Episode:Civilization—Human Government (Part 5)
Once clans had merged into complex tribes, the next advance in social development was the evolution of religious cults and the political clubs. These groups first appeared as secret societies, and there were only men’s clubs. Subsequently, women’s groups and nonsecret clubs of unmarried men and women appeared.
Keywords: Urantia, Secret Societies, Churches, Political Parties, Social Classes
Summary by Kermit
Commentary on Review
As mentioned numerous times in this arc, our world is a patchwork of peoples living in various stages of progressive evolution in the quest for genuine advanced civilization. It will require thousands of years for a number of these groups to arrive where the leading edge nations currently are. We are challenged mightily to exercise patience in the face of such disparity. We remember that is was a lack of patience that gave rise to the rebellion and default, the direct causes of this situation in the first place.
70:7. Primitive Clubs and Secret Societies
As social grouping enlarged from clans to tribes, the increasing complexities of association required coordination of a political nature, hence the tribes represent the first true political body. This gave rise to two general classes of secret societies—the sociopolitical and religio-mystical. The need for secrecy and closed communications can be recognized as necessary, but as we see ever and anon, good things taken to extremes become bad. This is reflected today in the struggle between secrecy and transparency in many of our governmental activities.
The revelation cites four of the many reasons for the emergence of these societies. The very secrecy of these societies appealed to vanity and the initiates became the social aristocracy of the day.
Here the text jumps to the role of these societies in sex regulation of the males. Remember, the building block of all civilization, the family has its starting point with the sex hunger of the male, associated with the maternal instinct of the female. Today we find a notable lack of more formalized rites of passage to adulthood for both males and females. But alas, children are not self-actualizing and civilization is not automatic! Civilization is a choice and only people with reasonably enlightened minds are able to so choose. And even then it requires a relatively stable environment free from many of the primitive issues that militate against these choices. Are we loosing the framework in which these choices can be safely made? Herein is the price of unreflectively discarding our mores.
The revelators intimate that sex control was less problematic among the Sangiks, prior to the arrival of Adam and Eve. How ironic that the human race received enough Adamic genetics to quicken the imagination and heighten the wanderlust, but fell short of providing that overriding self-control of a truly superior inheritance.
The preparation of adolescent girls for wifehood and motherhood occasioned the formation of women’s secret clubs simultaneous with which orders pledged against marriage also appeared. Note the “hood” suffix implying a holistic aspect to these roles, which extended to the tribe, and ideally to society and civilization.
Nonsecret clubs for the unmarried of both sexes appeared and became the first schools. After contact with the Dalamatia teachers, coeducation was tried by some advanced tribes.
The secret societies contributed to the establishment of social castes and gave rise to organizations functioning in a wide range of social activities. These secret associations of earnest and dedicated individuals began to take up special functions that had many beneficial consequences. They were seminal in the origin of political parties, police, debt and tax collectors, charitable organizations, churches, and even international fraternal organizations.
70:8. Social Classes
The mental and physical inequality of human beings makes inevitable the formation of social classes. We have mentioned several times on this broadcast that social classes are indispensable to evolving civilization. The only worlds without social strata are the most primitive and the most advanced.
Much of our discussion centered about the idea that man’s origins are rooted in the primitive unity that is the horde. With human beings’ encircuitment in the Holy Spirit their inborn variations and differential response to these cosmic influences result in their stratification into social classes. Our author cites ten general reasons [70:8.3-12] for this stratification.
We discussed a number of the difficulties stemming from the view among many that such social classes are inimical to a spirit of equality and brotherhood among all men and women. It is true that when flexible social classes become castes a whole host of negative consequences arise. However, we are reminded in the inevitabilities, [3:5.5-14] and the imperatives that accompany them of the need for such conditions in the forging of the character required for our long ascent to perfection.
