Honored more in the breach than in observance

A great chapter in Samuel Kramer's History Begins at Sumer thirty-nine firsts in recorded history is The First "Sick" Society. Identifying himself as a Sumerologist, Kramer conveys vividly Sumerian culture and societal values. In this chapter he set out to compare our contemporary (mid to late 1900s) social ills with ancient ones. What he found was basically a mirror image of today's society that "yearned for peace but was constantly at war," "professed ideals such as justice, equity, and compassion but abounded in injustice, inequality, and oppression," that was "materialistic and shortsighted." The general message seems to me to be human society hasn't changed so much in 4500 years. It is particularly interesting though that the examples, which repeatedly point to the ideal of justice and the eradication of injustice, specify that it is the thievery and brutality of the rich and powerful that must be reigned-in. Perhaps it's telling that Sumer was an egalitarian society and that Sumerian kings generally rose from the population and therefore were all too acquainted with the ways of the rich and powerful and the challenges of the poor and meek--also that they relied on the support of the populace to maintain their rule. So, even 4500 years ago the picture of human values seems a battle between the rich, the powerful, the egoist and the poor, the meek, the altruist.