Thoughts of a Neopagan /the Metal Ages
Let us imagine walking through a Neolithic village thousands of years ago, surrounded by collectively cultivated fields and domestic animals cared for by the group. There is no struggle for accumulation because this concept is foreign; people work together, share food and resources, economic differences are so subtle as to be almost non-existent, someone may have a few more sheep, but this does not create castes or hereditary privileges; life is organized in an egalitarian way because survival itself depends on cooperation, it is a functioning anarchy, a social eco-balance that honors the cycles of nature.
Then something cracks; with the advent of the metal ages, copper, bronze, and finally iron, societies undergo a profound mutation and with this mutation, like poison flowing in a river, the first real social inequalities arise; one wonders why metals? The answer lies not in the material itself, but in the manufacturing process they require.
Extracting minerals, smelting, and forging is not a job like any other; it is not accessible to everyone, it requires special knowledge, knowledge that can be guarded and, for the first time, commodified. Now there are people who control the production of axes, swords, and plows, and this control gives rise to privilege; the metalworker, once a member of the community, begins to transform into a node of power.
One wonders whether it was the craftsmen who demanded higher wages or whether the common people spontaneously recognized their value. The answer given by historians is the second option, which is clearly a hypocritical choice derived from a capitalist mentality. Personally, I reject the theory of spontaneous exchange. In my opinion, there was creeping extortion, blackmail: “Without my plow, your field is barren; without my axes, you will struggle much more when you have to cut wood, so pay me.”
But it wasn't just the blacksmiths who were parasites; the tribal chiefs, once foremost among their peers for their social commitment and wisdom, began to tax trade by demanding a toll on sales from blacksmiths or middlemen who sold metal tools to their communities, thus enriching themselves without forging any tools. even the priests were transformed, from guardians of an immanent sacredness to peddlers of a commodified sacredness; they began to sell blessings, to make people believe that an axe without their ritual would not cut or that a field without their prayer would not bear fruit. They began to create heaven to justify their role on earth, laying the foundations for all the institutionalized religions that would follow.
The evidence of this corruption is right before our eyes. Just compare a Neolithic tomb with modest graves that are the same for everyone with a Bronze Age tomb where, among a sea of anonymous graves, there are very few tombs containing objects of great value such as jewelry and precious ornaments. It is the first macabre snapshot of a society divided into classes: the rich and the poor, the powerful and the subordinates.
With the increase in inequality came the systematic exploitation of man by man, and the work of the majority began to serve not the community but the privilege of the few. this cursed dynamic did not stop with the Metal Age, it continued into modern societies, with their colossal inequalities, their billionaires and their desperate people. Our societies are the direct heirs of that pyramidal system born in the smelting furnaces of the Metal Ages. This is not progress; it is the long, dark night that has fallen on a dream of equality, and we are still paying the price today.
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Please don't abuse Ask HN by using it as a blogging platform. Per the guidelines, it is intended for asking questions of the community.
Also: this is a massive slab of text. Do you really think people will read it?
Agriculture was the original sin.