These cultures may include ancient Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, ancient China, Mesopotamia, Persia, ancient Greece, Africa, Egypt. The exposition of myths, with a focus on the well-documented and important Western myths, will require detailed discussions of major historical political struggles in the construction of modern Europe, from the fall of Rome to the ages of Empire and industrialization, and of the basic religious and philosophical issues that were being fought over at those times in their political context. This background will be necessary to explain how particular myths and half-truths of nature functioned in particular ways. They will be used to illustrate principles of social and psychological manipulation. The goals and methods of social and psychological manipulation with regard to Grand Political Strategy are outlined in general terms in the required reading The View from the Devil's Mountain .
Ideologies are effective because they are seductive.
But it is important to realize that for this course the important idea that must be gotten across is not 'the fact' of psychological manipulation, or whether or not someone's pet consipiracy theory is or was in any way correct. The required reading, The Lawn, has been assigned to illustrate that the factors that go into installing customs in the messy world outside of the classroom can involve alliances between parties in ways that can be more complex and opportunistic than there may be time to explore in lectures. The required reading Ishmael is useful because it does a nice job in a quick read of framing a very important question that has troubled many people. This question will be pursued in lectures and reading materials. Perspectives on theories other than the one presented in Ishmael will be explored.