The automatist society manifesto
2.2. The Christianity and the promise of eternal life and happiness
This entry continues the precedent one
In the pre-Christian age, the ancient Greeks used to consider the slave as "someone who deserves to be killed but left alive for some reasons". This was because, generally, the classical slaves were gained as prey, through the war prisoners’ transformation into slaves. Any kind of rebellion had to be severely punished. The situation was similar in all the ancient empires.
But this strategy worked only for a while. Many slaves committed suicide. Others preferred to fight the Roman legions to death rather than continue to live as slaves. Others, the Christians, were killing themselves into prayer after the social system had converted their will to live into profitability and spread desolation into their souls. The above mentioned slave's definition was no longer relevant to the slave of the Greek-Roman antiquity end period. The slave was beginning to stop accepting such a social stigma of animal that could be sacrificed anytime after the master's cheer.
a. The Catacomb Christianity: an antisystem ideology
The first forms of ideological rebellion against slavery coincide with the emergence of Christianity that brought symbolically the first such revolution. It disavowed the Greek-Roman slavery mentality, and promised a ore credible lie, which is the all people brotherhood.
In the pre-Christian age, the ancient Greeks used to consider the slave as "someone who deserves to be killed but left alive for some reasons". This was because, generally, the classical slaves were gained as prey, through the war prisoners’ transformation into slaves. Any kind of rebellion had to be severely punished. The situation was similar in all the ancient empires.
But this strategy worked only for a while. Many slaves committed suicide. Others preferred to fight the Roman legions to death rather than continue to live as slaves. Others, the Christians, were killing themselves into prayer after the social system had converted their will to live into profitability and spread desolation into their souls. The above mentioned slave's definition was no longer relevant to the slave of the Greek-Roman antiquity end period. The slave was beginning to stop accepting such a social stigma of animal that could be sacrificed anytime after the master's cheer.
According to any revolution, initially the authorities tried the first Christians eradication. After their belief, the Catacomb Christians preferred to be killed rather than being treated as classical slaves. The return of the other cheek for the abuser to slap, as Jesus did, has totally confused the executioners and mercenaries of the Roman administration and army. Just like a predator that fails to act when the prey counterattacks instead of running, neither the Roman Empire knew what to do with these depressants that developed delusions and religious hallucinations. The Catacombs Christians could not be blamed for a possible punishment. Jesus' moral superiority to the Roman bureaucratic administrative spirit was clear from miles. The Roman soldier conversion to its beliefs was only a matter of time.
Putting into practice the master death threat for the slave did not bring him much benefit. The Christians were highly persecuted, but the more persecutions, the stronger the cult became. Once with the slaves’ revolts, especially in Athens and Rome, their status had somehow to be changed. So, after some such unsuccessful attempts to persuade others to execute the master's orders, the master had to think of a new exploitation strategy rather than using the constant threat of death. And this has brought the classical slave some liberation or, at least, a social status increasing. As it is known, after he murdered a few, Constantine had to accept the cult and leave it be. Probably he could have eradicated it altogether if he had not found a solution to modify the slavery in such a way that he would cover to the new ideological- religious conditions. The Christians after him rushed to even make him a holy saint, which is unreasonable if compared to other saints who believed and lived like Christ. All that Constantine did was to change himself according to the Christian cult rather than change it after his own requirement.
The Christianity accepting as a main religion was a normal thing to do by any inspired ruler. Its recognition meant the new rights granting to the classical slaves. Unlike the destiny based deterministic mentality of the Greek-Roman religion, the Christianity has recognized the slave as a man who has the chance of salvation, which is, the chance of living a happy life somewhere in another world, the other world. We still have no proof to know if this promise would have been made till now. Personally, I would bet on the negative option, knowing that there are many institutions that are functioning today on the basis of the lying promises. But even so, a false promise was better for the classical slave than the Greek-Roman fatalism based on the idea of absolute destiny.
