Crowd psychology
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream
— and not make dreams your master;
If you can think
— and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings
— nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling, “If” in Rewards and Fairies.
If you fear the revelation of facts the truth becomes your enemy and lies will lurk about you, but if you are willing to seek the whole truth and provide for it then facts are your friend and freedom will be your companion.
Crowd psychology
Crowd psychology is the broad study of how individual behavior is impacted when large crowds group together, often with a negative social impact or later included emergency-type of environments producing more positive social impacts. ...
Scipio Sighele and Gabriel Tarde, Gustave LeBona, and Freud examined the theory of Crowd psychology and added to it. Some, like Columbia University's Tory Higgins, a professor of psychology, believes that riots such as the those of June 2020 in US cities typically occur when people feel "ineffective". "In situations like this, there is a long period prior to the riot of feeling that you're not in control of your own life.
The feeling of not being in control may be due to your desire to have more control than you may have a right to posses. If you desire to control others more than you desire to control yourself you may feel frustration or even have a feeling of being "ineffective" when others resist.
If you believe that your present state or your future is dependent more on others and their actions than your own you are more likely want to control or even blame others for your present condition or fate.
This may cause a desire to control others in society and create structures in society that allow for you to exert that control upon others.
- The sin of Cain is a seed sowed in the mind of men..
Social Structure
What is "social structure"?
If the word “structure” refers to a set of relations between elements that have some measure of coherence and stability then “social structure” includes the relationships between elements of society. The first and primary elements of society are the people. That which binds the people binds society but all bonds are not created equal.
Social structure is the distinctive arrangement of the elements or institutions in a society whereby mankind may interact. Social structure can be changed by forces within society. An individual is not the structure of society but a resource and agent of society. While a social structure is an organized arrangements of the resources and agents of society. A social institution is a substructure that is patterned for the fulfillment of social needs. They may be public or private.
The foundational social structure may include institutions such as family, church, courts, government, economics and educational institutions. They may also include customs, practices, and perception of groups or classes.
Social Trauma
Society may be required over the course of time to withstand the “heavy load” of reality in the form of disasters from nature and other societies as well as internal threats of infectious change, usurpation, or degeneration and decay. The structure of society may determine if that society and nation survives, degenerates or is destroyed, whether it remain free or bond.
These are all elements of society producing and sustaining the relationship of the people, binding and loosing them as they by their nature actually design and form the structure of society often over riding the intent and plans of the people. This is why most utopian ventures fail.
Structuration is "the state or process of organization in a structured form." The theory of structuration is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social systems that is based in the analysis of both structure and agents, without giving primacy to either. Further, in structuration theory, neither micro- nor macro-focused analysis alone is sufficient.
Anthony Giddens'[1] theory of structuration explores the question of whether individuals or social forces shape society. Structuration theory asserts that social action cannot be fully explained solely by the structure or agency, or by micro- nor macro-focused analysis alone.
Giddens seems to sees the individual's autonomy as influenced by social structure but those structures are only maintained and adapted through the exercise of agency through the interactions of individuals. The individual must act within the context of rules established within social structures if the social structure is to be reinforced within the thinking of the individual.
In New Rules, Giddens wrote “the universe is being constituted—or produced by—the active doings of subjects.” “Individuals produce society, but they do so as historically located actors, and not under conditions of their own choosing.”
Source of Culture
Where does culture come in to social structure?
Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in societies, including the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Man acquire culture through the learning processes of socialization within both eniironment, time and society, which creates divers cultures across societies.
According to James S. House,[2] culture is what members of a social system collectively believe while social structure is the result of what members of a social system collectively do. Anthony Giddens[1] defines social structure “as rules and resources”. Which makes structure a kind of grammar, that orients the actors' modes of social action. The rules are not separate from resource in the social structure.
While culture matters a contrast between traditional culture and post-traditional culture may allow for more options and sometimes producing more analysis among groups of individuals.
Free Structure
What is the Social Structure of a free society?
