The Story of How the Human Population Became Enslaved

This is a story of the invention of money and how we've been enslaved by it ever since. A ruler in ancient Egypt named Cratius hatched this diabolical scheme.

Take a few minutes to read it; I promise it'll be worth your time. (Excerpted with minor modifications from the Anastasia series by Vladimer Megre.)

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Cratius began his speech before the gathering as follows:
"What you are about to hear must not be noted down or passed along by any of you. There are no walls around us, and my words will be heard by no one but you. I have thought of a way of turning all people living on the Earth into slaves of our pharaoh. That is not something one can do even with the aid of vast numbers of troops and exhausting wars. But I shall accomplish it with a few simple sentences. All I need do is utter them and just two days later you will see how the world has begun to change.

"Take a look down there and you will see long lines of slaves in chains, each slave carrying a stone. They are guarded by a host of soldiers. The more slaves there are, the better for the state — or so we always thought. But the more slaves there are, the more we have to be afraid of their rebelling. So we increase the size of our guard.

"We are obliged to feed our slaves well, otherwise they will not be able to perform their heavy manual labour. But still they are lazy and inclined to rebellion. See how slowly they move, and the guards have become lazy and do not bother using their whips to beat even the strongest and healthiest slaves. But they will soon be moving much more quickly. They won't need any guards. The guards themselves will be turned into slaves. This can be effected in the following way: "Before sunset today heralds will be sent out everywhere to proclaim the pharaoh's decree: With the dawn of the new day all slaves will be granted complete freedom. For each stone brought to the city, the free men will receive one coin. The coins may be ex-changed for food, clothing housing a palace in town, or even a whole town. From here on in, you are free people."

After the priests had let Cratius' words sink in, one of them, the eldest, said: "You are a devil, Cratius! The sheer genius from your plan will cover most of the nations of the world."

"So, I may indeed be a devil, but this plan of mine, people in the future will call democracy"

At sunset the decree was proclaimed to the slaves. They were astounded. Many of them could not sleep at night, thinking about the new and happy life that lay ahead of them.

The next morning the priests and the pharaoh once again climbed up to the lookout platform atop the artificial mountain. They could not believe the scene unfolding before their eyes. Thousands of former slaves chasing one after the other, hauling the same stones as before. Dripping with sweat, many of them were carrying two stones apiece. Others with only one stone in their hands, were literally running, kicking up the dust as they ran. Some of the guards were also hauling stones. These people, who now considered themselves free — after all, they were no longer in chains — strove to obtain as many of the sought-after coins as they could, so that they could build a happy life for themselves.

Cratius remained at his post on the platform for several months after that, continuing to observe with satisfaction what was going on below. The transformation was colossal. Some of the slaves had organised themselves into groups and built themselves carts. Then they piled stones on top of the carts, and pushed them along, their skin covered in sweat.

They will invent many more devices, Cratius thought to himself with satisfaction. Internal services have already started — food and water delivery. Some slaves have been eating on the run, not wanting to waste time going back to the barracks for a meal, and paying for the food delivery with the coins they've earned. Wow! They've also got doctors going around, offering help to people with physical needs right on the spot — also for coins. And they've appointed themselves traffic regulators. Soon they'll be choosing their own rulers and judges. Let them choose: after all, they consider themselves free now, whereas nothing has really changed — they're still hauling the same stones as before...

And so they have been running, down through the millennia right up to the present day, through the dust, sweating and laboring. And today the descendants of those slaves still keep up their senseless running.