The One True Path

It’d probably be too easy and too cheap to attack religion as the clearest example of hegemony and the level of control it can exert over a people but it sticks out since it continues to come up throughout history into today.

The most prevalent examples of this in our current consciousness might be Fundamentalist Christianity and Islamic Extremists. However, I think it’s very important to understand that this has been going on for millennia even before monotheistic religions rose to the prominence they now have.

The issue is not the religion; the issue is those in charge using that religion in order to further the ideals of the state.

I think the best example of this would have been Ancient Rome. In Rome not only was there a religion promoted by the state but Caesar was a god himself. Everything he did was divine and to go against him was placing one’s soul in peril. We’ve seen this throughout history in various other theocratic states.

In Hawaii for example, a way of keeping commoners in their place was spreading the myth that the royal family were of a totally different stock and to even attempt to consort with them would lead to the death of a normal person.

The immediate successor to the Roman Empire is the Roman Catholic Church. For centuries this religious position actively engaged in ruling over people and used its clerical powers to maintain its dominance over peoples. Often it would use the idea that one had to support the church to fund itself and in turn became one of the richest entities on Earth.