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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12320-0.txt b/12320-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1656d33 --- /dev/null +++ b/12320-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9728 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12320 *** + +[Transcriber's note: The typographical errors of the original are +preserved in this etext.] + + + +CIVILIZATION AND BEYOND + +Learning From History + + +By Scott Nearing + +This book is not copyrighted. It may be reproduced by anybody and +distributed in any quantity as a whole. It should not be summarized, +abbreviated, garbled or chopped into out-of-context fragments. + +Social Science Institute, Harborside, Maine + +August 1975 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Preface + INTRODUCTION: Thoughts about History and Civilization + + PART I _The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization_ + 1. Experiments in Egypt and Eurasia + 2. Rome's Outstanding Experiment + 3. The Origins of Western Civilization + 4. The Life Cycle of Western Civilization + 5. Features Common to Civilizations + + PART II _A Social Analysis of Civilization_ + 6. The Politics of Civilization + 7. The Economics of Civilization + 8. The Sociology of Civilization + 9. Ideologies of Civilization + + PART III _Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete_ + 10. World-wide Revolution Disrupts Civilization + 11. Western Civilization Attempts Suicide + 12. Talking Peace and Waging War + + PART IV _Steps Beyond Civilization_ + 13. Ten Building Blocks for a New World + 14. Moving Toward World Federation + 15. Integrating a World Economy + 16. Conserving our Natural Environment + 17. Re-vamping the Social Life of the Planet + 18. Man Could Change Human Nature + 19. Man Could Break Out of the Age-Long Prison-House + of Civilization and Enter a New World + + + +PREFACE + +LEARNING FROM HISTORY + + +Human history may be viewed from various angles. The easiest history to +write concerns the doings of a few well known people and their +involvement in some memorable events. History may also concern itself +with inventions and discoveries: the use of fire, of the wheel or +smelting metals. It may center around sources of food, means of shelter, +or the making of records. It may be concerned with the construction and +decoration of cities, kingdoms and empires. + +Social history enters the picture with travel, transportation, +communication, trade. Human beings group themselves in families, clans +and tribes, in voluntary associations; they compete, plunder, conquer, +enslave, exploit; they co-operate for construction and destruction. +Political history is but one aspect of man's group contacts and group +projects. + +There have been histories of particular civilizations and of +civilization as a field of historical research. With minor exceptions +none of the authors that I have consulted has attempted an analytical +treatment of civilization as a sociological phenemenon. + +Scientists start from hunches, examine available data, advance tentative +conclusions, test them in the light of wider observations, and round out +their research by formulating general principles or "laws." This +scientific approach has been used in many fields of observation and +study. I am applying the formula to one aspect of social history: the +appearance, development, maturity, decline and disappearance of the vast +co-ordinations of collective, experimental human effort called +civilizations. + +"Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, where are they?" asked Byron. He might +have added: "What were they? How did they come into being? What was the +nature of their experience? Why did they rise from small beginnings, +develop into wide-spread colossal complexes of wealth and power, and +then, after longer or shorter periods of existence, break up and +disappear from the stage of social history?" + +Such questions are far removed from the lives of people who are busy +with everyday affairs. In one sense they _are_ remote; in the larger +picture, however, they are of vital concern to anyone and everyone now +living in civilized communities. If Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans +and Carthaginians built extensive empires and massive civilizations that +flourished for a time, then broke up and disappeared, are we to follow +blindly and unthinkingly in their footsteps? Or do we study their +experiences, benefit from their successes and learn from their mistakes? +Can we not take lessons out of their voluminous notebooks, avoid their +blunders and direct our own feet along paths that fulfil our lives at +the same time that they meet the widespread demand for survival and +well-being? + +Civilization has been extensively experimental. Several thousand years, +during which civilizations have appeared, disappeared and reappeared, +have been too brief to establish and stabilize a hard and fast social +pattern. As the complexity of civilizations has increased, variations +and deviations have grown in number and intensity. With the advent of +western civilization a culture pattern is being put together which +differs widely from its predecessors. + +All civilized peoples seem to have developed from simple beginnings and +experimented with broader and more complicated life styles. In western +civilization the number of experiments has increased and the span of +their deviations seems to have broadened. Under the circumstances an +analysis of civilization must take for granted not only social change +but the development of, human society along lines which link up the +outstanding structural and functional ideas, institutions and practices +of successive civilizations. + +I propose in this inquiry to state certain accepted facts from the +history of civilizations and of contemporary experience. I also propose +to analyze the facts and generalize them in such a way that the results +of the study may provide an understanding of the human social past, +together with some guide-lines that will prove useful in the formulation +and implementation of the present-day policy and procedure of civilized +peoples, nations, empires and of the western civilization. + +This book is not a popular treatise, nor is it a textbook. Rather. it is +an attempt to summarize an area of critical human concern. Academia may +not use such material: nevertheless it should be available to students +and administrators who must plan and direct the social future of +humankind. + +_Civilization and Beyond_ rounds out a series of studies that I began in +1928 with _Where Is Civilization Going_? The series has extended through +_The Twilight of Empire_ (1930), _War_ (1931) and _The Tragedy of +Empire_ (1946). Up to 1914 my field of study was confined largely to the +economics of distribution. The war of 1914-18 pushed me rudely and +decisively into the broader field. I have described the process in my +political autobiography: _Making of a Radical_ (1971). + +I hope that this study will provide a useful link in the chain of +material dealing with the structure and function of man's social +environment, leading directly into an action program that will conclude +the preservation and loving economical use of nature's rich gifts and +the dedication of thousands of young aspiring men and women to the good +life here, now and indefinitely, into a bright, productive and creative +future. + +As of this date seven publishers have examined the manuscript of this +work and declined to publish it. All felt that it would not find any +considerable reading public. Nevertheless, I feel that the work should +be printed and distributed because it carries a message that may be of +first rate importance to the future of my fellow humans. + +Scott Nearing. + +Harborside, Maine May 5, 1975 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +THOUGHTS ABOUT HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION + + +We may think and talk about civilization as one pattern or level of +culture, one stage through which human life flows and ebbs. In that +sense we may regard it abstractly and historically, as we regard the +most recent ice age or the long and painful record of large-scale +chattel slavery. + +From quite another viewpoint we may think of civilization as a +technologically advanced way of life developed by various peoples +through ages of unrecorded experiment and experience, and followed by +millions during the period of written history. It is also the way of +life that the West has been trying to impose upon the entire human +family since European empires launched their crusade to westernize, +modernize and civilize the planet Earth. + +A third approach would regard civilization as an evolving life style, +conceived before the earliest days of recorded human history and matured +through the series of experiments marking the development of +civilization as we have known it during the five centuries from 1450 to +1975. + +Thinking in terms of this age-old experience, with six or more thousand +years of social history as a background, it is possible to give a fairly +exact meaning to the word "civilization" as it has been lived and is +being lived by the present-day West. It is also possible to understand +the history of previous civilizations in cycle after cycle of their +rise, their development, decline and extinction. At the same time it +will enable the reader to recognize the relationship (and difference) +between the words "culture" and "civilization". + +Human culture is the sum total of ideas, relationships, artifacts, +institutions, purposes and ideals currently functioning in any +community. Three elements are present in each human society: man, nature +and the social structure. Human culture at any point in its history is +the social structure: the aggregate of existing culture traits, the +products of man's ingenuity, inventiveness and experimentation, set in +their natural environment. + +Civilization is a level of culture built upon foundations laid down +through long periods of pre-civilized living. These foundations consist +of artifacts, implements, customs, habit patterns and institutions +produced and developed in numerous scattered localities by groups of +food-gatherers, migrating herdsmen, cultivators, hand craftsmen and +traders and eventually in urban communities built around centers of +wealth and power: the cities which are the nuclei of every civilization. + +Urban centers, housing trade, commerce, fabrication and finance, with +their hinterlands of food-gatherers, herdsmen, cultivators, craftsmen +and transporters, are the nuclei around which and upon which recurring +civilizations are built. Within and around these urban centers there +grows up a complex of associations, activities, institutions and ideas +designed to promote, develop and defend the particular life pattern. + +A civilization is a cluster of peoples, nations and empires so related +in time and space that they share certain ideas, practices, institutions +and means of procedure and survival. Among these features of a civilized +community we may list: + + (1) means of communication, record-keeping, transportation + and trade. This would include a spoken language, a method + of enumeration, writing in pictographs or symbols; an + alphabet, a written language, inscribed on stone, bone, + wood, parchment, paper; means of preserving the records + of successive generations; paths, roads, bridges; a system + for educating successive generations; meeting places and + trading points; means for barter or exchange; + + (2) an interdependent urban-oriented economy based on division + of labor and specialization; on private property in the + essential means of production and in consumer goods and + services; on a competitive survival struggle for wealth, + prestige and power between individuals and social groups; + and on the exploitation of man, society and nature for the + material benefit of the privileged few who occupy the summit + of the social pyramid; + + (3) a unified, centralized political apparatus or bureaucracy + that attempts to plan, direct and administer the political, + economic, ideological and sociological structure; + + (4) a self-selected and self-perpetuating oligarchy that owns + the wealth, holds the power and pulls the strings; + + (5) an adequate labor force for farming, transport, industry, + mining; + + (6) large middle-class elements: professionals, technicians, + craftsmen, tradesmen, lesser bureaucrats, and a semi-parasitic + fringe of camp-followers; + + (7) a highly professional, well-trained, amply-financed apparatus + for defense and offense; + + (8) a complex of institutions and social practices which will + indoctrinate, persuade and when necessary limit deviation + and maintain social conformity; + + (9) agreed religious practices and other cultural features. + +This description of civilization covers the essential features of +western civilization and the sequence of predecessor civilizations for +which adequate records exist. + +Successive civilizations have introduced new culture traits and +abandoned old ones as the pageant of history moved from one stage to the +next, or advanced and retreated through cycles. Using this description +as a working formula, it is possible to understand the development +followed in the past by western civilization, to estimate its current +status and to indicate its probable outcome. + +Long-established thought-habits cry aloud in protest against such a +description of civilization. Until quite recently the word +"civilization" has been used in academic circles to symbolize a social +idea or ideal. Professor of History Anson D. Morse of Amherst College +presents such a view in his _Civilization and the World War_ (Boston: +Ginn 1919). For him, civilization is "the sum of things in which the +heritage of the child of the twentieth century is better than that of +the child of the Stone Age. As a process it is the perfection of man and +mankind. As an end, it is the realization of the highest ideal which men +are capable of forming.... The goal of civilization ... is human society +so organized in all of its constituent groups that each shall yield the +best possible service to each one and thereby to mankind as a whole, +(producing) the perfect organization of humanity." (page 3). + +Such thoughts may be noble and inspired; they are not related to +history. We know more or less about a score of civilizations that have +occupied portions of the earth during several thousand years. We know a +great deal about the western civilization which we observe and in which +we participate. Professor Morse's florid words apply to none of the +civilizations known to history. Certainly they are poles away from an +accurate characterization of our own varient of this social pattern. + +We are writing this introduction in an effort to make our word pictures +of mankind and its doings correspond with the facts of social history. +With the nuclear sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, it is high +time for us to exchange the clouds of fancy and the flowers of rhetoric +for the solid ground of historical reality. The word "civilization" must +generalize what has been and what is, as nearly as the past and present +can be embodied in language. + +Civilization is a level or phase of culture which has been attained and +lost repeatedly in the course of social history. The epochs of +civilization have not been distributed evenly, either in time or on the +earth's surface. A combination of circumstances, political, economic, +ideological, sociological, resulted in the Egyptian, the Chinese, the +Roman civilizations. One of these was centered in North Africa, the +second in Asia, the third in eastern Europe. All three spilled over into +adjacent continents. + +No two civilizations are exactly alike at any stage of their +development. Each civilization is at least a partial experiment, a +process or sequence of causal relationships, altered sequentially in the +course of its life cycle. + +These thoughts about culture and civilization should be supplemented by +noting the relationship between civilizations and empires. An empire is +a center of wealth and power associated with its economic and political +dependencies. A civilization is a cluster or a succession of empires +and/or former empires, co-ordinated and directed by one of their number +which has established its leadership in the course of survival struggle. + +The total body of historical evidence bearing on human experiments with +civilization is extensive and impressive. It covers a large portion of +the Earth's land surface, includes parts of Asia, Africa and Europe and +extends sketchily to the Americas. In time it covers many thousands of +years. + +Experiments with civilization have been conducted in highly selective +surroundings possessing the volume and range of natural resources and +the isolation and remoteness necessary to build and maintain a high +level of culture over substantial periods of time. In these special +areas it was possible to provide for subsistence, produce an economic +surplus large enough to permit experimentation and ensure protection +against human and other predators. Egypt and the Fertile Crescent were +surrounded by deserts and high mountains. Crete was an island, extensive +but isolated. Productive river valleys like the Yang-tse, the Ganges and +the Mekong have afforded natural bases for experiments with +civilization. Similar opportunities have been provided by strategic +locations near bodies of water, mineral deposits and the intersections +of trade-routes. Others, less permanent, were located in the high Andes, +on the Mexican Plateau, in the Central American jungles. + +Histories of civilizations, some of them ancient or classical, have +been written during the past two centuries. There have been general +histories in many languages. There have been scholarly reports on +particular civilizations. Prof. A.J. Toynbee's massive ten volume _Study +of History_ is a good example. Still more extensive is the thirty volume +history of civilization under the general editorship of C.K. Ogden. +These writings have brought together many facts bearing chiefly on the +lives of spectacular individuals and episodes, with all too little data +on the life of the silent human majority. + +At the end of this volume the reader will find a list, selected from the +many books that I have consulted in preparation for writing this study. +Most of these authorities are concerned with the facts of civilization, +with far less emphasis on their political, economic and sociological +aspects. + +In this study I have tried to unite theory with practice. On the one +hand I have reviewed briefly and as accurately as possible some +outstanding experiments with civilization, including our own western +variant. (Part I. The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization.) In Part +II I have undertaken a social analysis of civilization as a past and +present life style. In Part III, Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete, I +have tried to check our thinking about civilization with the sweep of +present day historical trends. Part IV, Steps Beyond Civilization, is an +attempt to list some of the alternatives and opportunities presently +available to civilized man. + +Any reader who has the interest and persistence to read through the +entire volume and to browse through some of its references will have had +the equivalent of a university extension course dealing with one of the +most critical issues confronting the present generation of humanity. + + + + +_Part I_ + +The Pageant of Experiment With Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +EXPERIMENTS IN EGYPT AND EURASIA + + +Thousands of years before the city of Rome was ringed with its six miles +of stone wall, other peoples in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa were +building civilizations. New techniques of excavation, identification and +preservation, subsidized by an increasingly affluent human society, and +developed during the past two centuries of archeological research have +provided the needed means and manpower. The result is an imposing number +of long buried building sites with their accompanying artifacts. Still +more important are the records written in long forgotten languages on +stone, clay tablets, metal, wood and paper. These remnants and records, +left by extinguished civilizations, do not tell us all we wish to know, +but they do provide the materials which enable us to reconstruct, at +least in part, the lives of our civilized predecessors. + +Extensive in time and massive in the volume of their architecture are +the remains of Egyptian civilization. The earliest of these fragments +date back for more than six thousand years. + +The seat of Egyptian civilization was the Nile Valley and its estuary +built out into the Mediterranean Sea from the debris of disintegrating +African mountains. Annual floods left their silt deposits to deepen the +soil along the lower reaches of the river. River water, impounded for +the purpose, provided the means of irrigating an all but rainless desert +countryside. Skillful engineering drained the swamps, adding to the +cultivable area of a narrow valley cut by the river through jagged +barren hills. Deserts on both sides of the Nile protected the valley +against aggressors and migrants. Within this sanctuary the Egyptians +built a civilization that lasted, with a minor break, for some 3,000 +years. + +Egyptian temples and tombs carry records chiseled and painted on hard +stone, which throw light on the life and times of upper-class Egyptians, +including emperors, provincial governors, courtiers, generals, +merchants, provincial organizers. In a humid, temperate climate these +stone-cut and painted records would have been eroded, overgrown and +obliterated long ago. In the dry desert air of North Africa they have +preserved their identity through the centuries. + +Since the Egyptians had a few draft animals, and little if any +power-driven machinery, energy needed to build massive stone temples, +tombs and other public structures must have been supplied by the forced +labor of Egyptians, their serfs and slaves. + +Egypt's history dawns on a well-organized society: The Old Kingdom, +based on the productivity of the narrow, lush Nile Valley. The products +of the Valley were sufficient to maintain a large population of +cultivators: some slave, some forced labor, about which we have little +knowledge; a bureaucracy, headed by a supreme ruler whose declared +divinity was one of the chief stabilizing forces of the society. Between +its agricultural base and its ruling monarch, the Old Kingdom had a +substantial middle class which procured the wood, stone, metals and +other materials needed in construction; a corps of engineers, +technicians and skilled workers, and a substantial mass of humanity +which provided the energy needed to erect the temples, monuments and +other remains which testify to the political, economic, and cultural +competence of the ruling elements and the technical skills present in +the Old Kingdom. + +Foremost among the factors responsible for the success of the Old +Kingdom was the close partnership between the "lords temporal" and the +"lords spiritual"--the state and the church. The state consisted of a +highly centralized monarchy ruled by a Pharoah who personified temporal +authority. This authority was strengthened because it represented a +consensus of the many gods recognized and worshiped by the Egyptians of +the Old Kingdom. The monarch was also looked upon as an embodiment of +divinity. Some Egyptian pharoahs had been priests who became rulers. +Others had been rulers who became priests. The two aspects of public +life--political and religious--were closely interrelated. + +In theory the land of Egypt was the property of the Pharoah. Foreign +trade was a state monopoly. In practice the ownership and use of land +were shared with the temples and with those members of the nobility +closest to the ruling monarch. Hence there were state lands and state +income and temple lands and temple income. The use of state lands was +alloted to favorites. Each temple had land which it used for its own +purposes. + +Political power in the Old Kingdom was a tight monopoly held by the +ruling dynasty of the period. During preceding epochs it seems likely +that rival groups or factions had gone through a period of +power-survival struggle which eliminated one rival after another until +economic ownership and political authority were both vested in the same +ruling oligarchs. This struggle for consolidation apparently reached its +climax when Menes, a pharoah who began his rule about 3,400 B.C., in the +south of Egypt, invaded and conquered the Delta and merged the two +kingdoms, South and North, into one nation which preserved its identity +and its sovereignty until the Persian Conquest of 525 B.C. + +The unification of the northern kingdom with the South seems to have +been a slow process, interrupted by insurrections and rebellions in the +Delta and in Lybia. Inscriptions report the suppression of these +insurrections and give the number of war-captives brought to the south +as slaves. In one instance the captives numbered 120,000 in addition to +1,420 small cattle and 400,000 large cattle. + +Using these war captives to supplement the home supply of forced and +free labor, successive dynasties built temples, palaces and tombs; +constructed new cities; drained and irrigated land; sent expeditions to +the Sinai peninsula to mine copper. Such enterprises indicate a +considerable economic surplus above that required to take care of a +growing population: the high degree of organization required to plan and +assemble such enterprises, and the considerable engineering and +technological capacity necessary for their execution. + +Chief among the binding forces holding together the extensive apparatus +known as the Old Kingdom was religion, with its gods, its temples and +their generous endowments. Each locality consolidated into the Old +Kingdom had its gods and their places for worship. In addition to these +local religious centers there was an hierarchy of national deities, +their temples, temple lands and endowments. The ruling monarch, who was +official servitor of the national gods, interpreting their will and +adding to the endowments of the temples, was the embodiment of secular +and of religious authority. + +Egyptians of the period believed that death was not an end, but a +transition. They also believed that those who passed through the death +process would have many of the needs and wants associated with life on +the Earth. Furthermore they believed that in the course of their future +existence those who had died would again inhabit the bodies that they +had during their previous existences on Earth. Following out these +beliefs the Egyptians put into their tombs a full assortment of the +food, clothing, implements and instruments which they had used during +their Earth life. They also embalmed the bodies of their dead with the +utmost care and buried them in carefully hidden tombs where they would +be found by their former users and occupied for the Day of Judgment. + +Holding such views, preparation for the phase of life subsequent to +death was a chief object of the early Egyptian rulers and their +subjects. One of the preoccupations of each new occupant of the throne +was the selection of his burial place. Early in his reign he began the +construction of suitable quarters for the reception of his embalmed +body. The great pyramids were such tombs. Other monarchs constructed +rock-hewn chambers for the reception of their bodies. In these chambers +in addition to a room for a sarcophagus were associated rooms in which +every imaginable need of the dead was stored: food, clothing, furniture, +jewelry, weapons. + +Adjacent to the royal tomb favored nobles received permission to build +their own tombs, similarly equipped but on a smaller, less grandiose +scale than that of the pharaoh. By this means the courtiers who had +attended the pharaoh in his life-time would be at hand to perform +similar services in the after death existence. + +Construction and maintenance of temples and tombs absorbed a +considerable part of Egypt's economic surplus. These drains on the +economy grew more extensive as the country became more populous and more +productive. Thanks to the lack of rain in and near the Nile Valley and +despite the depleting activities of persistent vandalism these +constructs have stood for thirty centuries as monuments to one of the +most extensive and elaborate civilizations known to historians. Despite +the absence of detailed records, Egyptian achievements under the Old +Kingdom indicate an abundance of food, wood, metal and other resources +far in excess of survival requirements; a population sufficiently +extensive to produce the necessaries of existence and a surplus which +made it possible for the lords temporal and spiritual to erect such +astonishing and enduring monuments; high levels of technical skills +among woodsmen, quarrymen and building crews; the transport facilities +by land and water required to assemble the materials, equipment and man +power; the foresight, planning, timing and over-all management involved +in such constructs as the pyramids, temples and tombs which have +withstood the wear and tear of thousands of years; the willingness and +capacity of professionals, technicians, skilled workers, and the masses +of free and slave labor to co-exist and co-operate over the long periods +required for the completion of such extensive structural projects; the +utilization of an extensive economic surplus not primarily for personal +mass or middle-class consumption but to enhance the power and glory of a +tiny minority, its handymen and other dependents; and a considerable +middle class of merchants, managers and technicians. + +Speaking sociologically, the structure of Egyptian society from sometime +before 3,400 B.C., to 525 B.C., passed through four distinct phases or +stages. During the first phase, the Nile Valley, which had been +separated by tribal and/or geographical boundaries into a large number +of more or less independent units, was consolidated, integrated and +organized into a single kingdom. This working, functioning area (the +land of Egypt) could provide for most of its basic needs from within its +own borders. In a sense it was a self-sufficient, workable, liveable +area. Egypt was populous, rich, well organized, with a surplus of +wealth, productivity and man-power that could be used outside of its own +frontiers. Some of the surplus was used outside--to the south, into +Central Africa, to the west into North Africa, to the north into Eastern +Europe and Western Asia, inaugurating the second phase of Egyptian +development. During this second phase Egyptian wealth, population and +technology, spilling over its frontiers onto foreign lands, established +and maintained relations with foreign territory on a basis that yielded +a yearly "tribute," paid by foreigners into the Egyptian treasury. The +land of Egypt thus surrounded itself with a cluster of dependencies, +converting what had been an independent state or independent states into +a functioning empire. + +The land of Egypt was the nucleus of the Egyptian Empire--center of +wealth and power with its associates and its dependencies. The empire +was held together by a legal authority using armed force where necessary +to assert or preserve its identity and unity. + +Expansion, the third phase of Egyptian development, involved the export +of culture traits and artifacts beyond national frontiers, extending the +cultural influence of Egypt into non-Egyptian lands inhabited by Egypt's +neighbors. Merchants, tourists, travelers, explorers and military +adventurers carried the name and fame of Egypt into other centers of +civilization and into the hinterland of barbarism that surrounded the +civilizations of that period. + +Thus the land of Egypt expanded into the Egyptian Empire and the +culture of Egypt (its language, its ideas, its artifacts, its +institutions) expanded far beyond the boundaries of Egyptian political +authority and established Egyptian civilization in parts of Africa, Asia +and Europe. + +The era of Egyptian civilization was divided into two periods by an +invasion of the Hyksos, nomadic leaders who moved into Egypt, ruled it +for a period and later were expelled and replaced by a new Egyptian +dynasty. + +The fourth period of Egypt's experiment with civilization was that of +decline. From a position of political supremacy and cultural ascendancy +Egyptian influence weakened politically, economically, ideologically and +culturally until the year of the Persian Conquest, 525 B.C., when Egypt +became a conquered, occupied, provincial and in some ways a colonial +territory. + +Egyptian civilization can be summed up in three sentences. It covered +the greatest time span of any civilization known to history. Its +monuments are the most massive. Its records, chiefly in stone, picture +massed humans directed for at least thirty centuries toward providing a +satisfying and rewarding after-life for a tiny favored minority of its +population. To achieve this result, the natural resources of three +adjacent continents were combined and concentrated into the Nile Valley +through an effective imperial apparatus that enabled the Egyptians to +exploit the resources and peoples of adjacent Africa, Asia and Europe +for the enrichment and empowerment of the rulers of Egypt and its +dependencies. The disintegration and collapse of Egyptian civilization +occupied only a small fraction of the time devoted to its upbuilding and +supremacy. + +Before, during and after Egyptians played their long and distinguished +parts in the recorded history of civilization, the continent of Asia was +producing a series of civilization in four areas: first at the +crossroads joining Africa and Europe to Asia; then in Western Asia (Asia +Minor); in Central Asia, especially in India and Indonesia and finally +in China and the Far East. + +Experiments with civilization during the past six thousand years have +centered in the Eurasian land mass, including the North African littoral +of the Mediterranean Sea. Within this area of potential or actual +civilization, until very recent times, the centers of civilization have +been widely separated geographically and temporally. Occasionally they +have been unified and integrated by some unusual up-thrust like that of +the Egyptian, the Chinese or the Roman civilizations. In the intervals +between these up-thrusts various centers of civilization have maintained +a large degree of autonomy and isolation. Only in the past five +centuries have communication, transportation, trade and tourism created +the basis for an experiment in organizing and coordination of a +planet-wide experiment in civilization. + +Nature offered humankind two logical areas for the establishment of +civilizations. One was the cross-roads of migration, trade and travel by +land to and from Asia, Africa and Europe. The other was the +Mediterranean with its possibility of relatively safe and easy +water-migration, trade and travel between the three continents making up +its littoral. Both possibilities were brought together in the Eastern +Mediterranean with its multitude of islands, its broken coastline, and +its many safe harbors. + +The Phoenicians developed their far-flung trading activities around the +Mediterranean as a waterway, and the tri-continental crossroads as a +logical center for a civilization built around business enterprise. + +Aegean civilization occupied the eastern Mediterranean for approximately +two thousand years. Its nucleus was the island of Crete. Its influence +extended far beyond its island base into southern Europe, western Asia +and North Africa. Experiments with civilization on and near the Indian +sub-continent centered around the Indonesian archipelago and the rich, +semi-tropical and tropical valleys of the Ganges, the Indus, the Gadari, +the Irra-waddy and the Mekong. Although they were contiguous +geographically and extended over a time span of approximately two +thousand years they were aggregates rather than monolithic +civilizations, retaining their localisms and avoiding any strong central +authority. + +Beginnings of civilization have been made outside the +Asian-European-African triangle centering around the Mediterranean Sea +and the band of South Asia extending from Mesopotamia through India and +Indonesia to China. They include the high Andes, Mexico and Central +America and parts of black Africa. In no one of these cases did the +beginnings reach the stability and universality that characterized the +Eurasian-African civilizations. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +ROME'S OUTSTANDING EXPERIMENT + + +Among the many attempts to make the institutions and practices of +civilization promote human welfare, Roman civilization deserves a very +high rating. First, it was located in the eastern Mediterranean area, +the home-site of so many civilizations. Second, it was part and parcel +of a prolonged period of attempts by Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, +Babylonians, Mycaenians, Phoenicians and others in the area to set up +successful empires and to play the lead role in building a civilization +that would be more or less permanent. Third, the Romans seemed to have +the hardiness, adaptability, persistence and capacity for +self-discipline necessary to carry such a long term project to a +successful conclusion. Among the widely varied human groups occupying +the eastern Mediterranean area between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D., the +Romans seem to have been well qualified to win the laurel crown. + +Western civilization is an incomplete experiment. Its outcome remains +uncertain. Its future still hangs in the insecure balance between +construction and destruction, between life and extinction. It is "our" +civilization in a very real sense. It was developed by our forebears. We +live as part of its complex of ideas, practices, techniques, +institutions. Since we are in it and of it, it is difficult for us +humans to judge it objectively. + +Roman civilization, on the contrary, is a completed experiment, one that +came into being, developed over several centuries, attained a zenith of +wealth and power, then sank gradually from sight, until it lived only as +a part of history. A study of Roman civilization has two advantages. +First, its life cycle has been completed. Second, it is close enough to +us in history and its records are so numerous and so well preserved that +we can form a fairly accurate picture of its structure and its +functions. It was written up extensively by the Romans themselves, by +their Greek and other contemporaries and by a host of scholars and +students; since the break-up of Roman civilization as a political, +economic and cultural force in world affairs. + +Rome's experiment is sometimes called Graeco-Roman civilization because +Greece and Italy were close geographical neighbors and also because +Greek culture, which reached its zenith by 500 B.C. and was closely +paralleled by the rise of Roman culture, had a profound effect in +determining the total character of Roman civilization. In a very real +sense Graeco-Roman civilization was the parent of western civilization. +Among the many completed civilizations of which we have fairly adequate +records, those concerning Rome are most complete and most available. + +The story of Roman civilization begins in the Eastern Mediterranean +Basin in an era when Greek and Phoenician cities, together with segments +and fragments of the Egyptian-Assyrian-Babylonian civilizations were +competing for raw materials, trade and alliances. Egyptians had been +supreme in the area for centuries. The Sumerian, Aegean, Chinese, +Hittite, Assyrian and Indian civilizations had enjoyed periods of +dominance but had never reached the level of supremacy enjoyed by the +Egyptians. + +When Rome came on the scene as a first-rate power, circa 300 B.C., the +crucial land bridge joining Africa, Europe and Asia was being passed +from hand to hand, with no power strong enough to succeed Egypt as the +dominant political-economic-cultural force in the region. Historically +speaking it was an interregnum, a period of transition. Egypt had ceased +to dominate the public life of the area. The trading cities of the +Greeks and the Phoenicians were pushing their way of life into the front +ranks among the recognized powers. The kingdoms of Asia-Minor were +still warring for supremacy in a field which none of the local kingdoms +was able to dominate and hold for any considerable period of time. + +Public affairs at the African-European-Asian crossroads were being +periodically disturbed and upset by the intrusion of Asian marauders and +nomads who came in successive waves, defeated and drove the native +inhabitants off from the choicest land and settled down in their places, +only to be pushed out in their turn by fresh Asian migrants. + +The African-European-Asian triangle was a meeting place and a battle +ground. Phoenician and Greek cities brought to this scene new factors +and new forces: the rudiments of science; trade and commerce, including +a money economy, accounting and cost keeping; the elements of economic +organization; the conduct of public affairs by governments based on law +rather than on the whim and word of a deified potentate; and the +construction of cities and city states built on these foundations. + +Rome entered the picture when the forces of political absolutism based +upon an agriculture operated by serfs and slaves had fought themselves +to a standstill and exhausted their historical usefulness. The times +called for new forces capable of adapting themselves to a new culture +pattern extending over a greatly enlarged world. The Romans, with their +Greek associates, were in a position to fill the gap. + +Romans lived originally in Latium, a small land area in southern Italy +on the Tiber River far enough inland to be protected against pirates. +They built a city which finally covered seven adjacent hills and +developed a community of working farmers, merchants, craftsmen and +professionals. The farms were small, averaging perhaps eight to fifteen +acres, an area large enough to provide a family with a stable though +meagre livelihood. The farmers were hard working and frugal. + +At this period of Roman history and mythology Latium was one of many +communities occupying Italy. Each was self-governing. Each took the +steps necessary for survival and expansion. Like their neighbors, the +inhabitants of Latium were prepared to defend themselves against piracy, +brigandage and ambitious, aggressive rivals. Defense took the form of an +embankment and a water-filled moat which surrounded the early +settlements and provided shelter for herdsman and farmers in case of +emergencies. + +At some point in pre-history, presumably when Etruscan princes were in +control of Roman affairs, the protective earth embankment which +surrounded the Roman settlements was strengthened by building a moat 100 +feet wide and 30 feet deep. Behind the moat was a stone wall 10 feet +thick and 30 feet or more in height. Parts of this defense were built +and rebuilt at various times. When completed they were about six miles +in length, enclosing an area sufficient to accommodate the chief +buildings of the city and living space for a population of perhaps +200,000 people. + +The defenses were designed to prevent interference or intrusion into the +life of the Romans. Behind them the inhabitants constructed temples, a +forum, palaces and other public buildings, bringing in clean mountain +water by an aqueduct that eventually reached a length of 44 miles, +constructing an extensive system of drains and sewers that disposed of +city wastes, building a network of roads that eventually gave the Romans +access first to all parts of Italy and later to the entire Mediterranean +Basin. They also replaced the wooden bridges over the Tiber and other +rivers by stone bridges carried on stone piers and arches. + +Early in their building activities the Romans learned to make a cement +so weather-resistant that many of their constructs are still usable two +thousand years after the Romans built them. These and similar building +operations made Rome one of the show places of the Graeco-Roman world. +They also provided for the Romans a level of stability and security far +beyond that of their neighbors in that part of the unstable Italian +peninsula. + +At the time Rome was founded, presumably about 700 B.C., the Italian +peninsula was occupied by a large number of principalities, kingdoms and +tribal nomads, newly arrived from eastern Europe and Asia. The struggle +for pasturage and fertile soil, for dwelling sites and trading +opportunities, went on ceaselessly. Romans, like their neighbors and +competitors, were reaching out to provide themselves with food, building +materials, trade opportunities, strategic advantages. They expanded +peacefully if possible, using diplomacy up to a certain point and only +engaging in war as a last resort. But since the entire Italian peninsula +was occupied by more or less independent groups, each of which was +seeking a larger and safer place in the sun, the outcome was ceaseless +diplomatic maneuvering, using war as an instrument of policy in the +struggle for pelf and power. Four centuries of power struggle, in which +Romans played an increasingly prominent role, gave the Roman Republic +and its allies substantial control of the entire Italian peninsula. +Beginning as one among many small independent states in Italy, the +inhabitants of Latium emerged from four centuries of competitive +diplomatic and military struggle as the de facto masters of all Italy. + +Power struggles are carried on by contestants who occupy a particular +land area with its resources and other advantages. Latium was small in +extent (some 2,000 square miles) and had very limited natural +advantages. Operating from this restricted base, through four centuries +of diplomacy, intrigue and war, the Romans enlarged their base of +operations to include the whole of Italy. In this crucial era of its +history Rome expanded its geographic-economic base to a point from which +it could use the natural and human resources of all Italy as a nucleus +upon which to build the Roman Empire in Europe, West Asia and North +Africa. + +At the beginning of this period the Mediterranean Basin housed a number +of African, Asian and European empires. Each exercised authority over a +part of the Mediterranean littoral. Each empire was built around its +central city or cities. Each empire had its distinctive institutions and +practices. During these centuries all of the empires were defeated, +conquered, occupied and either dismembered or otherwise brought under +Roman control. + +Extension of Roman authority, first over the Italian peninsula and +subsequently over parts of Europe, Africa and Asia, was the result of a +policy of expansion that was aggressively, persistently and patiently +followed by Roman leaders and policy makers. Neighboring territories +were amalgamated into the nucleus of the Roman Empire. More remote +territories were associated by treaty as allies of Rome, as dependent or +client dependencies of Rome, and as colonies or provinces of the Roman +Empire. In all cases they were integral parts of an expanding political, +economic and military sphere of influence with Rome, and later Italy, as +the center and nucleus. In the course of this development the expanding +Roman Empire grew to be the wealthiest and most powerful political, +sociological and cultural unit in the Euro-Asian-African area. + +The Roman imperial cycle spanned some thirteen centuries. During this +period Roman life was transformed from its small, local seat of +authority in Central Italy into its new stature as the outstanding power +in the Mediterranean area. Economically it extended from peasant +proprietorship and a use economy to a market-money economy; from a +society of working peasant farmers to an economy resting upon war +captives reduced to slavery; from an economy based on production for +trade and profit to an economy based on power-grabbing, special +privilege, speculation and corruption; from an austerity economy based +on primary production to an economy based on affluence, exploitation, +and gluttony. + +These revolutionary transformations in the Roman economy were +accompanied, politically, by hardening of the division of Roman society +along class lines with the resulting contradictions, antagonisms, and +class struggles, including open class warfare. + +Domestic contradictions, confrontations, civil strife and formal civil +war were present throughout the entire history of Rome. They existed in +embryo in the earliest days of the original settlements on the seven +hills over which the city of Rome eventually spread. As Rome and its +interests became more complex socially and more extensive geographically +the number and variety of contradictions, confrontations, civil and +military conflicts increased correspondingly. + +In terms of individual human lives the changes which took place in +Roman society during the six or seven centuries that elapsed between the +early Roman settlements and the reign of their Emperor Augustus were +profound and far-reaching. Many communities of diverse and often +incompatible backgrounds and interests were herded together, +helter-skelter, into the City of Rome, Latium, the Italian nucleus and +the subsequent alliances, federations, conquests, consolidations into +colonies, occupied areas, provinces and spheres of influence. The +greater the number and diversity of these interests and relationships, +the greater the probability of conflict. This empire building process +was not gradual and directed with scrupulous care to preserve the +amenities and niceties of polite social intercourse. The job was done by +and under the direction of military leaders who are traditionally in a +hurry to get results. The subordinates who carried out military +decisions were volunteer-professional soldiers, mercenary adventurers +and conscripts drawn form the four corners of the empire. As the empire +grew in extent and as its troubles multiplied, the military was more +frequently called upon to take over and iron out difficulties. + +Domestically, in the city of Rome and its immediate environs, there were +several sharp lines of cleavage; between Roman citizens and +non-citizens; between the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the working +proletariat and the idle proletariat; between the rich and the poor; +between freeman (citizens) and the slaves who grew in numbers as the +wars of conquest and consolidation multiplied war captives; between the +civilian bureaucrats and the members of the military hierarchy. + +In the brief period of maximum territorial expansion following the +defeat and destruction of Carthage, the frontiers of the Roman Empire +were pushed out ruthlessly, North, East, West and South. In the +hurly-burly of rapid expansion individual rights were ignored, local +communities and entire regions were overrun, depopulated and resettled +with the tough disregard of individual and local interests that must +characterize any quick, general movement--economic, sociological or +military. If the expansion, expulsion and rehabilitation had produced +greater degrees of stability and security for individuals and social +groups they might have been tolerated and assimilated by the diverse +populations caught up in the maelstrom of drastic expansion. But rapid, +coercive social transformation produces neither stability nor security. +Its normal consequence is chaos, conflict and further change. In the +course of these internal conflicts the Roman Republic was gradually +phased out. In theory it persisted until the establishment of the +military dictatorship of Julius Caesar. Practically, while many of its +forms remained, the conduct of public affairs passed more and more into +the hands of political leaders who were able to command the backing of +the legions. + +When the first war against Carthage was launched in 265 B.C., Carthage +was at the height of her power. Situated on the North African Coast +almost directly across the Mediterranean from Italy, the Carthaginians +were in effective control of the western Mediterranean. Carthage was +firmly entrenched in Spain. It was trading extensively with the British +Isles. Fleets of Carthaginian war ships patrolled the Mediterranean +guarding against piracy and economic or political interference by +rivals. + +Roman political and business leaders, inexperienced in international +political dealings and the promotion of international trade, found their +further expansion to the west blocked by Carthaginian political, +economic and military installations. The result of the confrontation was +a series of three wars that began in 265 B.C., and ended in 146. During +these 119 years an established power, Carthage, struggled to preserve +its position against aggressive Roman efforts to take control of the +West Mediterranean basin. The Carthaginians, under the able generalship +of Hannibal, mobilized a military force (including elephants), marched +from Spain over the Alpine passes into Italy reaching the gates of Rome. +Romans countered with the slogan: "Carthage must be destroyed!" When the +third Punic war ended in 146 B.C., with the defeat of the Carthaginian +military forces, the city of Carthage was leveled. + +The defeat of Carthage gave the Romans control of the western +Mediterranean. During the same period Roman interests were pushing into +East Europe and Western Asia. In 214 B.C., Philip of Macedon had made an +alliance with Hannibal, directed against Rome. Consequently, three wars +between Rome and Macedonia followed, the third ending in 168 B.C., with +the defeat of the Macedonians and their subordination to Roman authority +in the form of a Roman governor. + +When opposition to Roman influence developed in Greece in 148 B.C., a +commission of ten was appointed by the Roman Senate to settle affairs in +the Greek peninsula. The city of Corinth was burned to the ground and +its lands were confiscated. Thebes and Chalcis were also destroyed. The +walls of all towns which had shared in the revolt against Rome were +pulled down. All confederations between Greek cities were dissolved. +Disarmament, isolation and Roman taxation were imposed on the Greek +cities and the oversight of affairs was assigned to the Roman governor +of neighboring Macedonia. + +Successful wars against Syria and Egypt extended Roman control over +additional territory in West Asia and North Africa. A map of Italy at +the time of the Roman Federation in 268 B.C. shows Rome as the most +powerful among two score minor associates in the federation. A map of +the Roman Empire at the death of Augustus in 14 A.D. shows a Roman +Empire extending from the Atlantic seaboard on the west to Central +Europe on the north, the Black Sea on the east and a generous strip of +Africa on the south. + +Within three centuries Rome had expanded from its position as a minor +state in Italy to the effective control of those portions of three +continents which bordered the Mediterranean. Conquests during the +following century further extended the Roman frontiers. + +Under the Caesars Rome was a society in the throes of political +transition. Roman Emperors, backed and frequently selected by the +military, were exercising despotic power. They still paid lip service to +the Constitution, an instrument that had relevance during the life of +the defunct Republic. In the era of the Caesars the law slumbered and +might ruled. The turbulent masses were fed and housed by the Roman +Oligarchy to which the Emperors were ultimately responsible. The far +flung territories conquered by military power and held by military +occupation were subject to the authority of the same Roman Oligarchy. + +Behind the shams, frauds and tyrannies of a political dictatorship +paying lip service to the corpse of a defunct Republic lay the stark +realities of a bankrupt economy. Throughout the era of the Caesars the +Roman Empire continued to expand geographically. It also came into +contact and conflict with peoples so remote from Italy that for them +Rome was only a name for tyranny, extortion and exploitation. Julius +Caesar and his immediate successors penetrated these remote territories, +subjugating them, levying tribute, appointing governors and other +officials, policing them, pretending to rule over them. To do this +soldiers were marching on foot into regions that lay thousands of miles +from the mother city. To be sure, they marched over Roman roads and +bridges so well constructed that some of them are still being used at +the present day. + +But the excellence of Roman engineering could not match up to the +implacable limitations of time and distance. Nor could they overlook the +need for building the physical structure of Roman economy as they +advanced into enemy territory. Equally decisive were the political +consequences of the property confiscation and forced labor required to +establish and maintain Roman power and enrich greedy Roman officials and +their lackeys and overseers. + +Rising overhead costs, with no corresponding growth of income, an empty +treasury in Rome, and a persistent policy of fleecing the provinces to +pay for the normal costs of bureaucracy, plus its extravagances and +excesses, could lead to only one possible outcome. Higher taxes and more +ruinous levies in the newly conquered provinces could not fill the +insatiable maw of deficit spending. + +Inflation was the immediate result, accompanied and followed by the +debasement of currency and new expropriations of private property. +Government expenses consistently exceeded income. The situation was +aggravated by the growth of parasitic elements which persistently +produced little or nothing and as persistently multiplied their luxuries +and extravagances. The parasites grew richer. The impoverished masses +suffered the normal deprivations of poverty plus the weight of steadily +rising over-head costs. As Roman authority extended farther from its +center, the chasm between its income and its out-go widened. + +Slave labor aggravated the situation. There was a time when Roman +farmers and craftsmen did their own work. That time ended with the +enslavement of war captives who swamped the labor market. Like any +parasitic growth, slavery and forced labor destroyed the fabric of a +largely self-contained economy based on peasant proprietorship. + +Roman economy was honey-combed with problems created by deficit +spending, currency devaluation and exploitation. At its base was a +foot-loose urban proletariat made up largely of refugees from a +countryside given over increasingly to the employment of military +captives as slave labor. The city masses at the outset were extensively +unemployed. Increasingly they became unemployable, parasitic, restless, +demanding. + +At the outset the slave revolts were local and occasional. As the slaves +grew more numerous unrest spread and hardened into organized resistance. +Spartacus, a slave, led a revolt which mobilized armies, defeated the +Roman legions in a series of battles and ended only with the death of +Spartacus and the dispersal of his forces. + +Local and provincial affairs under the Roman Empire were administered by +a self-seeking corrupt bureaucracy. + +Expansion by means of military conquest increased the influence of the +military at the expense of the civilian administrators. The consequent +burdens of militarism reached from the bottom to the top of Roman +society. Eventually, under the Caesars, the military selected emperors +from among the rivals for the purple of imperial authority, and used the +legions under their command to protect and promote their own political +fortunes, thus maintaining a form of latent and frequently open civil +war. + +Colonial unrest and provincial self-seeking were promoted by +conspiracies among Rome's less dependable allies. + +Wars of rivalry between Roman candidates for top preferment shifted the +power-balance out of civilian hands into the grip of the military. Step +by step and stage by stage the Roman Empire became a warfare state +maintained at home and abroad by the intervention of the military. Wars +of rivalry at home in Rome were paralleled by wars of rivalry abroad. + +During the Era of the Caesars Rome became the Eurasian-African honey +pot. Wealth centered there. Authority was enthroned there. Power was +generated there. Throughout the sphere of Roman political influence, of +trade and travel, the central position of Rome was recognized and +acknowledged. Not only knowledge and authority, but folklore mushroomed, +with Rome as its central theme. Asian nomads, searching for grass, Asian +potentates seeking new worlds to conquer and plunder, heard of Rome and +finally went there. All roads led to Rome. Thousands of miles of stone +roads were built as binding forces to hold the Empire together and +defend it against all possible enemies. It was along these roads that +the legions marched as they pushed back potential invaders and extended +the frontiers. It was these same roads and bridges that made easy and +sure the advance of the Asian hordes that would one day occupy and loot +the home city. Roads and bridges enabled Roman authority to maintain and +extend itself. The same roads and bridges provided a freeway that led +into the citadel of Roman power. + +Under the Caesars the Roman Empire achieved its greatest geographical +extent and exercised its widest cultural influence. The city of Rome was +the capital of the western world. There was one state, one law, one +economy, one official language, one military authority. + +Despite its apparent massiveness, Roman civilization was not a monolith. +Rather it was a conglomerate, consisting of many parts held together by +connecting social tissues which Rome and Italy alone supplied. In the +first instance there was a division into provinces, colonies and newly +acquired territories. The provinces, under their Roman appointed +governors, enjoyed a large measure of economic and cultural +self-determination within the Roman Empire. Beyond the Roman Empire lay +territories and peoples associated with Rome by treaties, bound to Rome +by trade and travel, in some cases paying tribute to Rome, but enjoying +sufficient autonomy as peoples, nations and empires maneuvering for +position and advantage, frequently allying themselves with non-Roman +areas and occasionally conspiring to by-pass Roman authority and even to +challenge Roman supremacy. + +This political diversity along the defense perimeter of the Roman Empire +existed in a chaos ranging from questioned authority to open defiance +and military challenges to Rome and the threat of Romanization. Along +this defense perimeter were stationed the legions that guarded the +frontiers. Across it moved trade, travel, incursions, invasions and +periodic reprisals as a result of which the more turbulent neighbors +were brought within the sphere of Rome's influence or, in cases of +extreme dissidence and resistance, were depopulated, colonized and added +to the Roman conglomerate. + +It goes without saying that the influence of Roman culture extended far +beyond the Roman defense perimeter, reaching peoples, nations and +empires to which Rome was little more than a name. The no-man's land +between what-was and what-was-not Rome not only existed in a state of +perpetual uncertainty, but provided a battle field for the smuggling, +brigandage, the periodic border clashes, the migrations, incursions, +invasions and punitive expeditions that are the characteristic features +of every ill-defined political boundary. + +Roman civilization under the Caesars was a centralized absolutism with a +large measure of peripheral deviation and autonomy. It was directed by a +central oligarchy and patrolled, defended and extended by a military +force unified in theory but in practice grouped around the outstanding +personalities and subjected to the vagaries and upsets always associated +with power politics in the hands of military backed political despots. + +Roman civilization, like all social organisms, came into being, moved +toward maturity, reached a plateau of fulfillment from which it +declined, broke up and eventually disappeared into the interregnum known +as the Dark Ages. The entire episode occupied a dozen centuries. Its +beginnings were unimpressively local. At the height of its wealth, power +and cultural influence it bestrode the Eurasian-African triangle. Its +decline and disappearance were no less spectacular than its meteoric +rise to fame and fortune. + +I would like to summarize the Roman experiment and some of its lessons +by listing and commenting briefly on the forces that built up Roman +civilization and those forces which resulted in its decline and +dissolution. + +Primary up-building forces in the Roman experiment: + + 1. Establishing the city of Rome as a stable, defensible center + of merchandising and commerce, transport, finance, population, + wealth and power with a hinterland of associates + and dependencies. As it turns out, the city of Rome has + outlived both the Roman Empire and Roman Civilization. + + 2. Steadfast dedication to Roman interests first, by all necessary + means and despite costs which at the time seemed to + be excessive. + + 3. A recognition of that which is possible, especially in political + relationships. The acceptance with good grace of a + half-loaf where no more was available. + + 4. Consistent, persistent aggression and expansion where such + policies were beneficial to Rome, with little or no regard + for their effects on Roman associates, allies, friends or + enemies. Studied ruthlessness. + + 5. Rewarding Rome's friends, allies and associates with economic, + political and cultural advantages. Implacably punishing + and where necessary exterminating Rome's persistent + enemies. + + 6. Wide tolerance of local cultural variation in matters that + did not conflict with the major principles and practices of + Rome's central authority. + + 7. Taking defeats in their stride, paying the price, and recovering + lost momentum. Again advancing along avenues + which led to Roman success and aggrandizement. + + 8. Indomitable persistence in the pursuit of major objectives. + + 9. After the reigns of Julius Caesar and Augustus, concentrating + power in a single person and his chosen brain trust, + using that power to further aggrandize the Roman Empire + and Roman Civilization. + +This category is not complete. It aims to answer the basic question: In +a situation where a thousand contestants entered the knock-down and +drag-out struggle, first for survival and then for supremacy, what +qualities or qualifications enabled Romans to win the laurel crown of +victory? + +Paralleling the up-building forces that established Roman supremacy were +counter-forces which undermined and eventually destroyed the Roman +Empire and Roman civilization: + + 1. The growth of city life at the expense of rural existence. + At the outset of its life cycle, Rome was essentially rural. + At the end of the cycle Roman culture was turning its + back upon ruralism and moving into a culture that was + to be chiefly urban during an entire millennium. In that + millennium Rome, her associates and dependencies, experimented + with a culture that was essentially urban, but + encircled, dependent and eventually replaced by a culture + that was essentially rural. + + 2. During the millennium between 600 B.C. and 500 A.D. + the Romans and their associates succeeded in bringing + large parts of Europe, Asia and Africa under their control, + but the control was so rigid and temporary that tribalism + and local nationalisms broke loose from the fetters of central + authority and coercive integration, shattering the + structure of Roman civilization and its structural core--the + Roman Empire. Instead of resulting in closer cooperation, + the strategy and tactics of the Roman builders and + organizers led to contradictions, bitter feuds, civil strife, + independence movements which combined with expansionist + diplomacy and periodic wars to discourage, frustrate + and eventually to eliminate peace, order and planned + progress. + + 2. The spread of chattel slavery had a profound effect upon + the texture of Roman life. At the outset Roman family + farms housed the bulk of the population. During the cycle + of Roman civilization unnumbered millions of captives + were seized in the course of military operations and reduced + to slavery. By the end of the Roman cycle the + work-load of agriculture, commerce, industry, mining, + transport, and the domestic life of the well-to-do was + carried by slaves. Basically, therefore, the Roman world + was divided first into Romans and non-Romans and second + into masters and slaves, with a third category which consisted + of an immense bureaucracy (including the military), + a professional and technological group and a heavy burden + of persistent parasitism. + + 4. Growth of the abyss that separated wealth and the + wealthy from mass poverty in the cities and the countryside. + The abyss was widened and deepened by the presence + of slavery. More extensive and more frequent foreign + conquests added to the volume of slave labor in a market + already glutted and reduced the price of slaves. Against + this super-abundant cheap slave labor, free labor could + compete only by reducing its standard of living and thus + deepening the abyss of poverty. At the other end of the + social arc, the rich were able to surround themselves with + multitudes of slaves who provided the energy needed to + carry on the complex life of Roman civilization. As the + Roman world expanded, the abyss widened, deepened + and became all but impassable. It was from such lower + depths that Spartacus and other leaders of rebellious slaves + drew sufficient manpower to challenge and for a time + even defeat the full military power of Rome. + + 5. Built into the structure of Roman civilization was the + potential of civil war. The contradictions of mass slavery + and poverty side by side with boundless leisure and + abundance was only one side of the picture. Each of the + more distant provinces became a possible base from which + ambitious governors or generals could wage wars of independent + conquest at the expense of Roman authority. Each + newly subjugated people, smarting under defeat and the + heavy hand which Rome laid on its dissidents and opponents, + became a potential center for disaffection, conspiracy + and rebellion against Roman authority. + + 6. Conflicts over power succession, in the provinces, and + more significantly in the mother city, added another + aspect to the many sided pressures. As there was no legal + means of determining the succession, the end of each + imperial reign offered the probability of military intervention. + + 7. Deification of emperors, during the era of the Caesars, + led to the denigration and degradation of the common + man. The fact that the common men of Rome were more + and more likely to be poor slaves furthered the process + and deepened the abyss between the haves and have-nots. + + 8. Among the forces of disintegration operating in Rome + none was more potent and more decisive than the numerical + growth of the military and the increasing probability + that any one of the growing contradictions and conflicts + would lead to intervention by the military. Roman emperors + were dictators and their retention of authority + was increasingly decided by the legions which were + willing and able to fight for the perpetuation and extension + of their authority. + + 9. The extensive, complicated, elaborate structure of Roman + civilization involved a persistent and implacable rise of + overhead costs of food and raw materials, of production, + of transportation, of the bureaucracy, including the military. + The area of Roman civilization increased arithmetically. + Overhead costs rose geometrically. They were + expressed in an empty treasury, rising taxes, inflation, + expropriation, the degradation of the currency. + + 10. Side by side with the rise in overhead costs went the + increase of parasitism among the rich and among the poor. + Something-for-nothing was the order of the day. Speculation + was rampant. Gambling was universal. Instead of + living by production of goods and services, Romans let + the slaves do their work and lived by their wits. + + 11. From top to bottom of Roman society negative forces + replaced positive forces. Self directed labor gave place to + slavery; participation in productive activity yielded to + parasitism; productivity was subordinated to destructivity; + the spirit of independence was replaced by the acceptance + of increasing arbitrary individual authority. + + 12. Roman society constantly faced and consistently failed + to solve the contradiction between centralism and local + interests and local rights. This contradiction increased + with increasing size, diversity and complexity. + + 13. Psychological forces played a part in the breakdown and + break-up of Roman civilization. People lost faith and hope. + They became disillusioned and cynical. They forgot the + common good and devoted themselves to the gratification + of body hungers. They turned from proud service of + fatherland to the pursuit of pleasure for pleasure's sake. + Romans lost freshness and vigor. Creativeness had never + been as highly regarded among the Romans as it was + among the Greeks. Life was lived closer to the surface. It + was confined more and more to the present. Growth in + the volume of Roman life sapped its vitality so that there + was less surplus for experiment and innovation as more + and more of the social income was devoted to meeting + overhead costs. + +Moralists have insisted that the decline and dissolution of Roman +civilization resulted from the abandonment of moral standards. +Undoubtedly this was true. The upstanding womanhood and manhood of early +Rome was replaced by a wealth-seeking, pleasure-loving, parasitically +inclined population. But these features of Roman life under the empire +and during the period of Roman decline were the outcome of political, +economic and social forces that have characterized one civilization +after another. Instead of insisting that Rome declined and fell because +it was immoral, it would be far more accurate to insist that Rome +declined and fell because the objectives which it sought, the means it +employed and the civilized institutions which it developed contained +within themselves oppositions and contradictions which led to decline +and dissolution. Rome declined and fell because the ideas, institutions +and practices upon which it depended--the ideas, institutions and +practices of civilization--could lead to no other outcome. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATIONS + + +An experiment with civilization presently spans the planet Earth. It is +called "modern," "contemporary" or "western civilization." Its +artifacts, institutions and practices predominate in Europe, North +America and Australasia. They play a prominent role in the lives of +Asians, South Americans and Africans. + +Two thousand years ago a long established Egyptian civilization was +passing into the shadows. Civilizations in China and India were +developing. Roman civilization was approaching the zenith of its +ascendancy. + +A thousand years ago Roman civilization, like that of Egypt, was a +memory; Chinese and Indian civilizations were holding their own, while +the followers of Islam were reaching out into Central Asia, North Africa +and Eastern Europe. + +In east central Europe and around the Mediterranean the beginnings of +western civilization had made their appearance and were expanding their +control along the Eurasian trade routes and beginning to penetrate +western and northern Europe. The Crusades had introduced Asian culture +traits into the European backwoods. Hardy European and Asian mariners +were penetrating the Americas. Dark ages of ignorance and superstition +which had held sway in Europe for centuries were coming to an end. +Western civilization was beginning to draw the breath of a new life. + +The vast structure of Roman civilization had split West from East. The +Eastern Empire retained its form and continued its culture for centuries +after its break with the West. Meanwhile the West fragmented into +smaller and smaller units, increasingly self-contained and increasingly +isolated. Cities raised and manned their own walls. The countryside +broke up into smaller and smaller divisions over which the Holy Roman +Empire exercised little more than a shadowy authority. Each landed +estate had its stronghold or castle. Each locality looked after its own +interests. The massive Roman Universal State, stretching for centuries +across parts of three continents, had broken up into a multitude of tiny +semi-sovereign, semi-independent fragments. Some of the fragments as +leagues, alliances and coalitions were reaching nationhood. + +New dawn was illuminating the Dark Ages. Western man was sorting and +re-assembling some of the scattered fragments of the defunct and +dismembered Roman civilization. The task was colossal. Rome's "one +authority, one law, one language" hegemony had been replaced by an all +pervading diversity. The closely knit Greco-Roman Empire had been +superseded in Europe by a sparsely inhabited, roadless wilderness, +largely bereft of trade, using waterways as the easiest means of +communication and transport. The economy was built around wood cutting, +charcoal burning, backward animal husbandry, hand-tool agriculture, +hand-craft industry, the rudiments of commerce and finance centered in +trading cities. The great houses of the aristocracy and the gentry, +scattered villages, towns and walled cities were preoccupied and +disrupted by endless feuding and between-seasons warfare. + +Adding to the chaos of this dismembered society were the controversies +over dynastic succession. Intermittent incursions of migrating hordes +from central Asia pushed their way into central and southern Europe. +Covert and open conflicts between ecclesiastical and secular authority +added to the general lethargy, confusion and chaos. + +Europe struggled for centuries to free itself from Asian invasion and +occupation. At the same time Europe was improving its agriculture, +restoring its trade and expanding its hand-craft industries and its +commerce. Towns grew in population and productivity. Life-standards rose +in the cities. Cities based on trade and commerce extended their +authority and became city-states. Commercial cities joined their forces +to form trading leagues. + +Lords spiritual and temporal, who had ruled Europe for centuries, were +joined by lords commercial, enriched by the growth of trade, transport +and developing industry. + +Generations passed into centuries--the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth +and seventeenth. From small local beginnings the nations of western +Europe emerged: Spain, Portugal, the Low Countries, France, Britain, +Italy, Austria and eventually Russia. Each was a consolidation of local +principalities, earldoms, dukedoms, kingdoms. Each was passing through +the rural-urban transformation. Each was outgrowing feudalism and +producing a larger and larger group of businessmen, professionals, +tradesmen, craftsmen and maturing a middle class and a proletariat. +After the fifteenth century each state was spilling over its own +frontiers, annexing or losing neighboring territory, spreading beyond +the boundaries of Europe into the teeming markets of Asia and the newly +discovered treasure-house of the Americas. + +A score of European peoples were engaged in the give-and-take of this +struggle for wealth and power--for land and its resources in Europe, +North Africa and the Near East; for booty, trade and overseas colonies. +As the struggle grew more intense smaller and weaker nations dropped out +of the contest or were partitioned and gobbled up piecemeal. + +Such was the condition of Europe's free-for-all in the closing years of +the seventeenth century and the opening decades of the eighteenth +century, while three developing forces pushed into the forefront of +European life: the enlightenment and science, representative government, +and the industrial revolution. + +Enlightenment broadened the social basis of knowledge and learning. +During the Dark Ages, knowledge and learning were a monopoly of a tiny +privileged minority composed of priests, scholars and a segment of the +aristocracy. Monasteries, great houses and trading cities sheltered this +monopoly. The countryside was a sea of ignorance, superstition, +oppression and exploitation. With the printing press came books. Books +promoted literacy and curiosity. Literacy and curiosity led to +speculation, experiment, discovery and the formulation and spread of +ideas. The product of these forces was science, which had had a long +period of gestation in North Africa and Asia. + +Dark Ages of localism, with landlords, priests and soldiers directing +public affairs led to the concentration of wealth and power in the +landed aristocracy and the church. But traders in the countryside and +merchants in the centers of commerce held a talisman that opened before +them ever increasing sources of wealth. Country dwellers harvested one +crop a year. When crops were poor they starved. At best the margin of +profit was thin. Traders and merchants made a profit every time they +found a customer. The countryside lived on a use economy supplemented by +barter. As money increased in quantity it was loaned at rates of +interest by merchants and bankers who owned it and used it for their +purposes. Accumulating wealth and money enabled the traders, merchants, +bankers and manufacturers to out-buy and out-point landlords and +churchmen. Politically, these changes reduced the authority of absolute +monarchies. In their places representative governments made their +appearance. + +The third force that surfaced in Europe after the end of the Dark Ages +was the industrial revolution, which led to fundamental changes in the +means of production at the same time that advances in natural and social +science produced their practical counterpart--an explosive expansion of +technology. + +Science, representative government and the industrial revolution led to +a rapid and extensive transformation of western society sometimes +referred to as the bourgeois revolution. As the bourgeois revolution +worked its way into the structure and function of European society, the +developing class of businessmen and professionals who had begun to +challenge the power-monopoly of the "lords spiritual and temporal" ended +by establishing a higher power monopoly under the control of business, +military, public relations oligarchy. This revolutionary transformation +of modern society took place during the thousand years that elapsed +between the crusades and the closing years of the nineteenth century. +The resulting social transformation had its geographical homeland in +Europe from which it spread around the planet. Politically, these forces +found expression through the commerce-dominated, profit-seeking, +colonizing empires, with the nation-state as nucleus. Colonizing empires +became the dominant force in Europe and in the non-European segments of +the planet which were gradually brought under European imperial control. + +In the course of voyaging, "discovery" and the establishment of trade, +Europeans set up military outposts and maintained increasingly large +naval forces. The avowed object of these military and naval build-ups +was to defend and promote Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French and British +imperial interests. Actually military and naval installations were +marking out and maintaining the defense perimeters of their respective +colonial empires. One of the widely accepted axioms of the period +equated colonies with national prosperity. The more successful +colonizing empires of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries became the +strongholds of nineteenth century monopoly capitalism. + +Industrial revolution, flowering in Europe during the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries, gave the European commercial empires a lead over +potential rivals based on Asian wealth-power centres. As a result of +this lead European empire builders were able to establish and maintain +their authority in India and Indonesia, dismember the Turkish and +Chinese empires and partition Africa among themselves. Their only +potential rivals were the lumbering, isolationist United States of North +America and the newly awakened Island Kingdom of Japan. Both of these +non-European nations began playing serious wealth-power roles in the +same period from 1895 to 1910. Up to that point Europe continued to be +the homeland of monopoly capitalism. The chief centers of heavy +industry, commerce and finance were in Europe. European merchant fleets +and European navies sailed the seas. European banks and business houses +dominated planetary financing, insuring and investing. + +Viewed from outside, the ascendancy of Europe seemed to be complete. +Europe held the strategic strong points: productivity, wealth, the means +of transportation, mobile fire-power. By the end of the nineteenth +century Europe was the monopoly-capitalist motherland. The rest of the +planet was made up of actual or potential dependents under European +authority. From these outsiders living at subsistence levels, Europeans +could get their supplies of food and raw materials at low prices and to +them Europeans could sell their surplus manufactures, their commercial +services, and their investment capital at high prices. The resulting +European prosperity was expected to continue indefinitely into the +future. + +This planetary structure, with Europe as the center of wealth, power, +art, science, free business enterprise and wage slavery, progress and +poverty, left the majority of mankind living as dependents and +colonials. The situation embodied several confrontations: + + 1. The masters of Europe might quarrel among themselves. + + 2. Non-Europeans might set up rival wealth power centers + and challenge Europe's world hegemony. + + 3. Colonials and other dependants might demand independence, + and equal status in the family of nations. + + 4. Rootless middle classes and the wretched of the earth + might join forces and pull down western civilization's house + of cards. + +Western civilization, like its predecessors, was accepting and following +one central principle: expand, grab and keep. The application of this +principle took the form of an axiom of public and private life: might +makes right; let him take who has the power; let him keep who can. + +Grab and keep, in a period of rapid economic expansion, led each of the +burgeoning European empires to the zealous defense of its frontiers as +the first principle of imperial policy. The second principle: +geographical expansion, followed as a matter of course. Expansion inside +Europe, with its tight frontier defenses, meant war with aggressive +rivals. Expansion abroad, especially in Asia and Africa, was less costly +and might prove more profitable. As a consequence, from 1870 onward, +British, French, Dutch, Russia and German colonial territory increased; +European armaments multiplied. Each expanding empire prepared for the +day which would give it additional square miles of European and foreign +real estate. + +Grab-and-keep, with its resultant chaotic free-for-all, was the rule of +thumb accepted and followed by the West during the decline of Roman +power and through the middle ages to modern times. + +The "might makes right" formula was in violent conflict with the "love +and serve your neighbor" professions of Christian ethics. Nevertheless, +it was the accepted overall principle of private enterprise economy and +the ruling ethic of Western statecraft. The principle was formulated in +five propositions or axioms: + + 1. Make money, honestly if possible, but make money. + + 2. Every businessman for himself and the devil take the laggards. + + 3. We defend and promote our national interests. + + 4. Our national interests come first. + + 5. Our country, right or wrong. + +These five propositions were the outcome of a millennium of experience +with the Crusades and extending to the present century. They are the +outcome of preoccupation with material incentives that can be stated in +two words, profit and power. + +Such propositions, applied to everyday affairs, produced an economy and +a statecraft which favored the interests of a part before those of the +entire community. Where the whole is favored before any part there is a +possibility of co-existence and even of cooperation. Placing a part +before the whole involves competition all the way from the marketplace +to the chancelleries where the fate of nations is discussed and decided. + +The above five propositions or axioms result from preoccupation with +material incentives: profit and power for managers, disciplined +co-ordination for subordinates, affluence, comfort and recognition for +the favored few. They provide the ideological background for twentieth +century western civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +THE LIFE CYCLE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION + + +Like its predecessors, western civilization from its inception was +essentially competitive. As it developed, the commercially, technically +and politically supreme Spanish, Dutch, French and British Empires +battled individually, or in rival alliances, for plunder, colonies, +markets and raw materials. + +From the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, to the Victorian Jubilee in +1897, Great Britain became and remained top dog economically, +politically and to a large extent culturally. Britain was the workshop. +British shipping was omnipresent. The pound sterling was the chief +medium of foreign exchange. The British Navy patrolled the seas. English +was replacing French as the language of commerce and diplomacy. + +During this British Century, from 1815 to 1897, Great Britain was +dominant among the European great powers, but it was never supreme. +Always there were countervailing forces. For centuries France had been a +major factor in the control and direction of European affairs. Defeat at +Waterloo reduced but did not destroy French influence. After 1870 +Bismark's Germany began playing a major role. Russia, Austria, Holland, +Italy and Spain were also European powers. Overseas, the United States +of America and Japan were spreading their imperial wings. + +With the explosive advances made by science, technology, productivity, +income and wealth accumulation, other countries were moving to the fore. +Even though Britain maintained her actual levels of economic output and +potential diplomatic presence she was one among several relatively equal +European states and world empires. At the same time her natural +resources were being depleted and with the growing importance of cotton, +rubber and petroleum, all of which Britain must import, her economic +ascendancy was progressively undermined. During the wars of 1914-18 and +1936-45 Britain entered an era of decreasing relative importance. Her +empire was largely intact, but her economic and political strength was +stretched to the breaking point. + +Throughout its history, until the wars of 1914-45, western civilization +had its headquarters in central and west Europe, with branch offices +elsewhere on the planet. At no time after 1870 did any one European +power occupy a position of easy superiority over its rivals. If Great +Britain was top dog, France, the long established continental power was +snapping at her heels. Germany was an expanding power of major +consequence. To the North and East lay Russia, with its vast territories +and its persistent pressures into East Europe and Far Asia. By any +standard of political measurement Europe was in no sense a universal +state. Literally it was a potential battle field. War fortunes and +misfortunes revolutionized the Europe of 1870-1910. They also realigned +the planetary power structure. Heavy war losses down-graded all of the +erstwhile European powers. Central and West Europe ceased to be the +planetary hub. At the same time America and Asia shouldered their way +toward the center of the world stage. From London, Paris, Berlin and +other European vantage points the 1870-1945 era could be described as a +period of world revolution. + +For half a century United States money and arms were used to stabilize +capitalism. For many years Washington through its control of all Latin +American states (except Cuba after 1960) had been able to dominate +United Nations policy, exclude socialist nations, notably China, and hem +in socialism. Through this period Washington subsidized and armed +counter revolution. Its anti-socialist-communist doctrine had been +accepted and largely followed by the West. + +Washington's drive to cripple and stamp out socialism-communism was +accepted and followed particularly by the states with fascist leanings. +Since many western states had large and influential socialist minorities +and since several of them had been governed by coalitions in which +socialists-communists played a substantial role, acceptance of +Washington's anti-socialist program never won wholehearted support in +Europe. Atlantic alliance countries voted against the admission of +People's China to the United Nations during the Dulles Era. The +stalemated outcome of the Korean War (1950-3) called Washington +anti-socialist policies into serious question. The stupidities, +mendacities and wanton cruelties of the United States' undeclared +Vietnam War, even before the advent of Johnson and Nixon, had so +weakened Washington leadership that no major power would associate +itself with the adventure. The "Allies" in Vietnam were the U.S.A. and +two or three vassal Asian states. + +Half a century of cold war and co-existence punctuated by military +invasions and hot wars, fought between groups from both sides in the +class struggle, faced mankind with several undeniable facts: + + 1. Planet-wide economic, political and social changes had been + made during the previous half-century. + + 2. Capitalism was no longer supreme as it had been before + 1900. On the contrary, since 1950 the planet has been divided + along class lines--capitalism versus socialism. + + 3. Socialism-communism is one of the most obvious facts of + present-day planetary life. + + 4. Capitalism is losing ground, especially in Europe. + + 5. Socialism is gaining ground, especially in Eurasia. + +Co-existence presupposes recognition of these five propositions and a +willingness to abide by the outcome of the evolutionary-revolutionary +process, through which the western world is passing. + +During several centuries, ending in 1900, western civilization passed +through an era of consolidation and integration that brought its +sovereign segments into increasing stable relationships. The most +advanced of these relationships took political shape in the half-dozen +European empires which controlled the planet in 1900. Side by side with +the consolidation of the planet into nations and empires there was +another process, world-wide in scope, which made the facts and products +of science and technology and their duplication the common property of +mankind, creating a cultural synthesis far more universal than the +political synthesis in nations, empires, the League of Nations or the +United Nations. + +Any social synthesis includes positive and negative aspects which +function side by side. One builds up. The other wears down. For +centuries the building forces in western civilization were in the +ascendant. Since the turn of the century a shift of forces has been +under way. The wearing down forces presently are in the ascendant. Had +it been less competitive and more cooperative and co-ordinated, western +civilization might have taken another step in advance by extending +cultural unification into the political arena. The League of Nations and +the United Nations were efforts in this direction. Neither succeeded in +breaking down sovereignty far enough to permit planet-wide political +federation. + +Having failed to co-ordinate and establish a planet-wide authority +during the critical years following 1870, western civilization accepted +the antithesis of co-ordination and entered a period of fragmentation: + + 1. During the century and a half from 1815 to the present + day, as facilities for co-ordination were multiplied by discovery + and invention, Europe remained stubbornly fragmented + into more than a score of sovereign states. Minor + changes were made in boundary lines and in internal relationships + of property and privilege, but the European maps + of the period present a record of persistent fragmentation + of the continent into strongly frontiered sovereign segments. + + 2. Break-up of the European empires after two general wars + led to the fragmentation of each empire into self-determining + sovereign units. + + 3. The "third world," consisting chiefly of European empire + fragments, has not consolidated, but after the Bandung + Conference of 1955 has consisted of a fragmented Africa + and Asia torn by domestic and inter-state conflicts and + harried by the persistent intervention of the western powers. + + 4. Rivalry in the Pacific and in Asia has been heightened by + the meteoric rise of Japan as a world power, the dismemberment + of the Japanese Empire after 1945 and the fierce + subsequent economic competition between Japan and her + planetary competitors, chiefly the United States. + + 5. United States efforts to coordinate Latin America as a + source of raw materials and a market for manufactures and + investment capital have not produced a United Latin + American front against a common Yankee menace, but a + sturdy refusal even of the tiniest Latin American Republic + to surrender or limit its sovereignty has pushed a thorn + into the vulnerable side of Washington's Monroe Doctrine + control of the western hemisphere. + + 6. The high point in divisiveness was the decision of the + United States spokesmen to inaugurate the American Century + by establishing control over the Pacific Ocean, making + itself the chief power in Asia and installing U.S.A. authority + in the power vacuum left by the expulsion of Britain, + France, Holland and Japan from the territories composing + their former empires. Local wars begun in Korea (1950) + and extending across Southeast Asia have strengthened the + determination of the local peoples to defend themselves at + all costs against imperialist invaders from Europe and North + America. + + 7. The United States has been rich enough since 1945 to build + and maintain a navy that can patrol the Atlantic and Pacific + Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea and maintain large military + forces in various European and Asian waters. This + policy has been justified by the Truman-Johnson-Nixon + Doctrine of determined opposition to the extension of + socialism-communism and the consequent perpetuation of + the cold war. + + 8. In theory the socialist world is unitary. In practice it is so + fragmented by national boundary lines and ideological differences + that its members have not been able (during recent + years) to get together and discuss their major common + problems. + +United States wealth and military equipment have been sufficiently +over-whelming to support the program of an American Century during which +one nation might establish a universal state exercising planet-wide +authority along the lines of the Universal State established by the +Romans at the zenith of their power. In practice the program has not +worked out. On the contrary, opposition to the United States as _the_ +world power or even as _the_ power in Asia has grown steadily and +quickly into a widespread "Anti-Americanism" or "anti-Yankeeism." + +Conceivably a universal anti-American movement might develop a hot war +similar to the anti-Hitler coalition of the 1930's. If that precedent is +followed, however, the defeat of the United States would be followed by +a period of fragmentation similar to or even more intense than the +fragmentation of the 1950's and 1960's. + +Present efforts to shore up the insolvent U.S.A. economy and the +resulting opposition of America's leading European trading partners is +not reassuring. If western civilization has passed the zenith of its +development and entered a period of decline and fragmentation even a +figure of Napoleonic capacities would be sorely pressed to breathe new +life into its disintegrating social structure. At the moment, to the +best of our knowledge, no such genius is in sight. + +Western civilization is in some ways unique. In the main, however, the +development of its life cycle has been typical. May we take it for +granted that western civilization has turned its