The Last Sacred Lie: Why We Still Worship Hierarchy

History repeats not because we forget, but because we still worship thrones built on murder and myth

From the pyramids of Egypt to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, from tribal chieftains to unelected supranational technocrats, humanity has always built and bowed to hierarchies. Even when they oppress, manipulate, or surveil us, we often comply, sometimes with alarming eagerness. We have witnessed this mass compliance during the recent global coronapsychosis.

Why do otherwise rational individuals defer to authority, surrender autonomy, and allow hierarchies to dictate the terms of their existence?

This mass bending of the knee has been attributed to political, psychological, and evolutionary factors. But in my opinion, the primary reasons are spiritual. This tendency is deeply wired in our psyche and our social conditioning, and feeds off our existential fears.

But of all the arguments out there, let's look at the scientific ones first.

The Evolutionary Argument

Hierarchies emerged from ancient environments, following a strong leader or class that made life and death decisions. Groups that cooperated under centralized leadership outcompeted more chaotic ones. Obedience conferred protection. Dissent risked exile or relegation in status.

Neuroscientific studies show that even today, the human brain responds to status cues. When we perceive someone as dominant or high-ranking, our prefrontal cortex subtly adjusts behaviour via deference, imitation, and self-censorship. Authority, even when arbitrary, triggers submission — even when we know deep down that the hierarchy is serving itself foremost. As long as there are enough breadcrumbs for those outside the inner circle, the grovelling, supplication and servitude continue.

Hierarchy therefore is a survival mechanism.

The Occult Angle

Incidentally, Europe emerged from the Dark Ages at a time when its most prominent thinkers dabbled in the occult. These practices were conveniently masked under a Christian veneer. You can see their signatures on the cathedrals of old. As Europe rose to prominence, Freemasonry and similar esoteric societies sprang all over the continent, replete with secret rituals and codes that were reserved only for the initiated who, in turn, were classified into a rigid pecking order. Advancement within these cabals depended on compliance, conformity, and capitulation.

A diligent researcher may be hard-pressed to find a philosopher, painter, scientist, politician or any other luminary of that era who was not a member of these esoteric clubs. One’s social standing and prosperity depended on their patronage.

Even some eminent church leaders and theologians saw no contradiction in indulging in occult initiation rituals even as they issued eloquent defenses of the faith which clearly forbade serving two masters (Matthew 6:24).

The Bible categorically treats the occult as an abomination (Ezekiel 8-11) and we are living with the satanic consequences of past hierarchies which shaped societies today.

Tyrants, Bogeymen and False Messiahs

Freedom is cognitively and emotionally expensive. It demands responsibility, moral discernment and the agility to tightrope over the perils of life. A lot of foresight has to be expended to master this art, often by swimming against social currents dictated by hierarchy. And that can be truly exhausting.

In contrast, hierarchy offers the convenient shortcut: obey, conform and outsource your agency. In times of crisis — war, plague, economic collapse etc. — people rush into the arms of strongmen. Totalitarian ideologies thrive during societal collapse or by manufacturing new bogeys. It is easier to chant a slogan than to question it. Easier to blame “them” than to interrogate “us.” The boot on your neck feels less oppressive when it comes with food, order, identity, and patriotism.

It is the same story with false messiahs. Apart from brief, perfunctory weasel words, few will bat an eyelid when their political saviour reneges on prior promises. When President Donald J. Trump used blatantly false pretexts to launch his first attack on Syria in 2017, hostile Democrats and recalcitrant Republicans alike joined hands to lavish praises on him. For a brief moment, he was the President of all Americans by directly placing the Christian minority in Syria in jeopardy. And they continue to face persecution and death due to Trump’s enduring support of the Al Qaeda-run government in Damascus.

This was the same Trump who had vowed to put an end to Christian persecution in the Middle East upon winning the presidential (s)election in 2016.

The Illusion of Consent

Modern hierarchies are seductive not because they impose, but because they disguise. We believe we are choosing them by voting, buying and clicking when, in reality, we are herded by algorithms, narratives, and invisible power structures. The corporate-state apparatus doesn’t need your overt submission as it thrives on your participation.

