Tower Of Babel Vs Nimrod Effect Essay, Research Paper

The Tower of Babel and the Nimrod Effect which ensued are powerful

reminders of the sovereignty of God. All too often, however, man’s innate desire

to be recognized as a god gives rise to a despot; a ruler who condones and

advocates the dehumanization and enslavement of mankind. This common

occurrence is referred to as the Nimrod Effect, with the ruler titled an Oriental

Despot. Nimrod, the Babylonian monarch who commissioned the construction of

the Tower of Babel, was the prototypical Oriental Despot. This threatened the

sovereign power of God the Creator, so in retribution he caused the confusion of

language and the dispersion of peoples. Although the populace no longer

shared the communal bond of speech, they had one common attribute: the

presence of an Oriental despot. The Nimrod Effect, although part of man’s fallen

nature, is an affront to God the Creator. The crumbling of the social strata, which

an Oriental Despot invariably causes, and leads to the inhumane treatment and

abject humiliation of his subjects, and a perpetual disposition towards an

authoritarian system of administration.

The procedure which will be followed will include an analysis of why a

confusion of languages produced social breakdown. These analyses will include

those of various sociologists and theorists. Other scholars will lend his or her

opinion as to why the Nimrod Effect repetitively occurs. This will lead into

extreme cases throughout history where an Oriental despot appeared.

The confusion of the languages of the earth produced obvious

complications in daily routines. G. C. Homans’ examination of the steps in social

disintegration give a systematic analysis of the complete disintegration of society

in the era of Nimrod. First, sentiments that led group members to collaborate

declined in number and power. This leads to a decrease in the activities

between the members. Next, the frequency of interaction between members of

the society decreased, causing the stability of the leadership to falter. Ultimately,

social control weakened, and the disintegration of the society is complete.1

In addition, Emile Durkheim’s state of anomie is applicable to this

situation. Anomie, as defined by Webster is, “a lack of purpose or identity in a

person or in a society; rootlessness.” When the language of the earth was

confused, anomie was produced.. When the workers and foremen could no

longer communicate, and the Tower was destroyed, the members of society had

nothing to bind them together, excepting their humanity. Robert Merton, in his

analysis of “social structure and anomie,” was of the opinion that social

structures do two fundamental things: define goals, and enforce ways of

achieving them. He also opined that “in a society where there is tremendous

emphasis on the goals without emphasis on institutional procedures, Durkheim’s

state of anomie is produced.2 When the condition of anomie set in, Nimrod’s

people no longer had a common identity. What initially gave the Mesopotamians

their common identity?

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s study of the principles of historical

development brought much insight to the subject. He believed that: “Changes in

the natural world, no matter how great their variety, exhibit only an eternally

recurring cycle. . .man displays a real capacity for change, and, as already

remarked, for progress towards a better and more perfect condition — in short, he

possesses an impulse of perfectibility.”3

Michael Oakeshott brilliantly represents mankind’s incentive for perfection

with a fabrication of Nimrod’s speech to the people, announcing their quest for a

stairway to the heavens. “We are surrounded by enemies and the most

threatening of these is this God with whom Abraham is in league. . . so that we

may never again be destroyed by a deluge from heaven, let us build a tower so

lofty that it will out-top any flood, so strong it will resist any earthquake, so

incombustible that lightning cannot destroy it. . . when we have built this Tower,

let us climb up into heaven. . . thus shall we avenge the death of our ancestors

and make ourselves for ever secure from the hostility of both God and Nature.”4

Cultural elements, or edifices, such as the Tower of Babel exist, according

to Charles Cooley, for only two reasons: practicality and psychological need.

Cooley was a member of the Conflict School of political and sociological thought.

He believes that norms in primary groups play a major part in the development of

social units and the respective natures, norms and mores which accompany

these groups. Therefore, virtually all social problems are a direct result of the

relations which individuals within the group have with themselves; they have their

own “distinct initiative and choice and force.”5 The preceding opinions and

speculations of various theorists aid in the sociological analysis of mankind’s first

major attempt to directly challenge the authority of God the Creator.

The genuine impetus for the construction of the Tower of Babel all goes

back to the fall of man. In Genesis 3:5, the serpent says to Eve, “you will be like

God, knowing good and evil.”6 The human desire to be “like God” is resistance

to God the Creator. It leads to the attempt by all humans to be recognized by

other human beings as a god, therefore to the dehumanization and enslavement

of their fellow humans. Another example of this can be found in the

Master-Slave dialectic. In this argumentation, the master wants to be recognized

as a god, or at least as superior to others. He gains this recognition from his

slaves, but receives no reverence from his peers or his betters.

