Chapter 1: Prelude to Disaster, with a Death in the Family

Concept 1st Developed: 6/9/2014

I muttered, “Aw fuck me!” having selected the phrase from a host of explicit expletives and derogatory statements, of which all were wholly inadequate to my present situation.

“I fail to see the relevance of your statement to my report,” replied Adam.

Rolling my eyes at one of Adam’s many ways to say, ‘insufficient data,’ and then sighing to myself, I merely said, “Report understood.” While it was not really so, I wasn’t about to get into a debate with Adam over it at this time. A somewhat ironic choice of words when I think back on it.

For the sake of my own log report, I suppose I should bring the reader up to date and fill in a few details.

My name is James Adam Wolfenstein. Never heard of me. Not surprising, the name is unimportant as you wouldn’t have heard of my ‘Family’ unless you lived in the elevated and rarefied circles of the obscenely wealthy.

There were not enough decimal places to describe our sort of wealth and power. The known Power Elite, The Rockefeller type families, mere Johnnies-come-lately, fronts for the truly powerful. Those of the current Thirteen Families liked to keep it that way, not desiring or needful of the spotlight.

My grandfather impressed me at a very young age that publicity was not all it was thought to be. Most people, including politicians and the entertainer types, and the Nut cases, thought any self-promotion was good publicity. Those of the ‘Thirteen’ knew that such was not the case. Many held that it was not only not beneficial but, more often than not, ‘dangerous’ to the extreme.

It had become the Heads of the ‘Thirteen Families’ central policy to not have the public know who we were or what the ‘Thirteen Families’ did. Least those who felt they deserved more spread rumors or outright lies about the ‘Thirteen,’ attempting to force dissemination of the wealth. In which they had no idea how to accumulate, let alone manage.

The ‘Thirteen Families’? I suppose the less you know about them, the better.

Unlike ancient times, many older families enjoyed having the masses quivering in fear at their feet. They didn’t control the rulers, they were the absolute rulers, and they didn’t have to hide what they did. If anyone complained. Well, they didn’t complain about it for long.

Their biggest asset back then was the control of information. There were no schools, no places of higher education. The populace, for the most part, was ignorant. Reading, writing, numbers were for the exclusive few. Those few that were needed to fill a bureaucracy used to control an ever-increasing populace.

I suppose that had something to do with it. But unfortunately, exact details have been lost over the ages. I will get to that later.

Their power absolute, with but a glance, a Ruler could have a peon/slave killed, even a Governor or High Priest. As an example, for all others to see just how little power they held. But don’t kid yourselves. It is still done to this day, only now it was more quietly done to not overly upset the masses. But these messages were apparent to those for who it had been sent. I don’t think many would be surprised just how little it might cost to have ‘Someone’ removed, either quietly or very messily. For those who rule, the lives of people below them, life is cheap.

That worked for a while.

For generations, the masses had multiplied to such an extent that if an outsider properly or the ruler himself improperly manipulated the people, they might rise up and slay their Rulers.

Armies were no longer cost-effective in controlling them. Indeed, they were a liability. So, you had to keep them out in the field, lest their commanders thought a change in leadership was in order with themselves replacing the current administration.

Even after most of the families had abandoned the oppressive practices of those times.

There followed many, calling themselves some Godly appointed title. Kings, or Lords. Some didn’t even flinch, accepting the term dictator for life or some such vulgarity. A completely new generation of rulers who used forms of control that even those of the Old Families would have a challenging time living with today.

As benevolent or as horrible as they were, those rulers were often left alone as an example of what might happen to the people if the wrong sort of person were to gain such power. And there were many such people. And along with them uprisings to overthrow them.

Also, as a reminder to ourselves of what could happen should we become a known element of undisguised wealth and power.

For ourselves, we became something maybe worst. We of the surviving ‘Original Families’ became ‘Bankers.

Slavery? A dirty word in today’s world. Perhaps as old as time itself, the practice still endures in many forms, some subtle, some as dark as any might imagine. Maybe you have heard of the term wage slave?

In its most basic form, slavery is one person subordinate to another in its most simplistic terms. Not really all that hard a concept to understand when putting it that way. There are leaders, and then there are followers. You can’t have all leaders, and you can’t have all followers. So, you lead, follow, or get out of the way. Or get pushed out of the way.

What made slavery a dirty word was that too many owners forgot that ownership incurred responsibility. Like anything else, you have to take care of what you own, or it becomes no longer valuable. The Subordinate didn’t have a choice. They obeyed, died, or were sold.

