A never-ending story: Rulers & Riots

How different are we from ancient civilizations? In ancient civilizations, kingdoms and nations were
ruled by kings, priests or nobles. Centuries ago, that same trend was present. In the current age, the
right to rule is more economical than divine: different kings rule the world with their economical power
and they are still fighting to achieve total power.

How did ancient civilizations and kingdoms collapse? There are many reasons to explain an eventual
decline: bad harvest, foreign invasions, peasant uprising, an unknown disease arrives, etc. But, how can
one event be the catalyst for the destruction? If we study the ancient cultures, we have to study their
organizational structures: each member has a role, a role that was difficult to move from one to another
in short time, especially from top to bottom. Can you imagine a king becoming a farmer? A priest
becoming a soldier? When the hunger reaches its worst, perhaps that may be possible.

Why am I saying this? Because if we study ancient cultures, we see a pattern. For example, ancient
Egypt: slaves and farmers were the main source of food for the rest. However, scribes were those who
organized and planned what to grow and when, not the farmers. On the other hand, the army has the
role to protect them as well as the priests and nobles, the priests must ensure the lower-classes’ usual
activity must not be interrupted and “pray the Gods” to ensure a good harvest and fortune, and the
Pharaoh’s main role was not to interrupt the workflow and expand the kingdom. When a bad harvest
happens, priests and nobles are questioned by the rest, eventually, rebellion and uprising will happen
from the lower classes. Additionally, foreign invasion causes army casualties. The more casualties, the
nobles must replace the decreasing army, but that cost a lot of resources: not only in currency and
equipment development, but also with training, do you believe a farmer can become a fully-trained
soldier in no time? When this eventually escalates to a situation the culture is doomed to disappear, the
survivors must start to do all organizational roles in order to survive, no matter who they were as they
become the new lower class or just nomads. How different was this pattern with the French or Russian
Revolution? Their origins were caused by a bad harvest season, people rioted and the sequence started.
But, overall, the effect was the same, or worse.

How do we compare this with our current age? First of all, I am Peruvian and most Peruvians have a
phrase regarding government corruption: “Roba, pero hace obras” (Steal, but do works). People seem to
take a pragmatic approach regarding corruption: are willing to tolerate it as long as it doesn’t interrupt
their usual lifestyle, regardless of whether progress was made among the infrastructure and its citizens.
However, with the ongoing Pandemic, things have changed: in case you don’t know, in November 2020,
there was a coup and our President got removed by the Congress. However, the usurper only was in
charge for less than a week as people rioted on the streets and the Congress gave up its coup, after that,
a political turmoil happened and a new President was elected. During this period, Peru wasn’t able to
secure a contract with any pharmaceutical that will ensure the arrival of the vaccines. By the time I am
writing this article, it’s scheduled our first vaccines will arrive while the rest of the countries have
already started their vaccination campaign. Why did people riot? Why did they protest? Because the
quarantine lockdown affected our daily lifestyle, and the coup did nothing to restore the process, while
our politicians were tearing each other down, nothing was restored, and that’s the reason people
protested. Quite hypocritical, right? The fact that we only rose up when we thought about ourselves. As
someone once said to me: “I don’t care about the rest, I just want the vaccine to restore my daily life,
nothing else matters”. That was perhaps the most accurate answer regarding the pandemic and its
quarantine.

Can this also happen in the more developed countries? As I am watching US and European news, people
are protesting and rioting because they are sick of the lockdowns. Regarding if their governments have
high or low levels of corruption, I don’t know. But if we analyze the riots with the pattern I mentioned
above, their reasons are the same: “I will only accept your shady dealings and corruption only if you
don’t interrupt my lifestyle, because if not, then I will go to the streets and protest”. Maybe if the riots
continue, many shady dealings or corrupt activities will be uncovered, but that will become a 2 nd grade
topic as people just want their old lifestyle back.

Will the ongoing Pandemic be a catalyst for a new organizational structure rupture? Right now, we are
on the phase people protest not for general concern, but for selfishness. The same selfishness that,
ironically, pressures the government to secure a quick deal with the pharmaceutical so they can restore
the old ways. Who will be the winner of all of this: the people, the politicians, the companies? I don’t
know, the only thing sure about this is something:

It’s interesting