology of salvation.

The abstract aggregate of disparate productive activities assumes the appearance of a singular “thing” – a disembodied, autonomous, self-propelled engine of salvation. Abstracted from any particulars of place and practice, the evolving productive arts, generically apprehended, appear as a phenomenon with both historical agency and transcendent significance – a force in history, created through human agency but not of it.

Like history, the advance of science and arts appears to proceed in a linear fashion, independent of the chaotic affairs of human beings, moving collectively, continuously, cumulatively, and irreversibly – all made possible by the humble contributions of countless artisans and philosophers.

Nearly all champions of scientific and technical advance echo this redemptive theme. The spiritual rather than material significance of the practical arts is paramount.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600): Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, writes:

“[By means of new and wonderful inventions] separating themselves more and more from their animal natures . . . [men] climbed nearer the divine being.”

Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Francis Bacon, English philosopher, essayist and statesman, believes that the advancement of human knowledge is the key to salvation and the promised restoration of perfection:

“The entrance into the kingdom of man, founded on the sciences, [is] not much other than the entrance into the kingdom of heaven . . . The true end of knowledge . . . is a restitution and reinvesting (in great part) of man to the sovereignty and power . . . which he had in his first state of creation.”

Robert Boyle (1627-1691): Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish physicist and chemist, in his two volumes, Considerations touching the Usefulness of experimental natural philosophy (1663-1671), calls the renewal of Adam’s knowledge essential for the restoration of perfection:

“In the great renovation of the world and the future state of things, . . . those that have made the best use of their former knowledge [shall fare best].”

Progress (Salvation) is inevitable: During the Enlightenment (1700’s), the transcendent spirit of the champions of the productive arts evolves into the more secularized faith in progress. The useful arts and associated science together are identified generically as not only the ever-enhanced means of material existence, but also the surest sign, and the underlying cause, of social progress and human perfection.

The notion that human progress is inevitable springs from the accumulation of the practical arts, and their assumed link to salvation. de Condorcet exemplifies this faith in the inexorable evolution of the human mind and the social perfection it portends. Mankind would achieve perfection through the advancement of knowledge.

Salvation is concrete: During the 1800’s, salvation becomes increasingly concrete – Comte predicts salvation through empirical science, Marx, through the trajectory of social organization toward communism. In emphasis, both of these views are utilitarian. In essence, they are both transcendent.

Terminology:

“Technology:”

The word “technology” derives from the Greek teckhne, meaning “craft” or “art” in the sense of a specialized technical skill. As a singular noun, referring generically to the arts and related sciences in the aggregate, as well as to the artifacts produced (and even, as an abstract ensemble, to the practitioners and institutions involved), the use of the word “technology” emerges slowly during in the 1800’s:

1650 “Technology” in a narrow Sense: In the English language, the word begins to be used in a limited sense, to denote a treatise on some particular art(s).

1777 Johann Beckmann (1739-1811): Johann Beckman, professor of philosophy at Gottingen University, Germany, publishes a book entitled, Anleitung zur technologie [Instruction (Guidance, Tutorial) on Technology]. This represents the first use of the term in a book title. The word soon appears in French, Spanish and Swedish.

1829 Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879): Jacob Bigelow, Harvard physician, borrows the term for his lectures on the application of science to the useful arts, which he entitles, “Elements of Technology.”

1859 Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890): Richard Burton, English explorer, writer and linguist, uses the word in its modern inclusive sense, referring to the “practical arts collectively.”

1861 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology: The newly founded Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) adopts the term of its name. To denote a unifying concept, the term soon replaces others previously used, such as the practical (mechanical, useful, industrial) arts, crafts, mechanical improvements (inventions, discoveries), industry, mechanisms, the Machine, means of production, manufactures, and the arts of science.

1950 The term gains popularity as a sweeping concept. Technology is seen as a decisive force in history.

“Industrial Revolution”:

1880 Historian Arnold Toynbee (1852-1983) coins the term “industrial revolution.”

“Technology” as Redemption in the making: The modern term “technology” is a concise, convenient, one-word substitute for the vocabulary used during the past 1000 years, to denote the development of human productive activities as the means to both survival and salvation.

Like the idea of history, the concept of technology is in essence a metaphysical construct, a grandiose mystification of the mundane and the familiar. Divorced from its moorings in the settled social life of particular people, in particular places, “technology” appears:

* Transcendent, a thing apart, with a life of its own, impinging on human affairs as if from the outside.

* Autonomous, seemingly independent of the human agency and aspirations that created it.

* Disembodied, magically removed from, and cleansed of the physical and sensual realities of which it is constituted.

* Automatic, driven mysteriously by its own internal logic and dynamic along a self-defined, uni-linear, and inevitable course.

* Deterministic, the primary mover in history, functioning not only as the indubitable indicator or progress, but also as its irreducible first cause.

In the idea of technology, divine assurance hardens into a force propre (a force of its own), and dreams of deliverance metamorphose into the dictates of necessity.

Technology is universal, boundless, full of promise. It is promise itself.

Both history and technology move through time, the medium so important for the exile. Just as history is the reification of time, conceived to provide an account of the fulfillment of the promise, so technology is the reification of redemption in the making, a saving force moving inexorably through the same medium (time). Destiny demands deference, and surrender, to this wondrously metaphysical, yet material force – the new means and measure of mankind’s salvation (pp. 69-86. Noble 1997/1999, pp. 11, 13, 21-22, 39, 66-67, 83, 202-205; summarized in Hall 2004, pp. 1-12. Wikipedia “Beckmann” 2007, pp. 1-2. Wikipedia “Bigelow” 2008, pp. 1-2).

