Follow up on the Three Pillars of Human Society

Here is the original article that I wrote.

I was explaining this concept to someone recently and it dawned on me that there is more to this than I once thought. First, the Three Pillars, Religious, Political, and Economic, are the means by which mankind has based his governments for the last 6,000 years or so. The religious pillar represents the various religions of the world over the ages. Governments obtained their authority from this pillar for most of mankind's history. During this time, rulership can be summed up this way, "why should the people listen to you? A: Because God/the gods say so."

During the Renaissance period, things started to change. The Political Pillar began wrestling power from the Religious one. For a number of centuries, they shared power; the Political pillar gaining authority by decree of the Religious Pillar. This allowed the Political Pillar to gain more power. This culminated in the Cold War, whereby the Religious Pillar and the people both depended on the Political Pillar to keep the peace, thus giving the Political Pillar as much power and authority as it could, in order to survive itself and prevent destruction from its enemies. Then, after the fall of the Soviet Union, a new Pillar began taking over..

The Economic Pillar waited patiently to gain its influence, and it did so slowly and steadily through the 19th and 20th centuries. With the rise of industrialization, corporations and monguls began to come together and create empires of a new sort. It isn't the standard territory that they wanted. It was influence. With the Economic Pillar growing in power, it began to place itself into positions of influence. First, by building the infrastructure of what is now the First World, it put the Political and Religious Pillars at its mercy, as they became dependent on the goods and services that it provided (including education and health care). It began to influence the nations during the 15th - 20th centuries by promoting colonialism; creating poor, labor-cheap, non-regulating countries in which to gain raw materials. Once this setup was complete, it began to sell the nations protection during the World Wars and the Cold War.

When WWI broke out, weapons technology had just become mass-produced on a scale unheard of. This resulted in the carnage that we saw. Once this happened, the governments found that it was inexpensive to purchase war materials and tools from the Economic Pillar to use in war. When the rebuilding came, the Economic Pillar came to the rescue, and rebuilt the nations that it destroyed. So it made money before, during, and after the war. This was repeated in WWII. After the Second World War, a new opportunity opened up.

The Political Pillar began using both sides of the Cold War to gain influence and power over the Earth. The Religious Pillar, like a prostitute, kept propping up the various nations and telling them that they had God's blessing, and keeping the people happy and content. The Political Pillar, in return, protected the Religious Pillar from its enemies (Freedom of Religion in the developed world and dictators blessed by the local religions in other places gained popularity). The Economic Pillar, however, had other plans.

While the other two pillars were focused on maintaining the current balance of power, neither realized that they were both becoming dependent on the Economic Pillar. Both needed the goods and services of the Economic Pillar to function. In fact, with the boom and prosperity during the 1950's and 1960's, the Economic Pillar not only gained enormous influence and power, but began to get seriously involved in politics. The Economic Pillar began to be restrained by the power and influence of the Political Pillar, which had to appease the Religious Pillar to stay in power. The Economic Pillar needed to be able to control the rules and regulations that it operated under to increase its influence and power even more.

To accomplish this, the Economic Pillar began contributing to the campaigns of political candidates in the republics around the world. By choosing who came to power, the Economic Pillar began gaining authority over the Political Pillar. The Economic Pillar offered more benefits than the Religious Pillar by increasing each part of the Political Pillar's influence and power, in exchange for increasing the Economic Pillar's influence and power. In addition, the Economic Pillar began gaining its own military arm.

When the Cold War ended, the Economic Pillar lost a large customer. However, by gaining influence in the poor countries and making it possible for specific people to stay in power, it began to direct conflicts. Money became the motivator for territory. The ability to sell resources to the other nations of the world became the goal. In return, these arms of the Political Pillar began to help support the Economic Pillar against the Religious Pillar. It allowed the Political Pillar to dismantle the Religious Pillar, which was interfering with its gain of power over the poor. Without this Religious Pillar interfering with the dictators of the poor nations, their conduct became irrelevant, and they had complete authority over themselves, the people under their control, and could call upon the Economic Pillar to help them whenever needed. In return, the Political Pillar allowed the Economic Pillar unrestrained authority in its poor areas; allowing the Economic Pillar to gain more power.

Once the Economic Pillar had in effect toppled the Religious Pillar in the poor nations, it began to replace the Religious Pillar in the rest of the world. By creating a system where the Political Pillar owed favors to it, the Religious Pillar began to lose influence, and the Political Pillar even began to work with the Economic Pillar to take more authority away from the Religious Pillar, and divide it among themselves. Like a Bear feeding for winter, they began to eat all that they could. First removing the importance of the Religious Pillar by convincing the people that they would be happier without it and that the people would themselves have more power and influence without it. Once that happened, it became time to bite into the Religious Pillar, weakening it, so that the world needed the Economic and Political Pillars even more.

The first nip, I believe, came when the Catholic Church in the Western World was accused and successfully prosecuted for sexual misconduct. This entity was the pride and joy of the Religious Pillar, saying at one press conference that, "the Catholic Church is so powerful and rich that not even God Himself could bring it down." Of course, it has been losing power ever since. In fact, even the people are giving the authority over their lives that they once gave to the Religious Pillar to the Economic and Political Pillars. It is like the Bear biting the top while the termites and insects begin to wear away the foundation.

What is next? Well, in Bill Meyer's movie, Religilous, he says that it is "time to abolish religion altogether." He claims that it is religion that is now holding mankind back from his full potential, and that the world will not solve its global problems without removing religion. Are the Political and Economic Pillars strong enough to balance complete authority over mankind? Only time will tell, but I suspect it won't. It will only need a sudden nudge to topple it over, and what happens next is a matter of faith. This, I feel, is a fitting end to the struggle.

Comments

[J.Conrad]

Follow Up: This is a working theory. As I research history more and gain increased understanding of the world around me, I am bound to update it and refine it. I do believe that it is accurate in principle, however.

[Tom Sheepandgoats Harley]

Thoughtful analysis, Screech. I'm reminded of two things when reading of the Economic Pillar. One, when Theodore Roosevelt busted up the power of the robber barons in the early 1900s, promoting higher wages, better working conditions, and so forth, business fought him tooth and nail. But it's well for them that they lost. By distributing money into the hands of more people, ultimately a consumer-businessman's paradise came into being, enriching them more and surpassing anything they might have acheived by remaining tight-fisted. Two, the modern manisfestation is that, in the U.S, for all practical purposes, Consumer Reports has become the Bible.

[J.Conrad]

Thanks. That's a very good insight. At my meeting on Sunday, the brother mentioned how the Catholic Church was broken up when the Kings of Europe in the middle ages came into power. They simply set up their own church to make their rule legitimate. Now the religions of the world are fractured and subject to nationalism, which is how they maintain their existence. That is a great example of how the religious pillar is looking to the political pillar for protection, despite it being the pillar that reduced its power.

Like a dog that has been beaten too much, it keeps going back to its master and begging him not to hit him again, willing to do anything within its power to gain favor.