Any centralization of power draws those seeking power to desire more power and weakens those who are slothful in the exercise of the responsibilities of the power of choice until they also degenerate. This division creates a dialectic which divides society. The choices and actions of individuals alters the structures of society and may continue to divide society which alters society and the individuals within it. But also the structures of society that move or remove functions and choices within society to divergent groups will alter the individuals within that society.
Libertarians may apply ideological constrains like “do no harm”. But constraint, like liberty, must be self imposed internally and collectively encouraged. That is done by the presence of or the absence of certain elements of “social structures” such as the custom, culture, and moral ethics.
Like rules in biological DNA, any deviation from the rules of a given social structure could be attacked and removed or starved or excluded by the body of society.
It becomes impossible to think of the rules without also thinking of resources, and visa versa. Rules suggest a practiced process 'sanctioning of modes of social conduct' and acceptable behavior. It is natural to desire to be accepted and in a precarious or uncertain world it is frightening to be rejected. The basic social structures that define the acceptability of social molds or model can alter the mind of the individual. As the thinking is altered the reaction to events and conditions may alter the actions and reactions produced by Crowd psychology.
The actors' action within social systems of society constitute activities which compose both a virtual and abstract existence that becomes explicit in the actors' action altering the pattern or way he thinks. But the opportunities for diverse actions are altered by changes in structure. Some of those changes are created by conditions, new discoveries, alternative social actions and practices or even government policies. Changing options, making some actions more convenient or inconvenient or eliminating access to options all together will alter structures of society and the thinking of its members.
- Can you list changes by conditions, new discoveries, alternative social actions and practices and the policies of governments?
If the social structure is becoming detrimental to the health of society what can the individual do?
Communitarianism
Communitarianism is "of or relating to social organization in small cooperative partially collectivist communities." It is also said to be a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based upon the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community relationships, with a smaller degree of development being placed on individualism.
Communitarianism is also said to be a social and political philosophy that emphasizes the importance of community in the functioning of political life, in the analysis and evaluation of political institutions. The real conflict from a Biblical view point may be identified in the definition that communitarianism has "a viewpoint on welfare issues that stresses common interests and common values arising from communal bonds. As such, communitarianism is opposed to purely individualistic conceptions of welfare"
John Goodwyn Barmby
John Goodwyn Barmby was a leader of the British Chartist movement[3], who used the term Communitarianism. After his "Communist Church" failed he moved toward a more radical Unitarian Christianity. He often referred to a socialists utopia but often found it easier to imagine than establish.
The term fell out of use until after the sexual revolution of the 60s and the political frustration of the 1970s. The term became popular in the 1980s among socialists who had progressed in modern academia taking over the teaching of a new American political philosophy. Ideas of the "common good" pushed against individual liberalism and libertarians with their love for personal autonomy and the endowed rights of individuals. This was actually a new version of communitarianism where collectivism is king, at least at the beginning.
Robert Owen
John Goodwyn Barmby had at one time been a follower of Robert Owen and his well financed Owenites. Robert Owen had been a follower of Jeremy Bentham, who believed in the "free markets" as to a partial solution for the abuses that may arise with the freedom offered through capitalism.
Owen had become disillusioned with the Church of England and became what was called a deist as defined at that time. He understood that the mind, thinking and character of men was often altered by their environment. He was influenced by high moral standards and the views of men like Sir Isaac Newton's views on natural law, and others from Plato to Jeremy Bentham.
Because of personal wealth and the advances in the mill industry he was able to experiment with new ideas to reorganize society with seemingly some intermediate success.
His community was formed as a collective where the people lived in common housing providing private apartments but a common kitchen. Children were raised by their parents only until they were three when the community would take over the rearing and education of the child. The parents would still have contact but the community would take over traditional roll of the Fathers and Mothers as educators/[4]
Of course in theory only the most competent care givers and educators would be chosen for the task of rearing children but nature would dictate a divided loyalty and responsibility undermining the law to honor your Father and Mother.
