Prof Jiang’s Predictive History and other lectures

Secret History #27: Empire of Evil

A sweeping tour of Jerusalem’s strategic role and how imperial tactics reshaped identity. A deep dive into Persian, Hellenistic and Roman pressures and the shift from temple worship to law-centered practice. The rise of heterodox movements, Sabbatean and Frankist doctrines, and their secretive, transgressive rituals. Connections to Enlightenment currents, cultural echoes, and modern accelerationist ideas.

A contrarian theory framing capital as an energy-extraction system that harvests attention and anxiety. Historical arcs from grain and gold to modern banks and tech billionaires are traced. Secret societies, rituals, and elite mobility are tied to transnational finance. Religious shifts, war finance, and colonial extraction are connected to how wealth is accumulated and defended.

A sweeping lecture traces Rome's oligarchic rise, its civil wars, and Constantine's Byzantine turn. Migration waves, church integration of barbarians, and Arabia's trade crossroads get vivid attention. Doctrinal battles from Nicaea to Arianism and the church's political uses are explored. Crusades, Templars, inquisitions, and early Reformation stir the narrative.

A provocative tour through how Paul reshaped early Christianity into an institutional force. Tracks the fusion of Jewish, Greek and Roman structures and the rhetoric that converted sayings into authority. Explores organization, funding, and political ties that allowed rapid expansion. Considers rituals, hierarchy, and long-term power networks shaping religion and social control.

A thoughtful dive into why Jesus became history's most worshipped figure. The discussion contrasts gospel narratives with historical facts and highlights Gnostic sayings like the Gospel of Thomas. Themes include the idea of an inner divine spark, teachings on love and forgiveness, critiques of institutional religion, and how Roman oppression helped these ideas spread.

A lecture-style dive into Rome's warlike Italian origins, roads, and martial cohesion. Military contrasts between legions and hoplites, Pyrrhus's costly victories, and Rome’s naval rise against Carthage. Political collapse from Senate corruption, land loss, and factional violence leading to dictators and civil wars. Myth, ritual, and literature framed as tools that glorify violence and shape Roman identity.

A lively tour of elite competition, borderland energy, and why Greek culture ignited innovation. Military geography, hoplites versus horse-archers, and key battles like Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis get dramatic treatment. Macedonia’s military reforms, Alexander’s relentless conquests, and the cultural fusion of Greeks, Persians, and Jews that set the stage for later religions are explored.

A sweeping look at Levant geopolitics, from ritualized Mesopotamian warfare to mercenary unifiers and Persian statecraft. Explores how exile, imperial charters, and religious reforms remade Israelite identity and institutions. Connects ancient patterns—elite competition, borderland pressures, and imperial strategies—to modern geopolitical parallels and predictions about regional ambitions.

A lively tour of Zoroastrian origins, timing, and cosmology, comparing Greeks, Israelites, and Persians. Discussion of Asha versus Druj, individuality, free will, and moral duty. Connections drawn from Zoroaster to Rumi and Nietzsche, including solitude, self-recreation, and virtue born from struggle. Classroom corrections and audience questions probe forgiveness and lifelong moral growth.