corner or may we assume +that it is still replete with the possibilities of further maneuver, +development and expansion? Perhaps the best way to approach the problem +would be to ask three questions: What contribution has western +civilization made to human nature, to human society and to mother +nature, and what further contribution can it make in the foreseeable +future? + +Individuals, born or reared in any form of society are adjusted, shaped +and conditioned by the social pattern of which they are a part. Each +society attempts to stamp the individuals with its own image and +likeness. The success or failure of this effort to assure individual +adjustment to the social norm and conformity to its practices varies +with the prosilitizing enthusiasm of the society and with the ration of +adaptability and self-consciousness of its individual members. + +Western civilization has produced a bourgeois human being intensively +conscious of his capacities and anxious to try himself out in the +rough-and-tumble of the market place and on the battlefield; to +initiate, undertake, direct, administer. In the main, these are +characteristics of the human male, though the female often possesses +them in a greater or lesser degree. + +Western civilization has opened the doors wide to aspirants eager to win +out in the game of grab-and-keep. It has been equally kind to their +chief executives, organizers and managers who rank second or third in +the chain of command. These individuals come from widely different +backgrounds. The social mobility of a bourgeois society gives them +opportunity to climb high on the ladder of preferment. + +Many of those who fall into line, adapt themselves to the civilizing +process, accept with alacrity the chances that come their way, but do +not reach the top of the success ladder. They have the health, energy +and assertiveness necessary to keep climbing. They accept their +assignments and carry them out with modest success. They are the lesser +executives who work themselves out by the time they are fifty and find +some sinecure or safe position near the top of the social pyramid. + +Below the high command posts there is a wide range of handymen and +specialists who fill particular positions and place their time, energy, +experience and expertise at the disposal of the high command. Among them +are scientists, engineers, technicians. Equally important are their +spokesmen, advisers and apologists: lawyers, preachers, teachers, +writers, speakers, publicists, carefully chosen for their ability to +apologize, passify, justify and reassure. On the political side are the +diplomats and politicians. Protection for their persons and property is +provided by the police and the armed forces, composed of highly paid, +well-trained, well-armed destroyers and killers. + +Social stability and mass support come from an extensive middle class +composed of public servants and body servants, small tradesmen, +self-employed craftsmen, rentiers and retired persons who are assured +body comforts, social recognition and preferment for themselves, their +relatives and dependants. Members of this middle class are recognized on +occasion, pampered, amused, diverted, bored, frustrated and eventually +corrupted by the soft living which their middle class status makes +possible. + +Close to the middle class come the white collar workers and the better +paid blue collar workers. Their lives are cluttered with gadgets and +fringe benefits. Their homes are paid for or bought on credit. + +Below these more or less regularly employed workers on salaries and +wages come the semi-employed, racial or class underlings living in +poverty at or near the subsistence level. + +Associated with this range of bourgeois occupations and often closely +identified with it are owners of family farms, tenants and hired hands. + +Outside of the employment range, but dependent upon the economy are the +defectives and delinquents, the parasites who live on cake and the +parasites who live out of garbage cans. + +Beyond these categories, in the American Empire, there are the colonial +compradors and handymen who enjoy standards of living comparable to +their opposite members in the North America nucleus. Below them are the +colonial masses who live their entire lives under conditions of +uncertainty and insecurity. + +Millions of young people across the planet, born into the complicated +and bewildering social network of western civilization after war's end +in 1945 and graduated from school after the onset of the Vietnam War in +1965, find themselves in a complex, frustrating jungle. Should they fit +in or drop out? Those who are more conventional and adaptable fit in as +best they can, although the recent high unemployment rate among the +youth indicates that the adjustment is often difficult. Millions of the +less adaptable drop out. + +Such a situation could have been foreseen by the initiated. Preparations +could have been made in advance to deal with it when it arose. In the +absence of adequate preparation the result is the chaos incident to +every downturn of the private enterprise business cycle, magnified in +this case by the regressive forces released during the disintegration of +the entire social fabric. + +Two other areas require a word of comment. Among human faculties are +ambition, imagination, ingenuity, inventiveness, creativity. Human +beings are, to a greater or lesser degree, cosmically aware. In the +physical field western civilization handsomely rewards initiative. In +the social field it has been far less generous. Imagination and cosmic +consciousness have been quite generally listed among the undesirable +endowments of mankind. + +Western civilization, in the early years of the present century, +produced a generation of insecure, unsettled, anxious, worried, harried +people. This is generally true of young, middle aged and old, of rich +and poor. Rapid social transition from expansion and advance to +contraction and retreat is a traumatic, hectic experience for any human +being. + +Western civilization in the early years of its decline has not brought +out the more generous aspects of human nature. In the best of times a +materialistically oriented society appeals to the more material and less +spiritual aspects of human beings. A period of social decline leads away +from principled conduct toward unashamed opportunism. + +The current generation, born and reared in a disintegrating civilization +has been sorely tested and tried. From such tests the strong and +purposeful are likely to emerge stronger and more determined. For the +weak and vacillating the consequences are likely to prove disastrous. +The individual born into western society during its current "time of +troubles" has not had an easy row to hoe. + +What has western civilization done to human society as such? + +Western civilization has urbanized its society. Until recently in +Europe and until very recently in North America, the majority of people +were living outside of cities, in villages or on the land. From their +flocks and herds or from their cultivated land they fed themselves and +the cities. Mechanization reduced the demand for labor power in the +countryside. At the same time the growth of industry, trade, commerce +and "services" increased the demand for labor power in the cities. +Relatively the countryside was poor while the cities were rich. The high +prizes were in the cities, bright lights, crowds and the seductive +excitements of seething mass life. Incessant human contacts were part +and parcel of city life. City landlords collected high rents, city +merchants found many customers. City manufacturers could pick and choose +their wage and salary underlings among throngs of young and not so young +jobseekers. + +Western civilization grew in and around its cities. Both in form and +function it was urban rather than rural. + +Western civilization specialized its society, mechanized it and later +computerized it, making social relationships depend less and less on +personality and more on the position of the individual in a working team +or on an assembly line. Human beings ceased to have names. Instead they +acquired numbers on the payroll, on their homes, on their identity +cards. + +Specialization and division of labor, plus power-driven machines +increase productivity, income, surplus. In the countryside goods and +services often are scarce. In the city they are likely to be +super-abundant. + +Growth of wealth and income provide support for an increase in +population. Hence the population explosions in cities and in centers of +developing industry, trade and commerce. Countries passing through the +industrial revolution expanded their populations. Recently, the +population of some countries has doubled each twenty-five years. + +Western civilization has been militarized as it was mechanized. Every +tool is a potential weapon. The truck becomes a tank, the airplane a +bomber. War making, like other aspects of western civilization, was +mechanized. Formerly war had pitted man against man. Mechanized war +pitted machines and their attendants against other machines and their +human attachments. The same mechanical forces that built cities, +factories and ships converted these agencies of production into +instruments of destruction. Each country in the civilized West fortified +its frontiers, trained officers in special schools, mobilized young men +and women for military service, stockpiled weapons, multiplied +fire-power, making western civilization an armed camp, with guns +pointing in every direction. + +Regimentation of city life, of industry and commerce, of war, of +education and public health followed one after another as the individual +human became more and more a cog in a vast social mechanism. This +regimentation dulled imagination at the same time that it deified greed, +with "gimme, gimme;" "more, more;" as its watch words. + +At certain points in its development western civilization has lifted +itself temporarily above the material forces that hemmed in the life of +primitive man. The Renaissance was one such period. The Enlightenment +was another. A third was the scientific breakthrough from Darwin and +Marx to the research and experiments which split the atom and +inaugurated the space age. These gains were offset by the growing +planet-wide chasm between wealth and poverty, the plunder and pollution +of man's natural and social environment and the terrifying growth of +destructive power revealed during two prolonged general wars in one +generation. + +Mechanized war demonstrated its destructivity, physically, socially, +psychologically. Prolonged war accustomed an entire generation of +mankind to unnecessary suffering and the deliberate twisting, maiming +and destroying which are characteristic features of the war-waging +civilized state. + +Exposure of an entire generation to wholesale destruction and mass +murder as a way of life had two quite divergent effects. It converted +sensitive introverts into pacifists. It produced millions of trained +destroyers and killers, experienced in the science and art of +mechanized warfare. Pacifists opposed, denounced and resisted the +warfare state and its progeny. Masses of trained destroyers and killers, +the "new barbarians," gained experience and improved their +qualifications by taking part in conventional warfare and in the +innumerable guerrilla adventures and operations that accompanied and +followed conventional wars. + +Previous civilizations have been harried, hectored and undermined by +migrating "barbarians" who had heard of accumulated wealth and had come +to share or perhaps to take over the "honey-pot" and lick up the honey. +Western civilization has faced the problem of migration, intensified by +population explosion. But the "barbarians" who are tearing the social +body of western civilization limb from limb are not outsiders, invading +a civilization in order to plunder and sack it, but the offspring of +well-to-do civilized affluent communities who have repudiated the +acquisition and accumulation of material goods and services, turning, +instead to the satiation of body hungers and the freedom of social +irresponsibility. + +Western man has spent ten centuries in building a civilization aimed at +economic stability and social security for the privileged. The "new +barbarian" progeny have rejected this civilization of affluence and are +busily engaged in fragmenting the social apparatus that has made +affluence possible. In a word, western civilization has organized and +coordinated, but in the process it has sowed the seeds of +disorganization and chaos. + +One last word about the effect of western civilization on human society. +The West has littered and cluttered the planet with an immense variety +and with enormous quantities of gimmicks and gadgets from tin cans to +airplanes that fly faster than sound, and rockets that carry their +occupants to the moon. Western productivity has multiplied greatly. Too +often it has by-passed utility, ignored quality and outraged beauty. +More often than not its goods, services, institutions, practices and +ideas have remained at the surface without reaching down to life's +essentials. + +If life can be fragmented into "physical," "mental," "emotional," +"energetic," "spiritual," and "creative" it must be evident that the +western way has smothered life's more significant aspects under a +blanket of trivialities, non-essentials and inconsequentials. + +Western civilization has stressed competition, aimed at the acquisition +and accumulation of material goods and services. The competitive +struggle, in its civilian and military aspects, has played fast and +loose with the contents of nature's storehouse. + +Through uncounted ages Mother Nature has set up a knife-edge balance +among the multitude of aspects and differentiated forms that have +existed and still exist on the planet. Humanity has increasingly upset +this balance of nature, ignorantly and often stupidly, without pausing +to determine the resultant changes. Nowhere is this upset more in +evidence than the changes in climate and animal life and their +possibilities of survival brought about by the erosion of topsoil. Paul +Sears, in his _Deserts on the March_, has told the story. It can be +summed up in four words: deforestation, overgrazing, erosion, drifting +sands. + +Another aspect of man's aggressions against nature is the wanton +destruction of wildlife--like the American bison and the wood pigeon. + +Still another example is the extraction from the earth's crust of +minerals and metals accumulated through ages and used to turn out +frivolous gadgets or, more disastrously, the materials and machines of +civilized warfare. Instead of conserving natural wealth, rationing it +and thus extending its use to succeeding generations, western man has +burnt it up in the firestorms deliberately kindled during the seven +disaster years from 1939 to 1945. + +In the course of its existence western civilization has replaced food +gatherers, cultivators and artisans by hucksters and professional +destroyers of mankind and ravagers of the living space afforded by the +earth's land mass. + +Western civilization has done its most far-reaching disservice to +mankind by separating and estranging man from nature. For ages man lived +with nature as one aspect of an evolving ecological balance. +Civilization's basic unit--the city--as it sprawls, cuts off man from +more and more contacts with the earth and its multitudinous life forms; +with fresh air, sunshine, starshine; with nature's sequences--day and +night, the procession of the seasons; with the birth, growth, death +animating so many of nature's aspects. The city is man-made. Well +planned, properly built and organized, it might have become an ornament +beautifying and exalting nature. Page the cities of the West one by +one--they are monotonous, ungainly, ugly slums and rookeries set off by +an occasional bit of creative architecture. + +Western civilization has differed in certain respects from the long line +of its predecessors, stretching back through the centuries. In one sense +it has matured, ripened, taking its ideas and practices from its nearest +of kin. In the course of its life cycle it has already made distinctive +contributions: + + 1. It has become more nearly planet-wide than any of its + known forerunners. + + 2. It has developed unique approaches and controls through + its science and its technology, inaugurating the power age + by making riotous use of nature's energy sources. + + 3. It has extended man's conquest of the planet and begun + his adventures into space. + + 4. It has enlarged the field of human creativity by increasing + the number and proportion of men and women trained and + experienced in productive and creative enterprises. + + 5. It has opened the door to study and experimentation in + extrasensory perception--man's "sixth" sense. + + 6. It has made possible an unprecedented increase in the + human population of the planet. + + 7. It has raised its potential for destruction far above and + beyond its potential for production and construction. + + 8. It has brought together, classified and indexed the ideas, + materials, techniques and generalizations which made possible + this study of civilization, its appearances, disappearances + and reappearances. + + 9. Europeans have carried the burdens of western civilization + and inherited its disintegrative consequences for so long a + period that the fate of western civilization and the fate + of present day Europe are closely interwoven. + Western civilization seems to have reached and passed the + zenith of its lifecycle without achieving the political integration, + the stability or the unified authority attained by the Romans and + the Egyptians at the high points in their lifecycles. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +FEATURES COMMON TO CIVILIZATIONS + + +Each civilization that has left legible records or significant +traditions during the past five or six thousand years has made +distinctive contributions that modified the culture pattern of its +predecessors and its contemporaries. At the same time all of the +civilizations have had certain common features that are the +characteristic aspects which justify the general definition of +civilization presented in the Introduction to this study. + +Civilization is the most comprehensive, extensive and inclusive life +pattern achieved by terrestrial humanity. Starting locally and following +the three basic principles of urbanization, expansion and exploitation, +each civilization has charted a course that led from tentative local +beginnings through a cycle of growth, maturity, decline, decay and +dissolution. + +The civilizing process is essentially collective, subordinating the +interests of each part to the interests of the whole, while allowing +sufficient home rule to enable each part to have the political, economic +and cultural advantages enjoyed by the other parts, always excepting the +privileged position occupied by the civilization's dominant empire and +its nucleus. + +Necessarily a civilization is composed of more or less disparate +segments, each one (before its inclusion in the collective whole) +maintaining a large measure of sovereign independence. Utilizing +advanced techniques of communication, exchange, and transportation, the +separate sovereign units are coordinated, consolidated, unified and +universalized. The result is an aggregate of parts, differing in many +local respects, but acknowledging the authority of the power center and +contributing material goods and manpower to its support and defense. The +main sociological purpose of each civilization has been to impose +central authority and universality upon political, economic and +ideological diversity. + +Every civilization has been confronted with the advantages of unity over +diversity. Every civilization has professed its devotion to unity. Every +civilization at one or another stage in its development has subordinated +unity to the increasingly insistent demands of diversity. + +For at least six thousand years one civilization after another has +sought to achieve centralization and universality. In every instance of +which history provides a legible record, centralized, universalized +institutions and practices have fragmented into diversity and stubborn +localism. + +Western civilization is part and parcel of this generalization. +Generation by generation and century by century it has professed and +proclaimed the advantages of universality while it yielded to the +persistent demands of nationalism, regionalism and localism. Throughout +the latter years of the nineteenth century the will to unify gained much +ground. The tide turned with the turn of the century. For the first half +of the present century the forces of unity and of diversity seemed +stalemated. War's end in 1945 saw the shadow of a universal state +flicker across the screen of history. With the adjournment of the +Bandung Conference in 1955 the shadow dissolved and was replaced by the +strident nationalisms that have become an outstanding feature of +planetary politics, economics and social organization. + +Despite the insistence of reason and experience that strength and +stability are the result of unity,--tradition, custom and habit have +held human society at the level of political, economic and ideological +diversity. Nowhere in history is this generalization more emphatic than +in the failure of the European standard-bearers of western civilization +to replace a millennium of diversity, discord and conflict by a unified, +coordinated, co-existing, cooperating European community. + +At its best a civilization is insecure and even unstable, disturbed and +upset by an increasing domestic struggle for preferment and power that +includes rivalry, competition, revolt, rebellion, civil war and wars of +self-determination carried on by unassimilated regional, provincial and +colonial elements. From beyond their frontiers civilizations have been +assailed by rival aspirants for power, by armed bands in search of +plunder or by migrating peoples seeking greener pastures. All of these +forces have held the ground for diversity and barred the way to +universality. + +Another factor of great consequence leading to the instability of +civilizations has been the concentration of wealth, power, privilege, +comfort and security in the hands of a minority, in sharp contrast with +poverty and insecurity among the less well-placed majority. Generally, +the privileged minority has been relatively small and the exploited +majority overwhelmingly large. + +Still another disturbing factor in each civilization is the +transformation of its military arm from a means of defense against +external enemies into a major factor in the direction of domestic +affairs. The professional military build-up has frequently usurped the +state power and became king-maker by virtue of its monopoly of weapons, +organization, and its highly trained personnel of professional +destroyers and killers. + +Upset by one or another of these disturbing and disruptive forces, +civilized populations have panicked and retreated from their +collectiveness toward more localized, more fragmented, less social and +more individual life patterns. Such a retreat rounds out the later +phases of a cycle of civilization--the phases of decline and final +dissolution. + +Civilizations perish in the first instance because of internal +contradictions and conflicts, the struggle to grab, monopolize, and keep +wealth, status, power. + +They perish because of the division of the nucleus and its associates +and dependencies between those who work for a living, those who have an +unearned income and those parasites who scrounge for a living. They +perish because of the hard class and caste lines that grow out of +economic contradictions; because of the development of a social +pyramid, layer above layer, until the summit is reached where there is +standing room for only a few. Competent, talented persons may rise from +level to level in this pyramid. A political and social bureaucracy +develops which feeds at the public trough. Then comes a bitter struggle +to get both feet in the trough and keep them there side by side with an +equally determined effort to exclude outsiders and other intruders. An +army of volunteers and novices is converted into a military +establishment which becomes a state within the state, extending its +control until it makes policy, selects top leaderships and carries on +its internal feuds and wars of succession dividing the defense forces +and using them for partisan purposes. Overhead costs rise; deficits in +the public treasury grow; so does public debt. Inflation follows, and +the debasement of the currency. Levies are made on private wealth for +public purposes. There is expropriation of the property of political +enemies. Espionage, secret agents, the growth of informers become part +of the society, along with the use of assassination as a political +weapon, the increase of violence and crime, and eventually, a flight +from the cities. + +This tragic enumeration only skims the surface of the many and various +aspects of a situation that reaches its breaking point in civil war, +famine, pestilence and eventually in depopulation. + +Social dissolution is accelerated by provincial revolts against central +authority; by survival struggle between the empires which were +coordinated and consolidated into the civilization; by revolt in the +subordinate and dependent segments of the civilization; by rivalry and +conflict between racial, cultural and political sub-groups forced into +the civilization, held there by coercion, policed by armed force and +taking the first opportunity to win political independence and self +determination. + +While the momentum for expansion lasted, the civilization grew in wealth +and power. When it waned, disintegration set in. Changelessness seems to +be impossible in a social group. A civilization either expands or +withers, builds up or falls to pieces. + +Starting from one or more local groups, each civilization has reached +out "to conquer the world", occupy it, organize it, dominate it, exploit +it, perpetuate itself. In each case expansion, occupation, domination +and exploitation are limited by human capacity (human nature); by the +relative brevity of a single human life; by the extreme variations in +the capacity of successive leaders. It is limited by geography; by the +means of transportation and communication; by overhead costs that +increase geometrically as the civilization expands arithmetically; by +the means of delegating responsibility; by accounting devices, available +raw materials and labor power; by power struggles inside the ruling +oligarchies; by the failure to maintain a balance between centerism and +localism; by growing local demands for self-determination; by the +invasion of nomads seeking to plunder the tempting honey pot at the +nucleus of the civilization. + +Such limitations are political, economic and sociological. Psychological +forces are also at work. The vigor and vitality of the early builders +gradually spends itself. The will to austerity and the sense of loyalty +and social responsibility are diffused and diluted. Bureaucracy +degenerates into a rat race. The paralysis of parasitism replaces the +will to power. Physical gratification gains priority over the service of +the gods. Consistently, through its entire written history, civilization +has been built upon what the civil law of all nations calls "robbery +with violence". In every instance when the robbers have grabbed +everything in sight, and gorged to the point of physical satiety, they +fall to quarreling among themselves or turn with boredom and disgust +from the whole sodden mess of discord, disorder and degeneration. + +Each step, from the establishment of an urban nucleus of expansion, +through the building of rival empires to the final struggle for supreme +power, involves the violent subordination of lesser interests to the +interests of one supreme authority. Violence takes precedence over +persuasion and negotiation. In each case the final appeal is to armed +combat using the most sophisticated weapons available. + +During the "time of troubles" which overtakes each civilization, war +and the threat of war become normal aspects of domestic and +international relations. A specialized war-making bureaucracy is +organized; war plans are made; war games (rehearsals) are carried on, +and wars are fought as a means of determining which nation or +combination of nations shall have access to raw materials and markets, +dominate the trade routes, control the weaker peoples, own and exploit +the colonies. + +To the victor, war is the means of extending national or imperial +frontiers and legalizing expansion at the expense of the vanquished. +Defeat in war leads to the imposition of indemnities, the payment of +tribute, the transfer of territory to the victor and in extreme cases +the extermination of the defeated nations or empires. + +Settlements imposed by violence and policed by victors lead to +resentment, antagonism, hatred and the build-up of a desire for revenge, +including the restoration to the vanquished of lost territories. The +logical outcome of such a situation is preparation for a war of +independence by the vanquished, countered by military occupation, rigid +suppression, and exploitation by the victors in the previous struggle. + +War is taken for granted as an instrument of policy. It is employed by +civilized nations and empires as a means of expansion. Wars of +independence and restitution follow conquest, dismemberment and +annexation. Civilized nations and empires prepare for war and wage war +as a normal aspect of civilized life. + +Civilization, and in particular western civilization, is a time-bomb, +built to detonate and scatter its fragments far and wide. It is a type +of booby trap in which humanity has been caught periodically and +horribly mangled. Without exception, each civilization has contained the +forces and equipment needed for its own annihilation. At no time +reported by history has this formulation been more obvious than during +the decades immediately following war's end in 1945. Destructivity was +lifted to new levels of efficiency by electronic communication, the tank +and the airplane. It was further escalated by atomic fission and +nuclear fusion. Advances in science and technology had made dramatic +increases in the tempo of production and construction. Utilization of +atomic energy had stepped up destructivity to the nth power. + +Based on assumptions that oft-repeated experience has proved to be false +and misleading, civilization in the 1970's is unstable and insecure. +Most civilizations are strangled in their cradles or plundered and +demolished in the course of the never-ending political, economic and +military conflicts which have marked and marred civilizations since the +dawn of history. The national and imperial survivors of these struggles +in every known instance have been largely or wholly led by military +adventurers and plunderers in search of booty, fame and power. With +professional plunderers, destroyers and murderers occupying the seats of +power, it is only a question of time and occasion before rising overhead +costs and the misfortunes of war result in their overthrow and +replacement by better organized, better armed invaders who slaughter and +enslave their predecessors and usurp and abuse their power. Of +necessity, civilizations are self-destructive, built as they are on the +ebb and flow of power struggle. + +Successive conflicts involve an indefinite volume of overhead costs, +which grow with the intensity and extent of the expansive survival +struggle, creating a series of crises along a path that leads to +self-destruction and the return of the experimenters to a condition of +pre-civilized self-containment. + +We in the West, looking back on our own immediate history, refer to this +pre-civilized status as the Dark Ages. Actually, such Dark Ages are the +transition stages between two periods of experiments with the building +of civilizations. In view of this oft-repeated experience, modern man +must look upon an epoch of civilization not as a way of life, but an +adventure of suicidal self-degradation and ultimate self-destruction. + +Each cycle of civilization has had its peculiarities, determined by the +geographical and historical factors surrounding its origin and +development. Yet all have had features in common. Among the common +features we would list: + +1. A revolutionary movement within the societies under +consideration. In each experiment with civilization the culture pattern +was transformed from pastoral and/or agricultural to a culture based on +trade, commerce and finance; from rural to urban; from simple to +complex; from local toward universal. + +2. In each case an independent, self-directing, expanding state was +built around an urban center. + +3. In each experiment a simple, local, social structure was extended, +expanded, specialized, sub-divided, integrated, consolidated. + +4. In each experiment a relatively static society passed into the +control of an emerging class of peddlers, merchants, traders, +speculators, business enterprisers and professionals who were not +directly involved in the conversion of nature's gifts into goods and +services ready for human use, but in political and cultural practices +which enabled the emerging bourgeois class to stabilize and extend its +wealth and power and build an economic structure that augmented unearned +income and laid the foundation for predation, exploitation and +parasitism. + +5. In each experiment an amateur apparatus for defense and/or aggression +matured into a professional military means for enlarging the +geographical area and strengthening the economic and political authority +of the new trading-ruling classes. In each empire and each civilization +there was an evolution of "defense" forces from voluntary to +professional status, from subordinate to dominant status, from +participation in public life to political supremacy over all aspects of +public life. + +6. In each experiment massed labor power (slave, serf, or wage-earner) +was assembled, organized and trained to build roads, bridges, aqueducts, +housing facilities and eventually to operate agriculture, construction, +industry, trade and commerce, public utilities and other services in the +interests of an oligarchy. + +7. In each experiment a capital city (and associated cities) became the +nucleus for accumulating wealth, constructing public buildings, +providing means of transportation and sources from which raw materials +could be secured for city maintenance and for the provision of sanitary +facilities, means of recreation and diversion. + +8. In each experiment there was a competitive struggle between rival +communities, each passing through the rural-urban transformation. The +result was an increasing conflict for survival, for expansion and for +local supremacy. + +9. Each experiment expanded along lines that led the more successful to +build traditional empires consisting of wealth-power centers and +peripheries of associates and dependents. + +10. Each experiment produced a competitive survival struggle between +rival empires that would determine eventual supremacy. + +11. In each experiment one among the local and regional contestants +defeated, conquered, dismembered, assimilated or destroyed its rivals +and emerged as victor, giving its name to a civilization: Egyptian, +Babylonian, Persian, Roman. + +12. In each experiment the victims of imperial aggression, conquest, +exploitation and assimilation, conspired, united, resisted and revolted +against the dominant power. The result was endemic civil war. + +13. Within each experiment, as the civilization matured, the same +confrontations appeared at the nuclear center and in the +provincial-colonial periphery: + + a. Extremes of riches side by side with slum-dwelling poverty. + + b. Expanding unearned income, with one class (the propertied and + privileged) owning for a living and another class (peasants, + artisans, serfs, slaves) working for a living. + + c. Intensified exploitation of mass labor side by side with the + proliferation of parasitism throughout the body social, consisting + of individuals and social sub-groups whose contribution in the form + of goods produced and services rendered was less than the cost of + maintaining the participants. + + d. Economic stagnation. Public spending in excess of public income; + higher levies and taxes to replenish the empty treasury; rising + prices due to excess of demand over supply; public borrowing with + no means for repayment; the issue of money without corresponding + reserves; degradation of currency through decrease of its metal + content; unemployment among citizens due chiefly to increase in + forced labor of war captives and other slaves; public insolvency + due to territorial over-expansion; excessive overhead costs; + nepotism, bribery, corruption in public service; an over-large + bureaucracy feeding at the public trough. + + e. Revolution in the nuclear center and fierce suppression. + Provincial revolt. Revolt in the colonies. Endemic civil war. + + f. Migration toward the central honey-pot; invasion by rivals and + adventurers seeking to control it, plunder it and guzzle its + contents. + + g. Dissolution of the society; boredom; ennui; loss of purpose and + direction; growing dissension; power struggle and avoidance of + responsibility for trends that were little understood and generally + beyond the control of existing officialdom. + +Histories of individual nations and empires and histories of +civilizations and civilization assemble and present a great body of +factual information which support and substantiate this factual summary. +The present study aims to organize the facts, to compare them and to +draw conclusions as to the benefits and detriments; the practicality or +futility; the wisdom or folly of building empires and merging them into +civilizations. + +These conclusions are based on several thousand years of experiment and +experience with the civilized life pattern. Time after time, in age +after age, human beings by the millions have poured faith, hope and +unbounded energy, devotion and dedication into the upbuilding of the +urban nuclei of successive civilizations. Details have varied. Ultimate +conclusions have been the same. One civilization after another has +passed into the limbo of history leaving, sometimes, splendid ruins as a +testimonial to its evident inadequacy to meet the survival needs of +oncoming generations. + +Such conclusions, based on history, are underlined by current experience +with the over-ballyhooed, over-priced variant of the life pattern which +signs itself western civilization. Dating from the Crusades a thousand +years ago, western civilization has been promoted, built up and carried +forward by the blood, sweat and tears of credulous, hopeful, eager human +beings. Its promises have been wonderful; its performance, especially +since 1900, has been pitifully inadequate, superficial and unsatisfying. + + + + +_Part II_ + + +A Social Analysis of Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +THE POLITICS OF CIVILIZATION + + +Several thousand years ago humankind began experimenting with the life +style which we are now calling civilization. Presumably it was not +thought out and blueprinted in advance but worked out by trial and +error, episode by episode, step by step--perhaps, also, leap by leap. + +Historical and contemporary experiments with this lifestyle supply a +fund of valuable information, some of which has been covered in the +earlier chapters of this book. Our next task is to analyze and classify +this information under four headings: the politics, the economics, the +sociology and the ideology of civilization. (When the information is +properly arranged, we can do something with it and about it.) + +Politics is the part of social science and engineering which is +concerned with the organization, direction and administration of human +communities. We use the word to cover the conduct of public affairs in +any social group more extensive than a family. Hence we refer to village +politics, town politics, national politics, international politics and, +in the present instance, to the politics of civilization as a way of +life. + +Each sample, referred to in our examination of typical civilizations, +was built around a center, nucleus or homeland consisting of one or more +cities with their adjacent hinterlands. The nucleus of the developing +civilization was also the nucleus of an empire. Each nucleus was a +center of planned production; accumulating wealth, growing population +and expanding authority. Certain locations are better suited than +others to provide the essentials of a civilization nucleus. + +The first requirement for a nucleus is a tolerable climate, primarily a +satisfactory balance between heat and cold. Before the general use of +fire as a source of warmth human populations were concentrated at or +near the tropics. With the increasing use of artificial heating and +lighting human beings were able to cluster farther and farther away from +concentrated equatorial sunlight. + +The second requirement of such a location is a strategic position in a +crossroads, in a network of transportation and communication. + +The third requirement is a readily available source of the food and +building materials necessary to feed, house, and clothe a community and +provide it with some of the niceties of daily living. + +The fourth requirement is the presence of sufficient man-power to +operate the nucleus and provide a surplus for defense and for its +extension and expansion. + +The fifth requirement is defensibility against aggression or invasion. + +The sixth essential is the availability of sufficient raw materials to +meet the requirements of the nucleus, provide the exports needed to +maintain a favorable trade balance for the nucleus and permit of its +expansion, advancement and enrichment. + +Seventh, and in some ways, the most important requirement for the +establishing of an empire or a civilization nucleus, is the presence of +a will to live, a will to grow, a will to advance, competence in +management, and a dogged persistence that will remain constant through +generations or centuries of adversity, and still more demanding, through +long periods of security, comfort and affluence. + +Eighth, and by no means least important, is the capacity to fight and +win the aggressive trade and military wars incidental to the defense and +expansion of the nucleus, of the empire, and eventually of the +civilization. + +The ninth requirement is tolerance, receptivity to new ideas and +practices, the capacity to adapt and to assimilate the outside elements +which are constantly incorporated into the growing, expanding empire or +the civilization. + +Finally, as we read the history and observe the development of nuclei, +empires and civilizations, we are impressed by the role of outstanding +individuals who occupy positions of responsibility over sufficiently +long periods or with sufficient intensity to leave a lasting impression +on the ideas, practices and institutions of their times. This +requirement covers the practice of effective leadership. + +Our concern, at this point, lies primarily with the first eight of these +requirements for survival and success in building up empires and +civilizations. + +Empires and civilizations are established during periods of social +expansion when the up-building and out-going urges are widely felt. The +surge produces not a single center of growth and expansion but dozens or +scores of competitors, each aiming to win and keep a position well in +advance of its rivals. The resulting up-surge and free-for-all, which +usually lasts for centuries, is a characteristic and recurring feature +in the political life of every civilization. + +This statement is less a requirement for success in organizing the +nucleus of a civilization, than a generalization about the natural and +social milieu out of which competing nuclei arise. Success of one among +the many competitors is a characteristic feature of the struggle for +nuclear survival, development and perhaps for eventual supremacy. + +From earliest times waterways have provided the readiest means of +getting about. All that was needed was a hollow log, a raft, a primitive +canoe. Movement by land was impeded by mountains, deserts, forests, +swamps, water courses. Movement by water was a natural. + +More and bigger boats required shelter against storms and protection +against destruction by enemies. A good harbor with an adjacent walled +town or city was the answer to this need. + +Good harbors and navigable waterways are notably absent along the west +coast of South America and notably present in the Eastern Mediterranean. +Consequently, the South American West Coast line is sparsely settled to +this day, while the Eastern Mediterranean has been crowded with peoples, +teemed with trade and commerce, carried largely by sea, between cities +that occupied the best access to waterways. + +Safe harbors and navigable waterways made trade and transport easy and +cheap. As each wave of human advance turned from animal husbandry and +agriculture to bourgeois practices of industry, commerce and finance, +locations at strategic points along trade routes were first occupied by +occasional markets and fairs and eventually by trading towns and cities. +Geography was a decisive factor. + +Fertility was equally important. In the early stages of social +development transportation was difficult, dangerous and expensive. +Sources of food and building materials were found within a short +distance of the growing trade center. Again geography played a decisive +role. A deep, sheltered harbor backed by a desert could not attract and +support a thriving trade center. Food and raw materials are +indispensable to concentrations of human beings. + +The Nile Valley, like that of the Ganges and the Yellow River, provided +the fertility and transport, the food and raw materials that have +sustained concentrated human populations for many thousands of years, +forming part of the base for Egyptian, Indian and Chinese civilizations. +Animal husbandry and grain farming, coupled with fishing and forestry, +made possible the growth of cities and laid the foundations for the +nuclei of these civilizations. + +Temples, tombs and other public constructs provided the centers around +which Egyptian civilization was built. The stone, wood and other raw +materials used in the building of these unique examples of human +handiwork were floated up and down the Nile from their sources of +origin. Annual Nile floods provided silt deposits necessary to fertilize +farms and gardens. Nile water, impounded during floods, irrigated the +land during the long dry seasons. Banked by deserts, the Nile was a +ribbon of fertility running through a largely uninhabited wilderness. +The upper reaches of the Nile lay in the mountains of Central Africa. +The Nile delta, built up through ages by silt deposits, provided a +meeting place where African, European and Asian traders could exchange +their wares and lay the foundations for the civilization of lower Egypt. +The Nile also provided the means of communication which connected Lower +Egypt with Upper Egypt and led, finally, to the unification of the two +areas in a long enduring and prestigious Egyptian civilization. Once +again geography was laying down the guide lines within which +civilizations have been built up and liquidated. + +Thus far we have noted the role of physiographic factors that have led +to building the nuclei of empires and civilizations. They have been +parallelled by social factors as men took advantage of natural +opportunities to concentrate, feed and house ever larger human +aggregates. + +Empires and civilizations have been built up by comparatively large +numbers of human beings concentrated in relatively small spaces. +Wandering food gatherers and herdsmen ranged widely in search of game +and grass. Cultivators settled in villages from which they could work +the land. If crops were scanty, population was sparse. Only abundant +crops, dependable, season after season, provided the basis for large +settled populations. + +Large, settled populations, adequately supplied with the essentials of +life, enabled human beings to organize social centers in which a +comparatively few people, tending their animals and working the land, +could release a comparatively large part of the population to devote its +time and energy to trade and commerce, to industry and transport, to the +arts and sciences and to the organization, direction and administration +of large scale enterprises such as government, the military, +construction and the mobilization of sufficient labor power to carry on +and enlarge their enterprises. In its simplest essence this was +politics. + +Egyptian government, in its broad sense, rested on a class structured +society: the aristocracy, the priesthood, officialdom, businessmen, +highly trained scientists and engineers, skilled craftsmen and an +immense proletariat consisting of tenant farmers, peons, slaves and war +captives. + +At the top of the political structure was an absolute monarch who +wielded power that was limited only by the ambition, tolerance and +loyalty of his associates--nobles, priests, soldiers, businessmen and +political advisers, and by the willingness of the rural and urban masses +to work and fight for their overlords. A number of the monarchs +(Pharaohs) ruled for long periods--up to sixty years. It was during +these long reigns that the Egyptian Kingdom was organized, strengthened +and unified, the rule of the monarch was safeguarded; ambitious nobles +were placated or destroyed; and the leadership succession was determined +and assured. + +The nucleus of the Egyptian Empire was a dictatorship by a +self-perpetuated elite, headed by lords spiritual and temporal. Both +groups held land, accumulated wealth and exercised authority. It was a +government combining the theory of absolutism with the practice of +public responsibility. It was sufficiently arbitrary to get things done. +It was sufficiently inclusive to recognize and utilize special ability. +It was sufficiently structured to carry on from dynasty to dynasty. It +was sufficiently flexible to consolidate scattered communities into the +Old Kingdom, to unite Lower and Upper Egypt, to extend its authority +into Central Africa, the Near and Middle East and parts of Eastern +Europe, thus laying the foundations for history's most extensive and +long-lasting civilization during the period 3500 to 500 B.C. + +I have used the Egyptian example of nucleus organization because of the +phenomenal successes achieved by the Egyptians in maintaining an empire +for at least 3,000 years. For a considerable part of those thirty +centuries Egypt was top dog in the strategic area where Africa joins +Eurasia. + +The nucleus is the hub from which the spokes of empire and of +civilization radiate. The radius of authority and the vast stretches of +occupied, exploited territory constitute the circumference of the wheel. +The nucleus is the center of wealth and power surrounded by a cluster +of associates and dependencies. The control, direction and +administration of the nucleus is parallelled by the control, direction +and administration of the total complex--the empire and/or the +civilization. + +The development from nucleus to empire and from empire to civilization +creates three sets of political problems: those arising from the +administration of the nucleus; those arising out of contacts between the +nucleus and the circumference, between the associates and dependencies +and the nucleus, and those arising out of the determination of the +associates and dependencies to sever their connections with the nucleus, +win their independence, and take part in the unceasing efforts to +establish new nuclei, win the unending power struggle and shift the +power center. + +Relationship between nucleus and periphery are the normal outcome of the +expansion of a nucleus into an empire. Each growing urban center reaches +out for an extension of its territory; for the food and raw materials +required by a growing population; for markets that can absorb the goods +and services exported by the urban center to pay for its necessary +imports of food and raw materials. + +Politically speaking, the essential problem is to maintain a +relationship that will keep the imports coming in and keep the exports +going out. Imports may take the form of plunder seized by the strong in +contacts and conflicts with weaker neighbors; tribute paid by the weak +to the strong at the insistence of the strong, or trade in which each +side gains something. Empire building involves all three methods. + +In virtually all instances the nucleus is richer and stronger; the +periphery is poorer and weaker. In virtually all instances these +relative positions have been the outcome of military operations in which +each party has tried to impose its will upon its rivals. In each case +the spoils went to the victor, who forced defeated rivals to cede +territory, to pay tribute, to give hostages or in some other fashion to +agree upon a settlement that left the victor richer and stronger and the +vanquished poorer and weaker. + +Politically speaking, the relation of nucleus to periphery was that of +superior to inferior. Where the discrepancy was very great it resulted +in a relation of master and vassal or even master and slave. + +An empire or a civilization, consisting of a wealth-power center and a +periphery of associated and dependent territories and peoples, led to a +living-standard differential in favor of the center. It also involved +the establishment of a political apparatus strong enough to perpetuate +the relationship by collecting tribute and taxes from the weak and +depositing them in the treasure chests of the strong. The outcome was a +civil bureaucracy backed by a military or police strong enough to defend +and perpetuate an unpalatable superior-inferior position. + +Once established, both the civilian bureaucracy and the military +apparatus tended to maintain themselves, to extend their privileges and +strengthen their positions. Since controversial issues, domestic and +foreign, are generally decided by force or the threat of force, the +military became the strong right arm of authority. + +These confrontations and contradictions created three sets of political +problems: centralism versus localism; established central authority +versus provincial rights and self-determination; the concentration or +centralization of authority in the hands of a select few civilian and/or +military leaders, responsible to the central authority, who made on the +spot decisions and took action. + +Under the institutions and practices of civilized society, the select +few were in a position to call in the military which was organized for +emergency action and was constantly standing-by. The military was +trained, disciplined and held a monopoly of weapons. + +Civilizations frequently begin as commonwealths or federations forged in +the course of survival struggle. In any such struggle the military will +of necessity play a major role. As the competitive survival struggle +develops, one of the contending parties establishes its superiority by +winning military victory. In the course of this struggle the +commonwealth, a cluster of equals, yields place to the pattern of +empire--a center of wealth and authority with its associates, +subordinates and dependencies. + +The strong right arm of politics includes man-power, money and weapons. +The politics of civilization faces a simple mandate: establish, +stabilize and perpetuate a nucleus of wealth and authority; build around +the nucleus a periphery of associates and dependencies. + +Historically, the process was a long one extending through generations +and probably centuries. Throughout the struggle individuals must have +the necessities of daily life. Community activities must be housed, +equipped, staffed, supported. + +Pastoral and village life were based on a use economy. People produced +what they needed and consumed their own products. Each tribe, family, +village was a more or less self-sufficient unit. When they were +threatened or invaded people defended themselves as best they could. At +worst they abandoned their homes to the invaders and fled into the +forests, mountains or deserts. + +Towns and cities, with their industries, trade, commerce, their +permanent housing and capital equipment faced a radically different +situation. Since they could not carry their wealth on their backs they +must stay put and defend themselves or face irreparable losses. Defense +required careful, extensive, expensive preparations: walls, equipment, +stored food, personnel. Unless the city was sacked and burned during +survival struggles it remained as a vantage point to be held at all +costs. If surrendered and occupied by assailants, it was equally +valuable to invaders who were prepared to settle down, take advantage of +the site, the capital equipment and exploit the available manpower. + +Whether occupied by friend or enemy, towns and cities were centers of +actual or potential wealth and power. They were also consumers of goods +and services many of which could not be home-produced. Food must come +from herdsmen or farmers. Building materials must come from forests or +mines. Such raw materials, the essentials of daily life, must be brought +into urban centers when and as wanted. + +Food and raw materials could be secured occasionally by plunder. A +regular supply depended on trade and commerce, or on tribute levied and +collected periodically from associated or dependent peoples. In the long +run trade and commerce proved to be more reliable and more productive +than plunder. + +As urban centers grew and developed, they established regular channels +of trade and communication, by land and water. Along these channels +needed imports moved into the urban centers and exports in exchange +moved from the urban centers into the back country or the provinces. At +every stage in the process care must be taken to prevent intervention by +thieves, robbers or envious rivals. Two devices were used to meet this +situation: money to facilitate exchange and a defense organization to +deal with intruders. + +Money and its uses developed money changers, money lenders and banks. +Bankers and banks exchanged currency at a profit and extended credit. + +Weapons in the hands of trained personnel evolved into locally employed +police and centrally organized armed services, performing police +functions and fighting wars, domestic and foreign. + +Politics, local, regional or national, developed with the growth of +population, the profits of expanding urban life, production, technology. +As its scope broadened geographically city survival depended +increasingly on wealth and power (money and weapons). + +During periods of peace and stability the civil authorities controlled +public affairs. In emergencies, such as natural disasters, invasion, +civil or international wars, the military authorities took command. + +Military authority is an institutional feature of every civilization. In +periods of public danger it enjoys complete ascendancy. Like civil +authority, the military is a permanent and frequently the dominant +feature of each civilization. It is assured of ample income and +entrusted with the installations and implements of war making. Both in +income and in prestige the military holds a preferred position. + +Since military functions center about destroying the person and +property of the "enemy"--domestic or foreign--public funds are made +available or are pre-empted by the military during periods of martial +law. As a civilization becomes more complex and extensive, the funds at +the disposal of the military tend to increase. The same factors of +extent and complexity lead to larger and larger numbers of +confrontations and conflicts in which the military is called upon to +play the leading role. Increasingly, therefore, the military is at the +center of policy making. Finally a point is reached at which war, civil, +colonial or international is always in progress somewhere within the +territories occupied by the civilization. At such periods civil law +slumbers and military authority is more or less dominant and permanent. + +Under the slogan "defense of civilization," military necessity and +military adventurism shape public policy, empty the public treasury, +bankrupt and eventually destroy the superstructure of a civilization. + +The nucleus which lies at the heart of an empire or a civilization has a +political life cycle that runs from the unstructured or little +structured aggregation of confederation or self-determining local groups +to a highly centralized political absolutism holding and exercising its +authority by the use of the military. The steps in this process have +been clearly marked in earlier civilizations. They are playing a +decisive role in the day-to-day life of western civilization. They +extend from early forms of government under leaders selected or elected +by popular acclaim or at least by popular consent, to more or less +permanent leadership enjoying many political privileges, including the +selection of its successors. + +Under the pressure of social emergency, engendered within the social +group or imposed from outside the group by migration, intrusion or +invasion, leadership takes the measures which it considers necessary to +preserve and/or extend its authority. Each emergency offers leadership +an opportunity or an excuse to by-pass custom and/or law, overlook +whatever public opinion may exist and proceed to the measures needed to +meet the emergency. In each organized social group the exercise of +authority has provided the leadership with a near-monopoly of money and +weapons in the hands of a permanent military elite. The use of this +elite to deal with the emergency is accepted by civil authority as a +matter of course. + +When social division of function has produced and armed a military +elite, leadership turns to this elite in any emergency arising from +natural disaster or social crisis. The outcome is a community directed +by a military arm seeking to perpetuate and enlarge its own role in the +determination and exercise of public authority, using any means which +seems likely to produce the desired results. + +Politically, therefore, any expanding empire or civilization reaches a +point at which absolute monarchy, exercising unquestioned authority, +makes and enforces public policy by the use of the military or with its +help. + +Many commentators write as though the essence of civilization was its +art galleries, concert halls, its universities and its libraries. Such +agencies are the trappings, decorations and fringes of a civilization. +There is no justification for such a selective approach. The strong +right-arm of every civilization has been its wealth (money) and its +martial equipment (its guns). + +Success in politics has been described as the art of selecting the +possible and bringing it to fruition. Every community is more or less +fragmented by deviations, contradictions, confrontations and conflicts. +These fragmentations begin in the personality and extend through the +entire social structure--from the individual, through the family, such +voluntary associations as the sports club, the trade union, the +merchants' association, the educational system, the political party, the +municipal or the national government. + +Unrestrained and undirected social fragmentation leads to conflict, +destruction, perhaps to chaos. Success in politics rests on an +understanding of the chaos and its causes and an integration of +conflicting forces behind specific programs and around charismatic +personalities. + +One aspect of the problem is especially disturbing and baffling to the +uninitiated. Compared with the brief adulthood of an individual the life +span of communities is immensely long. The individual is at his or her +best for a few years or decades. Communities and their institutions +endure for hundreds and in some cases for thousands of years. Under the +most favorable conditions an individual can hope to play a part in +community affairs for a decade or two. Before he comes on the stage of +public affairs and after he leaves it, social life stretches +indefinitely. + +Politics is one aspect of that more or less extensive social experience. +Its immediate objective is to bring order out of chaos and replace +randomness by purpose and if possible by plan. + +In the wake of the bourgeois revolution, which was directed particularly +against monarchy and generally against absolutism, the most obvious and +attractive social pattern was a republic, ruled by the citizens in a +manner which in their opinion was best calculated to promote their +safety and happiness. + +Under a republican government public affairs would be openly and freely +discussed by the citizens at a time or place of their choice by word of +mouth, through a free press or in public gatherings. At stated intervals +elections would be held at which all citizens of proper age would select +representatives and a legislature or parliament where questions of +public concern could be debated and appropriate measures adopted. +Implementation or execution of these measures would be placed in the +hands of executive officers responsible to the parliament. As a +safeguard against any miscarriage of the public will, the right of +petition was guaranteed. In some instances the right of referendum and +recall was provided. To obviate any miscarriage of justice, provision +was made for courts, responsible to the citizenry, as an independent arm +of government competent to protect and assert popular rights. + +Overall, citizens of the republic, through duly elected representatives, +would draw up and proclaim a constitution containing a general plan of +the governmental machinery. When adopted by the legislature or +parliament this constitution became the law of the land. Governmental +activities were carried out and laws were enacted in conformity with +constitutional provisions. In practice the citizens of the freest +republic were face to face with one of the oldest political dilemmas +confronting mankind: the question of leadership and followership. + +In almost any social situation, from trivial to grave and critical, some +one woman or man volunteers advice and often initiates action. If no one +approves, the initiative falls flat. If there is a chorus of approval, +the crowd follows the lead of its spokesman. If some approve while +others disapprove or remain silent, a show of hands is in order. If +there are real differences in the group, some taking one side, some +another side with no chance of common action, the group may divide into +several factions, some remaining in the assemblage, others departing, +with their spokesmen leading the way. + +In such confrontations there are many determining factors, the +experience and wisdom of the leadership; the urgency of the subject +under discussion; the depth of the separation between opposing factions; +the experience of the citizenry and their willingness to compromise on +divisive issues; the willingness of the factionalists to abide by a +majority decision. + +Experienced leadership, which has enjoyed a period of public approval +long enough to build up not only a group of devoted followers, but a +group of place-men and office-holders who owe their positions to the +leader, can assemble a bureaucratic or political machine, adopt measures +and take the steps necessary to keep its chosen leader in a life job, +with the possibility of naming a successor. + +Republics have adopted various measures to prevent the establishment of +a self-perpetuating dynasty, by limiting public office-holding to a +stated number of years; by providing that the office holder may not +succeed himself. Political leaders may avoid such provisions by staying +in the background, having their closest associates elected to office, +and when their term is ended, secure the selection of other associates +upon whose personal fidelity they can rely. + +All such measures require that the leader keep the favor of a +considerable number of his constituents. To avoid this often difficult +or disagreeable task the leader and his close associates may persuade +their constituency to by-pass both constitution and parliament, enlist +the support of the military, seize power and establish an arbitrary +dictatorship of admirals and generals or establish a committee of +military leaders who will pick out civilian office holders willing to +follow the political line laid down by the military leaders. + +As republics gain in wealth, increase their power and broaden their +geographical base by bringing outside peoples under their sway, their +dependence upon military means of resolving public controversies becomes +greater. This is particularly true where outsiders brought under the +republic's authority have mature political institutions including their +own leaders and their own ways of dealing with public relations. + +Given such a situation, the control by the republic over the +policy-making apparatus of dependencies is likely to have been +established by force of arms. In such a case it is only a matter of time +and occasion when the dependency will demand the right of +self-determination and be prepared to fight for independence of "foreign +tyrants, oppressors and exploiters." + +Minor inexpensive military operations for the suppression of colonial +revolt which are quickly and successfully ended may add to the stature +of empire-building leaders. But major operations, long continued, +expensive and inconclusive, will undermine the prestige and weaken the +position of the most firmly seated imperialist. The Boer War against the +British and the wars waged by the Koreans and the Vietnamese against a +series of occupiers and exploiters are excellent examples of the +operation of this principle. + +As empire building proceeds under its inescapable expansionist drive, a +point will be reached at which the overhead costs of maintaining the +empire will exceed the income. As that point is approached in one after +another of the empires comprising the civilization, the central +authority will be successfully challenged by the dependent, colonial +periphery. Ordinarily, such challenges will coincide with the +inter-imperial wars which have periodically disrupted every civilization +known to history. When such a coincidence does occur, as it did in +western civilization from 1914 to 1945, the bell is likely to toll +loudly for the civilization in question. + +Measures usually adopted to prevent such a catastrophe--martial law, +military dictatorship, self-perpetuating monarchy, divine authority, are +more than likely to heap fuel on the flames of rebellion and lead into a +social revolution. + +An unstructured social group operating under the competitive principle +"Let him take who has the power" tends to develop into absolutism. At +any stage in the history of a civilization this development can take +place. + +Civilization, therefore, comes into being with this built-in +contradiction: the strong and predatory exploit the weak, but at a +certain point protect the weak and nurture the defenseless. Exploitation +by the rich and powerful is recognized and accepted as a prerogative +enjoyed by the rich and powerful. At the same time limitations are +placed on the character and intensity of the exploitation. + +This dichotomy is perpetuated by agreements, laws and constitutions +which guarantee the property rights and social privileges by which the +rich and powerful safeguard and increase their wealth and power. Under +the same agreements, laws and constitutions, the privileges and rights +of the defenseless and weak, are specified. + +Political institutions in every civilization, including that of the +West, have accepted and adopted a regulatory structure under which +limits are imposed on profiteering. The domestic life of a civilization +consists of an establishment within which exploitation can continue in a +manner which the constitution makers and legislators consider to be as +efficient as possible and as fair as possible to all of the parties +concerned. + +As a civilization matures, wealth and power (the means of exploitation) +are increased in volume and concentrated in fewer hands. The resulting +absolutism with its immense structure of wealth production and its +well-organized military arm, imposes conformity to its decrees, +servility, peonage and even slavery on the working masses. The masses, +in their turn, organize, agitate, demonstrate, strike, sabotage, and +periodically take up, arms in defense of their lives and their +livelihood. + +We are describing certain political aspects of a process of social +selection which has dominated one civilization after another. At the +present moment it has reached a critical stage in the West. We apply the +term "social selection" to the result of this process because there is a +parallel between the natural selection of the biologists and the social +selection which sociologists observe in the rapid and extensive changes +presently taking place in the centers of western civilization. + +Natural selection is a process in the course of which many compete and +contend while only a few survive and mature. + +Social selection is a similar knock-down and drag-out struggle in which +peoples, nations, empires and civilizations take part. Many enter the +contest but only a few live to write their story in the long and complex +history of civilizations. + +At the outset of such a contest, the European-Asian-African cradle of +the coming western culture contained numerous political +fragments--kingdoms, principalities, cities, city states, inert peasant +masses, migrating tribes--struggling locally and regionally for a place +in the sun, or for additional territory and extended authority. These +struggles reached the military level in local wars, regional wars, +general wars. In the course of this survival struggle, the weakest and +least effective contestants were defeated, dismembered and gobbled up by +their stronger and more efficient opponents. + +Local struggles--in the Near and Middle East, in North Africa, in +eastern, central and western Europe--were trial heats in the course of +which many contestants were eliminated, while the survivors continued +the process of city, nation and empire building at higher and broader +levels. It was only after five hundred years of such conflicts that the +outlines of western civilization took definite political form:--a group +of battle-hardened contestants, centered in Europe, heavily armed and +equipped, intent on protecting and enlarging their home territory and +extending their authority over dependencies and colonies in various +parts of the planet. + +This survival struggle continued for another three hundred years, down +to the beginning of the present century, reaching its highest level of +intensity between 1914 and 1945, with contestants from all of the +continents taking an active part. In this present round the contestants +are nations and empires, organized in ever-changing alliances. Some of +the contestants are old, scarred and battle weary. Others are young and +vigorous, recent entrants in the planet-wide contest for pelf, +possessions and power. + +During the later years of the struggle, after war's end in 1945, +erstwhile dependencies and colonies of the disintegrating European +empires declared their independence, joined the United Nations as +sovereign states and played active parts in the battle for survival. + +African development typifies the process during the later phases of +western civilization. When voyaging and discovery became a leading +activity of European nations around 1450 A.D. northern Africa was +directly involved, but the bulk of the continent--Equatorial +Africa--remained almost entirely untouched. After 1870 the pattern was +dramatically altered as British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and +Italian forces moved inland, staking out their claims. + +Division of Africa among the great powers reached its culmination when +this process was completed, about 1910, when the whole vast continent of +Africa excepting Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa had been parcelled out +among the rival European empires. In terms of geography and population, +Africa was still African. Politically it was pre-empted, occupied, +dominated and exploited by European empire builders, who used the over, +all trade name of western civilization. + +Excessive costs of empire building, including the disastrous losses of +military struggle from 1914 to 1945, impoverished and weakened the +European overlords to such an extent that they could no longer maintain +their footholds in Africa. At the same time African minorities in +various parts of the continent launched independence movements under the +slogan of self-determination, drove out the European occupiers, +organized political states and declared that Africa must be governed by +and for Africans. + +Much of Africa, at the time, was organized along tribal lines, which cut +across the boundaries drawn by the European imperialists between their +colonial territories. The resulting chaos temporarily removed Africa +from any meaningful role in the planet-wide contest for pelf and power. +Africans are politically sovereign. Economically and culturally they +remain dependent on their former European masters. + +Politically, western civilization is in a state of flux. Its European +homeland is basically divided by potent fears, ambitions, feuds and +conflicts, and separated geographically from North America and Asia. +Despite several attempts to unify the continent politically, Europe was +disrupted, fragmented and weakened by two general wars in a single +generation. The European empires were politically and economically upset +by widespread colonial revolt in Asia and Africa. Spectacular +achievements of socialism-communism, particularly in East Europe and +Asia, added to the previous fragmentation a new line of division between +capitalist West Europe and socialist East Europe. This process of +fragmentation is giving separatist forces ascendancy over the forces of +integration and unification. + +In Roman and Egyptian civilizations, the period of survival conflict led +to the centralization of wealth and authority. After five centuries of +suicidal competitive struggle, the European homeland of western +civilization is criss-crossed by sharp lines of division. Furthermore, +the shift of production and military power from Europe to North America +and Asia reduces the probability of speedy European integration. + +In the more important centers of western civilization the chief item of +public expenditure is preparation for a war of air, water and land +machines that may extend technologically into a nuclear war. While we +have no precedent that would enable us to gauge the consequences of an +extensive nuclear war it seems reasonable to assume that it would +further fragment an already fragmented European continent. + +The heavy burdens of militarism which western civilization is presently +carrying, have unbalanced budgets, which lead to inflation and to +onerous burdens of debt and taxes. It seems unlikely that a group of +warfare states like the top western European powers can escape the +economic contraction which presently threatens them and regain solvency +and stability through fiscal reforms or readjustments in tariffs and +trade. + +Our analysis of the politics of civilization may be summarized in four +general statements: + + 1. Each civilization has consisted of a cluster of empires, + nations and peoples which at some previous period have + enjoyed independence and sovereignty. + + 2. Relations between these erstwhile sovereign units have + been determined by a shifting mixture of diplomacy and + armed force, with war playing a determining role in the + process. + + 3. In the course of survival struggle, political leadership within + the civilization has shifted back and forth as one group + has succeeded in establishing and maintaining its authority + over the entire civilization. + + 4. A general axiom of the politics of civilization might read: + + At the conclusion of each war among civilized peoples + the victors are entitled to make the following declaration: + We operate under the Law of the Jungle: "Let him take + who has the power and let him keep who can." We have + the power. We have grabbed the real and personal property + of our neighbors and we propose to keep it. Our + friends are welcome to attend our Feast of Victory. Let + our enemies beware. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +THE ECONOMICS OF CIVILIZATION + + +Politics involves the exercise of authority--the policy making, +planning, control, direction and administration of a community. Economic +forces provide the wealth, income and livelihood--the wherewithal upon +which a community depends for its physical existence, its survival, its +geographical extension, the continuance of its life cycle. + +There is no sharp line separating economics from politics. While the two +fields are different in character and scope, they are so interrelated +and interwoven that any successful attempt to separate them would leave +the inquirer with two segments of a lifeless social cadaver. In the +course of this exposition it will become increasingly evident, as the +political and economic lines cross and re-cross, that the two fields are +inseparable parts of a total body social. + +One civilization after another has begun with a predominantly rural +economy that has become increasingly urban as it matured. Food +gathering, pastoral life and small scale agriculture were rural. Trade, +commerce, manufacturing and finance, concentrated populations, increased +division of labor, specialization, inter-communication and +interdependence produced the trade center, the commercial metropolis and +the general purpose city. + +Herdsmen and land workers, dependent on grass and rainfall, lived close +to the subsistence margin and were at the mercy of forces they could not +control. Traders and money changers, with an eye for business in a +growing marketplace made a more ample living. At the same time the more +successful among them accumulated capital which they loaned or invested +in stocks of goods, shops, warehouses, caravans, ships. By hiring +labor-power they multiplied their own limited physical capacities. By +investing in varied enterprises they assured themselves against possible +loss in any one of them. They also multiplied the possibilities of +profit. + +Trade, finance and commerce, by producing a regular flow of abundant +income, brought into existence a new field of occupations and a new +class--business and the businessmen. Herdsmen and farmers depended for +their livelihood on nature, her niggardliness or generosity. The +businessmen required only the presence of a group large enough to +purchase goods and services, pay rent and interest, work for wages and +leave the profits to the enterpriser. Each profit beyond the subsistence +level enabled the businessmen to expand, buying more goods, hiring more +labor, making still greater profits. + +Communities of businessmen pooled their profits, extended their markets, +built fleets, enlarged cities. Through joint action they engaged in +plundering expeditions and collected tribute from their victims. +Organized fabrication turned out the goods and services which were +marketed for profits. The resulting wealth enabled the successful +businessmen to build houses, stock them with consumer goods and art +treasures, hire servants, live sumptuously. Productivity, wealth, +prosperity filled their honey pot to overflowing. + +Honey pots provide the "good things" of life for their owners. They also +tempt outsiders. Honey-pot owners fear pilfering by their servants; fear +sponging by their relatives, friends, neighbors; fear robbers and +kidnappers; fear migrating hordes on the lookout for plunder. Defense is +a necessary aspect of each rich household, neighborhood, city, nation, +empire, civilization. + +The sequence from productivity, through prosperity, wealth accumulation, +abundance and the measures needed to defend and safeguard the +accumulations, leads to an affluent community or society. It also calls +into being new and distinctive class forces. + + I. The business class (hucksters and profiteers), a self-seeking, + aggressive group of adventurers, promoters and + organizers of bourgeois society to whom _profit_ comes + first. At one or another stage in the life cycle of every + civilization aggressive bourgeois greed for wealth and + power makes itself felt. Their role in western civilization + has been outstanding. The business class through + its control of the productive apparatus and the sources + of credit has been able to surround itself with subordinates, + scientists and other experts, apologists, strong-arm + squads (police and military), spies and assassins. + + II. A middle class, made up of business class subordinates + plus self employed tradesmen, professionals, independent + farmers and craftsmen. + + III. A class of blue collared and white collared producers of + goods and services who hold their jobs during good + behavior. When not needed or wanted they are pushed + into the ranks of the partially or wholly unemployed. + Most civilizations have added to the working force serfs, + peons and/or chattel slaves. + + IV. A class of hangers on--economic parasites--who consume + more than they produce. The payment of unearned income + to property holders and the creation of monopolies + enables this class to live on rent, interest and profit in + proportion to their ownership. As parasitism increases + and multiplies it proves to be a dead weight which + eventually drags down any economy that tolerates it. + + V. A class of dependents, defectives and delinquents, supported + by society but contributing little or nothing to + its maintenance or its advancement. + +Every civilization has maintained a greater or lesser degree of mobility +between the classes. Mobility makes it possible for those with greater +ability and energy to leave the countryside, settle near the +market-place and climb the ladder of success. It has also made it +possible for policy makers to dump those whose services are no longer +needed or wanted by the ruling oligarchy. + +Among the driving economic forces in a civilization are hunger, fear, +greed, ambition. In practice these forces have proved far more effective +than whips and clubs in the hand of slave drivers. They animate the +rat-race for pelf, power, "success", which attracts idealism, energy, +ability and throws out the carcases of those no longer able to make a +contribution to the wealth and power of the oligarchy and its +establishment. + +Hunters, herdsmen, cultivators, craftsmen, mariners, miners perform +services that maintain the solvency of any economy in which they play a +leading role. Fast talkers, adventurers, promoters, manipulators, +gamblers add little or nothing to the income of the communities in which +they operate. Often, however, as gargantuan consumers, they play an +important role in building up the deficits which finally wreck an +economy. + +Accumulations of wealth in market centers tempts the ambitious and the +adventurous to enter the rat-race and grab more than their pro-rata +share of the honey. The most obvious way to do this is to secure +possession of the honey pot. + +Far away, in the tribal past of a civilization, lay a period of scarcity +in which the members of the community shared the scarce income or +starved. As the tribal wealth increased, the leaders, their families and +retainers got more than a fair share of the available goods, services, +preferment, privileges. At a very early stage the "ants" stored away +what they could spare, while the "grasshoppers" had a "good time". +Investing their stored wealth in land or productive enterprises the +"ants" added unearned income to their normal earnings from productive +labor. + +Because the "ants" held the wealth of the community they were able to +exercise authority and determine community policy. One result of their +decisions was the creation of titles to land and stored wealth. A second +result was the institution of property-custom and later of property-law +under which those who owned property enjoyed special privileges which +gave them still larger shares of the community wealth and income. + +Wealth ownership and the exercise of authority, concentrated in one +person or family, created a basic division in the community between +those whose livelihood depended on their labor and those whose income +was determined by their ownership of property and their exercise of +authority. In the course of time this development divided the community +into a property-owning, governing minority which was wealthy, and a +property-poor majority whose livelihood depended upon the willingness of +the property holding minority to use their land and productive +implements in operations that turned out goods and services. + +Property ownership and income were protected by law. Labor income +depended on the bargaining power of the property-less majority. Property +income yielded wealth to the property owners. Labor income, under the +pressure of competition in the labor market, yielded only subsistence. +Thus the community was divided into owners and workers. The owners +controlled and spent or invested the income. The workers were provided +with the necessaries and a few crumbs of comfort. + +Private property and property law supported by state power +institutionalized a basic division in every civilization. One segment of +a civilized community enjoyed wealth and power; other segments produced +goods and performed services. The owners were rich; the producers were +poor. Riches side by side with poverty are characteristic features of a +civilized society. + +Exploitation has been the economic backbone of every civilization from +earliest times to the present day. Each civilization has exploited and +used up its natural resources. In every civilization individuals, +groups, classes and sometimes castes have exploited or used up fellow +humans and fellow creatures to suit their own purposes and advance their +own interests. + +Abraham Lincoln gave a classical definition of human exploitation in a +simple sentence: "It is the principal that says you work and toil and +earn bread and I will eat it." + +Exploitation of nature and of fellow beings by man began long before +written history. During periods of civilization, and notably in +present-day civilization, exploitation has determined social +relationships. It has also become one of the pillars of every civilized +community. + +Civilized peoples use up natural resources as a matter of course. The +more advanced technically have stripped their environments of +replaceable and irreplaceable resources. They have also perfected +techniques for using the productive power of their fellow creatures. One +way to do this is by owning the body. Another way is ownership of land, +capital and consumer goods which enable the owner to live without labor +on the products resulting from the labor of others. + +Owners of property and wealth receive an income because they are owners. +They may be very young or very old, able-bodied or helpless. Their +livelihood comes to them not because of anything they do, but because of +the property titles which they own. + +The owner of land may collect rent. The owner of capital may collect +interest. The owner of an enterprise may collect profits. Each lives by +owning. + +Workers produce goods and services. They are paid an income proportioned +to their production. + +Owners of land, capital and consumer goods are paid incomes proportioned +to their ownership. + +Workers work for a living. Owners live by ownership, chiefly of land and +the implements of production. + +Owners of property frequently are rich. Workers, by comparison, are +poor. The line separating owners from workers also separates riches from +poverty. + +Income from services rendered, from work, is earned income. Income from +property ownership, by contrast, is unearned income. + +The relation between earned and unearned income is not confined to one +generation. Under laws passed by the owners and their retainers the +owners of private property may give or bequeath this property to their +descendants. In the course of time a community is divided between +workers who are poor and owners who are rich. Since the rich need not +work in order to live, they and those associated with them may live on +the unearned income derived from property ownership. In a word, they may +become parasitic. + +Parasitism may lead to social decay. Generation after generation, the +owners and their dependants may live in comfort or even in luxury while +those who work and their dependents may lack simple necessities. This is +the confrontation of riches and poverty which has played so large a role +in every civilization. + +Through the ages, in one civilization after another, the glaring +contrast between riches and poverty has appeared, dividing the community +and laying the foundation for class struggle and class war, both of +which decrease social efficiency, intensify class antagonism. + +In the early stages of any culture cycle, barter is replaced by a money +economy. Money is a medium of exchange, usually issued by a public +authority and used in daily transactions, to pay tribute or taxes and to +meet other general expenses. In its earlier forms it is made of +relatively scarce materials that are in general demand, limited in +supply and easily divisible into smaller units. Gold, silver and other +metals meet these requirements and have been used as money through the +ages. + +Cash money and promises to pay speed up wholesale and retail exchanges +in the market place. They fill the bill in normal times. But there are +emergencies and other exceptions. One of the commonest of the +emergencies is war. + +In a previous chapter we pointed out that war is a characteristic +feature of a civilization that has passed the top-point of its expansion +and begun to decline. Then the chickens come home to roost. Civil war, +colonial wars and wars between imperial rivals follow each other, +creating emergencies in which demand for certain strategic goods and +services rises steeply, with no corresponding increase in supply. Prices +increase. The common defense requires immediate purchase of supplies. +The public treasury is exhausted. The government borrows from money +lenders (bankers). It also prints paper money and puts it in +circulation. + +If the credit of the government is good, if the emergency is of short +duration, matters right themselves and the economy survives without +serious derangements. But war-emergency disrupts and sometimes destroys +an economy. This outcome often results from military defeat. + +Another exception to normal economic transactions is buying on +credit--buying today and paying tomorrow. The temporary gap between +purchase and payment is filled by credit--a promise of the purchaser to +pay later and the confidence of the seller that the bill will be paid. +Such credit transactions are covered by notes, bonds and mortgages made +out by the buyer and accepted by the seller. Until the debt is settled, +the borrower pays the seller interest at an agreed rate. Bankers enter +the picture, providing capital and collecting interest on their loans. + +Where credit is abundant and relatively cheap, borrowers spend beyond +their incomes, hoping to pay later when the loan falls due. Borrowing +and over-spending are among human frailties. They are also forms of +risk-taking or gambling. Who knows whether the banker who promises to +pay on demand will be alive and doing business next week when his +promise to pay is presented for settlement? When the promise to pay is +issued by a government which decides the value of currency, and accepted +by that government as payment for taxes and other obligations, it is +more readily acceptable than paper issued and guaranteed by an +individual money lender or banker. + +Each civilization has had a background of simple use economy--food +gathering, animal husbandry, agriculture--in which most of the people +produced what they needed and consumed what they produced. Such an +economy employs money rarely. + +In a money economy those who have cash use it to pay their bills or +settle their accounts. + +Those who buy on credit pay interest to money lenders. The money +lenders, later the bankers, make their profits by helping others to +spend beyond their own means. The money-lender also accepted loans from +others, promising to pay them back at a later date, and giving the +lender a piece of paper, specifying the amount of the loan. The paper +promise to pay became a bank-note, passed from hand to hand. It had no +intrinsic value, but as the money lender promised to pay cash for the +note on demand, it was accepted in payment of debts or for the purchase +of commodities. + +When a shirt-maker turns out a product and exchanges it for a pair of +shoes made by a shoemaker there are no overhead costs. Each producer +adds to his wardrobe an item that makes his life more satisfactory. + +Examples of simple barter are seldom found in market economies. +Civilized society assembles quantities and varieties of goods and +services in the market place, invites consumers to choose among the +wares and provides money to make transactions quick and easy. Civilized +society supplements money with credit on the principle: buy and use +today; pay tomorrow. Civilization goes beyond these bare essentials of +merchandizing by furnishing transportation and communication, making +long term loans at interest, writing insurance, developing the +techniques of accounting and management. Customers who visit the market +have basic human needs--the necessities of life. Beyond these +necessaries, there are conveniences, comforts, luxuries. The markets of +civilization cover the entire range of human needs and human wants from +necessaries to luxuries. + +Civilized merchandizers take two other steps aimed to activate +consumption. They develop new lines of merchandise that will have more +customer appeal, leading to new wants. They also advertise new wares +that will create new wants, bring back old customers and attract new +ones. + +For the foot-weary customer who has shopped away his energy and +enthusiasm for buying more and more, a civilized marketplace furnishes +food and shelter, recreation, entertainment and culture--beer, +libraries, concert halls and circuses as well as food, clothing and +shelter. + +These multiple functions of a civilized economy are part and parcel of +the changes which have converted the simple barter deal of exchanging a +pair of shoes for a shirt into a specialized, civilized market place. +They also cause civilized economies to devote far more time and money to +marketing goods and services than they spend in their manufacture. In a +broad sense, these supplementary costs are "overhead." + +Shirt makers and shoemakers convert raw materials and partly finished +goods into shirts and shoes. Operating costs of manufacture are minimal +in a civilized economy. The major items that go into the final price of +the product are overhead costs. + +Current accounting practices include in overhead: taxes, interest, +insurance and general items. Actually the price of goods and services in +a civilized economy includes minimal charges for raw materials and labor +and maximum charges for overhead. + +There is another phase of overhead which pyramids with each advance in +the extent and complexity of a civilization--taxes to cover the costs of +government. As the civilization expands and specializes, governmental +services multiply. The number of government workers grows in proportion +and often out of proportion to the total production costs. Expenses of +government rise and with them the corresponding need to increase taxes. + +Overhead costs in the village or small town are low. Much of the "public +service" is done by citizens who volunteer their time and energy. In the +centers of civilization public service is a profession, often well paid +and usually quite permanent. + +Expansion is a basic feature in the life of every civilization. +Expansion increases overhead costs. When American Indians made their +silent way through the forests or roamed the plains there was no +overhead. Each provided his own means of locomotion. With roads came +bridges. With roads and bridges came capital costs. As dirt roads gave +way to macadam and macadam to asphalt and concrete, as country roads, +winding over hill and through dale were replaced by graded superhighways +cut straight through or built over all obstacles, the cost per mile rose +fantastically. All of these added costs appeared somewhere in the tax +bills which citizens were required to pay. + +In any enterprise overhead costs rise in direct proportion to the extent +and complexity of the social order. As they rise, they increase the +prices of the goods and services which citizens (or consumers) must pay +for their livelihood. A good illustration of this principle is the price +of an identical acre of land: in the remote countryside; on an improved +highway; in the suburbs of a growing city and at the city center. + +Increasing wealth brings greater risks. Wealthy cities like wealthy +individuals and families must pay for their protection against robbery +and piracy; against extortion and expropriation. Among important +business enterprises insurance ranks high. The costs and profits of +insurance are suggested by elaborate insurance company buildings and the +high salaries paid to their officials. + +Insurance, usually a private overhead, comes high. Public insurance: +maintenance of law and order, crime and punishment, the secret and open +police, the armed forces, (land and sea and air) are vastly more +expensive. If, to these limited costs of overhead are added the costs of +militarism as a public enterprise and the ruinous costs of military +adventurism and its inevitable wars, the mounting costs lead to +insolvency and eventual economic and social ruin. + +Another overhead cost which plays havoc with civilized nations and +peoples is the support of a bureaucracy. Increased extent and complexity +exhaust the community capacity for voluntary service and lead into an +era where the volunteers who carried on the limited public activities of +a village are supplemented and eventually replaced by a constantly +growing body of public servants. Growing extent and complexity plus the +need for finding safe places for those who are useful to the rich and +powerful, widens and deepens the public crib. In large enterprises, +private as well as public, paper work employs a small army, which must +be fed and housed at a level worthy of "a great nation." Business +machines reduce the personnel necessary for a given social enterprise, +but their high capital and operational costs increase overhead. + +Another aspect of overhead costs is the multiplication of parasitic +professions. In simple villages, there are few body servants, no +able-bodied individuals who fetch and carry at the word of command, or +who only stand and wait for the moment when some whim, fancy or real +need may call for their services. + +Village life, with its limited area and still more limited resources, +has little economic surplus upon which parasitism can feed. There is +landlordism, of course, but the margin of surplus is small. The city, +the province, the nation, the empire present a different picture. +Parasitic professions abound and proliferate: money changers, money +lenders, realtors, confidence men, gamblers, fortune tellers, priests, +entertainers, artists, thieves, robbers, and prostitutes abound, consume +more than their share of the community income, without making an +equivalent return in production or service. Their support adds to the +social overhead. + +Another source of social overhead are the numerous followers of the +"something for nothing" cult who receive unearned income--an income +derived from civilization in its mature and its final stages. + +Broadly there are two types of income--earned income and unearned +income. Earned income is something for something--or return for goods +provided or service rendered. Unearned income is something for +nothing--an income derived from some monopoly, privilege, sinecure or +form of property ownership. + +Property in persons or things has been a characteristic feature of all +civilizations. Property owners, receiving rents, interest, dividends, in +proportion to the amount of property which they own are not called upon +to make equivalent return in exchange for their property--based income. +This personal parasitism of property owners is aggravated by provisions +of property law under which the owners of property can give, sell or +bequeath these sources of unearned income to family members, friends, +associates. + +Eventually, unearned income, handed on through generations, creates a +class or even a caste of citizens who live without rendering an +equivalent of services, on the labor of their fellows, adding a +significant amount to the total of overhead costs. + +Wealth ownership, the exercise of power, living in luxury on unearned +income, add to overhead costs, but are accepted as respectable in +civilized communities. Another and far less respectable form of social +parasitism is the manipulation of social forces in a way that will bring +the operator more than a fair share of social income with no equivalent +in service. Such is "politics" or "politicising." "Politics" as a +source of livelihood takes many forms, some less legitimate than others. + +The most usual source of office-holding is the humble work of the clerk, +handyman or messenger, responsible for carrying out the nagging routine +of government. Beyond this common labor of public service are public +servants skilled in their several professions. Beyond and above them are +department heads and still higher are the appointed or elected officials +responsible for the success or failure of a given public policy. + +Who are the occupants of town, city, state, and national positions of +authority and responsibility? Preferably they are elected or appointed +because of their popularity or are the successful product of civil +service examinations. At worst they are appointed as a return for favors +or else because they are relatives or friends of successful politicians +or their backers. + +Whatever its source and however efficient or inefficient its +performance, the body of paid public servants increases with the +expanding life of locality, region, province, state, nation and empire. +With its growth goes corresponding accommodations in wages and salaries, +office space and equipment and other routine outlays. Frequently the +increase of the emoluments of bureaucrats, especially at the higher +levels of authority and responsibility, creates sinecures which are +filled by parasites or by individuals who are engaged in shoring up the +bureaucracy rather than rendering a public service. The outlays +necessary to finance such a top-heavy bureaucratic fabric grow in direct +proportion to the age and rigidity of the bureaucracy, draining off +public funds into private coffers and adding uncompensated elements to +overhead costs. If inflation is a problem, at or beyond the apex of an +imperial epoch or cycle of civilization, financial costs rise +correspondingly. + +The chief overhead cost in every civilization is and has been war. +Examine the budget of the United States or any other leading civilized +power. From two-thirds to three-quarters of central government outlays +are for war in the past and preparation for war in the future. + +The net result of rising overhead costs appears in the history of all +previous civilizations. They are eating out the vitals of western +civilization while we write and read these words. