Hammurabi, the sixth king of
Babylon, must have thought that he was doing the right thing. People,
particularly those in power, praised him ever since. Yet, until the ancient
lawmaker ordered his scribes to engrave his laws on eight-foot tall stone
tablets, perhaps slabs is a better word, people’s conscience was the only guide
in their behaviour. As of now, however, now being around 1750 BC, people were
guided by a set of laws that carried penalties for misdeeds.
It’s been downhill ever since.
No longer conscience but fear of being caught became their,
as well as our, guardian angel. This destructive method is used to this day.
We, those in power, control people’s behaviour by fear, not by persuasion. Not
even the ecclesiastic method of “carrot and the stick” holds sway any more—that
of heaven and hell. And most certainly not by any inspired code of ethics, let
alone by teaching love and compassion. The carrot is gone. All governments of
the world control their people by instilling fear.
However, as we know, action is equal by equal though
opposite reaction.
This insidious bug is now infecting billions of people, who,
together with their corrupt governments, instill fear in each other, by relegating
those who oppose them to the status of terrorists. Ultimately this method will
fail, even as our governments are failing. People will see through the invalid
warmongering platitudes. After all, governments are no longer elected by people
only by money of the few.
And there is more.
Perhaps thanks to Hammurabi, the world of today has become
the most legislative and/or litigious civilization in the history of mankind.
Had that been Hammurabi’s intent?
There are some benefits… to some of us. The lawyers have
become rich beyond all measure. We make them rich. And as Hammurabi carries the
reputation of being the father of all lawgivers, his portrait adorns great-many
government buildings throughout the world.
Furthermore, the activities of the lawgivers are guided not
by their conscience but by what they can get away with. Surely, the most pernicious prescription for corruption.
I once wrote some essays, which I collected into three
volumes entitled “Beyond Religion”. The subtitle of the collections is “An
Inquiry into the Nature of Being”. In Beyond Religion I, in the essay “Cycles”,
I discuss the problem of Hammurabi. I also discuss the seeming human
predisposition to walk in circles.
I’d used the word Cycles and not Circle only because I’m an
incurable optimist. Even as I am deeply convinced that now, during the present
Age of Aquarius, we shall turn over a new leaf. Good luck to all of us.
Those who would enjoy my essay will be pleased to hear that
there are 156 of them, on subjects as varied as “Birds of Paradise”,
“Phenomenology”, “Recumbent Evolution”, and pretty much everything in-between.
At one essay per week, the collections might amuse you for 3 years. Let me
know…
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