From “Technology” to Fatalism: In the 1990’s, the word “technology” is recognized to be semantically vacuous – not identified with any particular kind of artifact, or any particular social group, profession, or institution, nor representing any specifiable body of ideas, methods or principles. It is an elusive non-entity which lends itself to be used to engender societal mystification, passivity and fatalism:

Leo Marx: Leo Marx, Professor (Emeritus) of American Cultural History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), writing in the Journal of social Research, in 1997, explains:

“‘Technology’ in the sense of the mechanic arts collectively [is not an entity. It] lacks both particularity and discreetness, and indeed is no sort of unit whatever. The vacuity of the concept might not matter very much, were it not for its omnipresence, and its implicitly portentous consequences. Today, an immense chorus of intelligent people laments the fact that ‘we’ (humanity), in the trite phrase, ‘do not know where technology is taking us.’”

“The chief hazard attributable to the concept of technology, as currently used, is the mystification, passivity, and fatalism it helps engender. We invoke the word as if it were a discrete entity, and thus a causative factor (if not the chief causal factor) in every conceivable development of modernity.”

“[Technology] serves as a surrogate agent, and a mask, for the human actors actually responsible for the developments in question. [Reified, and] endowed with the magical power of an autonomous entity, technology is a major factor which contributes to [the post-modern sense] of political impotence.”

“By attributing autonomy and agency to technology, we make ourselves vulnerable to the feeling that our collective life in society is uncontrollable. The popularity of the belief that technology is the primary force shaping the post-modern world, is a measure of our growing reliance, when we make choices about the direction of society, on instrumental standards of judgment [to the detriment] of moral and political standards” (Marx 1997, p. 12; my internet pages 3-5).

A self-fulfilling Prophecy: Technological determinism, a concept derived from the reification of the social activity of production, is self-fulfilling. Belief in the idea fosters a redemptive faith in, and thus a fatalistic surrender to the power of things over people. People allow technology to shape their lives, ipso facto rendering technological determinism valid (pp. 69-86).

The Market:

The Reification of social Exchange: The concepts, “the economy,” and its contemporary sibling, “the market,” derive from the reification of the social activity of exchange – the means through which the fruits of production are distributed. The concepts represent abstractions from the complex web of commercial intercourse, which is itself embedded in the fabric of social life.

Belief in the ultimate deterministic power of these abstractions, and the corresponding surrender of the social will to the imperatives of their supposedly self-regulating and redemptive mechanisms, gives them power over people. This, especially in a culture, long predisposed to believe in, and surrender to, the promise and demands of a disembodied deity.

“The Economy” (“The Market”) – Conceptual Roots:

1650 Two Senses: The word, “economy,” from the Greek oikonomia (household management), comes into two different general uses:

1. A worldly Order of human Design: In its secular sense, the word “economy” refers to the manner in which a household is ordered, and denotes a regime organized and regulated for efficient administration and productivity. The “household” might be a community, town or nation. English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), in Leviathan (1651), refers to “the economy of the commonwealth.” The social order is imperfectly fashioned by human beings who are imperfect.

2. A spiritual Order of divine Design: In its religious sense, the word “economy” refers to the manner in which the divine government of the world is ordered. Theologians speak of how “the economy of heaven” (“the divine economy”) and “the economy of creation” are the two foundations of “the economy of salvation.”

This sense of “the economy” is the ideological source of the modern concept. Thus, instead of a movement away from the religious, as typically portrayed, the emergence of the core concept of capitalism entails a shift in the opposite direction – a religious notion of a social order rendered more perfect through its surrender to the sublime logic of a divine order.

1660 The Royal Society of London: The Royal Society of London is founded. Taking Francis Bacon as its patron saint, the Society compares him to Moses who directs his devoted disciples to the “Promised Land.” The Society focuses primarily on the advancement of the useful arts as aids to the emergent capitalist enterprise, in which many of the participants have an interest.

1675 Land Enclosures: Unchecked land enclosures, and their associated agricultural “improvements” reach their peak, enabling the production of the two central fictitious commodities of the new capitalist regime – land and labor. Land is fenced in for the most profitable use or sale. Labor is expelled from its traditional habitation and compelled either to work for a wage or join the swelling ranks of “the poor.” As the products from farm and factory increase, so too do capitalist clamors for new markets and free trade.

1758 Francois Quesnay (1694-1774): Francois Quesnay, French economist, founder of the physiocratic school of economics, publishes his book, Tableau economique (Economic Table), a heuristic visual representation of the economic activity of France as a whole, aimed at helping the monarchy formulate policy. Quesnay emphasizes lowering the barriers to agricultural exports, and the physiocrats coin the phrase “laissez-faire.”

1776 Adam Smith (1723-1790): Adam Smith publishes his book, An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Much as the pioneers of modern science sought to lay bare the hidden laws of the cosmos, so Smith seeks to illuminate the natural laws of society. He assumes that beneath the chaos of commerce, there exists a beneficent divine order in nature, which he locates in:

1. Man’s instinct to barter in his own self-interest.

2. An “invisible hand” of the market which transmutes that self-interest into the social good.

3. “Natural laws” of the market which correlate supply and demand.

4. Providentially, the promotion of universal peace and brotherhood by free trade.

Smith’s theory is based on the template of the “Promised Land.” Even while he sees around him the pursuit of money in the process of transforming Earth into propertied land, and the Earth’s inhabitants into labor, he nevertheless trusts that from the ineradicable vices of human beings, a providential design would generate unintended virtues – selfish means to the social good (the “Promised Land”). Such a faith in divine legerdemain is familiar. It leads Smith to champion the emancipation of mankind’s desires through a “system of perfect liberty.” Human beings would be in “perfect competition.”

