I flew south across the Mediterranean Sea dotted with hundreds of small islands. When I left Crete behind I knew I had left Europe behind. Ahead was Africa and my destination, Egypt. I was heading for Luxor one of the ancient capitals of Egypt. This was an amazing culture that lasted from 3100 BCE to 30 BCE... three thousands years of a common culture. Yeah, the dynasties came and went but the country remained almost unchanged for all of that. Why did this one country continue on almost unchanged for three millennia?
We tend to think of the pyramids when we think of the burial practices of Egypt. But most of the Pharaohs were buried near Luxor, in the Valley of the Kings. These were as many as 150 magnificent tombs tunneled into the soft rock walls of the valley and faced with elaborate facades. The discovery of King Tut’s intact tomb gives us some idea of the riches buried with the kings and also why they were quickly ransacked in the ancient world. Most haven’t been opened or even found yet. Who knows when the next Tut tomb might be discovered? I wanted to see these temples and tombs which is why Luxor wound up on the flight plan. Well, that and the fact that by diverting south I would avoid having to fly over Iraq. Somehow, that seemed a good idea when I was flight planning.
What is puzzling to think about was the way dynasty followed dynasty with so few changes, while other parts of the ancient world were subject to constant change as conquerors rose and fell. Even when Alexander conquered Egypt and established the Ptolemaic Dynasty, it was the Greeks who became Egyptian not the reverse. The Pharaohs continued marrying their sisters, a very un-Greek like practice, where the great tragedies of the Greek language were based on the impropriety of incest. But once they came to Egypt, they too began to practice brother sister marriage which was required by the religion of Egypt. God told the Egyptians and the Incans different truths than he told the Semitic peoples. Here were two cultures which required Royal incest, brother marrying sister, to keep the royal blood pure.
Why does one God require incest when the next God condemns it as the greatest sin? I guess God has had trouble making up his mind about it, all 3,000 of humanity's various religions being the undoubted complete and absolute Word of God. One of the problems of course is defining incest. In the US, every state has a different definition. What is incest in one state isn’t in the next. What was common a few years ago is proscribed now. For instance, an uncle marrying his niece was accepted when our country was founded but it is a horrible evil today. Why? Voltaire set up house with his niece and the great of Europe and America came to him with respect. Why weren’t they scandalized over his ‘incest?’ We would be today. Most of our Founding Fathers were married to their cousins, very common then, and yet that would be illegal in some of the states they themselves were responsible for founding.
I have read authorities on mental health state unequivocally how horrible it is for the ‘victims’ of incest, citing how Uncle Niece incest leaves the victim shattered by the experience. Then I read of Voltaire and his niece and none of the Great of the Enlightenment seemed to notice that the poor girl was shattered by her relationship with her Uncle. By all accounts she was happy as the mistress of his house at Fernay. Jefferson and Washington married cousins and yet those couples don't seem to be ruined by the incest.
Of course, it is obvious what left those victims of incest shattered. They all had one thing in common, other than incest and we know from history that doesn't shatter people. What they have in common is being treated by shrinks. And if we look at people treated by shrinks we do find a common bond, they are shattered and usually drug addicted. The same goes with 'child abuse,' especially those six-foot two-hundred-pound 'children,' abused by their cute teacher. Shattered? Only after the shrinks get through with them.
I read recently of a young man who had sex with his beautiful teacher, and having seen pictures of the teacher I can state unequivocally, ‘Man, she is one hot babe.’ All of us guys looked at each other and had one thought, ‘Lucky Bastard!’ But then I read how he was shattered, a victim, and would need years of counseling and drugs. And again, all of us looked at each other wondering…
I know I wouldn’t have been shattered by a little sex with my Algebra teacher when I was a freshman. Ecstatic yes, shattered, only if I came in my shorts and couldn’t get it done. Damn, but I lusted after her. I sat in her class hour after hour, embarrassed by the erection tenting my pants. But shattered, what a crock. I would have been the happiest boy you ever met.
I have no doubt that many a young girl or young man, thrust into the care of a psychiatrist needing a victim to justify his billings, wind up shattered by the experience. But I wonder what exactly was the cause of their distress? Or maybe they weren’t really all that distressed. It is nice to get all of that attention, being a victim. Victims benefit everyone: the counselor, the authorities, and the victim. Then I thought about all of the cases of child molestation that have been shown to be the product of the Mental Heath worker’s over active imagination. The ability to convince a young mind of its victim status, the ability to convince an impressionable mind of ‘facts’ that never happened, molestation that never occurred, the Repressed Memory Syndrome, now so thoroughly discredited, that sent men to prison. I begin to see why there are so many ‘victims’ of incest in relationships that in other countries and other times were perfectly happy relationships. Our mental health practitioners and justice system creates victims, they need victims. And the victims need the attention. Everyone benefits except the poor innocent sap who goes to prison.
Incest is much more common than we like to admit as a society. And not everyone is shattered by the experience. The real victims are the poor bastards who wind up under the care of the Psychs. Yeah, some are hurt and there are probably good reasons to ban some forms of incest. The relationships with a power differential, where all the power is on one side, obviously have the potential for abuse. Being forced to have sex, whether the force is physical violence or abuse of position, is always wrong. It is understandable why these victims are victims in the true sense of the word. I just recently read that there is a movement in the Swiss Parliment to decriminalize incest. Seems that there aren't enough victims to make the crime worthwhile on the books. Of course, the Church, through religious political parties, is fighting it like crazy. Imagine, people having sexual pleasure and not being judged guilty. How very unChristian.
Maybe that is a much better way to define acceptable and unacceptable sexual relations, consensual and non-consensual, with the non-consensual including true force and abuse of position. But it must be true abuse. Arbitrary laws, for instance anyone under 18 cannot consent, will always be wrong. Hell, in California there are a million cases a year of men and women under the age of 18 consenting to sex. Maybe they made a mistake, but they did consent. I made some mistakes when I was young, but that is how I learned. Putting off that learning until later wouldn’t have made anything better, only delayed and maybe increased the bad effects of my mistakes. It is ridiculous to criminalize half the population, which is exactly what such laws do. The hodge podge of sex laws is obviously irrational. Only a judge would say such ridiculous laws pass a rationality test.
The temples at Luxor boggle the mind. The scale of them overwhelms when you have to consider they were all built by hand and brute force. Sorry, but aliens didn’t build the pyramids or the other Egyptian monuments. We have too many accounts in which the Egyptians commemorate their own achievements in building them.
It was impossible to see everything in one day. But I did get to the Karnak temple, the largest temple complex. I also managed to see one of the tombs, with its paintings. What an unusual custom, to send off the dead with paintings to keep them company. It was as if they wanted to keep their current life alive forever. That is so different than the Western view of change to a better life. Maybe that was the secret behind Egypt’s unchanging history; they didn’t believe in change here or in the afterlife.
Luxor is a pretty touristy place now. Really, there isn’t a reason for it to be there except for the tourists. The hotel, while not great was adequate. I found an ‘Egyptian’ restaurant and enjoyed the food. It was similar to other North African food I had before, especially in Paris. Funny, my introduction to African cooking took place at the center of haute cuisine, Paris.
There were lots of tourists running around, but they were all together. I guess single women just don’t head for tombs to find guys. I turned in early since the nightlife seemed very limited.
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