Owen believed it takes a village and tried to build a "Village of Unity and Mutual Cooperation". While his utopian community attracted a mix of people, many with the highest aims they also included vagrants, adventurers and other reform-minded enthusiasts. In the words of David Dale Owen, Robert's son, they attracted "a heterogeneous collection of Radicals", "enthusiastic devotees to principle," and "honest latitudinarians, and lazy theorists," with "a sprinkling of unprincipled sharpers thrown in." His New Harmony village lasted only two years and dissolved in 1827.
Without the filtering agents of private property, private charity and individual responsibility New Harmony was soon singing out of tune.
One of the participants at New Harmony, Josiah Warren, suggested they were doomed to failure for lack of individual sovereignty and personal property in their scheme, stating:
- "We had a world in miniature — we had enacted the French revolution over again with despairing hearts instead of corpses as a result... It appeared that it was nature's own inherent law of diversity that had conquered us... our "united interests" were directly at war with the individualities of persons and circumstances and the instinct of self-preservation..."
"All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer." William Allen a business partner of Robert Owen.
Owen tried numerous ventures after returning to England including the National Equitable Labour Exchange system,which included a time-based currency effected by means of "labour notes". But its time was up the first year.
He also was a leader of the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union (GNCTU) before its collapse in the next year.
Robert Owen made the term Socialism and his secular views also gained enough influence among the working classes. While his ideas enjoyed popularity among those who agitated for change they eventually lost ground and popularity with the practical demands of life.
Publicly proclaiming in his haste that all religions were false, not realizing that religion is not an institution of men but a duty to God and your fellowman. If he only realized the nature of Pure Religion must be unspotted by contracts and the force of the world.
In his frustration he delved into spiritualism and eventually wrote about his conversion in a pamphlet, "The future of the Human race; or great glorious and future revolution to be effected through the agency of departed spirits of good and superior men and women."
Robert would have been better served if he read a little less of Plato and a little more of Polybius and Plutarch and better off if he accepted that it is not nice to mess with Mother Nature and certinly far better oof if he realized that “If we want better people to make a better world, then we will have to begin where people are made in the family.” Jacob M. Braude.
Ten elements
Many historical political and religious systems seen in the Old Testament and the New Testament seems to have elements of Communitarianism but the devil may be in the interpretation and application.
Robert Owen's utopian model envisioned an association of 500–3,000 people as a working community unit. Interesting enough he desired such communities to organize "unions of them federatively united shall be formed in circle of tens, hundreds and thousands" but traditionally in the Law of Nature the family was the foundational unit of society and not the village.
Christ was filtering out His followers from the very beginning by preaching the elements of the Kingdom of God as opposed to the elements of the world.
He demand that each individual was to seek the righteousness of God spelled out in the Ten Commandments. That would mean that at least three of those elements include that:
- You could not make covenants that would bind your right to choose or liberty because all liberty was of God and anyone who opposes liberty opposes God.
You were to honor your Father and Mother so that your days upon the land would be lengthened by the love of your own children caring for you.
You also could not covet anything that was thy neighbors. That would mean that your neighbor owned what he had and you owned what you had.
Corban was a part of the welfare system of Israel but some how under Herod and the Pharisees they politically tweaked the practice of Corban and were making the word of God to none effect.
Failing for almost a thousand years to grasp the structure of the Church and the relationship of the Christian community to that Church several passages have been taken out of context. Acts 4:32: talks about an appointed and called out Church which held "all things common". Like the Levites who held lands in common as joint heirs because they had no personal inheritance in the land[5] the early Church ministers had to meet the criteria of the Christ as spelled out in His Gospel. Because the appointed Ministers of Christ held "all things common" as joint heirs, and could not have a personal inheritance but instead they inherited the job of the Church.[6] They could then be the Benefactors who did not exercise authority one over the other.[7]
The people in congregations did have an inheritance in the land.[8] The people in Israel and the early Church were not communists nor socialists communities.
The early Church and the Church in the wilderness, consisting of the Levites, provided a daily ministration through the individual freewill offerings of the people in faith, hope and charity. The practice of Religion, especially Pure Religion was defined as worship. The ministers of the Church were in the world but not of the world and consisted of ministers who were called out to serve the people who organized themselves in the tens.
