Elliott
HST Chris 104
Week 1 Journal
In my opinion The code of Hammurabi is the most important invention to ever be
invented in the history of the earth. I think that a lot of people over look how important
the invention of that is. Something so early has effected everything that has happened
ever since it. Its not the actual code that is so important it is just the concept of it that ha
helped humans advance so much in history. Before this there was no law so the was
basically no order in the world. There was no rules to follow so threw could not be any
order in society so you could not have any community because it was just be straight
chaos. Every society after that has had a code of law and would not be able to exist
without it. This was the first thing that was invented that has stood the test of time to
remain in play till now. Throughout the reading and dicussions a lot of people have
criticized how harsh the laws were in this code but they have failed to noticed a major
factor that this code had to deal with that no one after if had to, this was the first one ever.
Every law ever written after that had something to base their laws off of so they know
where to start but the Code of Hammurabi did not. When making this code they had to
start with the very basics and move from there, it would be extremely hard to make
something you when didnt have anything to look at in order to make this. The very idea
of making rules was new to them so it was unheard of. With this, as with anything new to
a community, they had to present it to the people and the people had to accept it. Even
today people have a very hard time on getting a community to accept something new.
This was very apparent in my home town when they tried to make sidewalks all around
the city. The first presentation of this was a long time ago and no one wanted it but then
over time more and more people started to come over and want them to be put in. This is
what I could imagine happening when they put the code of Hammurabi into the
community. At first I think that a lot of people didnt want it but over time more and more
came. But the difference between my problem and the problem with the code is that we
have seen sidewalks before and know that they can work, when presenting a code of law
they had no idea what it was and what it would to so they were going into the unknown.
Anytime a person has to go to an unknown place or idea they are very scared and people
dont like it. There was probably a lot of conflict between the community when they tried
to place the code into play. All these concepts played a role in the introduction of law and
order to the world which changed it forever.