You had those that took pride in their belongings, no matter how poor they were. Then you had those that seemed indifferent, and finally, those that were just out and out cruel. God help you if you fall into their hands.

The Families hadn’t started out as warlike. If you were to look at a map of the ancient world, you would see that the principal civilizations were actually spread widely apart. It was an offshoot of diminishing resources, Arable Land, and competing governments that changed all that.

That they started overcrowding themselves. You had to keep your people fed and with a reasonable sense of security from the bands of marauding bandits. Modern Farming Methods had yet to be developed, and it didn’t take long for one set of people to feel crowded against another. What affected one didn’t always involve the other. It was a time of feast or famine.

Raiding nomadic tribes, short-sighted policies, and greedy Rulers. They were all recipes for war.

Who were the first slaves? If I were to guess, and my guesses are often accurate. It was due to simple poverty. Those unable to feed themselves for whatever reason would offer themselves to those that could. The ‘many’ found the gathering of necessities easier when there were more hands involved.

Then there were the bad years, of one or two of drought. Then, the natural elements of weather, either being too good or too bad, causing famine and friction between competing groups.

It couldn’t be helped. First, there would be battles, then wars for those limited resources, with the inevitable winners and losers. And what to do with the losers?

Now you had another source of slaves.

Wars were a nasty business with heavy losses on both sides. You couldn’t merely say sorry you lost and let them go back to their farms. You had your own farms that were now short-handed.

Unless you had a professional standing army. Your army consisted of conscripts drafted for the task from the ranks of your people. The same could be said of the losing side.

Crops still had to be harvested on both sides after a war. And with the new shortage of manpower, the losers were forced to do it for both. What’s more, your winning army had to be rewarded. You couldn’t pay them in Gold. For the most part, they wouldn’t know what to do with it. Spending it on immediate pleasures was usually the outcome.

You let them sack the losing city taking whatever they felt was of value. They would often overlook those things of strategic worth. In favor of what they could carry. Could they be blamed? They had little or nothing before, now they had more than they had ever imagined they could.

Made recruiting for the next inevitable battle or war much more manageable.

However, rewards, of the kind the conscripts could and did understand, was land. And it was reasonably easy to do. As the Rulers, they, of course, had the first choice. But there was all the rest for the army of the winning side. The losers had lost, and that meant their physical property as well. Lands, Homes, Livestock, even what remained of the losers’ families and, of course, their slaves.

These were riches the common people knew, and the shops within the losing city, well, there were those within your army that might appreciate them as well. But, if not, there were those in your home city looking to expand. And what better slaves to own than the ones who ran those shops in the first place.

With the massive losses of life on both sides, those bodies had to be replaced. Survivors of the losing city-state would become subject slaves, not much better than chattel.

Not every man had been conscripted into the armies. Those of the merchant class generally avoided it. But all of those on the losing side would become slaves, women, and children as well.

Their social position did not save them, Royal, or oddly enough, the lowly slave. It mattered not. They merely meant a more significant profit for the slave sellers.

You can probably see that there would be some knowledgeable beings sold on the slave block. And don’t think for a moment that those doing the selling didn’t know and take it into account.

However, the Thirteen, indeed all of the ruling classes, over time, learned that pure slavery was inefficient given the ever-increasing masses. As early civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Middle East often learned the hard way.

What was learned was, winning a war could fill a ruler’s coffers faster than taxing your people. So, war became a business. And as with any enterprise, you had to find talent that would win those wars.

Ruler’s learned micromanagement, not that it was called that. Of the masses was a tedious and counterproductive process. So often taking up time that they would rather be doing something else. It was one thing to feed your people, but what did you do with the nonproductive and the aged whose only crime was growing old.

The solution!

It fell then to the nuclear family that took care of itself, the self-interest of more than meager survival but getting ahead. Parents would always want their children to do better. It implied that they would be treated better as they got older. Tricks would be passed down. Family secrets. Nothing unusual there. All families did so, from the ruling classes to the lowest serfs. Technics that may have originated from times even before those of the hunter-gather. Technics that would give them an edge or advantage over another.

The rulers found that giving the people more latitude in their personal affairs made it easier to control them.

Recognizing this led to more self-determination for the lower classes. In turn, freeing up the ruling classes for more productive matters.

Of course, this all took hundreds, if not thousands of years to accomplish.

The basic Ancient Civilization Social Classes/Hierarchy was topped off by a Pharaoh or king. Then there followed the Vizier- Government Officials- Nobles and Priests, Generals in the army.

There was the Merchants class, managers of the working class consisting of Artisans and craftsmen.

