The Nomadic Alternative – Page 51

would continue to enjoy the surplus they had hoarded on earth, and make periodic visits to heaven as well. For the Pyramid was also a ladder to Heaven, a mathematical solution to the problem of immortality and posthumous bilocation. "Stairs to the Sky extend for him that he may ascend to Heaven", reads a contemporary Pyramid text. The stone pyramid copied the illusory pyramid made by the sun's rays as they struck the earth, for the Sun God of Heliopolis was the Father of the Pharaoh. As well as a ladder the Pyramid was the Centre of the World, from which the prayers of mortals might be channelled aloft. Mathematicians had oriented it to the cardinal points, so that the structure should mirror the unfailing movements of the heavens.

These calculated relations with celestial authority justified the precision of the social pyramid on earth. Power imposed from above averted spontaneous chaos from below. The absolutism of the Pharaoh was the logical conclusion to the pyramidal scheme. From the apex the High Command delegated authority to his immediate family and loyal supporters. At lower levels came the professional classes, the bureaucrats, the army, police, tax-assessors and specialist craftsmen. But the weight of the pyramid rested on the shoulders of slaves and workers. If the throne was heaven, their lot was hell. Their back wore no rank to cushion them from the sand and cutting rocks. No cut tombs preserve their memory, but their bleached bones, stuck (with decomposed tissue) to tatters of rag became part of the amalgam of the desert. In life they were required to work as predictably as the path of the sun; for one stone of the social pyramid out of order would disrupt the cosmic order. And the "benefits of order", as Freud said, "are incontestable." But what sort of order?

The Pharaoh or High Command masterminded economic, religious, military and social forces - a split personality of beaming bonhomie and unholy terror, enforcing his benevolence on all. "He smashes foreheads so that no one may approach him... the master of graciousness, rich in sweetness, and he conquers by love." Love sways the electorate; deputies smash the foreheads. And in the secrecy of his apartments he flicked away the lives of thousands for some