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +THE SOCIOLOGY OF CIVILIZATION + + +Sociology is the science and art of association. + +Human associations range from kinship groups like the family, tribe and +clan to larger more complex groups like villages, towns, cities, +nations, empires, to still more inclusive leagues, federations and +civilizations. + +In a broad view, sociology includes politics, economics and ideology. +For the purposes of our social analysis, we have divided the field into +four separate categories, beginning with politics, continuing through +economics and drawing our study together under the general headings of +sociology and ideology. + +No civilization that we have studied can be regarded as an intentional +or projected or planned enterprise. On the contrary, civilizations have +developed and matured in true pragmatic fashion, taking one step after +another because their predecessors had followed this course or because, +given the human urges and the available natural and social +opportunities, the next step seemed to be determined by previous steps +plus the momentum of the enterprise. In the course of this development +an ideology was built up and modified in such a way as to justify and +strengthen the entire project. + +When William Penn received a grant of land from the English Crown, he +was already committed, ideologically, by the Quaker faith to Quaker +methods. Without ever seeing his proposed home across the Atlantic he +drew up a plan for his City of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia), and for +the organization and conduct of his enterprise. The entire project was +formulated in Penn's mind and put on paper. This is a good example of an +intentional community. + +No civilization so far as I know, has followed such a sequence. +Certainly in the civilizations with which we are most familiar, +political and economic forces, the principles of necessity and +availability have led to the formulation of an ideology that would +justify and promote the interests of the social group which was +controlling and directing the community or communities in which the +civilization was maturing. + +Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that each of the component +elements making up the expanding civilization--each people, city, state, +nation, empire--developed its own total culture pattern, subject to the +pressures mutually exerted by neighboring communities. The aggregate of +these culture patterns, separately and often antagonistically matured, +comprised a lesser totality called an empire and a larger totality +called a civilization. It is with this larger totality that we are +concerned. + +We propose to analyse the sociology of civilization under the following +headings: (1) the structure or anatomy; (2) the function, physiology, or +process; (3) motive forces in civilization; (4) contradictions and +conflicts, with a final section on the life cycle of civilization. + +The structure of human society consists of specialized economic, +political, administrative and cultural groupings assembled and +maintained in relationships that supply necessities, conveniences, +comforts, luxuries for the individuals, together with capital goods and +services for the social groups composing the civilization. + +In terms of social history the growth of structure has proceeded from +the horde, tribe and clan to the family, village, city, city-state, +nation, empire, civilization. These steps are not necessarily +sequential. Under varying social conditions they have been determined +and modified by particular historical situations. The smallest and most +intimate building block of human society has been the family. The +largest and most inclusive has been the civilization. The family as a +social group has existed for long periods, over wide areas, in immense +numbers. Civilizations have been few and often far between. They have +arisen out of particular historical situations, played distinctive +roles, written their own histories and made varying contributions to the +sum total of human culture. In the long time intervals and the wide +geographical distances that have separated civilizations human beings +have lived within more local and less complex social structures. + +Civilized human society is distinctive in structure. While it varies in +detail from one civilization to another, its broad outline is +unmistakable. Each civilization has been built, defended and perpetuated +in and around cities. + +Between civilizations, in time and space, most human communities have +been self-sufficient. Whether as food gatherers, pastoral people or +cultivators of the soil they have produced and consumed the food, +shelter, clothing, implements and weaponry required for their survival. + +The city, whether a political capital or a center of trade and commerce, +was sharply separated from the self-sufficient countryside. The city, by +its very nature, could not be self-sufficient. Food, building supplies +and raw materials were not produced inside the city limits, but must be +produced in the hinterland from which they were transported to the +cities. City dwellers devised means of paying for the production, +transportation and marketing of these necessary imports. The countryside +can and does exist independently of the city because it can provide the +goods and services on which its existence depends. The city, on the +contrary, cannot exist without the supplies produced in the hinterland +and transported to the city. + +Urban centers of civilization have for their background a pastoral and +agricultural source of food supplemented by fabrication, merchandising +and financing. Instead of the occupational uniformity of the +countryside, the city offers a wide range of occupations, increased +productivity, quick and substantial profits resulting in a build-up of +capital on one side and enlarged consumer spending on the other. +Consequently the successful competitor in the race for supremacy +develops productivity, accumulates wealth, expands capital spending, +enlarges the scope of the arts, thereby augmenting the city's +attractiveness to business enterprise and migrants from the hinterland. + +As the capital city grows in wealth and opportunity it requires larger +imports of food, raw materials, building supplies, manpower. Growing +internal need leads to greater external expansion. Economic, political, +administrative and cultural needs not only increase the demands of the +city on its existing hinterland, but they lead to a demand for a more +widely extended hinterland. + +The countryside is the goose that lays the golden eggs. The city +gathers, guards and eventually consumes the eggs or converts them into +capital forms and lives in part on this unearned income. + +The city is the mecca which attracts by its wide ranging opportunities. +It is also the center in which policies are made and offered to the +countryside as normal facts of life. The countryside accepts city +leadership including a higher wealth-power per capita ratio for the +city. + +Cities, with their accumulations of population and wealth, are walled or +otherwise defended. When danger threatens, countrymen often move inside +the walls until the danger abates. + +Cities and city life increase and expand with the growth and expansion +of civilization. Cities are the centers from which civilization grows +and expands. Historically, a number of cities or city-states have +competed for survival and supremacy. One by one they have dropped out of +the race or have been out-classed, defeated and/or absorbed by the +victors in the competitive struggle. One location proved to be more +advantageous than others. The inhabitants of one locality were more +skillful, more far sighted than those of rival localities. Many +competed. Eventually one survived the final round of struggle, emerging +as the nucleus of an expanding empire and a maturing civilization. A +protracted conflict raging first in Italy and later in the entire +Mediterranean basin, resulted in the Roman Empire and eventually in +Roman civilization. A similar series of struggles, this time +planet-wide, gave the British a taste of planetary supremacy in the +nineteenth century and opened the door wide enough to give the United +States oligarchy a glimpse of an American Twentieth century, which never +eventuated. + +Occupational differences within the city led to a differentiated class +structure. As the trading city developed, businessmen eventually played +a dominant role because they were able to command larger incomes, +accumulate more wealth and offer more aggressive leadership. + +Nuclei of both empire and civilization were associated with a cluster of +allies, client states, dependencies and colonies related to the center +by economic interests and by diplomatic bargains or political controls. +They paid tribute or taxes as the price of living within the defense +perimeter of the ruling elite, conforming to the chief aspects of its +culture and in emergencies taking refuge inside the city defenses. + +The city center made and implemented policy and provided local +leadership in emergencies. Inhabitants of the city enjoyed a superior +status and had a higher standard of consumer-living than most of those +who inhabited the countryside and the hinterland. + +A structured society based on division of labor and/or function enjoys a +competitive superiority over a classless community. The structured city +was not only richer than the countryside, but it was in a position to +provide leadership, to plan and implement policy and act more +effectively. + +A civilization consists of a cluster of associated allies, clients, +dependencies, and colonies bound together by economic, political and +cultural ties. Since armed force has been the chief instrument for +bringing these elements together, the agency responsible for exercising +armed force enjoys priority in a listing of the structural institutions +of civilization. + +Land owners, often acting as military chieftains, dominated the +hinterland of a civilization. The city was dominated by businessmen. The +unification of city and hinterland and the complex of cities and +hinterlands composing a civilization established a governmental +apparatus in which all ruling elements were represented. In the earlier +stages of a civilization there may have been assemblies or parliaments +composed of representatives of various interests. As the civilization +was unified by war, representation was replaced by some form of monarchy +in which one supreme commander, emperor or pharoah was the final judge +and arbiter. The monarch set up a network of public authority, regional +as well as universal, provincial as well as central, and garrisoned it +with professional soldiers and sailors paid by the monarch and +responsible to him. + +Corresponding with this political structure was an economic structure +consisting of a central treasury, a uniform system of weights, measures +and values, a system of spending priorities, decided by the central +authority, a source of income: taxes, tribute, booty, sufficient to +cover expenditures. + +A civilization which ran a chronic deficit--over-spending its +income--moved year by year, through debt, inflation, currency +degradation, and repudiation toward its own disintegration and ultimate +bankruptcy. The historical record is very clear on this point, +especially in Roman civilization and in western civilization after 1870. + +Most civilizations have had a body of religious institutions staffed by +a priestcraft, which has shared power with the economic overlords. +During certain periods in the long history of Egyptian civilization the +priestcraft held the balance of power. So great was its ascendancy that +the spoils of war and the gains of peace were shared by the temple +treasury and the royal treasury. In some cases the temple treasuries had +priority. + +All civilizations for at least five thousand years have had a +professional military of sufficient consequence to play a leading role +in policy making and to claim a lion's share of the spoils of military +victory. In some cases civil and military authority were merged in one +supreme commander--emperor, pharoah. At other times, notably in Rome, +after the fall of the Republic, the Pretorian Guard nominated and +appointed its emperors. + +Well up toward the summit of each known civilization, four groups have +shared authority and competed for supremacy: land-lords, wealth-lords, +war-lords and priests. Where these four major shapers of public policy +and directors of public administration were of like mind, they shared +wealth and power. When they differed, one or another enjoyed priority +and exercised some measure of control over the other three. + +Less personal, but of major concern among the institutions of +civilization were the channels of communication and transportation that +have played so decisive a role in the life of every civilization. Top +ranking among the means of communication were common language, spoken +and written on metal, papyrus, paper; a unified system of accounting and +cost keeping; permanent records. Among the means of transport were +waterways, including canals, viaducts, roads, bridges skillfully built +and kept in good repair. + +Another significant institution of civilization is the idea of +ownership, the division of property into public property and private +property and the right of the private property owner to do what he will +with his property, subject always to the over-riding principle of +eminent domain: the right of the community to expropriate private +property for public uses, with or without compensation. + +Another institution of civilization is the provision of public services +in addition to means of communication and transportation. These public +services include a water supply; the disposal of waste; public defense +of life and property; food and diversion (bread and circuses) for the +needy; fire prevention and fire fighting apparatus; educational +facilities, including libraries and reading rooms; outside recreational +facilities such as parks and play-grounds. All of these facilities could +be provided by the rich and powerful for themselves and members of their +families. They could be supplied more effectively and apportioned more +justly when they were public services open to all. + +The countryside lacks the financial and the administrative means of +providing a wide range of public services. Indeed, countryside dwellers +pride themselves on being able to provide necessary services on a +family, household or village basis. City dwellers learn to regard such +public services as a matter of public right. Their existence is a magnet +which draws a steady stream of migrants from the countryside into the +cities. + +Civilizations are dominated by business interests. It is for them to +provide facilities for the transaction of business, cash money, credit +instruments, installment buying, means for changing money, insurance, +discounting facilities. As a civilization grows in wealth and population +the political apparatus becomes a major employer, a major producer of +goods and services, a major purchaser of producer and consumer goods, a +major agency for borrowing, lending, insuring, in short a major factor +in the multitudinous activities of a commercial, industrial community. + +Classes, class interests and class lines are a part and parcel of all +civilizations. They are less rigid and more flexible than similar lines +existing in an agrarian community where land ownership plays so large a +role in determining social forms and social functions. In a static +agrarian community dominated by landlords, war-lords and the clergy, +rigid class lines help to hold the community together. In a community +dominated by business interests, both labor power and purchasing power +must be free to respond to demand and supply. This is as true in a +planned public economy as it is in a private enterprise economy. In +accordance with the same principle, facilities are provided for the +movement of individuals back and forth across class lines. + +The specialized, interdependent structure of civilization with its city +control of the hinterland, its products and inhabitants, enabled the +city-centered oligarchy to accumulate and concentrate wealth and +monopolize power, to skim the cream from the available milk, monopolize +the cream, distribute the skimmed milk judiciously and thus perpetuate +its ascendancy through generations and centuries. During periods of +expansion civilized communities develop a dynamism which maintains their +ascendancy. In subsequent periods of contraction form takes over, +imposing conformity on the status quo. + +During their periods of expansion civilizations are dynamic. Their +history records growth at home, expansion abroad, exploitation, +domestic and foreign under the pressure of effective motivating forces. +The resulting dynamism leads to the contradictions, confrontations and +conflicts which have studded the internal and external life story of +every civilization. + +Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of the dynamic functioning of +civilization is its growth in magnitude. It might be more accurate to +describe the process as an explosive expansion--explosive because rapid +and spectacular. + +Form limits function. At the same time function modifies and ultimately +determines form. The two factors are omnipresent and complementary. +Except for purposes of analysis they are two inseparable aspects of +every human society. Where form predominates, social status results. +Where function predominates fluidity, flexibility and dynamism are the +outcome. Rapid change occurs on the home front at the same time that it +is taking place abroad. + +Growth at home takes place in two fields. The first is the extension of +the homeland frontiers, broadening the geographical area of the nucleus +around which the civilization is being built. The second aspect of +growth involves an increase in multiplicity, variety and complexity and +perhaps also a higher level of quality. Increase in quality is an +optional feature of growth and expansion. Toward the end of a cycle of +civilization quality declines. + +For the record we list fourteen aspects of the domestic growth of +civilization: (1) population; (2) production of goods and services; (3) +trade, commerce, finance; (4)wealth, capital, income, capital +construction; (5) the defense establishment; (6) growth in numbers and +in variety of consumer goods and services; (7) specialization; (8) +formal education, literacy, learning; (9) advances in science and +technology; (10) growth in the arts; (11) rising standards of luxury for +the oligarchy and growth in the volume of the professional and technical +middle class and their living standards; (12) growth of the state +bureaucratic apparatus in its complexity and in the number of its +personnel; (13) growth of the sources of unearned income and especially +in the number of persons living on unearned income; (14) growth of +dependents, delinquents, criminals and other outlaws. This list is not +exhaustive, but it is indicative of the wide area in which domestic +growth takes place. + +Paralleling their domestic expansion, civilizations expand +geographically up to the point of diminishing returns, determined by the +growth of overhead costs. This process has taken the civilization, its +personnel, its institutions and practices into territory not heretofore +occupied, sometimes with the consent of the "foreigners", but more often +in the teeth of their determined and long-continued opposition. + +Expansion of a civilization is of necessity a movement from an urban +center and beyond the urban center. Each civilization has been built +around one or more urban nuclei which accepted and practiced expansion +as the primary law of their beings. + +Expansion takes many forms. It may be peaceful, as travel is peaceful. +It may be competitive, as trade is competitive. It may be economically +aggressive; the search for markets, for raw materials, for investment +opportunities carried on simultaneously by representatives of long time +rival cities, states, empires. It may be a movement for a place in the +sun; mass migration, colonization. It may take the form of planned +military invasion having as its purpose the conquest and occupation of +foreign territory; the subjugation of the citizenry of the conquered +lands; the establishment of an alien government in the conquered +territory; the reduction of the "natives" to the status of second class +citizens in their own homelands; exploitation of the natural resources; +the levying of tribute; the imposition of taxes and the expropriation of +moveable articles such as bullion, works of art and other treasure by +the invaders, conquerors and occupiers. + +Policies of expansion, conquest and occupation rely upon weaponry and +war-making as essential instruments. Historically their role has been +frankly recognized by builders of every empire and the leaders of every +civilization. All civilizations known to history prepared for war and +utilized war as the final arbiter in their pursuit of expansionist +policy. Empire builders and civilizers have taken it for granted that +might made right. The mighty, in terms of military striking power and +killing power, have fought over and inherited the earth. + +The practices of every civilization have centered about exploitation--of +natural resources, of labor power, of rivals in the race for supremacy, +of weaker and less aggressive peoples. Expansion gives the ruling +oligarchy of the expanding nation, empire or civilization command of the +strategic vantage points from which the principle of exploitation can be +made continuously operative. + +We have dealt with exploitation in connection with the economics of +civilization (Chapter 7). Its central concept is the "you work--I eat" +formula. In sociological terms it extends far beyond livelihood, into +the relations of man with the natural environment (ecology); the +management and direction of labor power and policy making; social +administration and policy implementation, including policing of the +territories lying within the frontiers of the nation, empire or +civilization, plus contacts and relationships with territories lying +outside the frontiers: in short, with the success or failure, the +domination or subordination of the territory under consideration. + +Structurally and functionally a civilization cannot remain static. It +must expand or contract. If it expands, crossing frontiers and +penetrating areas heretofore considered foreign or alien, and proposes +to remain in those alien territories, it must have sufficient means at +its disposal to continue the administration of its home territory and at +the same time to take on the administration of the newly acquired +foreign territory. + +Home territory administration has as its broad purpose the utilization +of available means to attain its ends and serve its interests. +Administration of areas into which the home forces are penetrating must +attain the same ends and serve the same interests on the "you work--I +eat" axiom. Unless the newly acquired territory can attain those ends +and serve those interests it is a liability, not an asset, and its +continued existence will pose a threat to the expansionist venture. + +Natural resources, plus labor power, plus effective management and +direction must be integrated in the interests of the entire enterprise. +Self determination is of secondary consequence, coming into play only +after the interests of the whole have been assured and safeguarded. + +There is of course the collective principle under which the interests of +the whole can be best served through the cooperation of its component +elements. But this is a horse of quite another color. It presupposes the +willingness of the respective parts to enter voluntarily into a +cooperative relationship. Sociologically speaking this is the antithesis +of the situation we have been considering: expansion and exploitation in +the interests and for the purposes of the expanding forces. So long as +expansion and exploitation are accepted and practiced as the basic +principles of any community, so long independence and self-determination +will be irrelevant and inimical to the dominant elements in the nation, +empire or civilization under consideration. + +Under the "you work--I eat" formula natural resources will be utilized +in the manner best calculated to advance the interests of the ruling +oligarchy. Who will be the judge, jury and executioner in the case? Who +else but the concerned ruling oligarchy? + +In the history of civilization this principle has been followed +systematically. The forests have been cleared away, the land has been +overgrazed, cultivated and exposed to the erosive attacks of sunlight, +air, water and frost. Wood from the forests has been hauled to the +cities and burned, has been used to construct palaces and temples, +houses and ships, with no recognition of the principles of priority or +renewal. If wood was available where must it go? The oligarchy decided +the issue in terms of ostentation and expediency. Rarely during recorded +human history have there been oligarchs who said: "Irreplaceable +resources like minerals must be used with extreme economy. Replaceable +resources like forests or top-soil must be used and at the same time +replaced and if possible augmented." + +Decision making in the civilizations reported by history has been +chiefly in the hands of specially privileged minorities. The purpose of +these minorities has revolved around the provision of comforts and +luxuries for the decision makers and their dependents and the increase +of their wealth and power. Rarely has any ruling oligarchy said: "The +continuance of our privileges and our barest existence is the result of +labor power applied to natures gifts. We must safeguard nature and +improve the health and vitality of those who do the world's work. If, +due to unforeseen circumstances, over which we have failed to exercise +adequate control, there is some shortage, let the idler and the wastrel +suffer. Under all circumstances the producers must have all those goods +and services needed to preserve their productive efficiency." + +Through the entire course of written history the shrewdest, the +strongest, the best fed and most comfortably housed have gained wealth +and power, kept them and added to them. This has been the central +sociological principle followed by the wealth-owning, power-wielding +oligarchs of one civilization after another. Nature has been polluted, +despoiled, pillaged. Society has been exploited and plundered. Most +civilizations, during most of their history, have been led and ruled by +the rich and powerful, who have used their wealth and power to advance +their own interests, with scant respect for the hewers of wood, the +drawers of water and the tillers of the soil. Those at the imperial +center have milked the periphery. Cooperation has been occasional and +confined largely to pre-civilized communities. In all civilizations +exploitation has been the rule; the exploitation of nature, of labor +power and of the social fabric. + +The record of natural resources exploitation is well known. Paul Sears' +_Deserts on the March_; Fairfield Osborn's _Our Plundered Planet_; +William Vogt's _Road to Survival_, and Rachel Carson's _Silent Spring_ +tell the story of the misuse and the extravagant abuse of nature. The +record of labor power exploitation is less publicized. + +Food gatherers like the North American Indians had no machinery and a +minimum of implements or weapons. They migrated with the weather and the +available game, traveling with their possessions. Herdsmen also moved +about in search of pasture. Land workers faced four new problems. They +must stay with their land and make a weather-proof habitat in dwellings +and villages. They must make the implements needed for farming, building +and defense against marauders. They must accumulate and preserve enough +food to carry them from one harvest to the next. They must improve and +beautify their artifacts and constructs. Traders added a fifth +must--they must produce and accumulate stocks to meet the needs of +various customers as well as their own greed for profits. + +Successive stages, from food gathering to trading and manufacturing, +required more energy--human energy, animal energy, and eventually +mechanical energy. Part of this energy enabled humans to survive, +another part enabled them to multiply. Still another part made it +possible for one portion of the population to live without productive +work on the work output of their fellow creatures. This exploiting +minority was headed by land owners, soldiers and priests. + +Landowners built themselves and their dependents strong houses and +castles. Much of the labor power that went into this construction was +"forced." The laborer gave the landlord labor time in exchange for the +privilege of working part of the land for his own support. Soldiers +defended the landlord and joined plundering forays on the territory of +neighbors. The priests, in exchange for sustenance, mollified "higher +powers" and built temples in which the people could gather, worship and +be admonished. + +Farsighted, energetic, resourceful men (and women), using mass +productive energy, built themselves castles, built their priests temples +and mobilized serfs, war captives and slaves who worked in gangs for +generations and centuries to assemble the raw materials, construct and +decorate the buildings, and perform the services needed to operate the +enterprises and to provide their owners and masters with the +necessaries, comforts, luxuries. + +As centers of civilization grew richer and more powerful they defeated +neighboring peoples, brought some of them home as war captives and +exacted from their defeated rivals promises to pay yearly tribute in the +form of timber, metals, food and often of slaves. + +Mobilization of energy resources had been proceeding on a small scale +for ages. Successful civilizers made this one of their chief tasks, +mobilizing energy forces and materials and using them to build palaces, +temples, mausoleums and whole city complexes with appropriate defenses +against marauders and other enemies. + +Administrative networks, adequate to produce such results, planned and +directed the construction and administered and policed the operations. +Using elaborate techniques of communication, transportation, +fabrication, beautification, accounting, planning, initiative, +leadership, mobilization, maintenance and replacement of labor power, +imposition and sharing of authority, discipline, adjustment to deviation +and opposition, means for dealing with revolt and rebellion, the +builders of civilization performed their necessary tasks. + +As civilizations have matured they have grown at the nucleus, expanded +abroad and experimented more or less successfully with various means of +exploiting nature, man and human society. Most of the competitors for +survival and supremacy dropped out or were forced out in the course of +continuous survival struggles. + +Survivors of the obstacle race dealt successively with personal +rivalries; class conflicts; civil wars; dictatorships; tyrannies; with +overhead costs that grew more rapidly than income; with empty +treasuries, inflation, depression, economic stagnation; with increases +in top-heavy bureaucracies; with parasitism; with hooliganism; with the +growing role of the military in decision making and administration; +sharing the honey-pot with migrants and invaders; with rivalry and power +struggle at home and abroad; with division, fragmentation and eventual +dissolution. + +Any student of the sociology of civilization must turn from this +analysis of function with the conviction that whatever the advantages of +civilization as opposed to earlier phases of human association, the +pattern of civilization in action is workable only to a very limited +extent. Civilization is not an example of perpetual motion. Rather it is +a social life cycle, with a beginning and an end, and a peck of +troublesome contradictions and conflicts in between. + +Civilization is an integrative process. During the course of its +competitive survival struggle, potential building units of an expanding +civilization are tested out and included or rejected in much the same +way that a stone-mason checks and tests the individual stones of which +his wall is being built. The analogy is not entirely accurate. A wall +becomes a completed part of a total structure. A civilization is a +process of existence from conception and birth to dissolution and death. +At any point in the process there is a delicate balance between +integration and disintegration. As a matter of fact, both integration +and disintegration exist and act, constantly, side by side. If the +integrative forces are in the ascendant, form is built and function is +accelerated. If the disintegrative forces are dominant, form breaks down +and function stagnates. + +This shifting balance and/or imbalance with its resulting build-up +and/or break-down exists geographically, biologically, sociologically. +It can perhaps be best described as successive change. It cannot be +referred to as evolution except in its integrative aspect. +Disintegratively it becomes devolution. + +Civilization is a result of sociological build-up at a certain cultural +level. It has not been universal in all human societies, but +exceptional, both in time and in geographical space. + +What has caused the pattern of civilization to appear, disappear and +reappear again and again during the period of written history? + +There have been many answers. The most general answer is divine +intervention by beings above and beyond mankind. Whether such +intervention has taken place or is taking place, human beings are unable +to say with finality, but several thousand years of recorded history, +plus our own daily experience provides convincing proof that the +political, economic, ideological and sociological constructs which have +appeared and disappeared in the course of social history are, at least +in large part, the products of human brains and human hands. They are +man-made. + +The social pattern of civilization, like other social patterns which +preceded civilization and which continue to exist side by side with +civilized communities, is the result of human ingenuity and human +energy, of human inertia, ineptitude, and the human urges to build, +decorate and destroy. + +Variety in human culture is caused by the variety in the human natural +environment, the human social environment and in man himself. + +Natural advantages exist and vary from place to place. There are fertile +valleys; there are also mountains and deserts. There are a few fine +harbors, but for the most part landings are difficult and dangerous. +Certain islands have become the bases of civilizations, but this is true +of only a very small number of many existing islands. + +Civilizations have flourished in certain climatic zones and not +elsewhere. At one historical period civilizations were established in +the tropics and semi-tropics. In the present period they are located +chiefly in temperate climatic belts. + +Another source of differences between civilizations is the variation and +the adaptability of certain peoples to the peculiar conditions out of +which civilization grows. + +Still another explanation of the presence or absence of civilization in +particular times and places is the "great man" theory of history. All +human communities, pre-civilized and civilized, have had gifted leaders +whose thoughts and actions have brought about social changes. These +"greats" were the divinely, ideologically or sociologically inspired. +Divine inspiration or revelation led to the founding of religious +faiths. Ideological and sociological inspiration resulted in domestic +cultural changes and the extension of economic, cultural and ideological +activities into foreign lands, thus pushing the frontiers of nations, +empires, and civilizations farther from the chief wealth-power centers. + +Thomas Carlyle wrote that history is the lengthened shadows of a few +great men. Arnold Toynbee concluded from his _Study of History_ that +religion has been a prime motive force in the building and preservation +of civilizations. + +Technology has been a motive force of hard-to-define importance in +revitalizing, changing, expanding and perpetuating civilizations. +Increased productivity, expressing itself as increases in income, +accumulated wealth and various forms of capital investment, have +provided the economic basis for population growth and the more effective +exploitation of natural resources and labor power, advances in the means +for transportation and communication, accounting, planning management +and "defense." + +Among the social motive forces responsible for the development of +civilization is the accumulation of wealth in an impoverished world. The +most important single factor in this connection was the development of a +class of businessmen in a society dominated by landlords, churchmen and +soldiers. Landlords, churchmen and soldiers lived during periods of +animal husbandry and primitive agriculture on the very narrow margins +produced during bountiful harvests. When harvests were bad, husbandmen +and farmers were reduced to starvation levels. Lacking means of storage +and refrigeration as well as facilities for transporting heavy materials +such as food, fuel and building materials, pre-civilized society +accumulated wealth slowly in mobile forms (precious metals and jewels) +and made few productive investments. + +The advent of trade (business) and the trading class created a small but +potentially powerful class whose income and wealth were not derived from +direct contact with nature but came from trade, money changing, lending, +insuring and other activities associated with the accumulation and +investment of wealth in profit-yielding enterprises. Only in a secondary +sense did business depend on animal husbandry or agriculture. As their +primary task businessmen devoted themselves to the exploitation of labor +power and the storage and merchandising of the products turned out by +herdsmen, farmers, craftsmen. Part of their profits went into more +elaborate standards of feeding, clothing and housing themselves and +their dependents. Another, and a more crucial part of their profits went +into ships, warehouses, and the implements used in converting raw +materials into consumer goods and services, transporting them to the +markets, displaying them and persuading consumers to diversify their +needs, purchase a greater variety of goods and services and thus +increase the number and profitability of business transactions. + +As this process mushroomed with the expansion of civilization, consumers +demanded a greater number of more expensive artifacts and consumer +capital goods, from housing and house furnishings such as bathrooms and +well-stocked kitchens to refrigerators, washing machines, air +conditioners, telephones, television sets, bicycles, automobiles and +elaborate recreation facilities and equipment. The expansion of mass +production and the mass market paced one another, constantly raising the +ante. + +Mass production, mass marketing and pyramiding profits resulted, first +and foremost in the enrichment of businessmen. Their riches +automatically pushed them into a position of pre-eminent importance from +which they were able to make public policy and utilize public authority +for the protection and advancement of their own class interests. It also +called into being a vast array of new professionals; teachers, +engineers, scientists, technicians, social workers and propagandists, +converting the "middle class" from a shadowy remnant of feudal society +into the largest class numerically and the most influential class +politically in the entire modern community. + +At the same time, economic enrichment and expansion increased the +importance of the war-making apparatus. The expansion of civilization +has involved a competitive struggle carried on constantly along several +fronts, economic, political, cultural, ideological. The means of +struggle in every civilization has included the military as a political +force and as a final arbiter in deciding who should win and who should +lose civil and inter-group wars. Victory and defeat determined the fate +of land and natural resources, populations, capital installations, +taxing facilities, domestic policing. This deterministic role of the war +machine has never been more dramatically in the foreground than during +the crucial years from 1910 to the present day, when war apparatus costs +have topped the list of government expenditures. + +Growth of state functions with the expansion of the economy has +resulted in the creation of a vast state bureaucratic apparatus. Heading +this bureaucracy are the ministers of state, each with a separate +department. Under the department heads are sub-departments, sub-divided +in their turn into bureaus or separate offices. At each level, functions +are assigned and salaries are fixed. Entrance into this anthill is +sometimes by personal favor, sometimes by examination. Once in, however, +barring misbehavior, or some catastrophe like the abolition of a +particular bureau, the office holder is in for life with a pension when +he is retired for age. + +Inside the bureaucracy there is a slow movement determined by seniority. +There is also some skipping, as when new bureaus are formed or when +death or retirement offer opportunities for the favored few to move +forward or skip upward. As we read the record, the bureaucracy existed +in the days of Egypt's Amenhotep, or in those of Rome's Augustus Caesar, +as it exists today--locally in every municipality, province, nation and +empire and generally throughout western civilization. + +Every civilization known to history has had its priestcraft as well as +its statecraft. Statecraft spawned its bureaucracy. Priestcraft spawned +its theocracy. Both patterns have inter-penetrated entire civilizations. +Each locality, region and district has had its representatives of state +and of church. In some instances the church took precedence. In others +the state was supreme. As the civilization matured, using war as the +chief instrument of policy, the state in the person of military +dictators has tended to predominate. In every civilization the state has +collected its taxes and the church has collected its tithes. + +The net result, in every civilization, has been a ruling oligarchy, +self-appointed and self-perpetuating, which has shaped policy, planned +and directed administration, exercised authority and lived comfortably +and at least semi-parasitically on the backs of the underlying urban and +rural masses, sharing its sinecure with its middle class handymen. In +some times and in certain localities the oligarchy has maintained a +representative front. Elsewhere it has functioned arbitrarily. In +extreme cases one man has ruled for a brief period. Generally the +oligarchy has held the reins of authority. + +Each phase of human society has had its oppositions, its confrontations, +its conflicts, proportioned to its magnitude, its specialization and the +interdependence of its component parts, its ratio of change to stability +and its foresight, plans and preparations for dealing with changes when +they occur. Since civilization, of all known forms of human association, +is