Christ had commanded that His minister require that five thousand men and their families organize themselves in the "tens, hundreds and thousands" before there would be a distribution of loaves and fishes.
The altars of the Bible are actually describing a the structure of God's Kingdom we are to seek which makes us free souls under God if we establish the "bonds " of society through faith, hope and charity rather than fealty, fear, and force used by the world.
The death of George Floyd
Was the death of George Floyd an accident, negligence or murder?
Was it the cause of the riots or was there an underlying cause growing for decades within the minds and hearts of the population?
While George Floyd seems to be the spark did someone fan the flames?
It is clear that the media continued the practice of sensationalizing and skewing reports to work on the emotions of the population but was that irresponsibility and incompetence or to promote an agenda? Was the agenda merely profit or more pernicious?
Did provocateurs and politicians take advantage of the conflagration of hate and violence fanned and promoted by the Media Madness?
Was the deaths of people during the riots due to the media malpractice that clearly provoked unrest, anger, and violence?
Was the cause of the riots the death of George Floyd or is it found much deeper in the soul of mankind?
The media has clearly convicted the officers in the press by failing to report any evidence that might suggest that the death may have been an accident due to poor judgment. And who should bear the greatest blame?
What many, including what is posing as journalism today, seem to forget that guilt or innocence is for a jury to decide. Everyone is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
It was not yet and could not have been clear exactly who is guilty of what until all the evidence is revealed and examined. The media clearly failed at that duty. But what the media failed to do the people should have done.
Every citizen should reserve judgment until all the evidence was heard. Knowing the track record of the media for distortion and malpractice no one should rush to judgment until all the facts are revealed.
But still we do.
Riots often cause untold harm to the people who engage in them but still the mind of the mob or Crowd psychology wreaks havoc upon society as an almost uncontrollable force.
Riots should be avoided but the solution is not found in suppressing the flames but in cultivating a natural fire retardant of the heart and mind through forgiveness. Unless we walk in forgiveness we are endanger of someone igniting the fabric of our souls.
Social Impact
The social impact of media malpractice, false flags, distorted view of history, lower moral standards can all be contributing factors to riots.
Is the social impact predictable long before the triggering event?
What is the main motivation at play in crowd psychology?
Are there preconditions in society that lend to turning members toward mor positive reactions or negative reactions in society?
Does the culture, ideology, and values within society channel a preassigned reaction of society during any crises that may occur?
Do factors in society like policies and practices, customs and relationships predetermine the likely response of the crowd?
People standing in line at COSCO to buy toilet paper they did not need were asked why? There response was as if it was a logical reason, "Everyone else is."
What preexisting condition compels an individual to do something he has no interest in or need to do simply because he thinks everyone else is doing it? Politicians, entertainment, and commercial advertisement depend upon that phenomena every day.
What emotional state or psychological conditions makes an individdual more vulnerable to the influence of the crowd or mob.
While a shared antagonism towards authority allowed rivalries to supersede group identity.
There is fear but also the release or nullification of fear.
The feeling of power this created among participants is what helped the riots grow and spread.
Certainly, rioters who loot and rob, break and burn their own neighborhoods and communities would be a clear sign of that perfect savagery predicted by Polybius long before the first Emperor seized control of the Republic. Roman history was punctuated with such riots[9] as it went from a capitalist practicing Republic to a social Democracy with its free bread and circuses. Long before its fall its fate was sealed by its apathy, immorality, and covetous practices.
But what are the early signs of that degeneration of both individuals and society? Riots are not caused by a few provocateurs who may mingle in the crowds but caused by the spirit of selfishness that has already made a home in the hearts of the inhabitance of the city.
Some psychologists are confounded by riots taking place in the world but are also quick to judge perceived injustice, political motives, or racism as the cause. Many rioters are not desperately poor. Many of those "rioting" are just stealing stuff like clothes, shoes and electronic devises that they do not even need.
Causes vs Excuses
There are "Causes and excuses" for riots. The cause is often an internal element in the people or lack of character within the people brought on by environmental, social and cultural practices that manipulate and control not only the structure of society but also the minds of the individuals within society.
