ABSTRACT
Every kind ofgovernment seems to be afflicted by some evil inherent in its nature.
-Alexis de Tocqueville
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. -Henry Adams
All governments lie. -William S. Burroughs
INTRODUCTION
The Inca civilization, which flourished high in the Andes, predated the Spanish empire in South America. We have no evidence of writing per se in the archeological finds for this civilization, but we have evidence that they kept statistical records. Their numbers were recorded on quipus. or knotted strings. We know that their records included, at a minimum, births and deaths, amount of food produced, amount and kinds of tribute brought to the ruler, and so forth (1, pp. 331-333).
