As youngsters in school, most people my age were impressed with stories of Alexander the Great. Our teachers told of this heroic figure that commanded a great army and conquered most of the known world when he was only a teenager.

I hear that schools are still teaching this kind of crap.

At that time, it sure sounded good. The message was that we, too, could be great. All we had to do was work at it. I often wonder if our teachers believed what they were telling us.

I know now that if we had things going for us that Alexander had going for him, we could have been world-beaters, too!

Perpetuating myths is profitable!

Buying into this process of supporting our Alexander the Great delusion proved profitable for story tellers, writers and theatrical types. Stories of his “conquests” most likely helped keep dissenters back at home in check. At least they would scare heck out of their children.

Hollywood enhanced these illusions of greatness while those who knew better, kept quiet. As Hollywood added its own twist to most of our ancient myths, gullible populations bought in, not necessarily entirely, but they bought in with enough vigour that lots of money changed hands. Self-proclaimed experts learned quickly that they could profit more by lending their names to further fabrications of truth than by exposing any errors in myths. Truth seldom, if ever, is profitable, at least when it is compared to those profits awaiting those who would fabricate new truths, or enhance old ones.

For example, most conquered didn't even have an army. When we speak of “nations" like India it accommodates our ignorance that India was a collection of hundreds of small “nations”. They may have had a few skirmishes among themselves but were not equipped to defend themselves against professional forces. Most of these small skirmishes resulted in a battle between each “nation’s” appointed champion(s), much like our contemporary battles which take place between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Seldom, if ever, were results of these skirmishes recorded for antiquity.

History favourably records that often, Alexander would arrange mass marriages between fair ladies (girls) of each conquered nation and his soldiers. These were supposed to help integrate these different cultures into one homogeneous mass. Now, dear reader, if you believe that falsehood, go to the back of your Kindergarten class. One strategy at that time, (and even used by various nations in the last 50 years), was to impregnate as many as possible of losing "nation's” women. Resulting offspring would not be trusted in their own lands. If rape of each nation was fruitfull, likelihood of those “nations” mounting a competent military force was unlikely for at least 100 years.

And then, of course, there is Hephaestion, the son of a Macedonian noble and Alexander's lifelong companion. They sure didn’t tell us anything about him when I went to school. Perhaps if they had of I would not have been so industrious attempting to be as great as Alexander! (I preferred girls!)

Being a successful scribe in those ancient days ensured a comfortable life so positions were hotly contested. Could it be that some members of this professional fraternity were responsible for today's myths? Would they have had any idea that King Constantine would come along 800 years later and proclaim their works as honest, historical fact?

Profiting from perpetuating myths is still widely practiced. In fact, some of these myths have become cornerstones for most of our world's religions . . . and their millions of followers, or should I say, believers?

Personally, I prefer a world that is less complicated, less chaotic, and more appealing because it would function
. . . without Gods!