We made a report on Riots and their fundamental causes. It is the moral foundation of the individuals with in society or the lack of a moral foundation that makes the people vulnerable to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. To help everyone understand elements of of societies vulnerability we offer the article on Crowd psychology which may lead to riots.
Biblical riots
Herod and the Pharisees with the help of a corrupt Sanhedrin had set up a system of social security where citizens had to pay in as registered members. This system of Legal charity by force would "make the word of God to none effect" and the people wold become human resources for the rulers who called themselves benefactors. This system of Corban offering the wages of unrighteousness would also cause families to breakdown as the primary social unit and curse children as a surety for the debt of the New Deal. It would eventually strangle the hue an cry and divides society rather than bring them together, weaken the poor like the Sin of Sodom, and degenerate individuals into perfect savages.
Even the Greek word korban is related to the term korbanas[10], signifying the “temple treasury.” The Jewish historian Josephus makes it clear that funds from the temple treasury were called “Corban,” hence could not be used for secular purposes, e.g., city improvements, as in the building of an aqueduct for water supply.[11]
The same term is translated treasury in Matthew 27:6, "And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood."
Pontius Pilate had put down riots because the Corban. The people's social security money that was kept in the temple treasury was used to build an aqueduct. Despite what people like to think there is no separation of funds in these government treasuries so while Pilate's actions were brutal his position was legally correct.
The structure of Roman society and its government had changed from the original Libera res publica of early Rome. It had moved away from the individual responsibility, charity and trust to practices that instituted force that would degenerate the people into perfect savages. While Polybius predicted this process and Plutarch explained it was Jesus the Christ who taught this other way of thinking. John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles preached that we should repent and seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
We were to turn from the wages of unrighteousness and the Corban of the pharisees and the free bread if Rome and return to the righteous daily ministration of God in the practice of Pure Religion instead of the covetous practices of men who call themselves benefactors but exercise authority one anther. They are not faithful in love for one another for they are biting one another until they are devoured.
2 Peter 2:13 "And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, [as] they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots [they are] and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;"
What the Bible has tried to tell us is how we structure society with our thinking and our thinking is altered also by the way we structure our society.
Factions at the altar |
Pharisees |
Sadducees |
Zealot |
Essenes |
Levites |
Messianic Judaism |
Menahem the Essene |
Sanhedrin |
Altars |
Clay and Stone |
Red Heifer |
Golden calf |
Freewill offerings |
Religion |
Pure Religion |
Public religion |
Christian conflict |
Paganism |
Denominations |
Dispensationalism |
Benefactors |
Corban |
Daily ministration |
Calendars |
Socialist
Socialism |
Communism |
Primitive Communism |
Anarcho communism |
Communist Altruism |
Collectivism |
Communitarian |
Community Law |
Crowd psychology |
Statues |
Heroes |
Legal charity |
Riots |
Welfare |
Welfare types |
Public religion |
Corban |
Why Socialism |
Was Jesus a socialist |
Not so Secure Socialism |
covetous practices |
Weightier matters |
Dialectic |
Bread and circuses |
gods |
Deist |
James Scott |
Liberalism |
Classical liberalism |
Transcendentalist |
Polybius |
Plutarch |
Perfect law of liberty |
Perfect savages |
Lady Godiva |
Nimrod |
Cain |
Bondage of Egypt |
Corvee |
Nicolaitan |
Benefactors |
Fathers |
Social bonds |
Citizen |
Social contract |
Section 666 |
Mark of the Beast |
Christian conflict |
Diocletianic Persecution |
Mystery Babylon |
Norway,
Sweden,
Finland, and
Denmark |
Community |
I paid in |
Goats and Sheep |
Shepherds |
Free Keys |
Roots of the Welfare State |
Cloward-Piven Strategy |
Rules For Radicals |
Communist Manifesto |
Live as if the state does not exist |
Departed |
Nazi |
Authority |
Guru theories |
Larken Rose |
Capitalism |
Covet |
Dominionism |
FEMA |
Network
End of family [12]
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Anthony Giddens, (Baron Giddens), a British sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. Director of London School of Economics, House of Lords.