the largest, most specialized and most interdependent, it is in +civilization that we should expect to find the most intensive and +extensive contradictions, confrontations and conflicts. + +Among the many oppositions of civilized association five are +outstanding: the we-they relationship; rural versus urban life; +subsistence versus acquisition and accumulation; hard work versus ease, +luxury and parasitism; poverty versus wealth. + +Civilization is not only complex and interdependent in form, it is +avowedly competitive in its functioning. Politically, nation building, +empire building and the establishment and maintenance of each +civilization is a competitive struggle between declared rivals to gain +and keep place and power. Economically, the efforts to get and keep +natural resources and labor power and to use them to _Our_ advantage and +_Their_ disadvantage dominates the field of livelihood. Ideologically +_We_ are right, while _They_ are wrong. Culturally _We_ are superior. +_They_ are inferior. + +The _We-They_ relationship developed very early in the history of the +human family. Individuals and small, more advanced groups have reached a +level of understanding and living based on the cooperative inclusive +formula of _"We, Ours, Us",_ but every civilization known to history has +accepted and adopted the competitive, divisive formula and poured energy +and wealth into the political, economic, ideological and cultural +struggle to take and keep for individual, local or class advantage. + +Resulting oppositions fragmented civilization: (1) urban vs. rural life, +city vs. hinterland; (2) cooperation vs. competition; (3) acquisition +and accumulation vs. sharing; (4) riches vs. poverty; (5) the individual +vs. the group; (6) status vs. change. + +These fragmenting forces have been accepted, adopted and given priority +by civilizations as they developed predominance. As they grew in +magnitude they limited or subordinated the forces of integration and +unification. + +Opposites and oppositions lead to confrontations along class lines, +geographic lines, cultural lines, color lines, racial lines. The +traditional confrontation of rural vs. urban life is doubly underlined +by two factors: first, the countryside operates generally on a use +economy with pay for services largely in kind or by barter. The city +operates under a market economy with payment for services usually in +money. Second, the standards of life and work are more primitive in the +countryside than in the city. Third, as the civilization advances toward +maturity, city population increases while it declines in the +countryside. Consequently vigorous, energetic, adventurous people leave +the deteriorating countryside. + +Increasingly the owners of land and capital live in the cities, visiting +the countryside for holidays and recreation, leaving rural areas to +servants, peons, serfs and slaves. Small owning farmers are bought out +or expropriated. Unable to make a living in the countryside they move to +the city. Lacking city skills they work as casual labor or are +unemployed. The city is divided between enterprisers, their +subordinates, owners of country estates and members of the state +bureaucracy on one side and vassals, servants, serfs, and slaves and the +unemployed on the other. The rich and powerful become richer and more +powerful. The poor and dependent grow in numbers--protest, demonstrate, +riot, revolt. + +This class struggle dominates public life in the urban centers of every +civilization. The rich offer petty reforms and minor benefits to the +impoverished, semi-employed city masses. At the same time the urban +oligarchy breaks up into rival factions: the Ins and the Outs. The Ins +hold public jobs, spend public money, award contracts and pass around +favors. The Outs wait and maneuver for their turn at the public +pie-counter. Both Ins and Outs appeal for mass support. + +Oppositions and confrontations lead to conflicts which have studded the +life of every civilization. Conflicts include wars which may be divided +into six groups: (1) Wars of expansion, conquest, colonization directed +toward the enlargement of the territories included in the civilization. +(2) Wars of survival among adjacent nations and empires. (3) Wars fought +to suppress unrest and revolt in the colonies and dependencies of an +empire or civilization. (4) Wars fought to repel the invasion of +migrating peoples attempting to occupy territory over which an empire or +a civilization claims jurisdiction. (5) Peasant, serf and slave revolts +and rebellions against the authority of empires or civilizations. (6) +Civil wars to determine the leadership of particular empires; wars of +leadership succession; conflicts and power seizures within particular +oligarchies. + +In every civilization final decisions regarding domestic and foreign +issues have been made by an appeal to arms. There were laws and legal +institutions in many civilizations under which confrontations might have +been prevented and armed conflict avoided. Where these legal means +failed to provide solutions, contestants turned to armed force as the +final arbiter. + +Competitive survival struggle has played a prominent role in the life of +every civilization known to history. Competition at its highest level +employs armed force as its instrument of policy. War, domestic and +foreign has, therefore, dominated the history of every civilization. +Walter Bagehot called war a state maker. In the same context, war may be +referred to as a civilization maker. + +Conflict, including war, has played a major role, often a determining +role in building and maintaining civilizations. It has also been a major +and perhaps _the_ major factor in undermining and destroying +civilizations. Arnold Toynbee contends that war has been a "proximate +cause" of the overthrow of one civilization after another. No observer +of current western civilization can fail to note the determining part +played by war during the first half of the present century. + +Every completed civilization known to historians has passed through a +sociological life cycle: origin, growth, expansion, maturity, violent +premature dismemberment and death in the competitive survival struggle +or gradual decline and eventual dissolution. + +Every completed civilization has had small, local beginnings, on an +island like Crete, or a group of islands like the Japanese Archipelago, +or a tiny spot like Latium on the Tiber River, or an isolated area like +the desert-surrounded Nile River Valley in Africa. The seed ground or +nucleus of each civilization has been a small, well-knit group of +vigorous, energetic people, well-led, living in an easily defended, +limited area, enjoying relative isolation, but also having ready access +to the outside world. + +At the beginning the growth cycle has moved slowly, from victory to +victory, as competing neighboring peoples have been brought under the +authority of the victor in local wars. After generations or centuries of +struggle a point is reached at which the nucleus of the growing empire +begins to expand, through trade, colonization, diplomatic alliances, +conquest, into an era of survival struggle in which rival cities reach +out for the same piece of fertile land, the same markets, the same +mineral deposits. Again the life and death survival struggle tests out +the people, their leaders, their ambitions, determination, tenacity. + +Earlier struggles were local. Now the struggle area has become regional. +At the outset the peoples were amateurs in the science and art of +expansion, occupation, consolidation, exploitation. Through the hard +school of struggle they became professionals. From victory to victory +they gained in territory, in wealth, in administrative skill. One by +one, rivals were eliminated, annexed or associated with the nascent +empire which was by way of becoming the central empire of a maturing +civilization. + +Generations of effort and centuries of time have gone into the empire +building process. The farther the civilization has expanded, the greater +the necessary input of manpower, wealth, enterprise and administrative +talent needed to keep the enterprise strong, solvent, masterful. + +Eventually the expanding civilization reaches a point at which the costs +of further expansion are greater than the income derived from further +extension of its authority. Up to this point expansion had paid its own +way. Beyond this point it is a losing proposition--politically, +economically, sociologically. At this point begin times of troubles; bad +harvests; colonial or provincial revolts; power struggles between +individuals or classes in the homeland; new rivals moving in to share in +the prospective plunder of the mother-city. + +From this time of troubles the civilization enters a new phase of its +lifecycle. Up to this point victory has brought plunder and prosperity +which have financed new foreign adventures and led to new victories. +Beyond this point lies stalemate, economic stagnation, military defeat. +Building an empire and establishing it as the central force in a +civilization is a long and arduous process. Once the process is +reversed, the decline may move quickly or slowly, but as it proceeds the +civilization is fragmented and eventually dissolved or taken over by a +more vigorous rival. + +At all stages of this cycle there have been life and death survival +struggles. Peoples, nations and empires entered the contest, played +their parts, made their contribution to the up-building process. There +were ups and downs, advances and withdrawals, victories and defeats. +There were many contenders for survival and supremacy. Usually there was +one survivor which gave its name to the civilization. + +The period of ascendancy of any civilization has been historically +brief. The struggle to the summit was long and exhausting; the descent +from the summit more rapid than the ascent. Literally, like the bear +that went over the mountain to see what he could find, and who found the +other side of the mountain, the civilizations that have reached the +summit of wealth and power have found on the other side of the summit a +steep downward sloping time of troubles that ended in dissolution and +liquidation. + +Civilization, as a sociological life pattern, has proved to be seductive +and alluring in prospect, but in retrospect unsatisfactory and +frustrating. Civilization has proved to be not an opportunity for the +ambitious, but a trap for the ignorant, inexperienced and unwary. For +the many contestants who set out to conquer the world the experience +has been disappointing and on the whole disastrous. For the few who have +reached the summit the experience has been frustrating. + +Civilization as a way of life is like any other contest. The struggle is +good for those who are able to benefit from it by learning its lessons. +Whether they win or lose is a matter of no great consequence. For the +losers the experience often is heart breaking and death-dealing. + +Students of social history have been tempted to draw a parallel between +the biological life cycle of an individual and the sociological +lifecycle of a civilization. There are elements of likeness between +biological birth, growth, maturity, old age and death of human +individuals and of human civilizations. All of the individuals and +civilizations that we know have passed or are passing through such a +lifecycle. The same thing may be true of the larger universe of which we +are a minute fragment. However exact or inexact it may prove to be, the +parallel certainly is unmistakable, alluring. It may also be seductive +and mortal. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +IDEOLOGIES OF CIVILIZATION + + +This study was laid out along inductive lines: an examination of the +facts with such generalizations as the facts suggest or justify. We +began our social analysis of civilization by presenting noteworthy facts +concerning the politics, economics, and sociology of various +civilizations. In the present chapter we deal with their ideologies. + +We are accepting and following the fourth variant definition of +"ideology" presented by Webster's New World Dictionary: "The doctrines, +opinions or way of thinking of an individual, class, etc." In this case +we are reporting on the doctrines, opinions, thought forms and action +patterns of entire civilizations. + +Our concern is not with the doctrines, opinions and ways of thinking and +acting advanced by elite minorities. Such an approach would involve a +study of comparative ideologies. Rather we are asking what civilized +peoples were trying to do, as measured by their political, economic and +sociological activities, programs and purposes. + +It may be presumptuous for an individual to generalize about +civilizations of which he knows so little. On the other hand, if we +recognize the limitations under which all assumptions and +generalizations operate it is possible and often helpful to assume and +generalize, although the generalizations may be no more than interim +reports, subject to later amendment, correction or rejection. + +What were the prevailing ideas of civilizations and what ideas were put +into practice? What purposes dominated and directed the lives of +civilized peoples? How successful have civilized peoples been in +achieving their objectives? + +At the outset we must realize that in any complex society there are wide +ranges of ideology, from the body of ideas held by small uninfluential +sects to the purposes, ideas, policy declarations and actions of +governing oligarchies. We do not wish to defend or attack the ideas, but +to summarize them and understand them in a way that will give a group +picture of the purposes, ideas, policies and day-to-day activities of +the civilizations in question. For convenience in our discussion we will +take up, first, civilized societies as collectives, and then the +operation of civilized ideology as expressed in the lives of +individuals. + +Presumably the most immediate purpose of all civilized peoples has been +survival, getting on as a collective or group from day to day, through +summer and winter, under normal conditions, and/or in periods of stress +and emergency. If the group cannot survive it loses its identity, +breaking up into the self-determining parts of which it is composed. + +Survival means continued existence as a group--in the face of disruption +from within or attack and invasion from without. The group which +survives continues to exist and to act as a group that maintains the +common defense and promotes the general welfare. + +Each social group competing for survival has a sense of its own identity +and a belief in its capacity to survive. This ideology is strengthened +by the belief that the group has special qualities and is protected by +powerful entities that will guarantee its success in the survival +struggle. The group considers itself better qualified to survive than +neighbor groups. Such ideas, carried to their logical conclusion, make +the group in question superior to its neighbors in survival qualities +and a people chosen by its gods. + +A superior people, chosen by its gods, is in a class by itself. Other +people, by comparison, are inferior. It is the destiny of the superior +people to take the lands of their inferior neighbors, and, whenever +opportunity offers, to defeat the neighbors in battle, capture them and +force them to do the bidding of the captors. + +Cults of ideological superiority are widespread. Put into successful +practice by a victorious tribe, nation or empire, they develop into +cults of superiority which assert: "We, the victors, are stronger, +better people than our weaker neighbors." As one victory follows another +the belief in superiority grows. People in an expanding empire or +burgeoning civilization are obviously better survivors than their less +successful competitors. + +Competitive survival struggle modifies the cultures of both victors and +vanquished. The dispersal and adoption of culture traits, supplemented +by negotiation and accommodation, broaden the geographical area of the +victors, increasing the population and adding to the material resources, +the wealth and income of the enlarged group. It may also involve the +corresponding decrease of the geographical area, population, wealth and +income of the vanquished. + +In order to protect itself, preserve itself, to enlarge itself and, +where possible, to improve itself, each competing groups aims to set up +standards of ideas and conduct to which all living members of the group +are presumed to agree and to which they must adhere. When new members +enter the group, by birth or adoption, they are duly indoctrinated with +the group ideology. Early in their history the individuals and +sub-groups composing every civilization adopted such standards and +promulgated them by the decree of a leader or by the common consent of +associated groups, as the outcome of negotiation, discussion, give and +take. During the history of every civilization such agreements were +reached and recorded in compacts, treaties, laws, constitutions, +specifying the nature and limits of the collective cultural uniformity +at which the community aimed. + +The struggle for collective uniformity was long and often bitter. +Individuals and factions resented and resisted the imposition of group +authority. Internal conflict led to civil wars in the course of which +the group was divided or the solidarity of the group was reaffirmed +despite hardships imposed on disagreeing, divergent minorities. + +Closely paralleling the group need for survival and uniformity +(solidarity) was the need for group expansion, or extension. In the +competitive struggle for survival which played such an important role in +the life of pre-civilized communities, strategic geographic location was +often decisive. Soil fertility, mineral deposits, timber reserves, +access to waterways, location on trade routes all played a part in +community survival, stability and growth. + +Such geographical advantages are few and far between. Often they are +already occupied and defended by stable communities. Their control and +utilization are basic in determining the survival or elimination of +rivals in the competitive struggle. + +Above and beyond the need to occupy the "corner lots" of the planetary +land mass was the urge of civilized peoples to advance from littleness +to bigness as a goal in itself. Confined by limitations on communication +and transportation, pre-civilized man was circumscribed and localized. +With the advent of cultivation, land workers were tied to a particular +piece of real estate on which they lived and worked. When asked whether +the village across the valley was Sunrise Mountain the local peasant +could reply: "How should I know? I live here." + +Reacting against restricted living and pressed by curiosity and the +spirit of adventure, the imaginative and adventurous members of each +generation pressed outward from the homeland toward wider horizons. Many +traveled. Some migrated. Others pursued the will o' the wisp of +expansion by adding field to field. The grass always looked greener on +the other side of the mountain. The ambitious expansionist therefore +tried to control both sides. + +"Move on! Move on!" became the watchword, without any particular +emphasis on quality. In one civilization after another bigness +(magnitude) was accepted as a symbol of success, because "the more you +get and keep, the happier you will be." + +Mastery of strategic advantages, plus the illusion of mere bigness, +without any specification to quality, became keys to survival and +success. + +Civilized man exploited natural advantages and augmented his power over +nature and society by increasing his wealth and multiplying the +population. At the outset of the struggle strategic geographical +advantages were occupied and utilized by local groups. Through survival +struggle, one of the groups, better organized, better led, more +determined and productive, succeeded in securing possession of one +strong point after another, until an entire region, like the Nile Valley +or the Mediterranean Basin had been conquered and occupied by a single +great power. The measure of success in the power struggle is the +occupation of strategic strong points. Natural resources, including land +and labor power, are among the chief spoils of victory. + +Seven basic goals or principles were involved in the building of +civilizations: group survival; propitiating the gods; recognizing and +following aesthetic principles; achieving and stabilizing property and +class relations; expansion (bigness); individual conformity to the +collective pattern; and collective uniformity in a united world of human +brotherhood. At times and in places the basic propositions were +accepted, rejected, fought over. Each civilization which followed them +successfully was able to establish itself, maintain itself, and up to a +certain point add to its prestige, wealth and power. + +The first goal was success in the struggle for survival. Collective +uniformity and expansion opened the path to wealth and power, in the +city, state, the empire, the civilization. From a multitude of local +beginnings the struggle for expansion and consolidation led to ever +larger aggregations of land, population, capital and wealth concentrated +in the hands of an increasingly rich, powerful oligarchy, protected and +defended by a military elite pushing itself ceaselessly toward a +position from which it could make and enforce domestic policy and order. + +A second collective goal has been propitiating and wooing the unseen +forces of the universe: holding their attention; keeping them on "our" +side; relying on their influence for defense against enemies, mortal and +immortal, and help in providing water in case of drought, fertility, +assistance in healing the sick, comfort for the dying, consolation for +the bereaved and success in business deals. These multiple aspects of +ideology are summed up under the term "religion". + +Each civilization has had its religious ideas and ideals, its religious +practices and institutions. Many civilizations have divided their +attention between civil ideology and religious ideology. In some cases +religious ideology took precedence, resulting in a theocratic society +under the leadership of religious devotees. In other cases, notably +Roman civilization and western civilization, religious ideology was +subordinated to secular interests. + +In the early stages of western civilization, religious ideology took +precedence over secular ideology. With the rise of the bourgeoisie, +secular ideology moved into the foreground, making loud religious +professions, but also making sure that business-for-profit had the last +word in the determination of public policy. + +A third collective ideological goal of civilization has been aesthetic; +the yen for symmetry and balance; the love of beauty; the desire for +harmony; the quest for excellence; the lure of magnificence; the search +for truth. Out of these urges have arisen the pictorial and plastic +arts, architecture, music, the dance, science, and philosophy, providing +outlets, occupations and professions that have colored and shaped many +aspects of civilized living. + +A fourth collective goal of civilization has been the establishment and +maintenance of social structure, including classes and/or caste lines +based partly upon tradition, partly on function and partly upon +proximity to the honey-pot, the wellspring of wealth, income, prestige +and power. + +Since the principle of private property has been implicit in every known +civilization, the ownership of land, capital and consumer goods and +services has been a prerogative of the ruling oligarchies, shared by +them with their associates and dependents and used as their chief means +of establishing and maintaining the "you work, I eat" principal of +economic relationships. + +Private property, and its derivative, unearned or property income, has +enabled the ruling oligarchies of civilized communities to receive the +first fruits of every enterprise. They have also enabled the oligarchs +to establish a priority scale of income distribution under which those +who held property and its derivatives could have first choice among +available consumer goods and services. Second choice went to the +associates, retainers and defenders of the oligarchs. Third choice went +to the preferred, professional experts who spoke for and represented the +oligarchy. Fourth choice went to the artisans--skilled designers, +builders, fabricators. What remained went to hewers of wood and drawers +of water, the workers, women and men, who provided the necessaries, +comforts, luxuries upon which physical survival and social status +depended. Generally this proletarian mass, including chattel slaves, +serfs, tenant farmers and war captives, were outside the pale of +respectability. In a caste-divided community they were scavengers and +untouchables, living a life close to that of domestic animals. + +Most civilizations have permitted gifted individuals to move vertically, +from the bottom toward the top levels of the social pyramid. Vertical +movement was severely restricted, however. Generally people lived, +served and died on the class or caste level into which they were born. + +Members of classes and castes are not free agents. They have privileges +and rights. They also have obligations and duties. Classes and castes +are functioning parts of an interdependent social whole which can +maintain balanced order only so long as each segment recognizes its +obligations and performs its duties. + +Social balance therefore depended on class collaboration. Successful +collaboration, in its turn, is the outcome of a general acceptance of +class and caste and general willingness to go on living and functioning +in a class divided society. + +A fifth collective goal of civilization has been expansion from the +nucleus outward, with final authority exercised by and from the nucleus. +At the outset of the survival struggle which led to the establishment of +one language, one religion, one law, one authority, one loyalty, each +among the many contestants had its own language, its own religion, its +own law, its own authority. + +These rival forces were temporarily confederated against internal +disruption or foreign invasion. ("Liberty and union, now and forever, +one and inseparable.") In the course of the survival struggle, the +separate parts of which the civilization was composed began with the +local autonomy permitted by confederation, and ended up with one among +the many contestants donning the imperial purple and establishing itself +as the master and supreme dictator--the Caesar or Pharoah of the +conquered, unified world. + +Foreign territories conquered and brought by force of arms within this +imperium were subjects of a central authority which they never really +accepted. Authority continued to be exercised from the imperial nucleus. +The newly conquered territories were policed by professional soldiers +whose primary loyalty was national but whose responsibility was to the +aggregate composing the Roman or the Egyptian civilization. + +The acid test of the expanding civilization was embodied in the degree +of acceptance of wholeness as opposed to self-determination. Were the +individual members--the provinces and colonies composing the +whole--willing and able to sink their differences in an unquestioned +wholeness, or were they prepared at the first opportunity to exercise +their right to self-determination and declare their independence of the +whole? + +The resolution of this question constituted the sixth collective goal of +civilization: to establish a whole in which the component members were +able and willing to recognize the axiom that the interests of the whole +come before the interests of any of its component parts. + +The issue of central authority versus local self determination has been +one of the basic issues of the present century because during the +preceding period, the British, French, Dutch and Spanish Empires had +been built up by the conquest and occupation of foreign lands. If the +nineteenth century was an epoch of expanding imperial authority, the +twentieth century has been an epoch of the dismemberment of empires by +movements for independence and self-determination. + +Seventh, and finally, among the collective goals of civilization, each +has developed an ideology that justified empire building by conquest, +exploitation, chattel slavery, peonage, wagery, the supremacy of the +empire nucleus, the subordination of the periphery to the nucleus and +other aspects of ascendancy and mastery including "divine" rights in +politics and "natural" rights in economics. + +Civilizations expect the individuals and groups of which they are +composed to preserve the status quo, work as disciplined members of an +effective team and be satisfied with the outcome. This brings us back to +the goal with which we began this discussion of the collective goals of +civilizations: The primary task of any civilization is to survive. + +Each individual human being, living and working in a civilized community +occupies a sphere of action, enjoys the advantages and disadvantages and +accepts the responsibilities and duties which pertain to his sphere. +Within his sphere the individual succeeds or fails in so far as he leads +a rewarding personal life and contributes his share toward the +collective life of the group to which she or he belongs. + +If the individual in a civilized community is to live a good life, the +first task is to maintain normal health, good spirits and a +determination to get the most out of life and to contribute at least the +equivalent of what he receives in service to his group. + +As a civilization expands and extends its influence, the individual must +contribute his mite to the entire enterprise while adding to his own +store of goods and services. Acquisition and accumulation satisfy a +human desire to have and to keep. They also add to the wealth and well +being of the community on the widely accepted utilitarian formula: +happiness comes in direct proportion to the extent and variety of ones +possessions. + +In most civilized communities the building unit is a family. It is this +family unit, usually directed by a male or father figure, who acts for +the family and represents it in the community. + +In passing, the reader should note that the breakdown in family life now +so prevalent in many parts of western civilization is a departure from +the civilized norm. It is really a measure of the extent to which +western civilization itself is disintegrating. + +The revolution in science and technology, mass production and the +distribution of goods and services through a mass market have put +acquisition and accumulation of goods and services as a life-goal to a +severe test. Until the early years of the present century no +civilization had provided affluence for more than a small fraction of +its population. The vast majority consisted of slaves, serfs, war +captives, and tenant farmers. Only an exceptional few were in a position +to live in comfort or luxury on unearned income. As each civilization +matured, ownership of land and capital diverted the flow of consumer +goods and services into the coffers of a diminishing proportion of the +total population. The vast majority lived at or below the subsistence +level. General affluence was a goal that was talked about and dreamed +about, but there was no way to test its practical effects on the +population as a whole. + +Under conditions presently existing in many parts of the West, millions +of individuals and families following the utilitarian principles of +acquisition and accumulation have secured and kept an abundance of goods +and services in strict accordance with utilitarian principles. Yet they +have not been and are not happy. + +Quite the contrary, in many cases they are unhappy, particularly in the +second and third generations of affluent family life. This is notably +true in the United States, Scandinavia, Switzerland and other parts of +western Europe. It is true to a lesser degree in New Zealand and +Australia. + +Millions of families in these countries, with all their possessions, +fail to enjoy peace and happiness. On the contrary, they are so acutely +unhappy that many of them have come to regard acquisition and +accumulation as a sterile rat-race. Consequently multitudes of people, +young and old, have turned their backs on civilization, separating +themselves from their affluent homes with their glut of consumer goods +to live at non-civilized or pre-civilized levels. These individuals are +avowedly anti-civilization in so far as its material incentives are +concerned. + +Similar attitudes were expressed in previous civilizations. Socrates +went barefoot through the streets of Athens. Diogenes lived in a tub. +Uncounted numbers of Indian holy men and early Christians rejected all +affluence, embraced poverty, lived simply and austerely. Religious +asceticism is no novelty. But the wholesale rejection of acquisition and +accumulation as a way of life certainly marks a turning point in the +popular attitude toward the utilitarian axiom that human happiness is +directly proportioned to the quantity and variety of material +possessions. + +Civilization presupposes getting, keeping and exercising power over +nature, society and man. Each civilization has added to man's +utilization of nature. This has been a notorious aspect of western +civilization since the inauguration of the scientific-technological +revolution. After a century of intensified exploitation of the natural +environment, entire communities are reacting with dismay and disgust +against the resulting pollution of air, water and land, the wanton waste +of soil fertility, forests and minerals, and extermination of various +forms of "wilderness." Freedom to exploit nature's storehouse has not +brought happiness. On the contrary, it threatens the existence of other +life forms and even the continuance of human life on the planet. + +Private enterprise and other forms of permissiveness have led to +practices that circumscribe and hamper life. Their declared objective is +the liberation and enlargement of human life and well being. Where they +have been tested out they have proved themselves to be obstructive and +destructive rather than creative and constructive. + +Notable advances in science and technology have greatly increased the +human capacity to transform nature and remake society. Designed and +executed as a means of enhancing the general welfare, science and +technology might have promoted human well-being. But employed as a means +of exploiting nature and society for the benefit of a favored few, +science and technology, whether directed by European and American +promoters of the African slave trade, Spanish conquerors in Latin +America, by Belgians in the African Congo, by European whites in their +dealings with the North American Indians, by the Nazis in Europe, or by +Americans in South East Asia, have involved merciless exploitation +accompanied by revolting atrocities. + +Never in recorded history was the capacity of man to modify nature and +exploit society more publicly tested out than in the atom bombing of +Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the purposeful devastation of jungle life and +village life in large parts of Vietnam and Cambodia. Reported in the +public press and pictured, live, over radio and television, these latest +developments in the ugly record of man's exploitation of nature have +become part of the record of the decline and dissolution of western +civilization. + +Exploitation of human society for the benefit of the few at the expense +of the many is an old story that extends through the entire record of +written history. Every civilization has produced a cluster of +institutions and practices that enabled a few rich and privileged to +live in affluence at the expense of the impoverished many. This +juxtaposition of riches and poverty is the logical outcome of a system +of social relations designed to provide the few with comfort and luxury +while the many are forced to accept penury and hardship. Exploitation, +carried to its logical conclusion, permits and requires a parasitic +minority to live in abundance while the majority must content itself +with scarcity, extending to death from malnutrition. + +Another goal presented to individuals by the promoters and fashioners of +civilization is individual perfection, physical, mental, emotional, +moral. Every generation of human beings contains individuals who are +beyond the average--bigger, stronger, more talented, seeing farther, +searching more deeply, endowed with greater sensitivity, working more +conscientiously, imbued with a love of their fellows and determination +to serve them. Such individuals have genius in one or another form and +offer themselves and their products as a gift to the general welfare of +their generation. Scientists, poets, musicians, inventors, artists, +teachers, healers, philosophers, statesmen have appeared in each +civilization adding their mite to the sum-total of community culture. + +Innovators, moralists and counselors of perfection have played a +noteworthy part by advocating and often by living noteworthy lives. +Reports of their sayings and doings are part of the folklore and the +history of each civilization. If they did not set the tone of their +generation, they provided it with a model toward which their less +talented, less creative fellows might aspire. If they were creative +artists their works provided models which were admired, copied and +emulated by their successors. If they were moralists or philosophers +their sayings were recorded, respected and repeated by successive +generations. + +Each civilization has adopted lines of thinking and codes of action +which embody the best and most advantageous in theory and in practice. +These codes of thought, feeling and action are attributed to some +outstanding individual and passed on from generation to generation as +codes of conduct to which all right-thinking individuals may or should +aspire. + +Human beings know everything about themselves except whence they came, +what they should do and whither they will go. To compensate for this +lack of knowledge and wisdom each civilization has established and +maintained religious organizations and institutions whose duty it was to +search out the truth, record it and teach it to successive generations. + +In some civilizations the religious institutions have dominated the +secular. At other times and in other places the secular has maintained +its ascendancy over the religious. In still other cases the religious +and the secular forces have maintained an uneasy balance leading to +acrimonious bickering and sometimes to civil war. + +Central to their discussions is the nature of life. Is it continuous, as +it appears in vegetation and the animal kingdom, or is it discontinuous +like the rocks on the mountainside or the grains of sand on the +seashore? Those who live for the moment prefer discontinuity. Those who +observe their natural environment are forced to the conclusion that life +today is part of a sequence or progression which relates the life of +yesterday to that of tomorrow. + +Recorded history, from fossil and geological remains, to the books on +library shelves assures us that man has had a past. Projecting this +experience, it seems quite reasonable that barring accident or a +purposed intervention, man will have at least some future. To prepare +for that future, using the knowledge and wisdom at our disposal, seems +to be a must for any reasoning creature. + +Even for the short planetary life-span of the average human, the logic +of this position seems inescapable, whether it applies to the next hour, +day, year, or century. In terms of our children and grandchildren it is +even more impressive. Today we find it desirable to live as well as +possible. If there is any future, the same principle should apply to its +implementation and utilization. + +If the "hereafter" begins tomorrow and if those whose well-being +concerns us will probably be "alive" tomorrow, the science and art of +the future (futurology) takes its place beside other fields of theory +and practice as a must for all responsible members of the human race. + +If the conditions presently existing in human society affordment, skills +and technical experience necessary to make significant changes, why +wait? Why not proceed forthwith to live a better life? + +This dilemma has confronted individuals and sub-groups in various +civilizations. It has been particularly in evidence during periods of +decline and social disintegration. It has led people of both sexes and +all ages to uproot themselves from the old social order and reestablish +themselves in a social order "nearer to the heart's desire." + +Such efforts have been described as "intentional communities" to +distinguish them from a traditional, currently existing social order +which emerged from the past encumbered with vestigial remains and +obsolete institutions and practices having little or no relation to the +needs and wants of a changing world. + +Pilgrim Fathers in New England, William Penn in Pennsylvania, Lord +Baltimore in Maryland aimed to organize local intentional communities. +Similar efforts were made by the Mennonites, the Dukhobors, the +Hutterites, the Mormons in North America. The Christians during the +decline of Roman civilization led a movement to convert a large +geographical area to a new and better way of life. Followers of +Mohammed, several centuries later, made a similar effort to convert the +Eurasian-African world to their ways of thinking and acting. + +Young people by the thousands, in the United States and other western +countries, are turning their backs on western civilization and are +organizing enlarged families and communes that provide their members +with a modified social order which aims at improvements here and now. + +Necessarily such social experiments are looked upon with suspicion by +the Establishment. They are "new", "different", "subversive", "godless", +"wicked." Hence, they are criticized, denounced, raided and often broken +up as threats to existing law and order. + +Intentional communities may grow out of consumers' cooperation. They may +begin as farm collectives. Generally, however, they consist of the +followers of outstanding leaders of religious or ethical sects. Many +intentional communes spring up, mushroom-fashion, and disappear with +equal rapidity. Others endure for generations and centuries. + +In a very real sense they are pilot plants designed to correct +individual or social maladjustments and substitute new ways for old +ones. As pilot plants they experiment with deviations from existing +social norms, acting as a social laboratory in which new ideas and +practices are tested, modified, accepted, rejected. + +Change is one of the essential aspects of every society. There are +changes in personnel. In each generation individuals grow old and +retire. Others grow up and take over the tasks of organizing the +communities in which they live. Profound social changes result from +discoveries and inventions: the wheel, the arch, steam and gas engines, +electricity, atomic power. Cyclic changes occur in the economy. Social +changes follow alterations in the weather. Nations, empires, +civilizations are produced by the changing life forms. + +During long periods, social changes are so gradual that they are +unnoticed save by the more sensitive and perceptive. At other times, +social changes tumble over one another in an overwhelming revolutionary +flood which sweeps away the old, yielding place to new, "lest one good +custom should corrupt the world". + +Changes in society beget changes in ideology. Reciprocally, changes in +ideology lead to changes in social structure and function. The more +rigid the social order, the more stubborn its resistance to change. By +the same token, more fluid societies lend themselves more readily to +changes in practice and in theory. + +It is not possible to discuss ideology without some reference to the +closely related problems of means and ends. As we consider our existing +social establishment, in the light of unceasing social change, we must +deal with goals or objectives, with practicable modifications of social +form and function and with the way in which changes can be, might be, +will be brought about. + +One fact is obvious. Whether social change is major or minor, local or +general, it shifts the social balance. Any shift in the social balance +involves reactionaries, conservatives, liberals, radicals, some of whom +will gain, while others will lose in the course of each social +transformation. All will be concerned and involved. + +Since political change involves some alteration in the balance of social +forces, it behooves those who advocate and those who oppose social +change to maximize acceptance and minimize opposition in order to take +advantage of the gains and cut down the losses incident to all change. + +For present purposes we wish to make seven notes about means and ends. + + 1. _Opportunists_ propose to act now and win what they can + today. Never mind about tomorrow with its sequences and + consequences of today's action. Sufficient for the day is the + evil thereof. + + 2. _Pragmatists_ believe in serving their own interests, on the + theory that whatever serves personal interests must have + first priority. "What is good for me/us is good for the + universe". + + 3. _Experimentalists_ are prepared to try out any suggestion + which promises to achieve the desired goals. Singly and in + working teams they test and try out, seeking the most + effective means of reaching desired ends. + + 4. _Innovators_ formulate projects and test out results, checking + and rechecking as they search for more effective means + of achieving results. + + 5. _Radicals_ seek out the roots, digging, sifting, classifying, + assembling their findings, announcing their conclusions and + working to apply them in theory and practice to the structure + and function of their communities. + + 6. _Revolutionists_ are in a hurry. Disillusioned with the past and + the present they seek by "direct action" to create a new + social order, out of whole cloth, quickly, here and now. + Never mind the means, get results! + + 7. _Totalists_ have the whole truth, attained through reasoning, + experimentation, revelation. Having learned the truth, they + dedicate their energies to the propagation of the faith. + Where they encounter opposition they counter it and, if + necessary, annihilate it with its originators and advocates. + +As a matter of practical experience, proponents of all seven approaches +to social problems and social change employ a wide range of techniques +from persuasion to coercion. To support their projects they advance +logical arguments, elaborate half-truths, make emotional appeal; employ +trickery, deceit, preferment, privilege, flattery, soft living, bribery, +coercion, physical and social violence--individual and collective +extermination. + +Civilization as reported in history and in its current practice is based +on five faulty ideological assumptions: + + 1. _Competitive survival struggle results in social improvement._ + Survival struggle has certainly played a role in stimulating + discovery, invention and the diffusion of culture traits. Its + end results have always included civil and inter-group war + with its unavoidable costs in destruction, dissolution and + death. + + 2. _The effort to grab and keep, with its accompanying competition, + is a chief source of social progress._ The game of + grab and keep is play for children. Mature human beings + should strive to create, produce, share. + + 3. _The accumulation of goods and services brings happiness._ + At the out-set of life this may be true. But accumulation + for its own sake produces the miser. Misers are not happy + people. Riches yield happiness only as they are distributed. + Accumulation brings many headaches, and few abiding + satisfactions. + + 4. _Successful accumulators "have fun."