Then there was lower rung, soldiers, the farmers, free slaves, those that had been slaves for so long they might be looked upon as part of the family, and the slaves of conquered states. Then because they had no social standing, your thieves, beggars, and thralls.

When you look back on it, nothing has actually changed but the names.

Perhaps the most unusual were the differences between free slaves and slaves of conquered states. The previous slaves were now no longer on the lowest rung of the ladder. There was actually hope for their betterment now, with the shortage of manpower. Some might look to become freemen, able to own property. And there was a lot of property needing able-bodied men to tend to. But, as was said, there would be substantial losses on both sides.

Free slaves were a social class of themselves. For the most part, they were trusted. There were, granted, solid reasons for them to remain so. Still, their owners were not losing sleep, thinking one of them might slit their throat as they slept. All knew the penalties of an insurrection, among many, even if it was of a single slave. All would pay the price at the end of a sword.

Free slaves, by their name, were given much broader liberties. Trusted to act in the interests of their owners. A case of not biting the hand that feeds you. And this, of course, worked both ways. The more productive, the more likely they would be freed on the Master’s death. But, of course, none of them would risk advancing that death.

This was all the more, so if they showed a higher level of competence than a mere thrall. Those merely doing what was needed to survive. A thrall was usually a person who was incapable or unwilling of taking care of themselves. Having fallen onto demanding times selling themselves or their children into servitude for payment of their debts. More than likely to become thieves, beggars, or some other burden of that time. The foolish ones didn’t last all that long, becoming the lowest of slaves.

In today’s world, you might think that thralls would not exist, but there are far more of them than you might think. The welfare rolls are filled with them, but you will not find them working in the homes or businesses of the more productive in today’s world. Instead, they are the ones filling the entry-level jobs without the ambition of looking to better themselves. Short-sighted as they are often replaced with younger versions of themselves.

While some slaves would be resentful their whole lives. Those would end up being sold over and over again, until finally becoming states slaves fit only for the harshest least rewarding work. In today’s world, they were the ones likely to find themselves in prisons.

You could hardly call a thrall a slave. They were the ones you would ever hardly notice. Doing the washing, clearing, and generally, those jobs that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to do.

Thralls need almost constant supervision. While a slave, on the other hand, was usually intelligent, requiring little in the way of monitoring. They just happened to be on the losing side of a war. Not to say they didn’t need oversight until they won the trust of their owners.

Free slaves were just a step away from becoming free men. Many would, upon the death of their Master, be granted their freedom. The more cynical might think a free slave might be prone to hurry that along. If a master was found to have been murdered. All his slaves would be put to the sword, with no exceptions. Even if no slave had been responsible.

The better slaves were often rewarded for clever work and given more freedom, and even more importantly, a share of the wealth they created. Still, harsh discipline awaited those that failed their Master’s expectations.

However, a good master knew not to take all, lest the slave just stop doing whatever they were good at. As others saw the rewards of excellent service, they improved their own skill sets and gained those benefits.

This proved to those more progressive families that slaves could be more productive if they felt free and could work for their benefit. There is something to be said for self-interest.

Also, on the plus side, they didn’t need the constant supervision or oversight that thralls required. They had been allowed to throw off their apparent chains of slavery. This had many positive benefits, in that releasing the rulers from micromanaging. Slaves became self-managing and more productive. Hence maybe the term’ wage slave.’ came into existence because of it. Another hidden benefit, other than paying the new freeman, is that they had to maintain themselves with food, clothing, and shelter. Unless that was part of his wages.

The Egyptian Pharaohs perhaps might have been the first to discover this with their Hebrew slaves. Only to have the traitor Moses cause them to lose control, all but ensuring the downfall of that ruler’s family and the rise of Moses’s own. A story spoke of today, though, from the winning side with a few added embellishments to make the story more interesting.

This might explain how enslaved people. (As written in the Book of Exodus) had so much in the way of cattle, sheep, goats, and goods of every sort. Even slaves of their own. And, lest we forget, Gold! Gold was used to form the Golden Calf that was then worshiped and given offerings. When he/Moses saw it, he found it so displeasing that he smashed the first set of God’s given commandments.

Oddly enough, there is a record of what was written on the first set of tablets. And the second, and if you care to look, they are pretty different. So, the question is which came first. One can only wonder when Moses smashed the first set of tablets, just what had he had written on them. Was the commandment of ‘there being no graven image’ and ‘no other God before me’ a part of the original commandments omitted from them? No, that was a part of both tablets. You really need to read those sections of Exodus to see the differences. Then there is the question of what happened to these tablets. Perhaps one of the more remarkable disappearances in history. The Ark of the Covenant remands foremost.

