2

Consider the sentence “The king is the one at whose side wealth walks”. It is taken from the Babylonian Theodicy, a poem which was written somewhere between 1500 B.C. and 1100 B.C. and which is therefore more than 3000 years old. Actually, within the poem that sentence is described as a widely spread opinion.

This may well be the oldest known complaint about the fact that being in good terms with whoever rules a country is the surest way of becoming rich. Does anyone know an older one? Or, if this is indeed the oldest known one, which one would be the second oldest?

Semaphore
  • 97,526
  • 21
  • 393
  • 402
José Carlos Santos
  • 4,632
  • 5
  • 30
  • 52
  • 4
    I think this is too broad. On top of a statement from 3000 years ago, the synthesis of 1500 years of public opinion from a variety of polities is too omnidirectional to be answered nicely here (i.e., taking into account the relevant possibilities). – gktscrk Aug 09 '20 at 16:29
  • @gktscrk To me, it doesn't look broader than this question. – José Carlos Santos Aug 09 '20 at 16:36
  • Fair play! Opinions on topics here are personal. In which case, the most common answer to this (especially as the corruption you going at doesn't come through for me) would be 'the mandate of heaven' which recognises that a poor overlord will be brought down and a righteous (wise & generous) one will gain the throne. At the same time, the concept of 'gentleman' would have meant that this person attaining the lofty position would be wise and studied (i.e., 'wealthy'), and with him, of course, his ministers would also rise (and who would possibly be smarter/'wealthier' than the new king). – gktscrk Aug 09 '20 at 16:44
  • @JoséCarlosSantos I think it would be helpful if you rephrase to ask for the oldest example of this, or the second oldest if none is older than the one you gave. Obviously the complaint exists in antiquity: you listed one yourself. That's why this question comes across as more general than the one you linked; the other question is narrowly focused on the oldest example of something, whereas yours is not, and therefore has a tons of possible answers. – Semaphore Sep 10 '20 at 09:08
  • 1
    @Semaphore Nice suggestion! I have edited my answer. – José Carlos Santos Sep 10 '20 at 09:17
  • I don't understand why the observation that political incentives and economic incentives align is a "complaint" - I'm trying to imagine how a world in which they didn't would work. I suspect that such a world work work "badly". – MCW Sep 10 '20 at 13:53
  • @MarkC.Wallace And I agree with you there. But if you take a look at the whole Babylonian Theodicy, you will see that it is indeed a complaint. And I suspect that what the author of the text has in mind is political support of certain persons for reasons which have nothing to do with competence. – José Carlos Santos Sep 10 '20 at 18:35
  • Complaining is more characteristic of humanity than 46 chromosomes or featherless bipedalism. I suspect you're right - the real "offense" here is not wealth or proximity to power - the core offense is insufficient agreement of such people to agree with the author's opinions/subordination to the author's will. That is the fundamental cause of most complaints. – MCW Sep 10 '20 at 18:45

0 Answers0