Following the man’s quest for god-like characteristics and the ensuing fall

of mankind, there was a buildup of civilization led by Cain’s descendants, and a

subsequent buildup of evil. God then brought the Great Flood, saving only one

family, the family of Noah. Following Noah’s five-hundredth year, he had three

sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now Ham begat Cush, Mizraim, Put, and

Canaan. According to Genesis 10:87, “Cush was the father8 of Nimrod, who

grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth.” But Nimrod’s kingdom was short-lived,

destroyed by a flood of unintelligible words. Babel’s original meaning was the

City of Freedom, but following God’s wrath, it gained its present meaning: the

City of Confusion. Nimrod appears often throughout history in various types of

literature. Dante showed Nimrod as an ogre, a mutated human, who because of

his pride and arrogance attacked the heavens and subsequently confused the

conversation of earth. In Aristotle’s poem, he appears as the father of the

boastful Rodomont, the most feared of all of the Saracens. Hegel views the

Great Flood as the tear between Man, God, and Nature since healed. Nimrod,

the self appointed king, consequently reopens the wound. Hegel compares this

story with the Greek myth of Ducalion and Pyrrah. Recently, political theorists et

al, have contrived a model to explain tyrants and dictators typified by Nimrod.

They have designated it to be the Nimrod Effect. The pattern begins when the

despot claims to stand between the people and the gods, the leader is a way for

the people to gain favor from the gods. In some instances, such as the

pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the autocrat claimed to be a god himself. This is a

permanent tendency towards tyrannical government. This is in part due to the

absence of God’s blessing, for the human desire to as gods is direct resistance

to the concept of God the Creator. The recurrence of despots and autarchic

government shows up throughout all of history including: Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin,

Hitler, Kim, Ceausescu, Saddam Hussein, Ne Win, Trujillo, Duvalier, Bokassa,

and Idi Amin, along with many others.

Following Nimrod, the pharaohs were the prototypical Oriental Despot. In

ancient Egypt, the ruler controls the machinery of the nation; it can be set into

motion by the mere will or word of the ruler. The taxes go into his treasure, wars

are fought for his reputation, and edifices are constructed for his ego. “The

power, the absolute power, the universe is mine to command, to control…”9 The

pharaohs claimed to be direct descendants of Re. Re, Amon, Osiris, and Horus

were known as “the great gods,” while the king was known as “the good god.”

Adolf Erman described the pharaohs’ god-like status as: “the son of Re, who is

enthroned in his heart, whom he loves above all, and who is with him, he is a

shining embodiment of the lord of all, created by the gods of Heliopolis. His

divine father created him to exalt his glory. With these ideas what is more

natural than that the people should consider the king to be the mediator for his

country?”10

As the pharaoh was the intermediary for his people, the Germans saw the

Nazis, and more specifically Adolf Hitler, as their mediator to the world, and as

their economic and spiritual savior. The allegiance of the people was easily won

by the Nazis. Following their recent military embarrassments, and a severe

economic depression, Hitler was able to develop a rigidly hierarchical social

system, unprecedented by any other highly industrialized nation-state. Hitler

placed himself at the head of the social strata; he was the focus for the

adoration, aspirations, and affection of every German man, woman, and child.

The worship of National Socialism by the German people was best represented

in a 1937 press release from the Frankfurter Zeitung: “New housing estate in

Braunschweig-Lehndort. . . includes a Protestant church without a tower. The

entire settlement will be dominated by the tower of the Aufbauhaus, which is

going to the local Party headquarters and the hub of public life.”11 Richard

Grunberger described this replacement of spiritual symbolism with Nazi

representation as: “Catholicism without Christianity.”12 Yet another example of

the supplantation of Christian tradition was the institution of high holy days,

which broke the daily routine. These included: 30 January (Day of the Seizure

of Power), 24 February (commemorating the Nazi Party’s foundation), the

National Day of Mourning in March, Hitler’s birthday on 20 April, May Day

(rechristened the National Day of Labor), Mothering Sunday, the Day of the

Summer solstice, the annual Reich Party Rally at Nuremberg, Harvest

Thanksgiving Day, 9 November (Anniversary of the 1923 Munich Putsch, and the

Day of the Winter Solstice.13

Bruno Bettelheim, wrote in The Informed Heart in 1961 that: “the

obligation incumbent upon all citizens to use the ‘Heil Hitler!’ greeting on every