Unlike the Greek-Roman polytheism, the post-Christian society "listened" to the miserable slaves’ opinion. It finally admitted that yes, the world is ugly, depressing, in vain, etc. But it also maintained its promise that Heaven or Heaven still exists as well. And, according to the Christian doctrine, at the second coming of Christ, the world will be for sure as in Heaven. Here is the backbone of the Christian religion and its huge expansion in the subsequent centuries. If the slave’s ugly life was proof that the Greco-Roman deities were false, on the contrary, after the Christianity, this recognition became an evidence of the existence of a heaven, a Paradise somewhere in the world. The belief in such an endless happiness is a psychical need to counteract the slave’s everyday life sadness. The psychical system creates such a fantastic constructs precisely to balance itself against daily frustrations. The Christianity Parents often said that only the poor and the suffering ones would be saved. But in fact it is that only they are able to create such an after death world fantasy due to their own social status and psychogenic constitution. The Christianity implemented into the state has allowed the slave to dream in its world that somewhere the sacrifices made will be eventually rewarded.
Nietzsche shocked his contemporaries, saying that the Christianity is a slavery religion, although this is an incontestable historical truth. If we pay attention to the prayers content and many holy texts, we see that the believer has a strong propensity for servitude. The catacomb Christian was not sure about his desire for liberation, like any slave: he wanted more to serve an unbeatable master in order to secure her/his survival and salvation. Here is the origin of contemporary corporatism! It is no surprise that the main corporatist heads of the modern age have religious behavior, even if it is a fake one. The cave myth has once again materialized on a remarkable page of history.
It is this promise that seduced the public opinion in joining the Christianity. The Greek-Roman polytheism did not do so with its mechanistic mentality based on faith in destiny. With the industrial age, this promise has turned into the welfare that, basically, the wage slavery permits. Observing this availability, the slavery social system reformed through faith preferred the cross instead of the sword, at least at a first level of interaction.
b. The State Christianity: a reformulation of the slavery
Nietzsche said very honestly that Christianity is a slaves’ religion, although they are unhappy. However, the willingness to "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's", as affirmed by Jesus himself, held the door open for some negotiation of a slave new social status, namely the promise that he will go to heaven and live there happily. And here comes an essential factor of the new slavery, namely that of testing the slave's willingness to accept orders from a master. The mystics could not be persuaded to serve a master anymore, but they could however become an educational factor to convince the less intellectually ones to do it. We can see here the origin of corporatism: "I try to make you buy; if you refuse, I'll try to make you an advertiser by advertising me."
The right to live even at an illusory level, another life than the oppressed one was a first freedom that the Roman authorities gave to the slaves to persuade them to continue serving. All they had to do further on was to act more or less credible like a divine entity. By identifying with the Messiah himself, the political leader became stronger than ever after the Christian worshiping. A certain percentage of slaves were lost, namely those who decided to immerse themselves into prayer rather than serve. However they could still not be persuaded to continue serving neither by death nor by torture. Constantine saw this directly after exercising it in the first phase. Then, instead of losing them all, he preferred to use them more as an educational factor, cultivating the others belief that he himself was a kind of Jesus whom they worshiped. This is the model of capitalism and state institutions in general. Adopting Christianity as an official religion, Constantine was one of the first corporatists, creating the church as a religious corporation.
The Christianity was adopted as a state religion, thus becoming a parallel institution of the army in order to promote the classical (seizure) slavery or the “free” (wage) one. Unfortunately, such a political measure actually corrupted the peaceful spirit proposed by Jesus. Its first followers were the Roman soldiers themselves caught in the middle between the army hierarchic superiors’ threats and the subjugated communities threats. The refugee into the religious reverie was for them a fantastic escaping from the war terror. Beyond that, especially, the "poor in spirit" threats were raised up. The transformation of the catacombs peaceful Christianity into the war state Christianity was a betrayal. In fact, this event marked one of the greatest betrayals in the history of civilization. As with other religions, the Christian priests also bless the armies when they go to war. Nothing new under the sun; like all the state institutions, the church has reached a psychological prolongation of the army among its servants. The role of religion in wars is older than Christianity. Novelty is the breaking away from the very basic principles of its main prophet, Jesus.
It is said that at one point, I. Kant made a petition to the authorities of the Kaliningrad city (named Königsberg at that time) to prevent the imprisoned criminals from a prison near his home to play moral songs with a very strong voice. This way of playing contriteness seemed hypocritical to him. In the same way we can think of Christian colonists who simply were stealing the locals land. Although they were nonchalantly breaking one of the 10-th essential “Christianity commandments”, namely, "You shall not steal!", they were doing it with the cross in their hands, hypocritically simulating their Christian piety. This image is the quintessence of the Christianity moral disintegration after it has become an state institution.
