49
ma
rry a Brahman girl.  The members of the Iranian race were treated as
Ubermenschen--overmen.
Why did the Hindu religion tell its adherents to go with the flow,
to abhor the things of this world, to set aside earthly desires, to hope
only for an improvement of their lot after this life is over?  Because
Hinduism was designed to keep the conquered shudras in their place.
It told those trapped in the lower castes to be content with their
humiliation and shun the appalling actions that might spring from
desire and discontent.  It instructed them never  to overthrow their
Iranian masters.
A brilliant invention made the society work: specialization.  An
entire class of human beings was consigned to agriculture for a
lifetime.  Another class was given the lifelong specialty of warfare.
Presumably, perpetual practice made each better at his craft.  And, of
course, there were the specialists in religion who spent their time
suppressing vanity and desire--the two things that could have torn the
pecking order apart.  For desire would have made those pinned in the
lower orders hanker to move above their humble posts.
The armies of professional religionists, the priests and monks,
seemed at first glance to serve no useful economic purpose.  But, in
fact, they were the keepers of an indispensable meme.  They declared
that if you had the patience to tolerate imprisonment in a lower caste
during this life, you would be rewarded by rebirth later in the next
caste up the ladder.99  If you held still long enough, you could actually
become an Iranian!
In a strange way, the Iranian overlords knew that they were
fashioning a new superorganism from the swallowed pieces of the
society they'd overwhelmed.  Their ancient chronicle, the  Rig- Veda,
written in the days when the conquerors were piecing together their
idyllic new social system, put the argument for superorganism quite
bluntly.  The Brahmanic priests, said the Veda, were man's mouth.  The
warriors were his arms.  His thighs were the Vaishyas (the tradesmen
and landowners).  And the Shudras (the farmers) were his feet!100
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