occasion was one of the most potent forms of totalitarian conditioning

conceivable.” E. Hofflich had perhaps the best description: “If people belong to

the same social group, it is customary to raise the right arm at an angle so that

the palm of the hand becomes visible. The appropriate phrase that goes with it

is ‘Heil Hitler’ or at least ‘Heil.’ If one espies an acquaintance in the distance, it

suffices merely to raise the right hand in the manner described. If one

encounters a person socially–or through any other circumstance–inferior to

oneself, then the right arm is to be fully stretched out, raised to eye-level; at the

same time, one is to say ‘Heil Hitler.’”14

Hitler’s quest for recognition as a god was successful. His quest for world

conquest, excepting a few vital mistakes nearly come to pass. The myth of his

god-like character was completely pervasive. “The eventual news of Hitler’s

death was accompanied by a wave of suicides, and less sacrificially inclined

devotees of the Fuhrer exhibited two characteristic reactions: a refusal to accept

the evidence of Hitler’s misdeeds and a denial of the finality of his death.”15

Moving from Europe to the Middle East, we see Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

He attempted to gain god-like recognition through public monuments which

glorified his esteemed character and highly-publicized brutality. During the

Iran-Iraq war, Saddam constructed immense bronze arms with his likeness

above the helmets of felled Iranian soldiers to reinforce and testify to the

harshness of his regime. His brutality created a god-like persona; he was a man

to be respected, revered, and even worshipped. According to Amnesty

International: “allegations received have included the following: the extraction of

fingernails, beatings, whipping, sexual abuse, electrical shock treatment, and

deprivation of food and of the use of toilet facilities.”16 Furthermore, according to

the Human Rights Watch: “Torture has been reportedly used not only against

men and women but also against children . . . to punish them for acts of

opposition.”17

Although the Middle East has been the residence for manifold autocratic

regimes, the Orient is a prime example of the Nimrod Effect. Hong Xiuquan

compounded the traditional Chinese belief in their own superiority with a

recognition of Europe’s technological and military advantage in his era.

However, now he, as the new son of God would reclaim Chinese supremacy.

He announced: “Father [God] had ordained the heavenly Kingdom to be in

China, since China was originally the home of the Heavenly Kingdom. Before

Father descended to the earth, China belonged to Father, and yet the barbarian

devils [the Manchus] stole into Father’s Heavenly Kingdom. This is the reason

Father decreed that I should come to destroy them.”18 Although Hong Xiuquan

was the leader of the Taiping rebellion, misnamed the Great Peace, when the

Quing dynasty again came into power, he merely replaced the tyrannical

government of the Manchus with a despotic regime appointing himself as the

head.

Throughout all of these examples, there is one underlying factor that

appears everywhere excepting Germany. This element is one of excessive

bureaucracy. Jacob Burckhardt in 1860 said the following: “When Dante

compares the city which was always mending its constitution with the sick man

who is continually changing his posture to escape from pain, he touches with the

comparison a permanent feature of the political life of Florence. The great

modern fallacy that a constitution can be made, can be manufactured by a

combination of existing forces and tendencies, was constantly cropping up in

stormy times. . .” Argentine generals took over following a confused government

which had brought Argentina to the edge of economic ruin and civil war.

Hussein’s Ba’th did not begin the centralization of the Iraqi state, but merely

accelerated the process. Romania following the institution of communism in

1945 swiftly became a prime example of over-bureaucratization. In Uganda, the

over-bureaucratization was started by the rule of Obote and Amin.

The innate human tendency to subject others to his authority and his

desires invariably gives rise to a despot. When the Oriental Despot claims to

stand as a mediator between the people and the gods, or even to be a god

himself, it leads to the attempt to be recognized by other human beings as a

God, hence to the dehumanization and enslavement of mankind. The human

desire to as gods is direct resistance to the God the Creator, creating a

permanent tendency towards tyrannical government.

Bibliography

The innate human tendency to subject others to his authority and his desires

invariably gives rise to a despot. When the Oriental Despot claims to stand as a

mediator between the people and the gods, or even to be a god himself, it leads

to the attempt to be recognized by other human beings as a God, hence to the

dehumanization and enslavement of mankind. The human desire to as gods is

direct resistance to the God the Creator, creating a permanent tendency towards

tyrannical government.

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