Ignorance is Bliss
Ancient cultures reserved quickly understood that the power of divine right creates much more significant societal growth and economic expansion than the ladder. Religion was the treasure box of kings and emperors who were able to convince humans to fight a war by the thousands because it was the will of the creator who gave them worth and meaning. Literal education was reserved in almost all cultures of the time to the very few.
Source: kiwireport.com
The fear was if the masses can express their own interpretation of life, it would disrupt the growth of humanity and the new-found power of religious institutions. Mayan society was literately ignorant, with little more than a complicated script that only the most influential leaders of the community could decipher, and unlike the Romans or the Greeks, the Mayan culture was not able to adequately document their decline. Leaving scientists and archeologists digging through the dirt to find out what happened. So that we can cross-reference the fall of the Mayans with our society today.