The wresting of the economic enterprise from its moorings in social life is under way. The concept of the self-regulating market would gradually take an ever more concrete reality and eventually, a life of its own.

The concept of economic determinism would take shape in step with the growth of the competitive commercial and industrial capitalist enterprise.

1850 A (religious) “Economy”: The concept of an anonymous, autonomous, automatic, disembodied, and deterministic mechanism of commodity exchange, crystallizes. Its roots are distinctly in the religious sense of the word, “the economy.” The concept itself ante-dates by a century the abstract use of the terms “the economy” (and later, “the market”).

1875 Capitalism in Crisis: The rise of corporations engenders a crisis of legitimacy for capitalism. The growth of corporations leads to two developments, both of which run counter to the fundamental tenets of classical economics, and which thus threaten the very legitimacy of the capitalist system.

Large firms, now dominant in many key industries, seek to:

1. Gain control over prices by eliminating competition and monopolizing markets. This interferes with the “perfect liberty” of “pure competition” on which the munificent operation of the self-regulating market depends.

A movement for anti-trust legislation, however, is over-shadowed by a growing belief in the inevitability, and ultimate beneficence, of such monetary concentration. Karl Marx, for instance, views such concentration of the means of production as inexorably laying the foundation for the complete socialization of production.

2. Seek federal regulation aimed at increasing price stability and predictability. Efforts in this direction would culminate in the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission, in 1917.

However, state intervention in the market, even at the behest of the corporation, undermines the idea of the divine economy (the spiritual order of divine design), which humans should trust, even to the extent of completely dismantling their household economy (the worldly order of human design).

1886 The Santa Clara Decision: In its landmark Santa Clara decision, the United States Supreme Court, without acknowledging the actual status of the corporation as a collective entity, confers on it the constitutional status of a person.

The crisis of legitimacy for the capitalist system, is resolved. Corporate personhood affords corporations the same natural rights as the free individuals who are at the core of the laissez-faire market. (Indeed, corporations are more compatible with the classical theory than actual humans, because they come closer to the theoretical ideal of a starkly self-interested, utility-maximizing “economic man”).

Endowed with natural rights protecting them from the state, corporations can now solicit state regulation, without forfeiting their freedom as private individuals or subverting the free market which depends on this freedom.

The ontological definition of corporations as natural persons thus confers on them unassailable legal rights within the legitimating ideology of classical economic theory.

Corporate directors and shareholders would henceforth be immune from liability beyond their limited stake in the enterprise, legally required to remain indifferent to any end but shareholder return on investment, required to make a profit, and at the same time, be immortal.

1932 President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945): President Roosevelt initiates the New Deal, a program of domestic reforms which would continue through the 1930’s. It provides not only recovery and relief from the Great Depression, but also social and economic legislation which benefits working people. The Social Security System, part of the program, for example, is established in 1935.

The New Deal re-defines the domestic terrain for the corporations.

1936 John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946): John Maynard Keynes, English economist, publishes his book, The general theory of interest, employment and money, a sharp critique of laissez-faire economic policies. Keynes argues that the central government needs to regulate, particularly during periods of chronic unemployment. Keynes trusts the capitalist market economy, saying only that government action is needed to stimulate the market. He does not want to eliminate the market.

1942 Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992): Friedrich Hayek, English economist, publishes his book, The road to freedom, in which he advocates for the free market, and against government intervention in the economy. Hayek criticizes John Maynard Keynes for his advocacy of government spending on public works to promote employment.

1944 The Bretton Woods Institutions and the United Nations: The Bretton Woods Conference, in New Hampshire, creates the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to promote international monetary cooperation, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“the World Bank”) to make loans to member nations. In 1945, the United Nations replaces the League of Nations, retaining its aims to maintain international peace and security. All three institutions are designed to bring stability to the destabilized international economic arena.

These three institutions, together with post-war U.S. government regulation of industry and finance, the ascendancy of organized labor, and state-sanctioned collective bargaining, place an unprecedented check on the activities of the corporate persons.

1950 “The Economy” (“the Market”) established: The terms “the economy” and “the market,” in their abstract sense, come into widespread use.

The “corpus” of the corporate-persons becomes increasingly amorphous, as the courts extend the definition of property beyond the material to the intangible, such as securities and even goodwill – anything with potential exchange value.

1960’s Civil Resistance: The civil rights, consumer, and environmental movements add to the constraints under which the corporate-persons operate.

1963 Milton Friedman (1912-2006), Milton Friedman, American economist, publishes, with Anna Schwartz, the book, A monetary history of the United States, 1867-1960, in which he criticizes John Maynard Keynes and argues against government economic controls.

1973 David Rockefeller (1915-): David Rockefeller founds the Trilateral Commission, which would soon publish “The Crisis of Democracy,’’ a study deploring the “excess of democracy” characteristic of the prior decades, and bemoaning the “democratic distemper” of a politically mobilized population, particularly its “democratic challenge to authority.” The study concludes that political democracy has outlived its usefulness, and is now an anachronism – an unnecessary obstacle to human progress.

1975 Democracy suppressed: The corporations launch an ideological offensive to resurrect the idea of the free market. They re-frame progress (an amalgam of the ideas of the market and technology) as “innovation,” which, of course, they promote. In the name of efficiency, expertise, and rational top-down management, they also mount an attack on democracy itself, particularly on unpredictable citizen participation in decision-making, and on the socially subversive principle of equity.

The campaign is waged against any organized opposition to corporate prerogatives. It includes attacks on trade unions, environmental groups, and consumer advocacy organization, all of which are derided as demagogic, dogmatic, ignorant, narrowly self-interested, socially irresponsible, and economically unsophisticated.

