Chapter 4: Undercutting the social elite

Religion is most definitely a double-edged sword. It can support political authority and the social elites, or it can undermine them. Look at China and Daoisim. First I need to say something about Ban Zhou. Do you think five generations later there was a Ban Zhou VI (Bahn Jo VI)…Do you think he was a vocalist? He sang “It’s my life, it’s Dao or ever…” You guys know that song? Just me? Okay. 

Daoism was taken into the popular religion in China. It promoted a oneness with the Dao, and a return to nature. At first glance, this sounds great for the government and the social elite. If you really think about it, this was bad for them. If everyone is living a simple life, painting landscapes and meditating, then riding their water buffalo off into Western China, then they are not spending, competing with each other, or producing excess for the ruling class to take.

  Beyond the promotion of a less materialistic life, this pulled people from the government in other ways. Large land owning families not paying taxes on their vast fortunes led to poverty on a massive scale. So now, you have Daoists who already believe they don’t need the government and ruling class, and you throw disease and starvation on top of it. These factors influenced the start of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. I think this is a great example of religion undermining the social elite, and governments. 

Cut to India. Hinduism served to promote the social elite and the government. This was done through the caste system. Within the belief system, people could be reborn into higher and higher castes based on their behavior and acting within the confines of their caste. This was a two-fold support for the government and social elite. It reinforced the idea that those of a higher status had somehow earned it. It dissipated any notion that it was simply the luck of birth that placed them above others. Beyond that, people then believed that they had done something to be born into a lower caste. This kept people down. 

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