BABYLON ALL THE WAY DOWN
The veiled empire that rules with what men think about more often than Rome
Men may think about the Roman Empire every day, but what’s the one thing men supposedly think about all the time?
It makes up most of the internet and is so synonymous with persuasion that the only justification any hack needs for putting a near-naked woman next to their product is, “Sex sells.”
Sex, or more essentially, the primal satisfaction of desire, is so effective a persuasion tool that it formed the basis for one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Pre-dating the Romans for thousands of years, the Babylonians turned the sacred sex ceremonies of their Sumerian ancestors into a tool of social control.
While other cultures involved copulation in their fertility rituals and worshipped female goddesses, it was the Babylonians who made prostitution a regular custom in their temples and required of every girl.
Herodotus writes:
This is the most shameful of the Babylonian customs. Every native woman must once in her lifetime sit near the shrine of Aphrodite and have sex with a foreign man… They sit in the area of Aphrodite’s temple having a crown of string upon their heads. Some approach this area, and others leave. Marked-off paths lead every way through the crowd of women, past whom the foreign men go and make their pick. Once a woman sits in this spot, she does not return home before one of the foreign men throws a silver coin to her legs and copulates with her in the shrine.
The end result of such a custom no doubt attracted men from far and wide, who could also satisfy their lust in the many taverns where non-sacred prostitution was widely encouraged and commonly depicted in their art.
In other words, where Rome cemented their rule with the ever-present threat of violence Babylon did it through a more ancient primal urge: lust. We see it in the iconography and propaganda. Where Rome put up statues to godlike conquerors and weapons-wielding gods, Babylon covered their walls with beckoning sex goddesses and sex workers getting railed in taverns.
How to Spread Your Empire Like an STD
Not to say that Rome does not also seduce. Violence embodied is powerful, and power in itself is desirable. This is why we’ve been so obsessed with Roman thoughts lately as America’s violent powers of persuasion wanes. It is also why you can show extreme violence on TV but not extreme sex. It’s why the old Roman poses are instantly recognizable while the Babylonian are harder to decipher.
But the end result is the same—if you want to build a franchise, you have to satisfy some basic human needs. Food and shelter alone aren’t enough, it’s got to be something baser.
The Romans used might aka fear, and the Babylonians used lust aka desire.
If you can guarantee either then you’ll have adherents everywhere. You can coerce surrender out of your neighbors without having to draw either your sword or your other sword.
Sex and Violence.
Reproduction and Survival.
Soft and Hard Power.
Yin and Yang.
Why People Aren’t Thinking About Babylon Everyday.
Even with all this laid out, people are going to think I’m reaching. To entertain the notion that Rome still has influence over our political lives is not much of a stretch when it’s everywhere in our visual language.
But to claim some thousands-year-old, conquered Sumerian off-shoot from the Bible still has strings to pull pushes me into Christian evangelical conspiracist territory. Echoes of Bill Cooper’s “America is Mystery Babylon!” territory (to be read in Alex Jones’ voice).
I’ve often wondered about this.
Why, except for in Hollywood, are there no obvious references to Babylon, not even so much as a statue to Ishtar? If the black ops companies today continually reference mythical Rome and Greece with names like, “Cerberus,” and “Titan,” why no “Inanna” or “Nimrod”?
Rome absorbed much of Persia at its peak, the inheritors and conquerors of the Babylonians, and yet the distinction of that empire as some pre-Muslim and therefore Oriental entity remains.
Even when you could argue that the Babylonian tactic for rulership is far more commonly exercised. Porn is never more than a few clicks away.
Some would even argue that the term “star” descends from “Ishtar,” another name for the great sex goddess “Inanna.” And who do your children follow through Disney and Nickelodeon? Who are the “idols” and “stars” showing us what is acceptable in the realms of lust and love?
The reason why Babylon stays hidden while Rome declares itself to the male mind at least once a day is this: At its heart, might carries an explicit threat, you know exactly what the guy carrying a thunderbolt or sword will do to you if you don’t comply, but sex is most effective when veiled.
The principle of “what’s hidden is more important than what’s revealed” is as true for lingerie as it is for state secrets. And it holds true across all of what Babylon represents.
What’s done in private carries great power to those who know these secrets, not so much after the secret becomes public. It’s how the pope used to blackmail kings and their knights through confession. The same sort of blackmail that led intelligence agencies to infiltrate gay clubs back when that was illegal. And it’s likely why Epstein Island really exists.
Babylon forms the hidden carrot to Rome’s big stick.
A carrot you’ve no doubt enjoyed without knowing its origin.
Fear and desire work best when used in tandem.
To paraphrase Machiavelli: It’s better to be feared than loved, but it’s best to be both.