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Improvement in man's tools was the result of improvement in man's thought processes. As man learned to identify the forces of nature, he came to realize that nature to be commanded must be obeyed. This meant that neocheaters and mystics, who did not understand nature, would be at a disadvantage unless they created social structures which would be based on their wielding power over the producers of goods and ideas. This was accomplished by creating the twin bureaucracies of religion and state, which were set above men in order to control their actions in the spiritual and physical worlds.
While the alleged justification of both institutions, church and state, was protection of the masses (from the gods and foreign and domestic enemies), the true reason for their existence was that those who ruled craved power and wealth which they could not obtain through voluntary dealing with their fellow man. Once again laziness surfaced as the most important motive behind mysticism and neocheating. If the statesmen and priests offered a legitimate service desired by their fellow man, there would never have been any necessity for them to compel support (religious membership or citizenship) and tribute (religious dues and taxation) except that they were simply too lazy to compete against others who might do a far superior job.
The development of writing (around 3500 B.C.) served both the worlds of the neocheaters and the producers-creators. Writing was quickly adopted by traders and businessmen as a sure way of identifying and preserving property rights in contractual form (such as credit transactions which could not be immediately completed, as in barter). Commercial transactions of all sorts were simplified and allowed to multiply when their essential elements could be reduced to writing so as to avoid misunderstandings. By about 1000 B.C., the Phoenicians, the great trading people of the eastern Mediterranean, had borrowed elements from both Egypt and Mesopotamia, and had created their own script, from which stems much of the alphabet we use today. The Phoenician traders were also familiar with the early decimal system for recording numbers, which was first developed by the ancient Egyptians.
Though the use of numerals and writing helped to enrich the world through increasing the amount of trade which took place, its use was also adopted by the temple priests and scribes to keep track of the records of temple dues and the payment of `taxes' for the protection afforded by the state. Laws were written down, at first on clay tablets and later on papyrus. For those who did not have the ability to read, these notations of religion and state held a mystery, which supposedly could only be unlocked by the priests and the governors. Since none of the members of these classes worked productively, they had to be supported by taxing -- by literally stealing -- the production of those who earned their own way in the world.
Little did those who could not read the "laws" realize that all "written law" was really superfluous and a sham created by the neocheaters of their world. If they had only taken the time to think about it, they would have realized that what is beneficial to man is already commanded by nature. Man-made laws (even if they were committed to writing) add nothing to nature. Nature's laws never need enforcement; they simply enforce themselves. Long before the law of gravity was identified, Neolithic man realized that he could walk off the edge of a cliff, but was not likely to survive the fall. It was only man-made law, such as "pay your taxes to the temple priest or governor's representative or else suffer imprisonment or confiscation of your property," which had to be enforced at the point of a spear. Natural law was always self-enforcing.
The advent of written law secured the power of neocheaters. Written words became the basis for authority, legality, and punishment. From this time on, the written word of the priest or king became the neocheating vehicle by which businessmen and individuals were controlled. The acceptance of the written word in this fashion enabled the state to manipulate and interpret private contracts to its own benefit. (The most prominent recent example of this was the abrogation of the gold clause in private contracts during the New Deal.)
Smelting of copper first began about 5000 B.C. in various places in the Near East and was widespread by 3000 B.C. The Bronze age in Europe did not begin until about 2000 B.C. The Bronze Age was characterized by the first use of metal tools in human civilization. First copper, then bronze, and even later, iron, were utilized as materials for making tools and consumer goods. First, however, the thinkers and creators of this era had to discover smelting, which is the extraction of metal from an ore through the use of heat. Since copper was essentially a soft and malleable metal, they then had to discover the art of alloying two metals together to create a new and harder metal. The discoverers of this age soon found that a mixture of tin and copper ore, heated together, made bronze, a new metal that was far harder than any of its components.
Tools of bronze were not only more durable than flint tools, they allowed the accomplishment of new tasks, such as cutting and smoothing logs to make lumber. This opened up new worlds for the peoples of the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. The Egyptians were among the earliest of ancient peoples to build wooden furniture, wooden plank ships, coffins for their dead, and even chariots and wagons. Bronze tools also allowed them to quarry rock and chip it into exact shapes. Thus were born the pyramids, temples, and statues of ancient Egypt, which forever symbolize the waste and neocheating of the ancient world. For much of this was done by slave labor, effort drawn from unwilling men, at the lash of the whip and point of the spear -- which, for example, went into the construction of the pyramids. How much more production would have accrued, how many new inventions and discoveries were stifled, we will never know. Men who are compelled to work are never as productive as free men and generally refuse to use their rational thinking abilities to assist their captors.
The Iron Age came about approximately 3500 years ago (1500 B.C.), when a Hittite inventor in what is now eastern Asia developed methods of smelting iron, and alloying it with carbon to create steel, and then forging the new metal into tools. It was iron and steel tools which made possible the fabulous cultures of Greece and Rome. These new developments were all brought about by producers, and as had been the case during the Bronze Age, this new advance in toolmaking brought enormous benefits to everyone. It increased productivity and prosperity and created free time without which the achievement of the sciences and the arts would have been impossible. And as with the primitive technology of the cave man, the development of bronze, iron, and steel made possible the construction of deadly weapons, which the neocheaters of the world used to enforce their will on others.
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