1978 The Bellotti Decision: The U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark Bellotti decision, grants corporate-persons the constitutional rights and protections of the First Amendment, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The Court does this by declaring unconstitutional a Massachusetts law which limits corporate propaganda designed to influence the outcome of referenda.

During the 1970’s, the Court extends to corporate-persons the constitutional protections of the Fifth Amendment (an accused person may not be compelled to testify against himself; the government may not take private property without “just compensation”), the Sixth Amendment (guarantee of a speedy public trial for criminal offenses), and the Seventh Amendment (assurance of trial by jury in civil cases).

Corporate propaganda insistently invokes the core mythology of the Western imagination – the myth of the “Promised Land.” This myth of divine destiny and deliverance, would revive the old idea of the free market, in defiance of all argument, evidence and past experience. The campaign would work because its message is already familiar – already occupying the popular mind in many forms. The corporate message is, in a cultural sense, primordial. It resonates with the very foundation of Western faith.

1981 President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004): President Reagan renounces the Keynesian policy of government-generated demand, in favor of “supply-side” free-market economics, centered on incentives to private investors. He institutes a liberalization of the market, fiscal austerity, a dramatic reduction in government taxes and spending, the privatization of public services, and a reliance on “trickle-down” wealth distribution. He dismantles social programs, mounts a frontal assault on organized labor, and eviscerates the government’s regulatory regime.

Internationally, through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, both controlled by the U.S., Reagan imposes austere structural adjustment programs on foreign countries, promising long-term redemption through short-term suffering.

1989 President George H. W. Bush (1924-): President Bush heralds a “New World Order,” dominated by multinational corporations, the market, and U.S. armaments.

1990’s “Globalization”: The term “globalization,” in the sense of free trade for the world, takes hold. It is but another invention of the ideological offensive of the corporate-persons, and represents the latest incarnation of the myth of the “Promised Land.”

The abstract word, “globalization,” is embodied both in multinational corporations and in the international institutions which they control, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and (as of 1995) the World Trade Organization (WTO).

2005 Corporate Rule: Astride the globe, above the cares of place and moral existence, the corporate-person surveys the planet and sees only itself. Under its gaze, the world appears in its own desiccated image. Everything – food, water, health, education, even life itself, is reduced to commodities devoid of value except for that of the market. All rival collectivities – families, unions, communities, nations – are dissolved into the atomistic impotence of competing individuals. Behind it all, stands its military arm, ready at a moment’s notice to launch pre-emptive war against any and all who would resist its definition of redemption.

A self-fulfilling Prophecy: Just as the concept of technological determinism is self-fulfilling, so too is the concept of economic determinism. Belief in the idea fosters a redemptive faith in, and thus a fatalistic surrender to, the power of “the economy” or “the market” over people. People allow “the market” to shape their lives, ipso facto rendering economic determinism valid (pp. 77-78, 86-95, 116-117, 120-123 and 126-142. First Amendment Center undated, p. 1. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).

The promise rejected

Western culture is not monolithic. Over the course of time, the mythology of the “Promised Land” has been repeatedly deconstructed.

The Enlightenment:

The anticlericalism of the Enlightenment fosters an atmosphere of irreverence and free-thinking. In spirit, however, this period of history would retain the mythology of the “Promised Land,” for even while repudiating religion, it offered a substitute – a secularized, but still deistic, faith in the providential progress of science and reason.

Francois Voltaire (1694-1778): Voltaire, French philosopher and author, warns against facile optimism. Instead of speculating on unanswerable problems, he says, “Let us cultivate our gardens” – practical common sense. In 1871, the Paris Commune was the “garden” the community should tend to.

Voltaire’s views are contradictory. Viewing man’s nature as, like that of animals, unchangeable, Voltaire also sees progress in humankind, such as, for instance, in the gradual humanization of society through the arts, sciences, and commerce.

Denis Diderot (1713-1784): Denis Diderot, French encyclopedist, philosopher of materialism, and critic of art and literature, is an avowed atheist.

Diderot’s Encyclopedia, or reasoned dictionary of the sciences, the arts and the trades (27 volumes, 1765-1772), published with the temporary cooperation of French mathematician and philosopher Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717-1783), is an inspired attempt to document and, thereby further, the advance of progress – that is, the evolution of the human mind and the consequent social perfection which would result.

The Encyclopedia is devoted primarily to a description of inventions. By making every branch of knowledge accessible to the public, it would have

“the power to change men’s common way of thinking.”

Diderot, one of the first to express the ideas of what would become known as the Enlightenment, identifies the useful arts and associated science generically, not only as ever-enhanced means of material existence, but also as the underlying cause and the foundation of social progress and human perfection. During the next few decades, disparate productive activities, in their abstract aggregate, would assume the appearance of a self-propelled autonomous phenomenon having historical agency and transcendent significance (pp. 81 and 147. Wikipedia “Denis Diderot,” 2008, pp. 1-8. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1994-2002, pp. 1-9).

Romanticism:

The Romantic reaction against the Enlightenment constitutes a rejection of both the religious and secularized versions of the promise, the latter particularly in the wake of repeated anti-market bread riots and the resistance by the Luddites to unregulated technological innovation. The Romantic movement invokes the contingent and particular, the immeasurable and irreducible, the immediate and unmediated, the unruly and unpredictable. Its touchstone is nature, unadorned by reason.

Georg Hegel (1770-1831): Georg Hegel, German philosopher, considers philosophy as going beyond religion, as it enables humankind to comprehend the entire historical unfolding of the Absolute. Hegel traces the evolution of the human mind in search of itself.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881): Thomas Carlyle, English author, sees men as having become mechanical in mind and heart under the reign of reason. His antidote is wonder, awe of life.

