I have recently been listening to The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopani. A theory has been developing in my mind and I thought I'd share it with the good people of Steemit.
Received wisom states that humans are flawed. The term 'human nature' is used hither and yon to denote some kind of terrible affliction that inevitably ruins everything - be it greed, lust for power, cruelty and so on.
Kingdoms fall, empires tear themselves apart from the inside. Always it is the same refrain - that's just 'human nature'.
The Silk Roads book, which I'm listening to on Audible, by the way, is a neverending litany of warfare, amongst other things. Trade obviously plays a key role in all of this bloodshed - the establishment and re-establishment of the precious Silk Roads that bring the valuable items from where they are plentiful to where they are scarce.
Each new Empire follows a similar pattern. Slavery is almost always used at the beginning, but as things settle down, the trade in slaves decreases, and gradually a huge middle class forms. People do not need slavery in a wealthy civilisation, since a good standard of living can be provided for everybody, and there is no need for it. That's how it appears from Frankopani's account.
After a period of stability, sometimes as long as a few hundred years, trouble rears its head again, and a new warlord/tribe rises to power. They carry all before them, and then promptly re-build the infrastructure with the main difference being that it now carries taxes to their capital cities and coffers, rather than those of the old regime.
As a general rule, the cities remain the same.
What benefit does all this have to humanity in general? The general populace are allowed a few years at a time of peace to get on with creating wealth and building their legacies, and then everything is brought down again by a new despot.
I am beginning to think that the best explanation is one of a third agency of some kind. I call them the third agency, because that is the role they are playing in the John Carter books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The third agency in this world are called the Thern. They have advanced technological prowess. and simply back the candidate of their choosing between warring factions. They promise their puppet despot power and influence, and meanwhile they are essentially draining the planet of all its precious resources.
Obviously, John Carter's world is Science Fiction, but I find the principle a compelling one. The third agency make it their business to remain completely anonymous throughout the whole process, so it seems like something like 'human nature' is the thing that ruins everything time and again.
Part of the reason for my coming up with this theory is because I basically do not agree with the idea that human nature is flawed.
Also, if there is a third agency, I am sure that essentially they are only there to make the story of the world more compelling for everyone taking part in it.