- ↑ James S. House, Angus Campbell Distinguished, University Professor Emeritus of Survey Research, Public Policy, and Sociology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
- ↑ Chartists saw themselves fighting against political corruption but depended upon a social democracy approach to obtain their goals rather than individual charity. They did not have a live and let live or "laissez-faire" approach but desired the power of the ruling upper class to pas to them through social democracy. Without a networking system of voluntary charity as Christ commanded the bonds of their movement scattered by 1848.
- ↑ Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
- ↑ Numbers 18:20 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I [am] thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.
- ↑ Numbers 18:20 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.
- Numbers 18:23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.
- Numbers 18:24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
- Numbers 26:62 And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.
- Deuteronomy 18:2 Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.
- ↑ Luke 22:25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. 26 But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 27 For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. 28 Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. 29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
- ↑ Numbers 33:54 And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: [and] to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man’s [inheritance] shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.
- 1 Kings 8:36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
- ↑ Just a few include the 44 BC riot at the assassination of Julius Caesar. And in 38, 40 – Riots erupted in Alexandria devastating communities.
- ↑ Korbanas: among the Jews the holy treasury. Pilate spent the holy treasury on an aqueduct and stirred up a riot. It brought in water from a distance of seventy-two kilometers. Bringing in his army, he killed many. From the Suda or Souda a tenth century Byzantine dictionary, which uses ancient sources that have since been lost.
- ↑ "At another time he used the sacred treasure of the temple, called corban (qorban), to pay for bringing water into Jerusalem by an aqueduct. A crowd came together and clamored against him; but he had caused soldiers dressed as civilians to mingle with the multitude, and at a given signal they fell upon the rioters and beat them so severely with staves that the riot was quelled." The Aqueduct- Josephus, War 2.175-177, Antiq 18.60-62.
- ↑ Degeneration of the family
- “Even amongst women there were symptoms of revolt against the older order, which showed itself in a growing freedom of manners and impatience of control, the marriage tie was relaxed…" Encyclopedia Britannica ‘57 Vol. 19 p 490.2
- The “sanctity of marriage had ceased… Abortion, and the exposure and murder of newly-born children, were common and tolerated; unnatural vices, which even the greatest philosophers practiced, if not advocated, attained proportions which defy description.” Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, By Alfred Edersheim, Chapter XI.
- "Men nowadays no longer secretly, but openly outrage the wives of others, and allow others access to their own wives. A match is thought countrified, uncivilized, in bad style, and to be protested against by all matrons, if the husband should forbid his wife to appear in public in a litter, and to be carried about exposed to the gaze of all observers. If a man has not made himself notorious by a liaison with some mistress, if he does not pay an annuity to some one else's wife, married women speak of him as a poor-spirited creature, a man given to low vice, a lover of servant girls. Soon adultery becomes the most respectable form of marriage, and widowhood and celibacy are commonly practiced. No one takes a wife unless he takes her away from some one else. Now men vie with one another in wasting what they have stolen, and in collecting together what they have wasted with the keenest avarice; they become utterly reckless, scorn poverty in others, fear personal injury more than anything else, break the peace by their riots, and by violence and terror domineer over those who are weaker than themselves. No wonder that they plunder provinces and offer the seat of judgment for sale, knocking it down after an auction to the highest bidder, since it is the law of nations that you may sell what you have bought... Our ancestors before us have lamented, and our children after us will lament, as we do, the ruin of morality, the prevalence of vice, and the gradual deterioration of mankind;" On Benefits (De Beneficiis) by Seneca. See Riots
- "That the man who first ruined the Roman people twas he who first gave them treats and gratuities. But this mischief crept secretly and gradually in, and did not openly make it's appearance in Rome for a considerable time." Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus (c. 100 AD.)
- “The real destroyers of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.” Plutarch
- "The people who had once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else now longs eagerly for just two things, bread and circus games." Juvenal a Roman poet. See legal charity.