In his book, Sartor Resartus (The Tailor re-patched) (1833), Carlyle points to a return to the self, as he portrays a “Wanderer” who:

“shouts question after question into the Sibyl-cave of Destiny, and receives no answer but an echo.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and essayist, in his anonymously written essay, “Nature” (1836), expresses his belief in the mythical unity of Nature:

“[Nature allows for a restoration of humankind’s] original relation to the universe.”

In a 1838 lecture at Harvard Divinity School, Emerson warns that redemption can only be found in one’s own soul – a statement interpreted by many as a rejection of Christianity.

The Luddites: Between 1811 and 1816, the Luddites, textile workers in the industrial centers of England, riot against the unregulated introduction of machines. Their very resistance shatters the myth that technological progress is a vehicle to salvation.

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876): Mikhail Bakunin, Russian revolutionary and leading exponent of anarchism, repudiates the theology of the West and its belief in God, pointing out that such focus on the divine forecloses the possibility of the creation and actualization by humans of their own vision of perfection. It forces men to forego their own destiny, in their actual, present-day world.

Bakunin criticizes all ingrained indoctrination, affirming instead the instinct for life.

Bakunin rejects science because its nature – thought – forces it to remain abstract, impersonal, general, insensible, bloodless, lifeless. Science ignores the existence of actual, living individuals:

“[Science] cannot grasp the concrete. It can move only in abstractions. It comprehends the thought of reality, not reality itself, the thought of life, not life. That is its limit, its only really insuperable limit . . . Science is the compass of life, but it is not life.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): In defense of our actual, present life, Friedrich Nietzsche renounces religion and all the alienating, anti-human abstractions it engenders. Referring to the Canaan god of fire, to whom children were offered in sacrifice, and whose worship was introduced into Judea by King Solomon (son of David, king of the ancient Hebrews, d. c.930 B.C.E.) , Nietzsche writes in his book, Twilight of the Idols (1888):

“Nothing ruins us more profoundly, more intimately, than every ‘impersonal’ duty, every sacrifice to the Moloch of abstraction.”

The tendency of theologians to look at reality from a superior, foreign vantage point, is also present in historians. Only human individuals can determine their aim and their value:

“To find in history the realization of the good and the just . . . is blasphemy . . . Man is not the effect of some special purpose, will, or end. Nor is he the object of an attempt to attain an ‘ideal of humanity,’ an ‘ideal of happiness,’ or an ‘ideal of morality.’ [It is humans who have] invented the concept of ‘end.’ In reality, there is no end” (See also under Conclusion, The Reification of Concepts).

From 1900 to 1930, many uprisings take place throughout Europe, Russia and the United States – testimony to the affirming, explosive nature and liberatory potential of the forces of life. (The Bolshevik take-over of the social revolution in Russia is the exception rather than norm. Most of the insurgencies reflect rather the spontaneous surfacing of what Bakunin calls “the impulse to liberty, the passion for equality, the holy instinct of revolt”). The uprisings tend to be anti-authoritarian, decentralized, voluntaristic and participatory, as well as mutualistic, anti-utopian, anti-dogmatic and artistic. Above all, they are dedicated to the freedom, dignity, and delight of self governance.

Karl Polanyi (1886-1964): Karl Polanyi, Hungarian economist who fled first to Austria (1924), then England (1933), then Vermont, U.S. (1940), and then Canada (1947), writes perhaps the most penetrating critique of the mythology of “the market.”

In the 1920’s, witnessing the socialist commune in Vienna, Polanyi observes:

“There never existed a more absurd superstition than the belief that the history of man is governed by laws that are independent of his will and action.”

In his book, The Great Transformation (1944), Polanyi traces the relatively recent evolution of the European idea of the self-regulating market, and emphasizes how this notion departs from the commercial conceptions of all previous societies, where exchange and markets were seen as inextricably embedded in social and cultural life. This “utopian” idea undermines social cohesion by eroding its cultural foundation. Polanyi describes:

“[The notion that] the laws of commerce [are] the laws of nature and consequently the laws of God, [is no more than ] a blind faith [akin to the] fanaticism of sectarians.”

Lewis Mumford (1895-1990): In his “Renewal of Life” books, Lewis Mumford, American social philosopher, insists that technology is not an independent force but an integral part of human culture. In his book, Technics and Civilization, Mumford writes:

“No matter how completely technics relies on the objective procedures of the sciences, it does not form an independent system, like the universe. It exists as an element in human culture and it promises well or ill as the social groups that exploit it promise well or ill” (pp. 145-168. Wikipedia “Karl Polanyi,” 2008, pp. 1-2).

Existentialism:

Fascism, Nazism and Stalinism re-invoke and re-invigorate the mythology of the “Promised Land” – and all but extinguish any resistance to it. Yet, the very repression fuels a strong come-back, in the form of Existentialism.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980): Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, playwright and novelist, an avowed atheist, is the foremost exponent of the message of Existentialism – a total repudiation of determinism, both of the past and of the future, together with a forthright confrontation with life in the here and now.

Sartre’s message is that human freedom is the bedrock of existence, and from it, flows all the meaning of life:

“Man is . . . that which he makes of himself, . . . what he purposes. He exists only insofar as he realizes himself. He is, therefore, nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.”

“There is no determinism, . . . no values or commands that could legitimize our behavior, . . . no fate, no divine sign. We are left alone.”