The slave liberation through adherence to faith was as much a whopping lie as the one declared by law in the 19th century. Yet the post-Christian subordinate person was better treated than its ancestor, namely the Greek-Roman slave. The Christianity has recognized the human value of the order taker person, its power of self-salvation, and to achieve the happiness from the heaven in the after death life. Killing the slave because it was not productive was not a crime in the Greco-Roman antiquity. But killing someone during the post-Christian period for refusing to subordinate was no longer well seen in the post-Christian period.
The Middle Age modified the classical slavery, using an ideological compromise with Christianity, but continuing precisely with what is actually the essence of slavery, namely the serfdom. Instead of classical threats with beatings or death, the Christian feudal nonchalantly claimed that he own all the land as far as it can be seen, with its surroundings. If someone wants to live on it then, he/she should pay tribute for using that land. The medieval order taker was free to leave or not to work (with some exceptions in which classical slavery was maintained). But where to go? The neighboring land, besides being far away, belongs to another feudal. The difference between classical slavery and medieval serfdom is big and small at the same time.
If the serf does not want to serve then he/she is not beaten or killed, but can no longer receives food and shelter. The threat of inactivity death or the whims of time is not immediately put into practice as it happens to sectarian slavery. He/she does not immediately die of hunger or lack of shelter, but this eventually happens in the long run. The feudal or the lander does not offer the serf or the poor a sufficient property to provide a decent living, and extends his property far beyond those necessary for his own living. That is why extending the property in such a way that some people can no longer have a property generating food and shelter in agreement with the other members of society is still an abuse.
If serf does not want to serve, then it no longer gets beaten or killed but it no longer receives food and shelter. The starvation or death due to vagaries of the weather threat is not immediately put into practice as it happens in sequestration slavery case. Someone does not immediately die from hunger or homelessness, but that still happens in long term. The lord or the large territories master does not offer the serf or the poor enough property that would make a decent living, but extends their property far beyond the necessary for living. Therefore the property expansion so that other people can not have a generating food and shelter property in agreement with other members of society is still abuse.
The implementation of Christianity as an official religion in the state involved the feudalism appearance, meaning the owners of huge land surfaces. This new slave owner was called Lord, as God himself. Bringing the image of God into the political leader was not a novelty in history. The Egyptian pharaoh was recognized as a living God. The Greek or Roman aristocrats were showing themselves as descendant from one or another God. The Christianity, however, has given an uncanny power to the human God from the social pyramid top. His/her adherence, even mimicked, to the Christianity humanistic values, has led to calming down the feudal servant appetite for rebellion inherited from the Greek-Roman slave.
On the contrary, miming the God on earth, the new slave master has become adored by its "obedient people" Isolated in his opulent castle, the feudal had an image of a holy icon. There is a colossal difference between Middle Age Lord and the classical master according to the slave's contempt. Giving more freedom to the classical slave was a real successful business. It led to the master divination, besides the same profit as that of classical slavery used to bring. The Sundays, when the Lord went to the church, were a holiday by itself. The same happened with a Lord visit to the peasants’ workplace. They would take their hats off at its appearance as if they had seen a miracle. I am fascinated by how Constantine was named "The Great" and was declared an important saint after he killed and tortured many of the Catacomb Christianity heroes! From the great persecutor of Christianity, the slavery system eventually has come to be grateful to it for offering the solution to the numerous slave rebellions.
Stepping forward in this direction, the contemporary corporatism is now simulating the fulfillment of this promise. We can go beyond Nietzsche's statement and interpret Christianity as the birth of the PR. After the Christians persecution failed, as they were not convinced to worship the Caesar more than Christ, the Caesar began to behave like Christ in order to become more credible. The industrial era had to appear for the religious peasants to question the true divine character of the Lord. The city's patron gave the peasants more rights and attracted them to the factory from its land. Only then they thought that the fact that all lands belong to the Lord, while they had nothing to live from, may not be a fair thing. The following article will show another cause of this Middle Age peasant's credulity, which has worked for over a millennium and a half in western history.
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