Ch 17. Civilisation as a vampire death cult
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Terry Leahy 2025
This part C of ‘Riddles of History’ is about class society. How class society comes about, what is class society, different theories from sociologists, archaeologists and historians on these topics.
One way of talking about this is to talk about ‘civilization.’ This term is usually used to heap praise on some society. Look, they have ‘achieved’ civilisation. This way of looking at it has become slightly less popular as people have made the point that Indigenous societies are also praiseworthy. One response is to start using the term ‘civilisation’ for any social regime whatsoever. For example, Native American civilisation and so on. I do not do that. For me the term civilisation at the least implies cities. A hallmark of what I am most likely to call ‘class society.’ The most common way of looking at world history is to use the term ‘civilisation’ in the old way, to indicate a higher order of human social organisation.
I want to interrogate that positive view of civilisation. A view that we find in the media and popular documentaries. To suggest that ‘civilisation’ is more like a vampire death cult.
So let us start off by using the language of sociologists. What we hear called civilisations are what sociologists refer to as ‘class societies.’ So, what is social class? The approach I favour could be called a ‘humanist’ approach. It is premised on ideas about human nature. As discussed in more detail in part A of Riddles of History.
So, the first aspect of the definition of social class is that social class is a form of exploitation. In a humanist approach, exploitation is defined in relation to the basic desires that make up human nature. Autonomy, creativity, sexuality, sociability, hunger, health and comfort. In the context of this humanist approach, exploitation works like this. Exploitation is a relationship between at least two groups. A ruling group and an exploited subordinate group. In transactions between the ruling group and the subordinate group, the ruling group regularly gets satisfactions of the basic desires of human nature from these transactions. Whereas the subordinate group gets frustrations of their basic desires. Or at least they don’t get an equivalent return of satisfactions of their basic desires. There’s a systematic pattern of unequal transactions, which tend in one direction rather than the other.
If you take that as being a general theory of exploitation, then let’s look at social class as a form of exploitation. Using the terminology used by Marx, the ruling class extracts a surplus product from the work of the subordinate class. In my humanist reading of this idea, the ‘work’ of the subordinate class is always a frustration of some of the basic desires of human nature. At the very least autonomy in the sense that they must do what they’re told to do. But also, in terms of creativity. They don’t express themselves in their work. Also, sociability in the sense that at work, they must worry about what the boss wants them to do rather than about good social connections with other workers. Members of the subordinate class are inevitably in competition with each other, for the rewards in basic needs that the ruling classes control. In the work process itself, they don’t have the power to make decisions. The distribution of what they produce is out of their hands. So is the way that the work is done.
The surplus product that the ruling group extracts enables the ruling class to satisfy their basic desires. At the very least food. They don’t have to work to produce their food.
The ruling class gets autonomy by using their control of production to direct the labour of the subordinate group. They can maintain an army or a class of tradespeople by providing food for them. Using this power to satisfy desires for prestige, creativity, sexuality, comfort.
Summarizing this as an exploitation, the ruling class delivers no equivalent product to the subordinate class. The transaction is all in one direction.
So, now let’s look at social classes as a particular kind of social mechanism.
The units of class society are workers but also families. Families, taken as a whole, have a class position. The members of the subordinate classes cooperate as families to produce the surplus extracted by the ruling class. Taking different roles in enabling that production. They share their class situation — dependence on the favour of the ruling class for a share in the social product. Class society divides the subordinate population up into family households, diminishing the role of wider cross family identities of kinship, clan, moiety.
The ruling class has control of the basic necessities required for survival. What Marx calls the ‘means of production’ are objects used to produce these basic necessities. For example, land. Most crucially, the ruling class controls those things necessary to produce food. They may do this directly by owning the land on which people grow crops. Or they may do it indirectly by just sending in their soldiers to make sure that people are paying a tribute in food. They use this power over basic necessities as leverage to ensure the compliance of the subordinate class. In other words, if you don’t do what they say, then you don’t eat, or you don’t live. They use this compliance to extract a surplus product. You will produce more than you need yourself and surrender the surplus to the ruling class.
But control over the means of production also extends to other productive resources. For example, they own the tin and copper mines, which produce the bronze used in weapons. Of course, more recently, factories to produce industrial goods, weapons, media and communications services.
Agriculture and the storage of cereals are the fundamental technological requirements of class societies. No class society has ever existed which did not depend upon on agriculture and the storage of cereal crops.
The basic structure of all class societies has three parts.
- The ruling class.
- The enforcing class. The army and police force. Also in this middle class are artisans or merchants supplying the ruling class.
- The subordinate class. The class producing the surplus product.
The subordinate class produces the basic material goods and services, which the ruling class uses to control the enforcing class. The ruling class uses the surplus product to pay their armies, whether that’s through money (used to buy goods from the subordinate class) or in kind (direct transfers of food). As well as they use that surplus product for their own subsistence. In other words, for the ruling class to live and eat. Also to feed and house the workers who produce the lavish lifestyle and the military hardware that they need to maintain their rule and to live well.
All class societies have myths that justify this exploitation. There is an imaginary compensation for the unfairness at the heart of class society. For example, the ruling class is bringing some huge benefit to society. This benefit more than compensates for their exploitation of people’s mundane labour. The rituals that they perform at the temple ensure that the rain will fall, and the crops will grow. Perhaps the ruling class are appointed by the gods or are themselves gods. The gods give us everything. The very earth in which we grow our crops. Those appointed by the gods have a right to command our obedience. Out of gratitude for what they provide for us. Out of fear that the gods will punish us for our disobedience. The extent to which the subordinate classes have believed these mythologies is hard to assess. Written records come from the ruling classes. Rebellions, popular heresies and criminal assaults show us the subordinate classes were not entirely convinced. The next few chapters will consider examples of this broad approach to class society.