“The destiny of man is placed within himself . . . There is no hope except in his actions” (pp. 169-209).

conclusions

1. The reification of Concepts: The present synthesis of David Noble’s book, Beyond the Promised Land – the movement and the myth (2005), is a fortuitous continuation of my previous synthesis, that of John McMurtry’s Value wars – the global market versus the life economy (2002), which I summarized as “The moral Universe of the ‘Free World’” (Hall 2008).

John McMurtry details the antecedents of the corporate coup d’état (the taking over of global governance by corporations), which has been in process since the 1980’s (McMurtry 2002, summarized in Hall 2008).

David Noble searches for the mind-set in our culture which has made us vulnerable to this coup d’état. He finds it deep in Western culture, starting with the tale of Abraham who, in defiance of ancient wisdom (such as the wisdom imparted to Gilgamesh), obeys a de-contextualized, abrupt, disembodied voice promising him greatness, blessedness, and power:

“Go forth from your native land, and from your father’s home, to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, bless you, and make great your name, that it may be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And through you, shall bless themselves all the communities on earth” (pp. 23-24).

Friedrich Nietzsche, in his book, Twilight of the Idols (1888), observes:

“In Christianity, neither morality nor religion has even a single point of contact with reality . . . Nothing but imaginary causes (‘God,’ ‘soul,’ ‘spirit’ . . . ), nothing but imaginary effects (‘sin,’ ‘redemption,’ ‘grace’ . . .), intercourse between imaginary beings (‘God,’ ‘spirits,’ ‘souls’) . . . [and] an imaginary teleology (‘the Kingdom of God,’ ‘the Last Judgment,’ ‘eternal life’)” (p. 158. See also under The Promise rejected, Romanticism).

Like Abraham, we believe in detached, de-contextualized, disembodied, reified concepts, such as “history,” “technology,” “the free market,” and their corollaries, “free trade,” “the invisible hand of the market,” “the laws of economics,” “progress,” “innovation,” “modernization,” “development,” “globalization, and “the march of civilization.”

The first step to the reification of ideas is their de-contextualization, usually to the benefit of the powerful.

Michael Parenti, American political analyst, points out, in 2008:

“‘Free trade’ is going into its final phase, destroying local markets and production, wiping out the entire Mexican peasant class, extending corporate control over every corner of the earth’s remaining resources, and elevating the right to property above all other rights, including national sovereignties [which are there] to defend democratic rights.”

“What we have [in the media] is the absence of contextualization, that is, the absence of fitting a particular action, condition or policy into a broader set of social relations. Contextualization has two dimensions:

1. The linking of the issue to the social structure itself, that is, to other issues and to [long-term] interests.

2. The linking of the issue to past history. Usually, a way of not telling the story is by blanking out its previous history” (Parenti 2008. Parenti 2007, pp. 14 and 17-31).

After a concept has been consistently de-contextualized, it is easy to reify it – that is, to consider it a “thing” in itself, an autonomous, deterministic force outside human agency. All of us, whether egocentric and powerful or working for justice and equality, have been conditioned by our culture to accept the de-contextualization and the subsequent reification of concepts.

A de-reification of the concept of history, might lead us to compare the living experience of the poor, women, children and the maimed then and now, instead of focusing on the exploitative feats (including wars and empires which kill and maim) of powerful males.

A de-reification of the concept of “technology” might lead us to realize that the principal menacing trends in the world today are not resolvable by technology. The poor need land on which they can grow their own subsistence food, a source of potable water, latrines, unpolluted air to breathe, basic health care, basic education, and friendly neighbors with whom they can exchange seeds and have a social and recreational life. They need freedom and self-governance. All of these solutions are based on well-known and well-tested low-level technologies. None require “innovation.”

A de-reification of the concept of “the free-market” might lead us to search for a system of distribution of material goods which would engender the participation of all, not only less than half the world’s population (See Conclusion, No. 3). As other ways of distributing goods are organized, we might realize that capitalism is intolerant of all other systems, because it always needs to grow and expand, always needs to win the competition, even at the cost of human lives.

2. In God’s Image: Perhaps still searching to be in God’s image – that is, to have eternal life, we have, in Western culture, achieved the creation of such a person. Legally, the corporation is a person, and this person does not die. Shareholders come and go, but the bureaucracy of the corporation is potentially immortal.

Dwight Jones, legal theorist, clarified, in 1892, how articles of incorporation provide shareholders innumerably more privileges than a partnership (a contract between individuals). His words below, “There is no death,” echo the Book of Revelation:

“The main value of a corporate charter arises from the fact that powers and privileges are thereby acquired which individuals do not possess. It is this that makes the difference between a business corporation and a partnership. In the former, there is no individual liability . . . There is no death . . . It is not [good] policy, therefore, for a corporation to break down its own independent existence by burying its original character in the common place privileges of the individual . . . Any mingling of corporate existence with the existence of shareholders will weaken corporate rights” [Underline mine. Horwitz 1992, p. 91 (my internet page 1)].

The rest of us, who are not fictitious, are in powerless, atomistic competition with these corporate gods among us (pp. 121 and 130. For the Book of Revelation, see also under The Promise understood concretely, Christianity, Pre-determination; under The Promise understood abstractly, History, The Christians; and under The Promise understood abstractly, History, A religious Template for History, Joaquim of Fiore).

Note: The Revelation of “John” (c.95 C.E.) reads as follows:

“And again I said: Lord, and after that what will You do? And what is to become of the world? Reveal to me all. And I heard a voice saying to me: Hear, righteous John. After that there is no pain, there is no grief, there is no groaning, there is no recollection of evils, there are no tears, there is no envy, there is no hatred of brethren, there is no unrighteousness, there is no arrogance, there is no slander, there is no bitterness, there are none of the cares of life, there is no pain from parents or children, there is no pain from gold, there are no wicked thoughts, there is no devil, there is no death, there is no night, but all is day” (Underline mine. Kevin Knight 2008, pp. 1-2).

