(note: this entry is part 3 of ongoing series starting with the post “Plato’s Seven Caves”)
Having escaped the cave of animalistic drive reduction, man was confronted with a mysterious and terrifying world.
Life and death, day and night passed in rhythmic succession, and he was a helpless observer seeking the good graces of forces larger and more powerful than himself. He was humble, fearful, and communal. By observing the cycle of death and natures patterns, he sought to exert control over this world with sacred rites and observances. Tribal leaders were the elders and shamans, those gifted with insights into the will of unseen threatening gods. Others were left to follow the rites, rituals and dictates handed down by tradition, to ensure continued safety of the whole.
This new communal mindset worked, providing him with a level prosperity and security unmatched by his simple, animsalistic ancestors. However this success created the very conditions that felt suffocating to the spirit of the generations that followed. Having solved the most basic problems of living–food, shelter, and protection–his curious, adventurous, mischievous spirit started to surface. He began to question, to wonder, to resist, and to complain.
“Why do I always have to listen to that damn shaman, anyway? What makes him so great? These rituals are stupid and this tribe is boring me to tears…”
Tribal man was becoming less fearful and dogmatic. His tribalistic world, once an inspired liberation from his animal nature, began to feel like a suffocating prison to his free will. This shift in perspective proved both a blessing and a curse. It blessed him with the promise of untold power and glory. It cursed him with the knowledge that he must destroy the old ways of living to achieve it.
And so the next great escape unfolded. Around 8000 BC, after more than thirty thousand years of communal living organized around rituals, rites and observances, a critical number of humans set out to find a better way. The yearning for power and glory overtook the need for personal safety, and the mythic hero-quest was born.
Finally unafraid to speak and act out in the pursuit of personal glory, heroic young adventurers set out to do battle, creating vast bloodthirsty empires and autocratic regimes. The old guard fought against it, but was helpless.
Most failed on their heroic journeys. But some succeeded, building powerful empires where ‘haves’ ruled over the helpless ‘have-nots.’ These kingdoms lasted for thousands of years–sprawling autocracies where the all-powerful few indulged in the finest things the world over, while the powerless many were left to slave in futiity.
From a modern perspective, escaping the cave of Tribalism may have seemed horrible and barbaric. But it was a huge leap forward for an ever inquisitive being, determined to prove once and for all that life is essentially without limits.
(stay tuned)
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I am amazed with it. It is a good thing for my research. Thanks