Cultural Symbols

Look at any society and note their tallest or grandest buildings. Which structures are central to the community? Which took the longest or most funds to build?

You will discover what is most important to them, what centers their lives, what controls them, maybe even what oppresses them.

For centuries, the tallest and grandest building was the castle of the King or the local lords and landowners. Located on the highest hill or in the center of the town, the castle was the visible symbol of their divinely given authority and wealth; lavish, warm, safe, spacious. Every comfort available. A cadre of slaves and servants to make every wish of the Lord of the Manor come true. If the castle fell, the people fell with it. If it prospered, they were at least allowed to live, for the most part.

Soon the Church became the symbol of the people. The grand cathedrals of Europe, Notre Dame, St Paul's, St Peter's and many lesser ones, dwarfing the shanties and shacks of the surrounding village. There lived the priests and bishops and popes and such, lording over all they see, serene in their divine right to rule. Arbiters of morals, judges of the law and rules, they played both sides of the fence, bending to those whose money kept the cathedral running and putting the fear of God and punishment to the masses. Society kept in check by fear of the unknown, the masses too uneducated to question, the royalty still believing God himself gave them the right to rule.

By the late 1800's the first thing you saw approaching a town were the smokestacks of the new factories, belching smoke and flame, creating a new race of rulers. Suddenly, the factory was the center of society. Making ordinary people either fabulously wealthy or fabulously enslaved. But to be fair, people with skills were able to rise a bit above abject poverty. Most, as the old song went "hauled 16 tons and what do you get, another year older and deeper in debt", their souls sold to the company store.

Is today any different? Castles, cathedrals and smokestacks replaced by banks and Courthouses. All with the same effect; society kept in check by fear of the unknown, the masses too uneducated to question, the royalty still believing God himself gave them the right to rule. Remember the line above? You will discover what is most important to them, what centers their lives, what controls them, maybe even what oppresses them.