But really, if you think about it, a single unseen God. That does not require the making of idols for worship can be much more profitable in offerings or tithes taxes for the ruling class, be they, Kings or Priests. But, of course, those that made idols for a living just might disagree with you.

Religion is funny that way and a great tool, so much more efficient than the sword or whip. So fewer overseers or soldiers to keep them in line.

When you find you can no longer use a whip to keep uneducated people in check, create an all-powerful God to fear. Blame every calamity on displeasing it. That grander sacrifice is needed to appease it. Give till it hurts. Then watch your coffers fill. Let your unseen, all-powerful vengeful God do the arduous work for you.

And when things go well, so much, the better. God loves his people as long as they obey him. Meaning the King and his Priesthood, who are the sole outlets of his divine word. Providing guidance through a benevolent hereditary ruler and his priests.

People are much easier to control if they are fearful. When you can put the fear of a vengeful yet forgiving God, or even a rewarding God, you find people are much more willing to get with the program. Adding a reward after death? The promise of a better life after death? Seventy-two virgins in Paradise? Just how much better can it get? Not only do you have no one saying that there is no reward, but no award needs to be given while they are still alive! A win, win for Kings and priests.

Telling people to have faith in a person’s belief system is self-reinforcing. If their faith is challenged, you are, in effect, calling them gullible or ignorant. Let’s face it, people would first believe in almost anything, even a lie. More so than have someone say they’re simple-minded, stupid, or ignorant and easily led. Even though that is indeed the case. They also get furious, thinking you are calling them that. That is also something that leaders can use to control their people. By saying you must have faith without proof, they no longer need to be shown that what you are telling them is real. Just toss in a few things that they can see and know to be accurate, and they will willingly believe in the rest, no matter how much it might stretch credibility. Many people still believe the world was created in six days and that the seventh was a day of rest.

You might wonder how an adult could be so easily taken in? Well, you don’t start with adults; you begin with their children. Religious education begins early in life, and if your family were churchgoers. Then you might recall how adults and children were separated for teaching, even males and females calling it Sunday school before the primary worship services began. The so-called mysteries of the church would then be explained to each group separately. And the adult men and women admonish not to tell the other what they had learned. After all, they were mysteries for their sex alone.

Almost any adult can tell a child a story, and the child will believe it. Just think Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or even the Tooth Fairy to get the idea. Add to that, if the adult believes in it or at least tells the child they believe. Then the child no longer has a reason not to accept it later in life, even when their reasoning skills are better refined. Given the right sort of propaganda, it can be quite startling what you can get people to believe. But nothing has really changed. It is still as effective today as it ever was, if not more so.

Plant a seed in the people’s minds and water, fertilize with BS, and then sit back and watch it grow. You might say it has gotten easier to do that most anyone can do it today. They don’t even need to be smart about it.

Today, the masses are, for the most part, self-managing and allegedly educated, accumulating a sort of wealth of their own.

My so-called peers of the leading ‘Thirteen’ are, for the most part, bored. There is no place on earth or even space that they cannot go. But you can only go into space so many times before getting jaded, buy so many mansions, priceless Jewelry, or art. Engage in risky behavior, or kill so many endangered species. Before you run out of things to do.

Simply put, they are bored. For the ultra-rich distraction is the name of the game.

Manipulating people has become their pass time. Perhaps it had always been so. But even the Manipulators can be Manipulated.

Stripping the masses of their wealth is one such game.

The accumulation of additional wealth and power was not a significant factor. It was not even a motivating factor. It was only a means of keeping score. It’s a continuing game with few rules as to how to acquire it. The primary one is that you can’t kill the other players. Not that it hadn’t been tried.

Unrest, wars, manipulating markets, deflating, or inflating them, and controlling resources were all fair game to them. It didn’t matter who got hurt; The little old lady evicted from her lifelong home due to such manipulation was considered a badge of honor.

Creating artificial shortness of supply. Inciting panic buying, even hoarding. Energy and gas supply manipulations causing individual states to bear the burden of making up the difference. Costing their citizens later with higher taxes. The more pathetic the story, it seemed, the greater joy many of my peers would take from it.

As an anecdote, an interesting way this happened years ago. Was one following the other, outside appraisers would come in, and Farmlands were appraised. No one had asked for these appraisals? Then outside interests would encourage the small banks of those communities to make loans against those values to buy or upgrade equipment.

Good deals, one might think.

