The Agricultural Revolution made the future far more importantthan it had ever been before. Farmers must always keep the futurein mind and must work in its service. The agricultural economy wasbased on a seasonal cycle of production, comprising long months ofcultivation followed by short peak periods of harvest. On the nightfollowing the end of a plentiful harvest the peasants might celebratefor all they were worth, but within a week or so they were again upat dawn for a long day in the field. Although there was enough foodfor today, next week, and even next month, they had to worry aboutnext year and the year after that. - P100
Hammurabi‘s Code asserts that Babylonian social order is rootedin universal and eternal principles of justice, dictated by the gods.
The principle of hierarchy is of paramount importance. Accordingto the code, people are divided into two genders and three classes:superior people, commoners and slaves. Members of each genderand class have different values. The life of a female commoner isworth thirty silver shekels and that of a slave-woman twenty silvershekels, whereas the eye of a male commoner is worth sixty silvershekels. - P107
Like Hammurabi‘s Code, the American founding document prom-ises that if humans act according to its sacred principles, millions ofthem would be able to cooperate effectively, living safely and peace-fully in a just and prosperous society. Like the Code of Hammurabi,
the American Declaration of Independence was not just a documentof its time and place – it was accepted by future generations as well.
For more than 200 years, American schoolchildren have beening and learning it by heart. - P108
The humanities and social sciences devote most of their energiesto explaining exactly how the imagined order is woven into thetap-estryof life. In the limited space at our disposal we can only scratchthe surface. Three main factors prevent people from realising thatthe order organising their lives exists only in their imagination: - P113
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