R. Buckminster Fuller

http://reactor-core.org/operating-manual-for-spaceship-earth.html

http://www.american-buddha.com/legalpiggily.htm

http://reactor-core.org/grunch-of-giants.html

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Excerpts of the book Critical Path by R. Buckminster Fuller

St. Martin's Press, 1981 - hard cover, 1st edition
Chapter 3

Legally Piggily

I'M GOING TO REVIEW my prehistory's speculative assumptions regarding the origins of human power structures.

In a herd of wild horses there's a king stallion. Once in a while a young stallion is born bigger than the others. Immediately upon his attaining full growth, the king stallion gives him battle. Whichever one wins inseminates the herd. Darwin saw this as the way in which nature contrives to keep the strongest strains going. This battling for herd kingship is operative amongst almost all species of animal herds as well as in the "pecking order" of flocking bird types.

I'm sure that amongst the earliest of human beings, every once in a while a man was born much bigger than the others. He didn't ask to be—but there he was. And because he was bigger, people would say—each in their own esoteric language—"Mister, will you please reach one of those bananas for me, because I can't reach them." The big one obliges. Later the little people would say, "Mister, people over there have lost all of their bananas and they are dying of starvation, and they say they are going to come over here and kill us to get our bananas. You're big—you get out in front and protect us." And he would say, "OK," and successfully protect them.

The big one found his bigness continually being exploited. He would say to the littles, "Between these battles protecting you, I would like to get ready for the next battle. We could make up some weapons and things." The people said, "All right. We'll make you king. Now you tell us what to do." So the big man becomes king quite logically. He could have become so in either a bullying or good-natured way, but the fact is that he was king simply because he was not only the biggest and the most physically powerful but also the most skillful and clever big one.

Every once in a while along would come another big man. "Mr. King, you've got things too easy around here. I'm going to take it away from you." A big battle ensues between the two, and after the king has his challenger pinned down on his back, he says, "Mister, you were trying to kill me to take away my kingdom. But I'm not going to kill you because you'd make a good fighter, and I need fighters around here to cope with the enemies who keep coming. So I'm going to let you up now if you promise to fight for me. But don't you ever forget—I can kill you. OK?" The man assents, so the king lets him up.

But instinctively the king says secretly to himself, "I mustn't ever allow two of those big guys to come at me together. I can lick any one of them, but only one by one." The most important initial instinct of the most powerful individual or of his organized power structure is, "Divide to conquer, and to keep conquered, keep divided."