#9 – Sacrifice & Oppression at the Dawn of Tyranny

It's a Vietnam story called The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, he's a veteran himself. He starts off the book describing the men of his platoon, describing the things they carry with them.

The speaker describes 'Blood Meridian' as a favorite work of post-war American fiction, detailing its themes and characters, particularly focusing on the Glanton Gang and the Judge.

Pierre Clastres has a book called Society Against the State, where he observes characteristics common to chiefs of nomadic hunter-gatherer societies.

The utopian vision in the Christian Bible at the end of the book of Revelation, when the new Jerusalem descends to earth, it's ruled by Jesus Christ with an iron rod in his hand, a sacred dictator.

Marvin Harris, in his book Our Kind, wrote about the natural necessity to form hierarchical groups and the vision of human life without inequality.

The speaker mentions a book called Formations by Haman, discussing an account of a chief in Hawaii and his interactions with a poor fellow.

In her book, Aztecs, an interpretation, she discusses the complex modes of formal address and the strict protocols of deference in Tenochtitlan.

Hugh Thomas, again from his book Conquest, he quotes from the sources on the anxious nature of the inauguration rituals.

The Bhagavad Gita, the great warrior Arjuna has mounted his chariot and stands ready to do battle in a civil war against many of his former friends and kinsmen.

Clannadine's great by the way, she's a brilliant writer as you can probably tell, she goes on to describe a very peculiar form of social welfare among the Aztecs.

The arguments in the Book of Job are cast aside for the weak human attempts at control, which they in fact were.

The Bhagavad Gita, by the way, is a portion of the Mahabharata, the great epic of Hindu civilization.

The speaker references one of Eli Sagan's books but does not specify a title.

The Mahabharata is similar in its role to the Iliad in ancient Greece.