3. The Limits of the Earth: The limits of the Earth are upon us, in terms of our environment, our resources, and the number of humans which the Earth can sustain at whatever standard of living we choose. Nature is in collapse, weather patterns are menacing, the end of cheap oil is manifesting itself, the planet is running out of fresh water, a major nuclear accident remains a probability, genetic engineering and other technologies pose a major problem for our food supply, which is already in jeopardy.

“Globalization,” meaning free trade for the entire world, will not solve our problems. The “free market” leaves out the more than half of the world’s people who do not have the choice of being “free market agents.” The “free market” does not cater to people in the following categories:

* In 1999, 2,800,000,000 people were living on less than $2 per day.

* In 2000, 2,400,000,000 people were without access to improved sanitation.

* In 2000, 2,000,000,000 people were without electricity.

* In 2001, 1,700,000,000 people were living in countries facing water stress.

* In 1999, 1,560,000,000 people were living in countries where more than half the population had no sustainable access to affordable essential drugs.

* In 2003, 1,100,000,000 people had no access to safe water.

* In 2001, 924,000,000 people were living in urban slums.

* In 2004, 800,000,000 people went hungry on any given day.

* In 2002, 641,000,000 people were living in countries in which life expectancy had decreased from 62 to 46 years during the past 20 years.

* In 2001, 467,300,000 people were living in countries where development, as measured by the United Nations human development index (HDI), had decreased during the past 10 years.

* In 2001, 354,300,000 were living in countries in which the international debt was 25 percent of exports or more.

* In 2003, 135,000,000 people were threatened by desertification.

* In 2002, 55,000,000 people were either infected with HIV or were AIDS orphans.

* In 2001, 40,000,000 people were displaced from their homes.

* In the late 1990’s, 27,000,000 people were slaves (Numerous references, summarized in Hall 2005, p. 8).

Corporations – bureaucracies designed for profit-making – must be restrained to accommodate the non-economic dimensions of human beings.

We must stop making property rights supersede all other rights. We must stop stratifying society according to money distribution, and stratify it instead using a system based on values reflecting life, the conditions for the thriving of life, and the quality of the experience of living. Property, including money property, is blind to life.

VEDIC HYMN

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

(May all beings everywhere be happy and free)*

* Sometimes translated as “May all humankind everywhere be happy and free.”

The Veda (Sanskrit meaning “knowledge”) consist of a number of texts which represent the literature of the Aryans who invaded Northwest India, around 1500 B.C.E. – that is, about 200 years after Abraham is said to have lived. The hymns were probably compiled between 1,000 and 500 B.C.E. The Veda are the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and the most ancient religious texts in any Indo-European language. Their essential truths are still accepted by both Hindus and Buddhists (Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).

Brief historical Chronology of Judea

Rule / Events

B.C.E.:

c.3000 The Kingdom of Babylonia arises in the valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates.

c.2750 King Gilgamesh rules Uruk, Sumaria. Perhaps it is he who would become, 1000 years hence, the hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh, written c.1750.

c.1750 Babylon is the capital of the Kingdom of Babylonia. King Hammurabi (1792-1750) formulates the first code of civil and criminal law. An anonymous poet writes the Epic of Gilgamesh, about a king by that name, said to have lived around 2,750 B.C.E.

Canaan (Ancient Palestine, the territory between the Jordan, the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean) is populated by a number of pre-Israelite peoples. There may be a man living, by the name of Abraham, who would become, 1200 years hence, the hero of the Hebrew Bible. Apart from the Bible text, however, there is no historical evidence for the existence of an Abraham as described in the Bible.

c.1550 Jericho is a town in the Jordan Valley, North of the Dead Sea. There is some archaeological evidence that the last of what were multiple destructions of Jericho occurs at this time. Until 1200, the site would remain virtually a ghost town, after which for some time, it would be inhabited only on a modest scale.

c.1250 According to the Bible, Moses, Hebrew lawgiver, leads his people out of bondage in Egypt to the edge of Canaan. The Bible is the chief source of information on Moses’ life.

According to the Bible, Joshua, successor to Moses, captures Jericho from the Canaanites, and conquers all of Canaan (the Israelis’ “Promised Land”).

Cannanite cultural continuity is un-interrupted, and there is little evidence for single campaign of conquest. Most present-day archaeologists conclude that there was no invasion, and that the Israelites were a branch of the Canaanite culture.

B.C.E.:

c.1010-c.970 According to the Bible, King David (d. c.970) rules over a united kingdom, “Ancient Israel,” with Jerusalem as its capital.

There is no archaeological evidence for what the Bible describes as the “great Kingdom of David.”

c.970-c.930 King Solomon (d. c.930), according to the Bible, son of David, rules over the ancient Hebrews. Solomon introduces into Judea the worship of Moloch, Canaan god of fire to whom children are offered in sacrifice.

c.930-586 King Judah gives his name to the southern kingdom of the Jews, the Kingdom of Judah, which after its fall, in 586 B.C.E., would be renamed Judea (Palestine). Jerusalem is the capital. The Bible describes the southern kingdom as usually more loyal to God than the northern kingdom, Israel.

586-538 “The Babylonian Captivity”: Jerusalem is captured by Babylonia. Judea becomes part of the Babylonian Empire. Jews are deported into captivity, where, from 593 to 563, priest Ezekiel preaches to them and prophesies eternal life. Daniel is one of the victims of the Babylonian captivity.

