Transcription
Religious powers, one of the most instrumental vehicles used to control people and to control societies. That's what we're going to be talking about today. And in that discussion, we're going to be going over this book here. It's called "The Destruction of Black Civilization" by Dr. Chancellor Williams. And this book is basically about how, uh, African civilization was pretty much destroyed from outsiders and also from the people within. And what we're going to be focusing on is more specifically the, um, aspect of the religious part and how that part took hold and how it was used by certain people in positions to control. So let's get into it and see what Dr. Chancellor Williams has to say.
"The blacks were a very religious people and had quite a number of religious cities, each one under the special patronage of a god, goddess, or any number of deities." So he's saying blacks were very religious. Now, he's using the term "black" just as a way to describe people back then for modern viewers, but obviously, we know that they didn't call themselves black. We know that they had other tribal names for themselves. But he's saying that they were very religious. And this is not only true of people coming from, um, Africa, but also many of the ancient people were very religious. So this is a central theme in the way that they view the world. It is central.
"The keepers of the temples of the deities and elsewhere became a powerful priesthood, thus indirectly reducing the power and influence of chiefs and kings, who in traditional Africa derived their real powers as their official intermediaries between the gods, sainted ancestors, and the people." It's saying that they became powerful priests. And, and also that the chiefs and the kings derived their power by being intermediaries, middlemen, middlemen for who? For the beings and the deities that they worshiped. The kings and the priests set themselves up to be middlemen between, between who? Between the gods and the deities and the people. There's a position of power in between there, and that's how they established themselves.
"If an African king or chief had any real political power, it was acquired either by virtue of his religious functions or because of the prestige of being a great general and victorious warrior." So there's two ways that Dr. Chancellor Williams is saying that some of these chiefs and kings could get their power. And that's one, by, like we said, having, being an intermediary, the middleman. Or you were someone who was known for being vicious out there in war, you're able to win wars and come back with the victories. This is how your reputation is boosted.
"Moreover, religion became the basis of political power in a subtle and much more far-reaching sense." So religion began to creep its way through the ranks and began to ascend in prominence in the way that someone could, uh, gain power. That's why I said it became the basis, that's like the standard of, of getting power. The, the foundation of power is going to be built upon religion. That's how it's ascending.
"For back behind the impenetrable curtains of time, impenetrable curtains of time, this means it's going back so far that he can't even put a date on it. Behind the impenetrable curtains of time, shrewd leaders, shrewd leaders. Now, who is a shrewd leader? A shrewd leader is someone who's crafty, who's wise in one sense, who can see what's going on, real observant in one sense. Cunning could also mean someone who's divisive and, and almost has wicked intentions. For back behind the impenetrable curtains of time, shrewd leaders saw the overriding mystery of religion as a controlling force in the lives of men. They saw how you can use this tool of religion as a way to control people. These are people with their eyes open, clear seeing what's going on, like, okay, I see this, I can use this. And they don't know, they don't have an idea what's going on. Shrewd leaders. Let's go back and read that part one more time.
"For back behind the impenetrable curtains of time, shrewd leaders saw the overriding mystery of religion as a controlling force in the lives of men." They can see how the religion came can be used and how it is functioning in the lives of people. They're stepping back from it and they can see it clearly. They're not immersed in there, they're on the outside of it and watching how it's functioning in the lives of other people.
"It appears that in almost all societies, religion was recognized not only as the principal means of social control, but the equally certain source of economic wealth and political authority." Now it says in just about all societies, religion was used in a way of social control. Now this is important because it puts religion in context. It, it gives you the understanding on why certain people are so adamant about having people believe certain things. Why are they so adamant about establishing certain religions? All of them, just about, in prior societies have used this as a tool. Why? Because just like you said, shrewd leaders saw how it works in the lives of people. And if we can see how it works in the lives of people, and if there's a way to alter it in order for people to, for it to interact with people in a certain way that achieves or gets them to move in certain ways, in certain directions, then it can be used as a tool to, to, to help us accomplish whatever the leaders are trying to accomplish. You can always get them to do something. Very, it's a very powerful tool, right? So all societies, just about, have used this.
