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Whose bread one eats, whose God one begs. A free thought that occurred to me while fixing my new globe. Purchased just before Christmas as a gift to myself on Amazon. Used, admittedly, but the ad said as good as new. And it was half the price of new. Unfortunately an essential part was missing, but fortunately for an intellectual I am very good with my hands.

It should have raised the question for me as a lover of my own wisdom; how good is new?

Or are you mainly playing into your own expectation with this term that new also means better. That the new year 2025 will be better than, say, A.D. 30. The year in which the Romans, at the request of the Jews, hammered one of the most important pillars of Western civilization to the cross in and around Jerusalem. An act that would cause misery and trouble for centuries to come. A misery that is revived every so often.

Now again by the revisionist current in Zionism that considers itself the true heirs of the kingdom of Israel. Are they? No, historically, there is no conclusive evidence that this little kingdom actually existed in the time of 930 BC. The designation; house of David found on a last excavated doorpost of a building attributed to a Jewish community because of missing pig bones is rather meagre as evidence. Looks more like wishfull reasoning. It’s like trying to reconstruct a feast based on how much residue was spilled mustard when it was cleaned up. Better known as mustard after the meal.

As an archaeological find, it offers as little evidence and support as the permission to establish a Jewish state based on the Balfour Declaration. In which the British government prematurely cut straps from the leather of sheep held by the Arab inhabitants of that area! Which gave the First World War in that part of the Ottoman Empire the character of a colonial war of aggression c.q. raid.

What to do with a globe is the question more intelligent readers will ask. I can give an answer to that question. A globe with the geographical position of the earth on it answers the question: How did the first human beings swarm out from ‘dark’ Africa? Which route to choose offered the best chances of survival? And which route was most obvious for the numerous migrations of people and spread of world religions thereafter. The time when humans had spread across the globe like voracious termites? Occupying virtually every piece of fertile land. And claimed ownership of it as their ancestral property.

You can also see a globe as a military manual. That it makes sense to wage war, especially in areas where large armies can move easily given the terrain. The use of cavalry, the weapon of the possessing class, is not a hindrance.

But to return to the line with which I began. The next thought was; the formation of larger political units like a state precedes monotheism. The state formation that leads to greater unity occurs primarily when the bureaucracy is not based on patrimonialist relations. The ground for polytheisms. . How exactly those family connections works could fill whole libraries, but the ultimate consequence of this liberal thought is; that religion too is human work. That power-hungry politicians are like priests. That is not bad as long as you do not claim, that you have a divine claim on an area, while the truthfulness of this claim rattles on all sides.

Ludo 31-12-2024