550 The New Babylonian Empire arises in the same valley as the original Babylonian kingdom. An anonymous poet writes a saga about a man, Abraham, said to have lived 1200 years earlier (c. 1750 B.C.E.) in Harran, Mesopotamia (present-day southeast Turkey, near the Syrian border).

Beyond the Bible, there is no historical evidence for either the existence of Abraham or his saga.

546-331 The Persian Empire.

B.C.E.:

331-30 The Hellenistic Period:

331-305:

The Macedonian Empire (Alexander the Great).

c.250:

Koheleth (Teacher, Preacher) writes Ecclesiastes, whose wisdom contrasts with that of the other books in the Bible, and probably reflects the conclusion reached by the post-exilic, settled society of the Kingdom of Judah (c.930-586).

167-164:

The Maccabean Revolt: Judas Maccabeus occupies Jerusalem and re-consecrates its Temple.

Daniel, in Judea, makes his apocalyptic redemption prophecy.

C.E.:

30 B.C.E.-400 C.E. The Roman Empire.

0: Jesus

66-73 C.E.: Jews rebel against Roman authority.

66 C.E.: The Zealot Jews (a Jewish sect) seize the fortress of Masada (in the Judean Desert, above the western shore of the Dead Sea) from the Romans.

70 C.E.: The Romans destroy Jerusalem, including its Temple.

73 C.E.: Masada, the last outpost of the Zealots, falls.

c.95 C.E.: An exile named John (probably not the same as Jesus’ disciple, St. John), living on Patmos Island, off the coast of Asia Minor, writes Revelation (Apocalypse), the last book of the New Testament. He foretells the fulfillment of eternal life in heaven for believers, and the destruction of the damned.

132-135: Simon Bar Kokba (d. 135) leads a revolt against the Romans, and establishes the Kingdom of Israel which holds for three years.

c.313: Emperor Constantine I (288?-337) makes Christianity a lawful religion in the Roman Empire. (Note: not the official religion of the Empire).

C.E.:

400-638 The Byzantine Empire (Judea is a Christian province).

638-1099 The Muslim Empire.

1099-1187 The Crusaders.

1187-1516 The Muslim Empire.

1516-1917 The Ottoman Empire.

1917-1947 The British Empire.

1948 The State of Israel is established.

1967 Israel captures ancient Judea, the “Promised Land”.

(Noble 2005, numerous pages. Wikipedia “Judea,” 2008, pp. 1-4. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).

References

All unspecified page numbers refer to:

Noble, David. 2005. Beyond the Promised Land – the movement and the myth. Toronto, ON, Canada: Between the Lines.

Specified references are as follows:

Columbia Encyclopedia. 2000. 6^th Edition. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University/Gale Group.

CNN, Law Center, 2002. “Lawmakers blast Pledge ruling.” July 27.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/06/26/pledge.allegiance. Accessed June 5, 2008.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 1994-2002, “Thinkers on Religion: Denis Diderot, his Contribution.” (Robert Niklaus).

http://skeptically.org/thinkersonrelgion/id5.html.

First Amendment Center, undated. “First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (doc. #76-1172) (1978).

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org. Accessed June 15, 2008.

Hall, Francoise,

2004. “Technology driven by Faith in God.” April 5 (28 pages, unpublished).

2005. “Global Trends – predictable atrocities.” June 4 (29 pages, unpublished).

2008. “The moral Universe of the ‘Free world.’” March 30 (51 pages, unpublished).

Horwitz, Morton. 1992. The transformation of American law, 1870-1960 – the crisis of legal orthodoxy. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University.

http://books.google.com/books?id= Dwight A. Jones 1892 death. Accessed June 20, 2008.

Knight, Kevin, 2008. Knight revised and edited for New Advent, the version of Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, published by the Christian Literature Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., in 1886.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0831.html. Accessed June 21, 2008.

Marx, Leo, 1997. “Technology – The Emergence of a hazardous Concept: Technology and the Rest of Culture.” Social Research. Fall.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2267/is_n3_v64/ai_19952020. Accessed June 13, 2008.

McMurtry, John. 2002. Value wars – the global market versus the life economy. Sterling, VA: Pluto.

Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2008. “The moral Universe of the ‘Free World.’” March 30 (51 pages, unpublished).

Noble, David 1997/1999. The religion of technology – the divinity of man and the spirit of invention. New York, N.Y.: Penguin.

Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2004. “Technology driven by Faith in God.” April 5 (28 pages, unpublished).

Parenti, Michael.

2007. Contrary notions – the Michael Parenti Reader. San Francisco, CA: City Lights.

2008, “Contrary Notions.” Presentation, Berkeley, CA. June 17. Taped and broadcast by Alternative Radio.

http://www.alternativeradio.org. Accessed June 21, 2008.

Wikipedia,

2007,

“Johann Beckmann.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated December 29. Accessed June 13, 2008.

2008,

“Abraham.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated June 24. Accessed June 23, 2008.

“Battle of Jericho.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated May 31. Accessed June 27, 2008.

“Jacob Bigelow.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated May 23. Accessed June 13, 2008.

“Daniel.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated June 5. Accessed June 8, 2008.

“Denis Diderot.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated June 11. Accessed June 24, 2008.

“Harran.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated June 18. Accessed June 23, 2008.

“Judah.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated May 19. Accessed June 26, 2008.

“Judea” (Judaea).”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated June 18. Accessed June 26, 2008.

“Maccabean Revolt.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated May 6. Accessed June 5, 2008.

“Karl Polanyi.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated April 5. Accessed June 19, 2008.

“Ezra Stiles.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated May 13. Accessed June 5, 2008.

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