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Did Bread or Beer Create Civilization?
submitted 4 months ago by ruperttaylor from delishably.com
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[–]jet199 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - 4 months ago (3 children)
Greece wasn't a great civiliser.
They were great because they were a small nation who achieved a lot within their nation. Persia thought they were a minor nuisance.
But both existed many hundreds of years after the original civilisations.
[–]HugodeCrevellier 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - 4 months ago (0 children)
Writing, which is an essential aspect of civilization, was indeed invented by the Sumerians well before 5th century BC Greece.
However, in terms of governance, the Persians and everybody else used the same system (government by some 'Alpha male', with perhaps some subservient allies) most commonly used in apes, including non-human ones, like chimps and gorillas.
Most peoples' instincts draw them to this so strongly that they'll invent some imaginary eternal alpha-male dictator/emperor/king/warlord/lord-deity to worship, lest, god forbid, they should find themselves without one.
What the Greek miracle achieved is to invent (besides philosophy/science, the Logos/logic, reason over superstition, medicine, etc.) politics, Democracy and everything else we consider truly civilized.
Basically, that you're not, today, the subservient bitch of some warlord or rabbinate (claiming to speak for some invisible supreme warlord in the sky) is thanks to some great thinkers in 5th century BC Greece.
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[–]jet199 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (3 children)
[–]HugodeCrevellier 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)