What Orwell imagined as jackboots, Huxley foresaw as dopamine. Today’s hierarchies chip away freedom not with decrees but with design — UX interfaces, surveillance incentives, targeted content, and social credit systems. In the process, modern society has secularized the pyramid, The Vatican became Wall Street and Oracles gave way to the Algorithm.

We say “yes” to control mechanisms because they feel convenient. We trade liberty for safety, privacy for personalization, sovereignty for comfort.

There is also a darker, metaphysical thread that nourishes hierarchy. Across cultures, we are drawn to verticality i.e. the stacking of social classes. The gods lived on mountaintops, kings sat on thrones and county clerks determined the boundaries of lands, occupations and businesses. From top to bottom, “divine right” was invoked.

Biblical Genesis of Hierarchy

In the Bible, the first recorded sprouting of hierarchy began with a murder, followed by fear and divine ostracization. After Cain slew his brother Abel, he built the first city (Genesis 4) to avoid becoming a wandering vagabond. Hierarchy is the result of disconnection from the divine. The scene was set for a confrontation between the city hierarchies and those who “began to call upon the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:26). The smart cities of tomorrow will follow the same diabolical pattern.

The path from Cain’s prototypal cities to the Tower of Babel and the corruption of mankind was a short one. It has a long history that endures till today. A planetary-sized flood during the days of Noah managed to delay the proliferation of hierarchical evil. It is however making a last-gasp comeback as power fractionates rapidly into the hands of the few.

If hierarchy does not exist, it has to be invented. Such is the fallen nature of man. Even today, idols and icons are worshipped by the very hands that crafted it (Habakkuk 2:18-19). These are not mere inert objects. Murders and wars throughout history involved rallying around one idol or the other. It is fashionable for “monotheists” to scoff at the ignorance of polytheists, but they are guilty of the same folly when they pitch their hopes on a budding new Fuhrer who promises to drain the swamp. But the swamp remains as murky and fetid as ever, composting under the weight of untold murders and abominations.

Breaking the Spell

Reverence can regress into rot. When hierarchy loses its moral compass, it ceases to organize and begins to oppress. When the ladder no longer leads upward — when the same class always rules, the same narratives dominate, the same freedoms vanish — we are no longer in a society. Rather, we are in a matrix, living in a simulation of consent.

Breaking free begins with introspection. It means recognizing when hierarchy is necessary (e.g., skilled leadership in crisis) and when it is parasitic. It means cultivating inner freedom so that outer chains feel intolerable. It means asking: Who benefits from my obedience?

It also means making the choice of either becoming the Hamans of this world or its Mordechais. The Book of Esther illustrates how principled defiance and personal dignity triumphed over hierarchical plots. (The Septuagint version of Esther also provides a divine backdrop).

Setting Us Free

History shows that when hierarchies ossify, revolutions follow. The tragedy is that most revolutions simply reshuffle the pyramid. And so, the story keeps repeating itself as we are inherently addicted to subjugation.

While humans may be wired for hierarchy, we are also capable of reflection and resistance. The question is not whether hierarchy will exist — it always will. The question is how many will continue to genuflect before the highest thrones. And herein lies the existential question: Just who sits on the ultimate throne of this world — the invisible dark force that is enslaving mankind under Babel 2.0?

The Bible clearly identifies this entity (Luke 4:5-6) but God had foreseen this trap and has offered His creation a way out. As I have stated earlier, hierarchy is the result of divine disconnection but on Calvary, the connection was re-established. The temple curtain was rendered asunder and we now no longer need an earthly intermediary between God and man.

The Christian walk is, in fact, the ultimate anti-hierarchy. Mordechai was the prototype. As Jesus reminded his disciples:

“If any man desires to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35).

“The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.” (Luke 22:25-26)

There is real freedom in the Christian paradigm. But it has to be lived and experienced. But it remains incomprehensible to those still entrapped in the labyrinth of worldly hierarchies, including modern-day churches.

H/T to Mary W. Maxwell whose recent comment inspired this write-up

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