I probably shouldn’t acknowledge the fact to more sophisticated readers, but I’m a big fan of The Big Bang Theory, CBS’ dinosaur-of-a-comedy series which would have been canceled four years ago if they had anything with which to replace it but another cop show. (“How about a cop show featuring genius detectives who use quantum physics to catch young black men carrying weed?” Probably was a hard-sell with the sponsors.) My favorite moments are when Sheldon impresses his peers with his eclectic knowledge and stumbles onto something I already knew. Leonard didn’t know the appendix evolved as an organ through which the body could process tree bark…but I did.
When Amy gave Sheldon her best “come hither look” and he responded by explaining how wheat came to be cultivated, I already knew the answer. Perhaps Amy didn’t explain further because it’s even more disturbing than the image of our ancestors gnawing on bark.
Here is the simple answer. (If you’re interested in a far more detailed analysis, I recommend Fernand Braudel’s The Structures of Everyday Life.) Wheat was consciously chosen as the preferred grain of the West for precisely the same reason rice was chosen at about the same time – in the Twelfth Century – as the preferred grain in the East.
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The reason? They were the most difficult crop to grow so they kept the peasants busy. Wheat destroyed the soil in which it was planted each season, requiring the farmer to tend not one field, but two, as he reclaimed the field sucked dry the prior season so it could be sucked dry, again, the next. Rice required the peasant farmer to constantly keep water running through the paddy, which he did with a system that required him to spin a wheel with his feet as if pedaling a bike…all day.
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The emerging bourgeoisie made these decisions without regard for the health impact eating these grains might have for beings whose bodies weren’t designed to process them. Keeping the peasant occupied was the key. Once they discovered they could distill hard liquor from the grains and turn the working class into alcoholics – with the overlords’ distilleries being the only source of supply – the manipulation was firmly in place.
"The Myth of the Patriotic Conservative"
These are among the numerous “petty details” not taught in American schools – much like the fact that the “heroes” of the Alamo were fighting against a Mexican Army that wanted to free their slaves.
So, eight-hundred-or-so years later, as we discover these facts and ask ourselves why keeping peasants busy was so important to nobles that they would make it their primary goal as they developed methods for establishing a dependable food supply, a potential answer is emerging. Could it be because some gifted visionary looked into the future to Twenty-first Century America and saw the effect of “White Trash Politics?” Did the nobles get a glimpse of the dirty eighteen percent and envision the damage they could do to a democracy if they weren’t kept occupied?
(Probably not, since the visionary would have undoubtedly understood as little about percentages as the would have understood democracy. The point is, more likely, that the problems created for society by its most woefully ignorant members are not strictly modern in nature.)
"Flat Earth, Trump And The Death Of Argument"
Eighteen percent is the number that keeps popping up if one researches the percentage of Americans who believe really stupid things. The percentage of respondents who say they will support the Trump agenda no matter what (eighteen percent) is about the same (eighteen percent) as those who say they believe the Sun revolves around the Earth. (It isn’t much of a logical leap to assume many of them are the same people.) Now, one might be tempted to write this off as lack of education or genetic tradition.
But as we look more closely, the answer becomes far less simple. The white man who clings to these beliefs and compels his family to do the same (Once again, I’m assuming it’s a white man. That might not be accurate in each-and-every-case. But, seriously, just listen to the conversations when you’re out in public and tell me I’m wrong.) no longer tills his field with a wooden plow. He uses internal combustion engines and electricity. He takes advantage of whatever minimal access he might still have to modern medical care.
So why are his “convictions” about the nature of physical reality stuck in the Fifteen Century?
You might be tempted to lay all the blame at the feet of his religion – and some of it would undoubtedly be justified. But his religion tells him “Thou shalt not kill,” and he continues to kill. His religion tells him, “Love thy neighbor,” and he follows the instruction only if that neighbor shares his skin color. His religion tells him, “Thou shall have no God before Me,” and he worships Donald Trump.
Clearly, the dirty eighteen percent are not simply stupid. They choose what they prefer to believe. And that choice is that God is a white man, like them, whose universal power and authority justifies the ubiquitous worldly power and authority of their king…whose national power and authority justifies the regional power and authority of his subordinates…whose regional power and authority justifies the familial power and authority of each-and-every white man under his control. Nothing but death will shake them from this belief. And, after hundreds of years of rabid paternalists dying, we’re still waiting for the evolution of society to purge this mind cancer from public perceptions.
But a representative from the dirty eighteen percent doesn’t see the problem. He doesn’t feel manipulated by other, more powerful men. He’s too busy blaming Eve for tricking granddaddy to eat that apple six-thousand-years ago when he would have been perfectly comfortable in the Garden of Eden gnawing on bark.
And 500 years from now, his flaccid male descendants will still cling to the same ridiculous tale. Except in their updated version of “The Word of God” the serpent’s name will be Hillary.
[Featured image by Darron Birgenheier/Flickr]