Now, let's go into it and let's, let's, let's get this book here, right here. This is called "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind." This is a, a, a very, um, insightful book right here. It studies how people interact in crowds and how it forms, the crowd mindset forms like one single being. And how people, when you're immersed in the crowd, people lose all rationality and reasonableness, and it doesn't allow them to think. They're thinking in an instinctive way. And that's what happens when people get immersed and they caught in religion. So this is what this talks about in this book. It's a very, very, um, uh, recommended book for if you want to study like the, the, the crowd mind and how people work in groups.
"All founders of religious or political creeds have established them solely because they were successful in inspiring crowds with those fanatical sentiments which have as a result that men find their happiness in worship and obedience and are ready to lay down their lives for their idol. This has been the case at all epochs." Fustel de Coulanges, in his excellent work on Roman Gaul, justly remarks that the Roman Empire was in no wise maintained by force. Rome didn't maintain all the people that were in that civilization by forcing them to do something, by oppression, making them do something. But how did they, how were they able to control so many people? But by the religious admiration it inspired. But by inspiring people to be involved in religion. It would be inexplicable that the 30 legions of the Empire should have constrained a hundred million men to obedience. There, the reason of their obedience was that the Emperor, who personified the greatness of Rome, was worshiped like a divinity by unanimous consent. Everybody bought into the idea. The entire Roman Empire bought into the idea. We're going to worship the Emperor as divinity. That's what they bought into. You can't tell, and you couldn't tell those hundred million people that nothing that they were doing was wrong. If you come in there talking about something else, you might have been on the stake, burned at the stake. This is what they believed in, right? And they believed in it adamantly. And so adamantly that this happened.
"There were altars in honor of the emperor in the smallest townships of his realm." In their mind, they're fully convinced, fully convinced. This is what happens. This is why I say religion is super powerful because once you get fully convinced, it blocks off the reasoning faculty where it's hard, hard to reason because you're super convinced. And, um, inspired. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it at all, at all. It's just that it has a weakness that it can be taken advantage of. People who are involved in there, 'cause that's what we'll understand, that's how people are able to take advantage of it. People on the outside know that there's other people with strong convictions. They can take advantage of this. In this instance, raising up the emperor of Rome as one of the gods, raising it up, which means gives that emperor the ultimate authority over the lives of people. It's a clean, clean social control method. It's very clean if the people are susceptible to it, right? You can't force nobody in there, but if they're inspired enough, they could be forced, they could be, um, drawn into it. And then all of a sudden, you start getting groups and groups of people in there. And next thing you know, people are just falling in there. Well, I guess, I guess the emperor is, um, raised up as divinity. Everyone buys into it. Now you have a mass mind. And someone comes on the outside saying something different, you're coming, there's some trouble coming, right? There's trouble coming.
"It appears that in almost all societies, religion was recognized not only as the principal means of social control, but the equally certain source of economic wealth and political authority." Religion is a business. We have to understand that. It has, it's a business, and it's a lucrative business. And like I said, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with any of that. The point is just to get out the understanding of people can be able to see what it actually is, and then you can have a clearer, a clearer point to where you can make other decisions. If you would like to remain, if you want to stay, it's, that's no problem, right? That's not the issue, right? So it's okay if a lucrative business, but being a lucrative business, it attracts certain individuals who have lucrative things on their minds, right? That's what comes with it.
"From the chieftain's role of offering prayers and sacrifices to the gods, the steps to his own claim of kinship with the deities were easy enough." So this is the same thing that the Romans did with the emperor. You're going to find out now, humans have similar patterns throughout the world. They operate in similar ways. It doesn't change much. There's a certain, humans have a certain amount of abilities that they can do, and they repeat those patterns over and over, just in different parts of the world and, and in certain circumstances. It just looks different from the environment that they're in. Humans do the same thing wherever they're at throughout the world. That's how one of the ways we know we're all related throughout the world. They do the same thing, follow the same patterns, whether it's in Africa or whether it's in Rome, you're going to follow many of the same patterns.