Then when the inevitable bad year came around, they found they couldn’t meet the payments of those loans. As they had put up their land as collateral. They then found out they couldn’t sell because no one was buying. The key element here was that land is only worth something if someone is willing to buy at that price. Hence the appraisals had been bogusly inflated. Sure, the land was worth that to the farmers, and they would have sold had they been offered that. But the truth was no one buying.

Even when a buyer was found, they were offering far less than the appraised value. So, everyone was impacted. Even these local small banks went out of business, having made too many bad loans. They, in turn, were bought out by the bigger banks. Those Banks would then force the sale or foreclosure of the farms that had taken out the loans.

It had all been an elaborate trap. Corporate farms had been looking to expand, and the family-owned farms were not selling. At least not at the prices corporate farms were willing to pay. Big Banks wanted the small community banks to go away, As the small banks were good in their niche areas of expertise. It wasn’t as if the Big Banks wanted the business, far from it. Corporate farms made for better business, to a significantly greater profit and less work, with far less risk.

As a result, there were foreclosures of family-owned farms all over the country. And the taking over of the small community banks. That was how they operated. They didn’t need the land or the banks

Yes, the land may have value, but only if someone is willing to buy and someone is willing to sell. And an agreement is made between the two parties. But Corporate farms’ thinking was, why pay for something at market value when you can have them give to you for free or mere pennies on the dollar?

Then more recently, the housing bubble. First, people were convinced they could buy a home that they ordinarily couldn’t afford. Then, believing that they could flip the property for a profit in a short twelve months without doing anything to improve the property. The deal was interest rates were low at three to four percent, and inflation on homes was high from ten to twelve percent.

People were looking at making at least a seven percent profit. Or so they thought.

Then someone ’One of the ‘Thirteen’ pricked the bubble, and many lost everything they had. But, yes, in some ways, even that gave many a sense of pleasure. The way they kept score was with dollar signs and other outward symbols of wealth. And, of course, bragging rights.

Umm, saying they have no rules is not entirely accurate. If you have ever played a game of ‘Monopoly,’ you know it is the kid that knows the rules the best that always wins. Often by misrepresenting the rules, or just out and out cheating. Enforcing the laws when it was to their advantage. Those who do not know the game’s rules and lack knowledge of what is permitted and what is not will invariably lose to those who do. That was and is the real lesson to be learned from that game. Learn the rules before you play. Learning on the fly leads to ruin.

Perhaps more important, learn the tricks so as to not be caught by them. And know the game is always rigged in the house’s favor.

I had not wanted to play that game; I saw it as silly as it was all too easy to play. Well, to me anyway, it always seemed like a child’s game. You might wonder at that. But when you are born into a family that has been playing the game for untold generations. Against players equally skilled. You wish for a new game to learn and play.

As a youth, I saw it as a curse and burden limiting my future vision. But, as in the game itself, the money is not real the properties are not real. The only thing you win is bragging rights, and only until the playing of the next game. So, unless you lived for that sort of thing, just what was the point?

Do you recall how I said at the beginning how many of the significant older families enjoyed having the masses quivering in fear at their feet in ancient times? You might say this is a throwback to those times.

Let me add, ‘The more things change, the more they remain the same.’

The reality for me was that there was no point in it, so I sought to avoid it, searching for something more challenging. I was a chess player, and they were playing checkers. I thus became the odd one out of the family, striking out on my own to acquire a different manner of wealth in the form of knowledge and a meaning for life. After all, knowledge is power and often far more valuable than Gold. And meaning? Hadn’t we been searching for that from the beginning?

A perplexing question for me was why did Gold have value? First, you can’t eat it. Second, it’s heavy, making it hard to carry around. Third, A value based on a promise that is easily broken. Why?

I found I was gifted. I had never thought so before, as I was breezing through prep schools. I thought it was due more to my name and the influence of my grandfather. Years later, I would find out that he never used his position to solve my problems. As the work, I did seem far too undemanding. The lesson I almost missed was merely to have the discipline to get whatever assignment I was given done to the best of my ability and within the limited period given. Before I realized it, I was solving problems that would have challenged men with much more experience. I think my grandfather may have used me to solve a few of his problems.

That is, until starting university at MIT. Being one of the youngest to be accepted into MIT. It would soon prove to be the challenge I had been looking for. At the same time, it amazed me that the school seemed to think its students needed to relearn what they should already know to be there in the first place. I noted how others struggled with their first-year studies to do just that, while I seemed to breeze through mine without difficulty. Well, at least for the first few years or so.