So the chieftain set themselves up, and they said it was easy enough. That's what Dr. Chancellor Williams is saying, easy enough for them to do it. For who can gainsay one who is in exclusive communication with the Almighty? How are you going to say something or ridicule, criticize, question somebody who put themselves as equal with the divine, if they have the divine message and they're holding the divine message? Remember I say, "and God says," they have the, "and God says," they can tell you what God says. How are you going to question that person? Because that person's a, um, a middleman, a middleman for who? The, the being that is created. From the priest and the ruling class who have these deities that they create that serve purposes, some for good, some for evil. But how are you going to question someone who's on an equal status with that, with that being? You can't do it. Because now it seems like you question the ruler, that means you're criticizing the gods, and that's a no-no when you're bound in religious ideology.
"The point of all this is that religion made the people submissive and obedient, all the more so if their ruler was given a superhuman role, such as kinship with the gods and the protecting ancestors." For did this not mean that the rulers held all the keys to heaven? Indeed, the chiefs and kings had evolved into the very instruments of the people's salvation. So that's what happened to many of the people, uh, on the continent of Africa. Many of them, the kings and priests rose up. And this goes, this is an important piece because it, it connects directly with the slave trade. Whenever we start talking about that, the leaders, the chiefs, you're going to find out all throughout history, these guys have a very important role in playing in a lot of the destruction and also a lot of the positive things as well, both of them. So the leaders have to be watched to see what type of characteristic they have that's going to be displaying and they're that they're going to be expressing, 'cause they have a, uh, very profound role in society and have a lot of power to make things happen. And in this instance, we can see that when the leaders rose up, they're able to control a lot of the societies in order to get them to function how they want them to function. And that could be not only in a negative way, but it also can be in a positive way. That's why I say that it's a tool. Religion is a tool.
Now, it's a tool that many people find comfort in, and many people base their, uh, being in, and that's okay. There's just some people who do not want to be placed in that framework of thinking. And those people are people who necessarily want to expand their level of awareness and not be pigeonholed in certain beliefs. And so it's okay to respect people who are in religion, and it's okay for people who are in religion to respect people who are not into religion, as long as nobody's trying to do cause any harm to anybody else, right? And so the videos that I make with these dealing with the religious topics, it's not directed towards the people. We're talking about the concept of religion and how other humans can see how the concept of religion works. And how, if depending on what character trait they're going to express, they could use that as a way to infiltrate and to get people to do things that those people may not have otherwise done if they were not into that form of, um, of thinking. And so it's important to understand how religion functions, how it moves, how it breathes, how it has its own being, and how it manifests as a concept, and how it causes people to react in certain ways. All these things are important to understand about religion. And then for someone to be able to take information and then be able to decide for themselves how they want to deal with that concept. This is elevated thinking, and just practical thinking, right? It actually, it's not even elevated thinking, it's just practical thinking. You should want to know how something works before you vest your entire life into it, right? That's what I had. It took me a very, a very long time to be able to come to that understanding. And so coming to that understanding, when all the information was laid out, then I'm able to make my move. And, and then seeing not only all the information laid out, but seeing how things function just in the practical world. Is there a necessity for this? Do I actually need it? Do I actually not need it? All these things, all these, uh, reasonable and responsible questions. These are the things that I asked, right? And coming to my, uh, understanding and conclusion. But other people have different thoughts and opinions on it, and it works differently in other people's lives. Some people, it works, um, fantastically, right? It works fantastically if they can be, they're in there, and it has gotten people out of a lot of places, a lot of, a lot of, um, a lot of down and out places, right? That's why I say it can be used either way. It can be used either way. So you have to see how it functions, though. You have to see how it functions and how it can be used in many instances just to control people, right?
So my name is Brooklyn St. Michael, and I make these videos to raise the awareness of people and give you the keys to help you get into the free world. And some of the people who make it into the free world, for some of you to become initiated into the ero community and the ero identity. And this is a non-racial identity. We don't deal with race. What we do is we develop ourselves, develop our morals, develop our minds, and we want the best for each and everyone that are part of our community. And we want to instill values into our children so they can have the best chance of success in life, right? And so that's what we're about in a, um, in a, in general terms. So with that being said, hopefully you enjoyed the video, and I'll see you on the next one.