_ Perhaps they do, for + a time, at the expense of others on whose backs they ride + and whose life blood they suck. But mature men and + women do not "have fun"; they shoulder and carry their + share of social responsibility. + + 5. _Progress can be measured by the multitude of personal + possessions._ Not so. True progress for humanity consists + in movement from having to doing; from the possessive to + the creative; from the material toward the spiritual. + +Ideologies have played a role in determining the structure and function +of every civilization. As civilization grows up, matures, and declines, +ideologies change with the changing times. In its early history each +civilization seeks acceptance for its picture of reality and its +techniques for reaching individual and social goals. As each +civilization declines and disintegrates, a multitude of counselors +clamors for attention to a particular formula that will prove acceptable +and workable in the existing emergent circumstances. + + + + +_Part III_ + + +Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +WORLDWIDE REVOLUTION DISRUPTS CIVILIZATION + + +Every organism, mechanism or social construct reaches a point in its +life cycle at which its existing apparatus must be repaired, renovated +and updated or scrapped, redesigned and replaced. Today western +civilization in its totality faces that dilemma. + +The culture pattern variously known as European, western or modern +civilization, dating from the Crusades, has existed for about a thousand +years, and spread across the planet. During that millennium western +civilization has passed through a life cycle similar to that of its +predecessors. According to Oswald Spengler's historical perspective, a +civilization passes through its life cycle in about a thousand years. If +the Spenglerian assumption is in line with the course of history, +western civilization should be in an advanced stage of decline and +should eventually disappear as a decisive factor in world affairs. + +Spengler's argument is fully and floridly presented in _The Decline of +the West_. The author offers a theory of history based on the existence +of an arbitrary and rather mechanical life cycle. It includes a period +of gestation, rise and expansion, a period of maturity and stability and +a final period of decline and dissolution. Spengler believed that +western civilization is in the grip of an irreversable decline. + +The Spenglerian perspective is based on the assumption of a normal +pattern in the growth and decline of civilizations. The normalcy on +which Spengler based his assumption was disrupted around 1750 when a +series of new dynamic factors entered the stream of modern social +history: + +I. Mankind gained access to immense stores of energy which supplemented +human energy, the energies of domesticated animals and a miniscule use +of water power and air power. To these traditional energy sources the +revolution in science and technology has added steam, electricity, and +the energy stored in the atom. + +II. These new sources of energy were harnessed and directed through +mechanical and chemical agencies that greatly extended human capacity to +convert nature's stored wealth into goods and services available for +human consumption, and to develop a surplus of wealth and a release of +manpower sufficient to build up a backlog of capital which, in its turn, +produced goods and services with economic surpluses convertible into +additional capital. + +III. This revolution in the tempo of production and capital accumulation +was parallelled by a like revolution in transportation and communication +by land, water, and eventually by air and in space. Electricity played +an essential part in the process by speeding communication and helping +to put transportation on wheels. + +IV. Building construction was also revolutionized--metals, concrete, +glass and synthetics replaced wood and stone as the basic construction +materials. + +V. New energy sources and the new capital expanded the volume and +variety of production far more rapidly than the increase in population +and turned the resulting surplus into a technical apparatus that made +possible mass production for a mass market. + +VI. Mass production, transportation, construction and marketing ushered +in an era of surplus that replaced the age of comparative scarcity with +an age of rapidly increasing abundance. + +Changes in the means of production play havoc with any established +social pattern. The economic alteration that accompanied and followed +the eighteenth and early nineteenth century transformation of western +economy overturned various aspects of the western social structure: + + 1. Representative government made its appearance and spread + widely; + + 2. Social services and social security, previously reserved for + the elite, were provided for wider and wider circles of the + population; + + 3. Changes in technology, advances in science, the replacement + of landlords, clergymen and soldiers by businessmen + and professionals, including the military, as the recognized + leaders of the modern society, put social control in the hands + of a new ruling bourgeois class; + + 4. The bourgeois revolution brought into existence two other + classes: the industrial proletariat as an ally and/or an + acceptable leader of the peasant masses of Europe. At the + same time it enlarged the middle class to a point at which + it was able to play a decisive role in the formulation and + direction of social policy in industrialized communities. + + 5. Fragments of the industrial proletariat and the greatly + enlarged middle class came together in an avowedly revolutionary + movement: socialism-communism, which reached + the power summit between 1910 and 1917. + + 6. The bourgeoisie countered with a cold war aimed to exterminate + socialism-communism, using propaganda, petty + reform and armed intervention as its chief agencies. + + 7. The high birth rate, the prolongation of life and mass education + provided society with a substantial body of skilled, + experienced, socially conscious, alert citizens, increasingly + aware of the historical changes through which they were + living and determined to intervene whenever their well-being + was threatened. + + 8. Extension and equalization of opportunity opened the way + for an informed citizenry to express itself and defend its + interests. + + 9. Emerging planet-wide social consciousness spread an awareness + that the concerns, plans and programs of any part of + the human family are of vital importance to the whole of + mankind. + +Change is a universal force which operates in nature, in society, in man +himself. At times it takes place so gradually that one day seems like +another. At other times it operates with furious energy, turning things +upside-down overnight. Such change, whether it takes place in nature or +in society is revolutionary. + +Rome's demise as a world power was followed by centuries of +quietude--The Dark Ages. These in turn yielded to a period of +revolutionary change that found its early expression in the voyages and +discoveries that spanned the earth after 1450. Three centuries later the +rebirth of western humanity expressed itself in the industrial +revolution that flooded across the planet and became an early stage of +the planet-wide sweep that has played havoc with nature, turned the old +society upside down and presently promises to produce a new society for +a reborn human race. + +World-wide revolution is the predominant force in the twentieth century. +Its existence and some of its consequences have become an all-embracing +theme for thought and discussion. They have put into the hands of +present-day humanity the ideas, experiments and experiences needed for +transforming nature, rebuilding social institutions and practices and +opening the way for mankind to move confidently into a future replete +with intriguing and exciting possibilities. + +An excellent summary of this entire field is appearing in a six volume +_History of Mankind_, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, +Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Volume six of the history +is titled _The Twentieth Century_. Particularly noteworthy is an +Introduction of more than a hundred printed pages, Part I, _The +Development and Application of Scientific Knowledge_, and Part II on +_The Transformation of Societies_. Events surrounding the war of 1914-18 +are correctly described as "a turning point in world history." (Vol. VI +p. 11) + +World revolution is one aspect of present-day society. From our present +vantage point we cannot tell how far it will go or what it will do to +humanity and its present habitat. + +Advances in science and technology have provided mankind with a new +stage on which to go through a new act and speak a new piece. What +effect will they have on the institutions and practices of western +civilization? Have they rendered the forms and functions of civilization +obsolete? Or can western civilization adapt itself or be adapted to the +very difficult situation created by the revolution through which human +society is presently passing? Can western civilization be reformed to +meet the new historical situation created by the great revolution or +must it be rejected and replaced? + +If the institutions and practices of western civilization can be +adjusted to meet the demands of the new situation created by the +scientific, technological, political and cultural revolution, the +reformed social apparatus may function in a new day that is dawning for +the human family. If reform proves to be impossible, the apparatus of +western civilization must be replaced by a social structure in keeping +with the requirements of the new age inaugurated by the innovations +introduced into the human culture pattern by the revolution of our time. + +There is widespread recognition of the need to keep the structure of a +society in harmony with necessary functions and updated to the +consequences of probable or possible discovery and invention. This is no +mean task as western experience during recent centuries has so clearly +demonstrated. Power elites of feudal Europe neither anticipated nor +prepared for the consequences of the industrial revolution. The result +was the smash and clatter of the American and French Revolutions (1776 +and 1789) and minor revolutionary shocks through the nineteenth century. +Power elites in western Europe dealt with mass production and its +consequent abundance of goods and services with mass marketing, social +security and other crumbs of affluence scattered among the restless +masses. But when the trade winds of the scientific and technological +revolution blew in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the Chinese +Revolution of 1911 and the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Romanoff +dictatorship was still ordering back the tide of social change and the +dominant United States oligarchy cold-shouldered the Mexican Revolution, +took sixteen years to recognize officially the Russian Soviets and +waited twenty-three years after 1949 before they were even on speaking +terms with the Chinese Communists. + +For two centuries, new ideas, institutions and practices have followed +discoveries and inventions as regularly as day follows night. The +consequent flood of innovations that has swept through the West and +across the planet in the past two generations has made drastic social +change a matter of the utmost urgency. The only open questions concern +the direction of the changes, their rapidity, and the success of the +social system in adapting itself to the shattering effects of newly +released social forces. + +Social change can come with the rush and turmoil of revolution or the +studied step-by-considered-step constancy of the conscious improvement +of society by society. Two powerful social forces limit gradualness. One +is human impatience. The other is the rapidity with which masses of +people all over the planet are being informed of the good-life potential +implicit in present-day western affluence. + +Impatience is emotional rather than rational. It is a compound of human +urges on one hand and on the other hand of the frustrations built up in +individuals and populations attracted by new wants and frustrated by +barriers of custom-habit; the carefully constructed apparatus of +direction, division and restriction (the State, the Church, the +communication media), and the potent class forces of the +counter-revolution. + +In every modern community the media of mass communication are +broadcasting information regarding the widening consumer prospects +created by the current revolution in science and technology. In every +modern community there are eager, ambitious, hopeful individuals urging +their fellow workers and fellow citizens to get moving toward the +promised land of peace and plenty. In every community the bureaucracy, +representing the more comfortable and secure elements of the population, +is asking the less well placed class groups to "take it easy," take "one +step at a time," and remember that "Rome was not built in a day." + +Conservatives, urging law and order under the status quo, have reason +on their side. The movement of a technologically oriented community from +monopoly capitalism into socialism-communism is without historical +precedent and therefore largely experimental. Plans are tentative; there +are shortages of materials and particularly of skills based on +experience. Costly mistakes are made leading to delay until they can be +corrected. The counter-revolution, abundantly financed by the forces of +reaction, operates constantly, in critical situations almost always +through the military, to preserve the "law and order" which are the +prime forces behind its wealth and its power. In an untrod, untested +area ignorance is a blank wall until it is pierced by ingenuity and +innovation. There are many ways to miss a defined objective and only a +few ways to reach it. + +Cautious, experienced people, living comfortably, are inclined to let +well enough alone. Restless, hopeful idealists are eager to reject, +modify, improvise and replace. + +Conservatives try to preserve both the structure and the traditional +activities of a community on the plea that a bird in the hand is worth +two in the bush. Liberals (moderates) would preserve the structure but +bring its activities up to date. Radicals would scrap the old and +replace it with a new structure and new activities geared to the new +possibilities and the new requirements. + +Survival wars from 1914 to 1945 marked not only the end of Britain's +planetary domination but the termination of Europe's planetary regency. +The events of the period also loosened the bonds that had held western +civilization together. + +A social structure which includes imperial nuclei and colonial +dependencies is constantly threatened by colonial unrest and revolt. +Colonial revolt, endemic in every civilization, became epidemic after +1943. The path to independence had been blazed by North and South +American colonials. It was followed after 1943 by the inhabitants of +British, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Asia and +Africa. The slogan of the independence movement was "self-determination." + +Before self-determination can operate there must be a "self" capable of +making decisions and carrying them into practice. Identification of the +"self," or "nationhood" as it was called in this era, involved bitter +domestic struggle, internal reorganization and consolidation. The +process was typified in the British Colonies of North America between +1770 and 1789 which produced the United States of North America. Asians +and Africans who gained their independence after 1945 faced a double +problem: the establishment of nationhood, and regional consolidation. + +The British colonies in North America won their independence as a loose +confederation of sovereign states. After war's-end in 1783, they were +able to form a regional federation: the United States of North America. +Despite their efforts, they were unable to include Canada, which was +under strong French influence. British colonials in Asia and Africa +after 1943 were less fortunate. After winning their independence as +Indians or Burmese, they were unable to take the next step and organize +a United States of Southern Asia. + +The Bandung Conference (in 1955) of representatives from Asia and +African countries failed to realize the hopes of its conveners. After +prolonged deliberations it was able to go no further than the "five +principles" of self-determination and co-existence, under which the +independence of each participating nation was reaffirmed and each agreed +not to interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbors. The +conference adjourned without establishing any form of organization or +making provision for further meetings. + +After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, hopes ran high for the establishment +of a bloc of Latin American States, led by the elected president of +Brazil, Joao Goulart, that might act as a bulwark against further +"yankee aggression" in Latin America. In 1962 a military coup overthrew +Goulart, drove him into exile, jailed and disenfranchised his supporters +and lined up Brazil, largest and most populous nation of Latin America, +solidly behind the Monroe Doctrine of United States supremacy in the +Americas, implemented by Washington's burgeoning "Pentagon diplomacy." + +African developments were even less fruitful than those in Asia and +Latin America. Asians and Latin Americans generally had reached the +level of self-identification necessary for statehood and national +self-determination. Large parts of Africa living at pre-national levels +of tribal identification, devoted their energies to the realization of +nationhood. Their constitutions announced their frontiers and proclaimed +their sovereignty, but inter-tribal rivalries and personal ambitions +turned each new nation into a battle field for prestige and authority, +with the military often making the final decisions. + +Asians and Africans had won telling victories in their struggle to drive +out their former imperial masters. When it came to the affirmative task +of organizing responsible regional federations, their failure was +dismal. Asia and Africa were regionally disunited. Former colonial +people, still monitored by alien representatives of monopoly capitalism, +were fragmented by the self-determination struggle into theoretically +sovereign nations many of which lacked the experience and the local +expertise which are the indispensible prerequisites of self-determination +and of fruitful regional federation. + +Another aspect of the world revolution produced more tangible results. +The latter half of the nineteenth century brought into being a +grass-roots movement of peoples demanding everything from petty reforms +of administrative machinery to planned revolutionary transformations of +the established monopoly capitalist structure. This movement +crystallized as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, pro-socialist +national and international struggle. From the publication of the +Communist Manifesto in 1848 until the beginnings of socialist +construction in 1917, it was a movement of protest against poverty, +unemployment, war, waste, inequality, exploitation. After 1917 it became +a movement to end imperialism, war and exploitation and substitute a +planet-wide social system that would give every human being a chance to +play a meaningful part in utilizing nature, improving society and +creating socialist women and men, capable of cooperating for the general +welfare of mankind. + +The Enlightenment had diminished ignorance, spread information and +brought elementary education to the masses. Self-government had given +people confidence in their ability to make the phrase "we, the people" a +working formula for social improvement. The Industrial Revolution had +converted millions of superstitious, frustrated peasants into craftsmen +and professionals confident in their ability to use nature effectively, +to advance their own interests and to improve society. These and +secondary social forces laid the foundation for the social revolution +that mushroomed across the planet during the opening years of the +present century. The occasion for the revolution was four years of +destructive war (1914-18) during which two rival gangs of imperialists +led their dupes and victims to shed blood and destroy property in a +struggle to decide which band of plunderers should exploit natural +resources and labor power for its own advantage. + +General war presented twentieth century man with a dilemma, an +opportunity and a choice. Should he continue the grab-and-keep society +that had flowered in Europe and elsewhere during the previous century, +with its consequent poverty for the many, unemployment, exploitation and +the power-struggle of the empires, or make a revolutionary change? As +the stalemated war of 1914-18 with its frightful destruction of life and +property continued year after year, the determination in favor of +revolutionary change grew and crystalized. + +David Lloyd George, Britain's Prime Minister, put the situation into +words presented to the Versailles Peace Conference on March 25, 1919: +"The whole of Europe is filled with the spirit of revolution.... The +whole existing order in its political, social and economic aspects is +questioned by the masses of the population from one end of Europe to the +other." (Memorandum of Lloyd George to the Peace Conference, 1922 Cmd. +1614.) + +Lloyd George proved a true prophet. Mass discontent and the spirit of +revolt spread rapidly. Soldiers at the front mutinied. The armies of +Tsarist Russia dissolved as the privates and officers alike returned to +their homes, determined to stop war, end Romanoff tyranny and build a +better life for the Russian people. To gain these results they replaced +the Tsarist absolutism by local, regional and nationally elected +people's Soviets. + +Before the War began in July, 1914, the socialist parties of Europe were +divided between moderates who were willing to accept welfare-state +reforms and allow the grab-and-keep structure of monopoly capitalism to +continue in authority, and revolutionaries who demanded the abolition of +capitalist imperialism and its replacement by socialism. European +reformist socialists shouldered arms in July, 1914, and shot down their +comrades across the frontiers. European revolutionary socialists, led by +Lenin in Russia, Liebknecht in Germany and Jaures in France gained in +strength as the war proceeded. Liebknecht and Jaures were assassinated. +Lenin lived in exile until he went back to Russia and led the +revolutionary forces that liquidated Tsarism in the closing months of +1917. + +For the first time in the history of western civilization, a proletarian +revolutionary force had established its authority over one of the most +extensive and populous nations on the planet. For the first time a +responsible government threatened to abandon the fundamental assumptions +and principles of western civilization. Could this new "subversive" +government survive in the merciless free-for-all in which western man +was engaged? Could it not only survive but build up a social system +which contradicted and condemned the underlying precepts of the West? In +a word, could socialism be built in one country, surrounded by civilized +monopoly capitalist powers? + +Historical events have answered these questions in the affirmative. At +this writing the Soviet Government has survived continuously for more +than half a century. During that period it has transformed economically, +politically and culturally backward portions of Europe and Asia into one +of the most advanced areas on the planet. + +Monopoly capitalist society assumes that productivity, wealth and +fire-power, effectively co-ordinated under competent authority, will +guarantee survival and perhaps win supremacy. Beginning its life in one +of the backward areas of the planet, the Soviet Union has met all of +these tests by converting itself into a first class world power. Its +productivity is second only to that of the United States. In wealth it +stands second among the nations. Its fire power has carried the Soviet +Union to victory in civil and international war. Its ruling +oligarchy--the Soviet Communist Party--has maintained its authority +through the stresses of domestic strife and major international +conflict. In terms accepted by the existing free-for-all West, the +Soviet Union is an established world power. + +Through the first three decades of its existence the Soviet Union was +the only government avowedly engaged in building a socialist rival to +monopoly capitalism and determined to replace capitalism as the dominant +planet-wide social system. After 1943 it was joined by a dozen other +European, Asian and American countries, dedicated like the Soviet Union +to the task of building socialism. In addition to these dozen countries, +several others such as India, Burma, Indonesia, Ceylon, Ghana and Libya, +declared their intention of building socialism by legal, and gradual +stages. Almost all of the countries busied with socialist construction +were in East Europe and Asia. The countries building toward socialism +were more widely scattered, but by and large they were Eurasian. + +From 1919 to 1943 socialist construction was directed, at least in +theory, by the Communist International with headquarters in Moscow--the +"general staff of the World Revolution". Under war pressure the +Communist International was dissolved in 1943. No equally inclusive +international socialist authority has since been established. + +World revolution is not confined to the Old World of +Africa--Asia--Europe. It is widely prevalent in the Americas where it +can claim a certain priority. Outstanding among colonial uprisings of +modern times was the rebellion of the British colonies of North America, +from 1776 to 1783. Even more widespread was the rebellion of the +Spanish, Portuguese and French colonies of Central and South America +which spanned most of the nineteenth century and extended on into the +twentieth. Russian Bolsheviks held the headlines on revolutionary +activity from 1917 to 1943 but it should not be forgotten that one of +the most prolonged and thorough-going revolutions of the present century +gripped Mexico from 1910 to 1917. At the beginning of this period Mexico +was a political semi-dependency of the United States. It was +semi-feudal, with a large population of Amerindians and a pre-industrial +economy. Foreign capitalists and entrepreneurs, including those from the +United States, played a leading role in the country. + +Mexico's 1910-1917 revolution was prolonged. It was also radical, +up-rooting many aspects of its old social pattern, speeding up the +bourgeois revolution, and preparing the way for a Mexican form of +populism and a Mexican foretaste of a proletarian revolution, initiated, +led and manned by Mexicans. + +Mexico's revolution resulted in two important developments that have +played a major role in socialist construction. Both contributions +appeared in the Mexican Constitution of 1917, adopted eight months +before the Russian Bolsheviks seized power in November. + +The first contribution was a chapter on the rights of labor. Bourgeois +constitutions had emphasized "civil" rights: the right to vote, trial by +jury; freedom of speech, press, assembly; the right to go and come; the +right to compensation when private property is taken for public +purposes; the right to modify or replace the existing constitution. The +Mexican Constitution of 1917 contained a detailed specification of the +rights of labor, including proper working conditions, adequate +compensation, education, health, social security. The Constitution also +contained a crucial property provision: the natural resources of Mexico +are the property of the Mexican people and cannot be alienated. + +This second provision was inserted in the Mexican Constitution at a time +when extensive concessions to develop Mexican resources had been handed +out to North American and European capitalists. It was inserted in part +because the social ownership and sharing of land and other +natural resources has been one of the basic demands of the +Socialist--Communist--Anarchist movements from their inception. + +Monopoly capitalism depends primarily on the private ownership of the +means of production, including natural resources. Capitalist opposition +to socialism is not only a matter of theory. In practice the private +ownership of natural resources enables the owner to charge rent to any +and all users. Natural resources are sharply limited and usually +localized. As population grows, demand for living space is intensified +and rents rise. It is not an accident that the stretches of "black +earth", of copper, iron, petroleum, the precious metals, and the land +occupied by Mexico City, London, New York and other population centers, +poured a stream of wealth into the treasuries and augmented the power of +their owners. + +Effects of the insertion into the Mexican Constitution of the provision +making natural resources "the property of the Mexican people" have been +far-reaching. One socialist country after another has written into its +constitution a provision that its natural wealth is the inalienable +heritage of its people. This provision has two important results: it +establishes natural resources as part of the public sector of the +national economy; it also limits the possibility of handing out +concessions to foreign exploiters, private or public. + +During the opening years of the present century socialist parties and +other forward looking organizations were demanding social ownership of +natural resources, public utilities and other social means of production +as the next logical step toward a more equitable distribution of wealth +and income. There was a possibility that such revolutionary changes +could be made under bourgeois law by exercising the right of eminent +domain, upon the payment of reasonable compensation to former owners. At +least in theory, the democratic majority in any bourgeois country could +put an end to private enterprise capitalism and establish socialism by a +constitutional amendment, legislative enactment, and a caretaker +political apparatus to administer and supervise the transition. + +Socialist parties were making "reformist" demands for better working +and living conditions and "revolutionary" demands for changes in +property and class relationships. Increased productivity and growing +affluence made it possible for a progressive bourgeois state to meet the +reformist demands, establishing a welfare state legally and +constitutionally. + +Under the bourgeois constitutions generally existing at the beginning of +the present century, a popular majority could adopt necessary +constitutional amendments, pass the necessary enabling laws and launch a +program of socialist construction. + +Such a program was part of the thinking of European and other socialist +leaders during the opening years of the present century. Inspired and +encouraged by the successes of socialist construction in the Soviet +Union and other socialist countries, middle of the road socialists +proposed to move gradually and legally from capitalism to socialism. + +Conservative socialists who were members of coalition governments in +parts of Eurasia, described such welfare states as victories for +socialism, despite the fact that they left the essentials of state power +in bourgeois hands. + +Between 1920 and 1950 the western world found itself in this essentially +revolutionary situation: the world-wide revolution in science and +technology had opened the way for the human race to turn its back on the +limitations and inadequacies of civilization and advance to a new level +of culture and human opportunity. + +The impact of this revolutionary situation expressed itself at several +levels: + + 1. Much of west and central Europe, important parts of North + America, much of Australasia, important parts of East Asia + and fringes of Africa had at least two generations of experience + with some degree of affluence. + + 2. Scientifically and technologically maturing societies that + had opted for socialism constitutionally and legally were + engaged officially in socialist construction. These countries + and peoples were located chiefly in Eurasia. + + 3. Former colonial and client dependencies of the nineteenth + century empires struggling for self-determination and statehood + were entering a stage of affluence. These countries + and peoples were mainly Afro-Asian. Some of them were + located in Latin America. + + 4. Countries and peoples still under the political, economic + and cultural umbrella of the formerly dominant empires + were at different stages in the completion of the bourgeois + revolution. Their ruling oligarchies--fascist or neo-fascist--were + stubborn defenders of remnants and fragments of the + nineteenth century bourgeois culture. Their stronghold was + the Atlantic Community. + +During the cold war years following 1945 each of these groups was +undergoing the drastic social changes incident to the worldwide +revolution of the period. Meanwhile mini-wars, civil and international, +were fought in the Americas, Africa and Asia. By common consent +conventional weapons were used and atomic weapons were kept in +mothballs. + +These experiences were highlighted in British Guyana and Cuba. British +Guyana was a Crown Colony, with a London-appointed Governor and a small +occupying force of British troops with an elected legislative assembly +and a considerable measure of home rule. + +Democratic socialists Cheddi and Janet Jagan helped to organize the +Peoples Progressive Party of British Guyana. Twice Jagan won a popular +electoral majority and was established as Prime Minister of the British +Colony. His two periods of administrative responsibility were badgered +and hectored by every reactionary force that could be mobilized inside +and outside British Guyana, from the British appointed governor to the +domestic and foreign business interests and the urban trade unions. +Before a third election British and American governments, business and +labor interests got together. Money was funnelled into the country +through trade union connections. Protests were staged. Riots were +organized. The electoral system under which the Peoples Progressive +Party had won its victories was altered in London and Jagan was replaced +by a system of proportional representation under which the P.P.P. was +defeated and a new regime inaugurated. + +Throughout the struggle the Peoples Progressive Party had insisted upon +winning popular majorities as a basis for establishing socialism in the +colony by democratic methods and legal means. Imperialist reactionaries +from Britain's Prime Minister and the President of the United States to +the A.F. of L.-C.I.O. retorted: "No you don't", and backed up their veto +with money, riots and guns. As a consequence of this counter-revolutionary +conspiracy, the Peoples Progressive Party was forced out of office and +an administration favorable to British, United States and native Guyanese +capital was substituted. + +A revolt was led by Fidel Castro and his associates against the +Washington-backed Batista regime in Havana, Cuba. When Cuba was seized +by United States armed forces during the Spanish-American War of 1898 +much of the island was in the hands of anti-Spanish rebels who were +demanding independence of Spain's imperialist rule. Between 1898 and +1959 seven million Cubans enjoyed technical independence. Actually the +island, located only 90 miles from Florida, was economically a United +States colony and politically a Washington dependency, with United +States armed forces stationed in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. After +seizing power in 1959, Castro went to the United States seeking a market +for Cuba's chief export, sugar; a source of food supplies not produced +in Cuba, and the manufactures necessary for the economic and social life +of an essentially agricultural island. + +Batista had emptied the Cuban treasury before he fled the island in +1959. Castro therefore needed loans to meet the immediate needs of the +Cuban economy. He also sought to continue arrangements under which the +chief market of Cuban sugar was in the United States. Castro was turned +down cold. All doors, political and economic, were closed to him. As a +revolutionary with left leanings he got the cold shoulder in New York as +well as in Washington. + +Faced by economic bankruptcy and political hostility in the West, Castro +turned to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. They bought +his sugar on long term contracts; provided him with manufactures; +extended loans. Under these economic and political conditions Castro's +Cuba had no choice. Of necessity it became a part of the socialist bloc, +took over the property of Americans and other foreign investors, planned +its economy and announced socialist goals, thus making the island of +Cuba the only outpost of socialist construction in the Americas. + +Socialists exercised authority in one country from 1917 until 1943. +Thereafter the land area devoted to building socialism steadily +increased. By the time China threw off imperialist leading strings and +opted for socialist construction in 1949, a third of mankind was living +on territory under nominally socialist control. Most of this territory +was Asian. An important part lay in eastern Europe. Until 1917, +effective control of the planet was held by a half-dozen empires headed +by the British, who exercised authority over a quarter of the human race +living on a quarter of the earth's land area. After 1917 socialism +mushroomed as a potential competing social system, challenging monopoly +capitalism in Europe, replacing it in large sections of Asia and even +threatening to destroy the foundations of western civilization. + +"Action and reaction are equal and opposite" is an axiom of physical +science which is also applicable in the social field. The sweep of world +revolution and the growth of socialism-communism after 1945 called into +being an opposing force of counter-revolution. The greater the successes +of socialism, the more ardent and assiduous was the counter drive, aimed +to modify, negate and, if possible, to destroy the revolution and +restore the social system of imperialism-colonialism built by monopoly +capitalism to its prerevolutionary status of planet-wide ascendancy. + +Winston Churchill personified this counter revolutionary drive. It was +he who proposed to "strangle the Bolshevik infant in its cradle". The +Peace Conferees, meeting in Versailles, heeded Lloyd George's warning of +March, 1919, and turned their attention to the urgent task of +strangling socialism. Revolutionary beginnings in central Europe were +stamped out. Funds were raised and arms were supplied to the +anti-Bolshevik forces in European Russia and Siberia. At the height of +the counter-Bolshevik crusade there were sixteen armies in Soviet Russia +with the common aim of destroying Bolshevism and restoring the country +to its previous status as one of the pillars of western civilization. +This military phase of the counter-revolution lasted for four years. It +failed. By 1922 the Soviet leaders were able to turn their energies to +the task of rebuilding a devastated country while they planned and +organized a socialist society. + +Counter revolutionary forces failed to overthrow the Bolsheviks during +the civil war of 1918-1921. They failed again when the Nazi armies +swarmed into the Soviet Union in June, 1941. The years from 1941 to 1945 +cost the Russians perhaps twenty million dead, six million dwelling +units and immense damage to their economy and their social organization. +When the war ended, responsible observers in the West predicted that if +the Soviet power survived, decades must elapse before the country was +back on its feet. + +War destruction had played havoc with much of Europe. The Soviet Union +was especially hard hit. Under the Marshall Plan billions of dollars of +United States aid were poured into Britain, France, Belgium and West +Germany. At the same time, the Soviet request for United States loans +was refused categorically by President Truman. Alone and unaided the +Soviet People repaired the extensive damage inflicted by the 1914-18 +war, the Russian Civil War and the 1941 military invasion from the West, +and went on with the task of socialist construction which the war had +interrupted. Within five years--by 1950--the Bolsheviks were again on +their feet, going strong, extending substantial aid to China and other +professedly socialist countries and playing a crucial part in the +struggle for disarmament and peace. + +At war's end in 1918 the Soviet Union was struggling to draw the first +breath of socialist life. Three decades later, after expelling the +Nazis, the Soviet Union was a sturdy giant of a nation standing head +and shoulders above its nearest European competitors. During the +interval, Soviet Russia was attacked, denounced, boycotted, encircled, +invaded, ostracized as the leading figure in "an international communist +conspiracy". When the policy of intervention and invasion failed, the +counter-revolutionaries turned to cold war. + +Whether or not there was a "communist conspiracy" to overthrow +capitalism, there was certainly an organized capitalist conspiracy to +overthrow socialism-communism. Representatives of the chief capitalist +empires made repeated attempts to subsidize anti-Bolshevik forces in the +Soviet Union. From 1918 to 1921 and from 1941 to 1945 they used every +available means, including military invasion, to overthrow the Soviet +Union and stamp out the beginnings of socialist construction in Central +and East Europe. + +From the military invasions of the Soviet Union immediately following +war's end in 1918, western spokesmen, led by President Wilson, did their +utmost to subsidize counter-revolution inside the Soviet Union, to send +American and other armed forces into the country, to villify, denounce, +boycott and handicap the Soviet Government. Sixteen years passed +(1917-1933) before Washington extended diplomatic recognition to the +Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. President Wilson did his best to +keep the Soviet Union and Mexico, both under the control of +revolutionary governments, out of the League of Nations. + +After the 1936-1945 war Washington played the same role with regard to +China, refusing for twenty-two years to recognize Socialist China +diplomatically, leading the drive in the United Nations to exclude China +from membership, although the United Nations Charter specified that +China should be one of the permanent members of the Security Council. +Secretary of State John Foster Dulles justified the policy of +blacklisting and boycotting China by declaring that there was no such +nation as China on the Asian mainland, only 650 million slaves, and that +Chiang Kai Shek's rump government on the island of Formosa was the +"China" specified in the U.N. Charter. + +Under the Truman Doctrine announced immediately after war's end in +1945, the United States refused to tolerate any extension of socialism, +whether by revolution from within or by invasion from without any +country. This doctrine was applied to Greece, to Iran, to Guatemala, to +Santo Domingo, to Chile. During the Korean War, which began in June, +1950, one of President Truman's first directives ordered the United +States Seventh (Pacific) Fleet to occupy the waters about Taiwan +(Formosa), which was historically part of China. + +In order to implement this anti-communist policy, Washington used a +newly created international secret service, the Central Intelligence +Agency or C.I.A., gave it an initial appropriation of $100,000,000 and +turned it loose to spy, corrupt, undermine and overthrow governments +that refused to accept or follow Washington's leadership. + +Between 1815 and 1914 the planet enjoyed a measure of peace and order. +In the three decades between 1914 and 1945, two general wars, a plague +of lesser wars, a general economic depression and a hurricane of +revolutions scourged the planet. Meanwhile, the revolution in science +and technology and its products penetrated almost every crack and cranny +of human society. + +Had the changes incidental to these rapid transformations been carefully +planned and supervised, the disturbances in the ecology and the shocks +to human society would have been less disturbing and upsetting. In the +absence of any planet-wide authority, there could be neither general +planning nor general supervision. There were warnings aplenty from +liberals and radicals who were attempting to keep the situation in +perspective, but such utterances failed to reach the great bulk of +mankind. + +Disturbing and upsetting products of the revolution in science and +technology--the harnessing of steam, the internal combustion engine, the +air plane, electronics, plastics, and the release of atomic energy--were +used to mutilate, destroy and kill. During the half century that began +in 1910, tens of millions were mobilized, fed, taught, armed, and led to +the slaughter fields by the masters of western civilization in two long +orgies of wholesale destruction and mass murder--1914-18 and 1936-1945. +Energies and techniques that might have brought peace and plenty to the +human family were used to set fire storms that incinerated property +while it degraded humanity to the horrors of mass suicide. + +In a very real sense these ghoulish results were the logical outcome of +competitive nationalism armed and equipped with the technology produced +during the two centuries of the great revolution. War is the most +carefully planned, most elaborate and most intensive form of +competition--the decisive climax of a life and death struggle for +survival. + +The great revolution had put into human hands almost infinite +possibilities for utilizing nature and improving the social environment. +With foresight, careful planning and skillful manipulation of forces and +trends the cultivatable portions of the planetary land mass might have +been turned into a garden of unending plenty dotted with marvelous city +centers of light and learning. + +In order to achieve such results it would have been necessary for the +human family to coordinate its efforts around an agreed division of +labor, share the goods and services produced and move from one level of +affluence to a level of abundance. + +Instead of joint efforts to achieve abundance and security, the most +prosperous and most highly developed centers of western civilization +consolidated their authority in sovereign states, surrounded by +forbidding frontiers, armed them with the most destructive agencies that +human imagination and ingenuity could devise, schooled the citizens of +each nation in the suicidal formula: "might makes right; every nation +for itself and woe betide the laggard and the loser." + +The logical ideology of such a formula was egomania, suspicion, fear and +hatred. Its outcome was a competitive life and death struggle for wealth +and power, with the nation or a bloc of nations as the units of +competition. The struggle at its highest level involved occasional local +wars and periodical general wars like those of 1914-18 and 1936-45. + +Before the great revolution such struggles were waged chiefly with +weapons wielded by human muscle power, supplemented with whatever animal +power was available. Equipped with the products of the technological +revolution, the struggle became a war of machines, powered by the +energies of nature. Retail killing and destruction was replaced by mass +murder and wholesale annihilation. + +Given the assumptions, the practices and the institutions of +civilization, the catastrophic losses of the present century could have +been foretold and, with competent leadership and disciplined +followership, could have been averted. But leadership was self-serving, +shortsighted and for the most part untrained, while followership was +split up into national and local segments, each following the suicidal +doctrine of every nation for itself and the devil take the laggards. + +Socialists-communists around the earth have spent a wealth of time and +energy during several generations predicting the present revolutionary +upset and preparing for it. They have been derided, denounced and +persecuted for their efforts. Despite bitter opposition they have +prepared for change, they accept change, they welcome it, because in +change they see the only path to improvement and betterment. + +They are learning to live with change and even to welcome it because the +time of troubles through which their society is passing is warning them +of the dangers they face. At the same time they are learning, bit by +bit, of the spectacular achievements of the billion human beings in +socialist-communist countries. + +The majority of mankind has been unprepared for revolutionary change. +When change came they resented it, maybe resisted it at the outset. + +Those who have a vested interest in capitalist imperialism--the real +backbone of the counter-revolution--join and support counter-revolutionary +organizations and take part in counter-revolutionary activities. + +Planners and organizers of the counter-revolution have the bourgeois +state generally on their side and enjoy the backing of the bourgeois +establishment, its organizations and its facilities. Since their object +is defense, they have no constructive program. Instead they stumble, +fumble and bungle as their system flounders into one disastrous crisis +after another. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +WESTERN CIVILIZATION ATTEMPTS SUICIDE (1914-1945) + + +Each bit of handiwork, each artifact, tool and machine is an expression +of man's wish and will. Each transcends nature and is an affirmation +that takes its place in the vast storehouse of human culture. + +Cities, the building blocks of civilization, not only transcend nature; +they replace her. Up to a certain point man lived more or less +consciously as a part of nature. Bit by bit and step by step man shifted +from the stream, the glade, the tree and the cave to the hut, the +village, the city, the nation, the empire, the civilization. + +Early in this study I wrote of civilization as an experiment: an +aspiration, a creative urge, a concept, a purpose, a unity of thought +and act, a conscious sequence of related actions, a construct of +multiplying complexity. + +These terms, by and large, are constructive and, to a degree, creative. +I might have written a parallel series of words associated with +destructiviness. In every social situation construction and destruction +are Siamese twins. One does not appear without the other. The same +forces, the same implements, the same institutions and practices that +construct can be used to destroy. + +Through ages, men learned how to establish, maintain and perpetuate +community and organize society. At every stage of the building process +it was necessary to check, to question, to evaluate, unlearn, tear down, +make a new start. Pushing up and tearing or wearing down is implicit in +nature. It is an essential aspect of human society. + +Each human being is a living example of production and destruction. Each +generation repeats the affirmation, modifying it little or much in +accord with circumstances. + +Modification means purposeful change--partially or wholly abandoning the +old and replacing it with something new. In the course of these changes +the conservative elements in man and in society, voluntarily or under +coercion, give up the old and learn how to use the new. The learning +process is always more or less painful, especially to people past middle +age. + +The world-wide revolution resulted from a long-continued related series +of affirmations, punctuated and interrupted by contradictions and +conflicts. + +Trends inherent in the world-wide revolution of 1750-1970 suggest a +cycle that reached its high point at the turn of the century and began +its downward course around 1900. The chief European empires were jointly +and severally involved in the bitter struggle for survival and supremacy +from 1870 onward. Until the outbreak of war in 1914, events followed an +irregular course marked by the shifting relationships of Italy and the +increased pressure from Germany for a showdown. The showdown was the war +of 1914-18, continued in a second phase from 1936 to 1945. + +Immediate political results of the showdown were victory for one side +and defeat for the other side. Economic, sociological and ideological +consequences were profound and far reaching. We noted some of them in +the previous chapter. + +UNESCO's _History of Mankind_ devotes its final volume six to the +twentieth century. The authors note that the chief European powers +emerged from the general war of 1914-18 "weakened in every way: in men +and wealth, in the balance of their economies and the stability of their +political structure and above all in their relation to other powers +rising or beginning to rise in other parts of the world". (Vol. VI p. +10.) + +Aside from the victory-defeat relationship which led to political +realignments during the post-war years, the essence of the experience +is to be found in the UNESCO phrase "weakened in every way". Another way +of describing the experience is to state that the participants in this +four year blood bath were "bled white." + +It is easy to be specific. In the course of the war sixty million people +were mobilized. Most of these people stopped what they had been doing +until mid-summer of 1914 and began an entirely new line of activity. Up +to that point most of them had been living with their families, in their +neighborhoods, going through a daily routine that included household +cares, production or service work, the conduct of neighborhood affairs, +the maintenance of normal livelihood activities, the upbringing of the +new generation and perhaps most important of all, adaptation to a +rapidly changing social situation. + +The changes that took place in the summer of 1914 involved an almost +complete reversal of purpose and direction. Up to that point Europeans +were devoting a considerable proportion of their time to production and +the maintenance of the normal life routine. At that point they left +their homes, exchanged ordinary clothes for uniforms, laid down the +implements of peace, picked up the weapons of war and prepared, under +very expert leadership and direction, a series of mass movements +designed to disrupt the ordinary life routine of other human beings on +the other side of lines drawn on a map, but having little relation to +customary life activity and even less to geography. + +Execution of this purpose involved a mass movement from the home +territory into that occupied by the "enemy". If the enemy resisted he +must be forced to do the will of the invaders. Instead of cooperating in +a joint effort to maintain and improve the general welfare, uniformed, +armed, expertly-led masses began beating up each other, until one side +gave in and cried "enough." + +Plans for war had been drawn and redrawn for years, for decades. +Elaborate preparations had been made. Destructive weapons had been +designed and built. Transport had been provided, food stored. Defensive +preparations had also been made in the form of fortifications so placed +as to obstruct or prevent "the enemy" from crossing the "frontier". + +When sport-lovers go from home for a day to play a competition in +another city or province, they go, play the game and then go back home +to continue the ordinary life routine. In the case of the project we are +now considering they left home in July, 1914 and returned months or +years later. Many never got back home because they were killed in battle +or died of wounds; many were "missing"; they disappeared. + +If casualties in the 1914-18 war had been numbered in dozens, or scores +or even in hundreds, the communities from which they came could have +gone on without them--handicapped perhaps but not seriously disrupted. +But when they were numbered in thousands and tens of thousands it was a +quite different story. Actually, they were numbered in millions. + +Mobilized to carry on the war were 42.2 million on the Allied side. On +the side of the Central Powers, 22.8 millions. The total: 65 million. 12 +million of those mobilized were Russian, 11 million were Germans, 8.4 +million were French, 8 million were from the British Empire. From +Austro-Hungary came 7.8 million, from Italy, 5.6 million. Turkey +furnished 2.9 million, Bulgaria 1.2 million; 4.4 million came from the +United States; 0.8 million from Japan. Lesser numbers came from other +countries. + +Except for Spain, the largest contributions of war conscripts came from +the countries with the largest populations. With the exception of Spain, +all of the great powers of Europe provided the "cannon fodder"; the +human beings which Europe's "great powers" assembled to take part in +this profligate orgy of mass murder which went on for more than four +years, from July 1914 until November 1918. + +Body count reports and "estimates" give the total number of human beings +murdered in the four year period as 8,538,315. (The legal definition of +"murder" is killing, not accidentally but with the intention of taking +life.) + +This figure of 8.5 million murdered human adults, most of them in the +prime of life, refers to the murdered bodies that were recovered and +disposed of. In addition there were "prisoners" and "missing." + +As the 1914-18 war proceeded it became less a series of combats between +human beings; more and more it was a war of machines such as +battleships, tanks, big guns and by war's end, of airplanes. Human +beings drew up the plans, made the blueprints, shifted the gears, pushed +the buttons. Their efforts were supplemented and multiplied by the +killing power of physics, chemistry and mechanics brought to the task of +wholesale murder, which produced 8.5 million dead human bodies. + +"Prisoners and missing" accounted for 7,750,000 additional human beings. +Many of them were torn to shreds and smithereens by the gigantic +concentration of mechanical and explosive power, designed, constructed +and transported to the European battlefields for the express purpose of +carrying on this month-long and year-long collective endeavor to take as +much life as possible and destroy as much property as possible while war +declarations authorized and legalized mass murder and wholesale +destruction. + +Not all victims of the hideous 1914-18 blood bath were killed. "Wound +casualties" numbered 12.8 million among the Allies; 8.4 million among +the boys, young men and adults mobilized by the Central Powers. Some of +the wounded were crippled for life. Some were less severely injured, but +all 22.2 million were more or less severely handicapped when they stood +up to face the rigors of civilian life at war's end. All were denied the +possibility of living normal, productive, creative, satisfying lives. + +Wars are fought on battlefields. In the war of 1914-18 many of the +battlefields included villages, towns, cities. These complex +institutions, occupied by men, women and children were smashed and +burned wholesale. + +The figures which I have used in listing the 1914-18 war losses were +compiled by the United States War Department. They are more or less +accurate, but they underline the fact that for years on end the centers +of western civilization concentrated their energies and devoted every +means at their disposal to cripple or destroy fellow human beings and +their habitations. + +When we read of the destruction of the Roman Empire we console and +perhaps try to fool ourselves by saying that the immense network of +civilization which the Romans and their Greek associates spread across +Eurasia and Africa during the historical period that began about 700 +B.C. was destroyed by hordes of migrating "barbarians." When we turn to +our own civilization, however, there are no barbarian hordes to take the +blame. The wholesale destruction which took place in Europe from 1914 to +1918 and which was repeated and multiplied during the wars of 1936-1945 +was carried on officially by spokesmen for the most advanced, most +highly developed, most civilized countries of the western world. + +We have been using the word "murder" to describe the wholesale slaughter +of Europeans by Europeans that took place from 1914 to 1918 and from +1936 to 1945. The word "murder" is inaccurate. The Europeans who carried +on the wholesale destruction and mass murder during the two most general +wars of modern times were committing murder in one sense. In quite +another sense they were engaged in collective suicide. Europeans were +blotting out the life and well-being of fellow Europeans. When the +process came to a temporary halt in 1945 every European participant in +the struggle was weaker in human potential and poorer in economic means +than they were when the war began. + +Arnold Toynbee describes the entire episode as the "down grading" of +Europe. He might have added two words and reported "the down grading of +Europe by Europeans", as a glaring example of large scale, long +continued, deliberate self-destruction. + +Fundamental social changes were bound to follow the revolutionary +technical transformations that took place during the world-wide +revolution of 1750-1970. Changes may be made in various ways. Some are +slow and relatively painless, particularly when they extend over +generations; other changes are so rapid that they are agonizingly +painful. Involuntary changes, made under outside pressure are almost +always painful. World-wide revolution, under the best of conditions, +promises to be painful. When it comes from alien sources, and is under +forced pressure, the costs are almost sure to be excessively high. + +This brings us face to face with one of the most important problems +facing mankind at the present moment. Given the worldwide revolution of +the past two centuries, what changes--political, economic, sociological +and ideological--must be made to prepare the way for the new society and +shift the family from the old homestead to the new apartment with a +minimum of pain and a maximum of satisfaction? + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +TALKING PEACE AND WAGING WAR + + +Blatant contradictions disorganized human life after war's end in 1945. +In the crucial area of war and peace three groups were bidding for +attention: dedicated peace partisans (peacenicks); nationalist +enthusiasts waging wars of liberation; and massive semi-official and +official nationalistic groups busily preparing for the next big war. + +Occasionally these groups joined hands on "hot" issues. Generally they +were far apart. Often they were in active opposition. + +Dedicated peace advocates were an important factor in this post-war +period. They had been vocal and influential in July, 1914 immediately +before the outbreak of the first general war. They had continued to play +an active role between the first and second general wars. In the autumn +of 1972 the World Peace Council called together a peace assembly in +Moscow representing significant elements from 143 countries. The largest +single element in the World Peace Council was the Socialist bloc, headed +by the Soviet Union. + +Peace advocates mobilized wide public support for the "no more war" +movement that developed during the closing months of the 1914-18 war; +for the Briand-Kellogg Treaty of 1928 which renounced war as an +instrument of policy; for the effort to secure general disarmament that +resulted in the General Disarmament Conference of 1933 and for the +United Nations Charter of 1945. + +Official declarations in favor of disarmament and peace had been +paralleled by the organization of unofficial peace committees and +societies in western Europe, in the Americas and in the socialist +countries. + +Peace efforts had been strengthened by the outbreak of local +wars--between India and Pakistan, between Israel and the Arab League; by +wars of independence and liberation in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, North +Africa. + +Much of the public backing for the peacenicks came from student groups +in official and private high schools, colleges and universities. + +Nationalist liberation movements were active in settled communities such +as Ireland and Canada's Province of Quebec. There were less established +movements in newly liberated restless ex-colonies and remaining colonies +of the chief European empires, of Japan and of the United States. The +widely advertised World Peace Council turned more and more from general +advocacy of peace, such as the Stockholm Peace Petition, to the support +of liberation movements among colonials and supressed minor +nationalities. + +Preparations for another general war were expanded and intensified as +the competitive struggle for oil and other natural resources mounted. By +the end of the 1960's total arms expenditures of the chief powers were +running at $200 billion per year. In 1973 the total reached $225 +billion. + +There was much general talk about peace, but the most insistent note +sounded for a high level of spending on armaments. Britain's Prime +Minister Heath voiced a sentiment vigorously promulgated by every +representative of national security "British interests come first". + +Confusion was heightened by the presence of men who faced all three +ways: talking peace, waging small wars and preparing for the next big +one. In February, 1974 in his State of the Union message to the U.S. +Congress, President Nixon spoke of "our goal of building a structure of +lasting peace in the world." At the same moment the Washington +administration was feeding the fires of war in South East Asia and +asking the United States Congress to increase 1975 U.S.A. defense +appropriations from $80 billion to $90 billion per year. + +When war ended in 1945 there was a planet-wide sigh of relief and a +devout hope that after so many years of local and general wars, the time +had come for western man to take a long decisive step in the direction +of peace. The United Nations Charter expressed this hope to end the use +of war as an instrument of policy. + +Since the period of general social relaxation usually known as the Dark +Ages was superceded by the multiple innovations of the Reformation, the +Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the scientific-technical developments +of the 1750-1970 Revolution, man the dreamer, inventor, designer, +planner, architect and engineer has modified many aspects of nature and +transformed the social environment. + +Until the Reformation and the Renaissance, European ruling oligarchies +in territories along the Mediterranean and throughout western Europe +were able to perpetuate their privileges and preserve the life styles of +an agricultural-feudal society. Improvements in navigation and the +growth of trade, commerce and industry opened the way for the bourgeois +revolution with its rapid growth of cities and the parallel increase of +wealth, income, and living standards among the newly-enriched +businessmen and their associates and dependents. + +Social changes in feudal Europe had been gradual. The dynamism implicit +in the bourgeois revolution escalated the rate of social change with +corresponding modifications in the pattern of European political, +economic and cultural institutions and practices. + +In the early stages of the transformation the awareness of change was +limited to a minority of city dwellers. To the rural illiterate +majority, change was a closed book. A great social gulf separated the +feudal countryside from the growing centers of trade, commerce and +industry. Bourgeois life processes narrowed and gradually bridged the +gulf. Differences between city and country living persisted, but the +stark contrast between city abundance of goods and services and their +virtual absence from the common life of the countryside grew less and +less marked as the proportion of the total population living in the +countryside declined with the trek to cities and their suburbs. + +Europeans living for the most part in a pre-civilized rural environment +passed through generations of illiterate unawareness of the social +process through which European life was expanding. The rapid extension +of industry and commerce after 1750 (the bourgeois revolution) completed +the transformation of a rural, semi-feudal west and central Europe into +a continent of town and city dwellers devoting their lives to pursuits +unknown to their immediate forebears. In this new Europe the countryside +played a decreasing role, as food supplies and raw materials came +increasingly from less developed parts of eastern Europe or from the +colonies which were opened up by the planet-wide trade and commerce +promoted by the aggressive expansion of the European empires. + +Most Europeans, satisfied with the axiom "old fashions please me best" +were stand-patters in the early stages of this transformation. As the +conversion of Europe from feudal status to urban dynamism continued, +however, an ever larger part of the population became aware of the +change through which their society was passing. With the Renaissance and +the Enlightenment inert unawareness gave place to enthusiastic +propaganda in the writings of pamphleteers, essayists, poets, novelists +and social reformers who set the intellectual tone for the new society. + +In a very real sense, the bourgeois Europe which emerged after 1750 was +something new under the sun. Large elements of the population, +previously engaged in producing and consuming the bare necessaries of +food, shelter and clothing were increasingly engaged in trades and +professions and rendering services unknown to the feudal countryside. As +the expansion of western civilization continued, entire European nations +like the Low Countries, England and Germany turned to trade, commerce, +industry, leaving only a dwindling minority engaged in agricultural +pursuits. The change was speeded by the revolution in science and +technology. + +Changes in economic and social relations are paralleled by corresponding +alterations in the total way of living. Western civilization was, in its +entirety, a cultural departure from the pattern of any preceding +experiment with civilization because of the drastic changes that the +revolution in science and technology had introduced into human society. + +Throughout the life-cycle of western civilization minor and major +alterations have been made in its structure and its function. Some of +the earlier political changes were part and parcel of the bourgeois +revolution. They included: + +1. The abolition of absolute monarchies and hereditary aristocracies and +their replacement by limited monarchies and republics with various types +of representative and popular governments selected by ballot. + +2. The replacement of personal tyrannies and autocracies by written +constitutions and laws passed by elected parliaments. + +3. Replacement of war as the sport of kings and the chief instrument of +policy makers, by negotiation, diplomacy, and treaties which became the +core of existing "international law." + +4. Arbitrary national sovereignty was supplemented by more or less +permanent alliances and by the formal international organizations such +as the Universal Postal Union, the World Court and the League of +Nations. + +5. Regional Associations were organized; the North Atlantic Treaty +Organization; the Organization of American States and the Organization +for European Unity. + +6. Disarmament conferences were held. General peace treaties were signed +like the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928 and the United Nations +Charter. + +7. Two major efforts were made to establish a general confederation of +nations and empires--the League of Nations in 1919 and the United +Nations a quarter of a century later. Both the League of Nations and the +United Nations proved to be feeble and ineffectual efforts to bridge the +gulf between limited national sovereignty and planet-wide order and +peace. But they were tentative steps in the direction of a federation of +the world and they did mark a notable advance from the chaos and +conflict incident to the planet-wide expansion of the European empires +toward more stable economic and social conditions and more orderly +international relationships. + +Paralleling these changes in the political life of western civilization +there have been a number of drastic economic reforms. One was the +abolition of chattel slavery. A second was the replacement of serfdom +and peonage by free labor receiving fixed wages and salaries. A third +change was the division of large feudal estates and other concentrated +landed properties into small units owned and operated by working +farmers. A fourth change was the establishment of free trade areas +within and among sovereign states. A fifth innovation was the transfer +of individually operated and family businesses into associations and +corporations with limited liability and widespread ownership by bond and +stockholders. Sixth, trade unions and consumers' cooperatives were +recognized and legalized. Seventh, legal provisions were made for social +security against accident, sickness, unemployment, old age. Minimum +incomes were guaranteed. Eighth, many steps were taken toward public or +social ownership of the means of production, including land and other +natural resources. Ninth, repeated governmental efforts were made to +deal with the inflation that attends prolonged exhausting wars. These +efforts included the regulation of credit and debt and the substitution +of new currencies for old ones that had been hopelessly devalued. + +Political and economic changes in the life-patterns of western +civilization have been accompanied by far-reaching cultural reforms such +as the provision of free public education; the emancipation of women; +the provision of public recreation facilities; popularized culture +through information, the drama, music, literature, art; equalizing +opportunity and facilitating movement up and down the ladder of +recognition, approval, disapproval. + +Political reforms of western civilization date from the Reformation and +the Renaissance. Economic reforms were speeded by the industrial +revolution. Together they are often described as the bourgeois +revolution, which resulted in the power shift from landlords, +ecclesiastics and knights in armor to businessmen, protected and +assisted by the state, the church, channels of information and +propaganda, the police and other armed forces. Cultural reforms +accompanied the reforms in politics and economics. + +Underlying the changes and supplementing reforms were improvements in +the means of communication and transportation; the discovery and use of +new sources of energy and the changes in production and merchandizing +which have played so vital a role in the transition from a skimpy +economy of scarcity to an open-handed economy of abundance, extravagance +and conspicuous waste. + +Through all of the political, economic and social changes made in the +structure and function of western civilization its basic activities have +remained unchanged. The nuclei of civilized life have been cities +concerned primarily with trade, commerce, industry, finance--planned, +organized and administered by businessmen, their professional and +technical associates and assistants. In practice, city centers of wealth +and power have expanded, using the military as the readiest means of +implementing policy. They have occupied and garrisoned the foreign +territory brought under their control. At home and abroad they have +exploited nature, men and other animals in their interest and for their +profit. The trading cities of medieval Europe, the emerging nations of +the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the colonizing empires of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the industrial European +empires of the nineteenth century devoted their energies increasingly to +expanding into new territory, occupying and exploiting it, and fighting +the wars which pock-marked the ceaseless struggle for pelf and power. In +short, they continued to build up the institutions and to follow the +practices of civilized peoples. This has been true of the millennium +that began with the crusades and has hastened the rise of western +civilization and its extension to planet-wide proportions. + +Similar conclusions can be drawn from the life stories of the score or +more of civilizations that rose, flourished and sank into inconsequence +during the previous five thousand years. + +Each civilization has had its own habitat, its own life pattern. Each +has had its own languages, laws, traditions and customs. But despite +such local differences, all of the civilizations have had in common +those characteristics which justify their inclusion in the family of +civilizations. + +Anyone who wishes to test the accuracy of these generalizations may be +satisfied by reading and observing the events that began with the wars +between Japan, China and Russia, the Spanish American War, the Boer War, +and the revolts in Cuba, China and the Philippines, all of which took +place between 1895 and 1905. The present century opened in a period of +critical struggle between empires, within empires and between imperial +centers and colonial dependencies. These preliminary skirmishes led up +to two general wars in 1914-1918 and 1936-1945, accompanied and followed +by a score of minor wars and a planet-wide rash of civil wars and wars +of independence waged by peoples of the erstwhile colonies. + +Three johnnie-come-lately empires played star-roles in the drama: +Germany, the United States and Japan. The histories of all three +countries from 1870 to 1950 provide ample support for the contention +that the central theme of western civilization, as of its predecessors, +is a competitive struggle for wealth and power, aimed at expansion and +exploitation, using war and the threat of war as instruments of policy. + +Even under the pressures generated by the innovations and the political +and economic changes of the current world wide revolution, the principle +objectives of civilization have remained constant: geographical +expansion; military, economic and cultural occupation; exploitation of +the newly acquired territories and peoples. Each civilization has built +up and maintained a professional military apparatus and used it as the +final arbiter in the determination of domestic and foreign policy. + +The means used to achieve these objectives have varied from time to time +and from place to place. The basic pattern of civilization has +appeared, disappeared and reappeared. + +Each civilization has made heroic efforts to reform itself when +submerged in a time of troubles that made its institutions and its +practices intolerable to those in power or those groups and classes +which had grown so desperate under its exploitation and oppression that +they preferred death to continuance of the established order. + +Each civilization has made its contribution, retaining its essential +form while modifying its practices to meet the requirements of +particular situations. Western civilization is no exception to this +general rule. + +Following the all but universal principle that "action and reaction tend +to be equal and opposite," subjugated, occupied peoples revolt against +"foreign" occupation and exploitation. Again western civilization is no +exception, as the movements for independence and self-determination that +followed the 1946 post-war collapse of the European empires clearly +showed. + +Reaction against western civilization went beyond revolt to include the +rejection of the obsolete concepts, forms and practices inherent in +civilization. Rejection has been accompanied and followed by proposals +for replacing civilization by concepts, forms and practices more in +keeping with the social relations and situations resulting from the +current world revolution. + +Most reforms of civilization have been attempted during the life of +western civilization because during that era both the structure and +functioning of civilization have been called into question. In no +civilization (Egypt, Rome or the modern West) have the essential +principles of civilization been seriously modified. Again and again, +during the times of trouble that marked the breakdown of successive +civilizations, particular institutions were rejected but civilization as +a way of life has been accepted and re-established in the course of each +new cycle. + +During previous cycles the breakdown of a civilization had been followed +by a period of rest and recuperation before the beginning of the next +experiment. The breakdown of western civilization, a negative reaction, +has been accompanied by a planet-wide drive to replace the concepts, +forms and practices of civilization by the concepts, forms and practices +of socialism-communism. + + +Socialism-communism as a way of life for nations and continents is a new +experiment on the planet earth. Heretofore there have been small +groups--families, tribes and sects--that have adopted and followed +cooperation as a way of life, but widespread planned cooperation on a +national or continental scale is a novelty. + +As a result of these changes, conflict-torn and fragmenting western +civilization found itself divided into three factional groups: + +I. Corporate business organized domestically and internationally to +preserve and extend its wealth and power. Big business interests, their +dependents and backers were concentrated chiefly in West Europe and +North America. Their network of interests and controls was planet-wide. +Literally they were the backbone of western civilization. + +II. Builders of socialism-communism, an alternative and rival life +pattern, have been concentrated in East Europe and Asia. The +socialists-communists occupied a minority position in most of the +countries dominated by big business. Their program called for the +replacement of capitalist competition and conflict by a cooperating, +planned, planet-wide society operated for service rather than for +profit. + +III. A third segment, made up largely of nations and peoples located in +Africa, Asia and Latin America, who up to war's end in 1945 had been +colonies or dependencies of the big business directed empires. Since +1945 they have become increasingly independent and self-determining. + +The three-fold division of the planet was determined in part by the +age-old ideas, principles and practices of civilized peoples during the +past six thousand years. In part, it was the outcome of the planet-wide +revolution of 1750-1970. It was likewise the result of the wars, +revolutions and independence movements that have upset and realigned the +world since 1776. Under the impact of these forces human society was +being unmade, re-examined and remade. + +By comparison with its own beginnings and with its predecessors, western +civilization has made many changes in its political, economic and +sociological way of life. It has also developed national and regional +variants of its overall pattern. + +Despite these changes, and with the possible exception of its very large +and significant socialist-communist sector, the West has retained the +structural and functional features of previous civilizations: urban +nuclei supporting themselves by trade, commerce and finance; expansion +up to and beyond the point of no return; the life and death power +struggle within and between its constituent peoples, nations and +empires; the use of war as the final arbiter in these struggles; the +rise of the military to a position of supremacy in policy making and +public administration; an all-pervasive pattern of exploitation within +the urban nuclei and between rival provincial factions; speculation in +the necessaries of life; the growth of overhead costs far beyond the +increase of production and of income; the degradation of currency; +multiple taxation; the abuse of credit; inflation, unemployment and +chronic hard times. + +Western civilization differs from its predecessors in one crucial +respect: it is planet-wide. Previous civilizations known to history have +been limited by oceans, deserts and other geographical barriers. The +revolution in communication and transportation has by-passed geographic +barriers. + +The French saying "the more things change the more they remain the same" +finds ample justification in the story of western civilization and its +predecessors. In one instance after another, for at least six thousand +years, civilizations have been built up to summits of wealth and power. +Then, on the downward sweep of the cycle, they have declined, decayed +and been dumped on the scrap heap of history. No two of these cycles +were exactly alike. Each cycle was a social experiment that followed a +well marked path. There were variations, innovations, deviations from +the norm, but institutions and practices were strikingly similar. In +this broad sense, and despite minor departures, the life patterns of +civilization have appeared, disappeared and reappeared with close +similarity in structure and function. + +Western civilization has had a life cycle of approximately a thousand +years. During that millennium it has undergone many changes--political, +economic, sociological, ideological. Throughout these changes its basic +characteristics have remained; have appeared and reappeared. In the +1970's western civilization retains the essential features which justify +us in describing it as a civilization. + +The great revolution which began about 1750 and has increased in breadth +and depth throughout the past two centuries had led to vital changes in +structure and functioning, particularly of the West but generally in the +entirety of human society. So far-reaching are these changes, and so +deep running, that human society, particularly in the West, has outgrown +or is outgrowing the life pattern evolved by civilizations during the +past four or five millenia. As a consequence, geographical expansion by +the time-honored method of grab-and-keep has become more difficult, far +more expensive in manpower and material wealth and is in growing +disrepute among a sizeable minority of individuals and social groups, +even in the centers of western civilization. It is in notable disfavor +among the former colonies and dependencies of the European empires. + +At the same time, war as a means of achieving social ends has fallen +into greater and greater disrepute. War costs, measured in terms of +human well-being and welfare had soared to fantastic heights before +1945. The devastation, during that year, of two moderate sized cities, +Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was a foretaste of the increasingly bleak +chances of human survival with the stockpiling of nuclear weapons far +more destructive than the fission bombs used on the two Japanese cities. + +Under the conditions prevailing before the great revolution, competitive +struggle between nations and empires, expanding as a result of victory +in war, had ceased to be a practicable means of gaining, holding and +increasing wealth and power. If the costs of the international power +struggle exceeded the gains, there were no longer victors who won and +vanquished who lost. Instead, everybody lost as the entire social +structure was wrenched, dislocated, wracked and down-graded. Certainly +this seemed to be the plain-as-day lesson of the two general wars and +the flurry of minor wars which swept the earth after 1910. + +Expansion through armed struggle no longer paid its way. It was the +obvious lesson stressed by J.A. Hobson and Nicolai Lenin in their +respective studies of imperialism (1903 and 1916). It was the theme of +Norman Angel's _Great Illusion._ It was summarized by Arnold Toynbee's +_War and Civilization._ + +If the costs of expansion exceeded the income, the outcome of expansion +would be dismemberment for the vanquished and bankruptcy for the +victors. Indeed, this formula generalises the experience of the survival +struggles during the war years which began in 1911. I summarized the +experience in _The Twilight of Empire_(1929). + +The catastrophic economic breakdown during the Great Depression of +1929-1938, the spectacular and fateful rise of Hitlerism in Germany +after 1927, the destructive Civil War in Spain from 1936 to 1939, +followed immediately by the war devastations of 1939-45 were part and +parcel of the same picture. The same may be said for the revolt of the +colonial peoples, downgrading all European "victors" in the war of +1914-18, and the social revolutions following 1945 that shook up the +planetary power structure and opened the way for socialist-communist +forces to begin socialist construction in one country after another. + +Some European states had become super-states, armed to the teeth, +surrounded with their satellites, dependencies and colonies. They +expanded, exploited and battled as they played the absorbing and ruinous +game of "Beggar My Neighbor". Politically and economically the struggle +reached and passed its high point between 1914 and 1945. The subsequent +years have revealed the aftermath--a down-graded Europe and an ascendant +Asia. + +Empire building has been made prohibitively expensive by the revolution +in science and technology; if the human family is to survive in +anything like its present numbers, a way must be found to end the use of +war as a means of attaining social objectives. New techniques, chiefly +non-competitive, must be discovered and employed in the maintenance of +social relations. + +Not only must war be abandoned as a means of achieving social +objectives, but exploitation of nature and man must be superceded by a +planet-wide life style that conserves natural wealth and shifts the +center of economic endeavor from competition to cooperation. + +Abandonment of war as an instrument of policy and the renunciation of +exploitation of man by man and nation by nation as a means of enrichment +would put an end to the scandalous and corrosive extremes of riches and +poverty that have cursed every civilization of which we have a written +record. + +Western civilization, like its predecessors, had consisted of rival +nations and empires competing for living-space, wealth, position, +expanding territorially as they exploited nature and available labor +power for the advantage of the few. + +Civilization as a life style, built around the competitive struggle for +wealth and power, using war as an instrument of policy and multiplying +the techniques of expansion and exploitation, has had a series of +experimental tryouts already under way at the dawn of written history. +Under no circumstances has civilization proved to be wholly rewarding +and satisfying. The current revolution in science and technology has +rendered civilization unreformable as well as obsolete. + +The structure or pattern of civilization has divided western +civilization into separate parts that benefit by separateness and profit +from conflict. The result is a typical example of a self-destroying life +style struggling through an impasse from which there is no escape save +through a third fratricidal war. + +Today civilization is a bad buy, especially for young people starting +out in life. Civilization still has its advantages for those who have +lived actively, achieved many of their material objectives and retired +to spend their declining years in a well-feathered nest. For some +privileged young people, willing to settle for comfort and conformity, +civilization offers the leisure to learn, and an opportunity to test +themselves out against a big field of ardent competitors. But for +energetic, forward-looking, idealistic young people, the opportunities +offered by western civilization are deemed inconsequential, trivial and +in the long run, inadequate. For them, the game is not worth the candle. + +Today civilization is a bad buy for two reasons. The first is that +antisocial, predatory, exploitive and parasitic elements are +unfortunately and unnecessarily prominent in the lives of all civilized +peoples, including the present West. The second reason is the arrogant, +self-righteous, peremptory, bragging, bullying, dictatorial approaches +adopted by civilized people in their dealings with those who live on the +fringes or outside the pale of civilization. The first reason is an +inescapable consequence of the political, economic, ideological and +sociological assumptions of the civilizing process. The second reason is +inherent in the methods used by civilized peoples in their dealing with +the uncivilized majority of humanity. + + + + +_Part IV_ + + +Steps Beyond Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +TEN BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A NEW WORLD + + +In the previous chapter I argued that we are marking time in a fool's +paradise while western civilization slips backward and downward toward +dissolution and oblivion. Like many of its predecessors, our +civilization seems to have exhausted its capacity to create, progress, +advance. Instead it is disintegrating and breaking up in our current +time of troubles. + +In an earlier epoch of human history civilization helped to bridge the +wide gap between man the victim and plaything of nature, and man as the +user, director and, to a limited degree, the coordinator of natural +forces. Today questions of our demise or our survival and advance are +pressing and urgent. + +Civilization has played an important role in the social history of +mankind during the several thousand years when segments of the human +family have turned their backs on barbarism, regrouped their forces, +revamped their patterns of association and experimented with the more +complicated, specialized and integrated life pattern of civilization. +These experiments have paralleled or followed one another, separated by +shorter or longer ages of rest and recuperation. Each epoch of +civilization has contributed ideas, artifacts and institutions to the +sum total of human culture. This has been the case with past +civilizations. It is true of western civilization. + +Civilization, like other aspects of human culture, is never static but +always dynamic. It changes constantly, waxing and waning. It develops, +expands and contracts. It reaches out toward universality, then breaks +down and dissolves into a welter of conflicting regional and local +interest groups. These changes are the outcome of hard-nosed experience. +They are related to alterations in ideas, outlooks and purposes. They +are often associated with technical discoveries and inventions. They +come and go in more or less clearly defined cycles. They are influenced +by deep running political, economic and social forces and trends. + +Each civilization matures into forms and develops functions and +institutions that tend to consolidate and crystallize in well defined +social patterns and habit grooves in which two forces oppose each other: +one force is status--preserving that which is; the other force is +change--that which tends to become or is becoming. + +Status and change confront each other at all social levels. During +periods of rapid social change they take the center of the stage and +dominate the drama. + +The planet-wide revolution of 1750-1970 is an outstanding example of +rapid change. The current opposition of status and change has pushed +other aspects of social life into second place and has made the social +status of yesterday outmoded today and obsolete tomorrow. + +The disintegration of western civilization (indicated by its 1910-1975 +time of troubles) is having profound effects on western man. The effects +are physical, mental, energenic and moral for individuals. Socially they +find expression in vandalism, hooliganism, major crime, in the break-up +of the family; in alienation, inertia, boredom; in laxity, indiscipline; +loss of faith, weakness or absence of purpose. Most serious of all, +perhaps, western peoples are learning to ignore principle, live for the +moment, satisfy their already sated appetites and pay little or no +attention to the future. These attitudes are widespread in the western +world of the 1970's, particularly among the young. These effects, on the +whole negative, are offset by a number of positive factors. Human beings +are curious and imaginative. They are also ingenious, inventive and +intuitive. All of these attributes are assets when dealing with the +future and the unknown. + +In a previous generation, preceding the war of 1914-18, a very large +part of the West was under the influence of the Christian church, which +promised good things in the hereafter. During the ensuing years of +military conflict, planned destruction and wholesale murder, another +considerable part of the West, both socialist and liberal, was promising +security, comfort and convenience here and now. The influence of the +Christian church on life style, even among its own membership, has +declined in the past half century. Affluent monopoly capitalism, +meanwhile, has provided the rich, the middle class and important numbers +of workers and farmers with necessaries and amenities far beyond the +levels imagined by reformers and revolutionaries of a previous +generation. As an integral part of this maturing revolutionary situation +a generation of human beings born since war's end in 1945 has come on +the scene, surrounded by the concrete and glass buildings, block printed +nylons, the automobiles and domestic appliances of monopoly capitalism +and by the social security of socialism. In both segments, capitalist +and socialist, the more gifted, original, sensitive, creative members of +this comfort-pampered generation have turned their backs on affluence +and security and begun shouting a new slogan: "We want to live!" + +There is nothing surprising about this development. Many trained, +experienced observers have been predicting it. Youth, idealism, +aspiration, optimism, ambition--cannot be satisfied with status in any +form. They want to live, to achieve, to face difficulties, to overcome +dangers, to express themselves, to create. They are not content merely +to arrive at physical affluence. Affluence and social security cannot +satisfy. They merely sharpen the appetite for a continuance of the life +journey, on the best terms permitted by the current time of troubles. + +Among the members of the post-war generation, this ambitious, perceptive +elite is aware of two disturbing and compelling realities. The first is +the peril to mankind implicit in a continuance along its present +disaster course of war, with its inescapable counterpart, social +dissolution. The second is the possibility that out of the wreckage and +rubble of an outmoded cultural pattern, a mature, chastened, more +experienced, more consciously purposive generation will arise, +possessing the wit to see the necessity of creative advance, and the +wisdom to guide the pioneers of humanity along the difficult and +dangerous path that they must follow if they are to reach the land of +purpose and promise. + +Current frustrating experience with the breakdown of western +civilization, coupled with historical precedents, confront the present +generation of mankind with a compelling challenge and a unique, precious +opportunity. The challenge arises out of experiments with particular +civilizations and with civilization as a way of life. Our analysis of +this situation leads to only one possible conclusion: Repeated +experiments with civilization unmask it as a way, not of life, but as a +cycle of rise, expansion, maturity, decline and certain death. + +The challenge is emphasized by the failure of reforms and reformers of +civilization to make changes in structure and function sufficient to +meet the challenge of the birth-maturity-death cycle. Nor has it been +possible for western civilization to take advantage of the drastic +changes and challenges arising out of the current world revolution. + +Man's top negative priority at the present moment is to reject the +wiles, the temptations, the mortal conflicts and the annihilative +destruction which have disrupted and decimated civilized society during +the past six thousand years and reached their apex in the Great +Revolution of 1750-1970. These experiences prove beyond the shadow of +doubt that this pattern of human collective life is inadequate to meet +the present and future needs of the human family. + +Man's top positive priority is the present-day occupancy of the planet +Earth by 3,700 million human beings who wish to survive, to utilize and +conserve the natural habitat and to improve the social environment. +Within narrow limits, almost all members of the human family want to +live and to help other humans to do likewise. Multitudes of human +beings, particularly among the youth, want to enjoy outward looking, +satisfying, productive, creative lives. They also want those near and +dear to do the same thing. + +What steps must they take in order to realize their hope and fulfill +their aspirations? + +Broadly speaking, they must pick their way warily through the maze of +artifacts, gadgets and gimmicks produced by human ingenuity during the +current world revolution. Most of them are superficial and time +consuming. A few are fundamental. They are of the utmost importance as +implements to human advance. Taking what advantage they can of recent +innovations, avoiding dead-ends and illusion leading to rainbows, the +more sensitive and more competent segments of mankind must close ranks +and move upward and onward to a new level of culture. The chief +instrument available for such an enterprise is the twentieth century +version of the political state. The bourgeois revolution was achieved +through the developing, evolving political state. The political state is +the binding force that held scattered fragments of the human family +together during the stresses and strains of the current revolution in +science and technology. It is the political state that must be depended +upon to resist the fragmentating forces of a disintegrating western +civilization, to preserve the social structure and administer human +society through the transition from civilization into the structure and +functioning of the new social order which is presently supplanting +civilization. + +Through Europe's transition from feudalism to capitalism, the feudal +state, here and there, step by step, was replaced by the bourgeois state +as the chief structural building block of western civilization. The +bourgeois revolution, in various parts of Europe, lasted for several +centuries; the process was well under way by 1450. As lately as 1945 +feudal pockets remained in Eastern Europe. + +An even more profound transformation of European society is made in the +course of the Great Revolution of 1750-1970. The transformation is in +its early stages. During the process, the political life of +Europe-in-transition will be administered by the political institutions +of the bourgeois state, together with the closely related state patterns +of socialism-communism which have come into being during the present +century. + +During this transition the bourgeois state itself has evolved. At the +outset it was a revolutionary force devoting its energies to the +elimination of feudal institutions and practices and replacing them by +the institutions and practices needed for the advancement of bourgeois +interests. + +Today the bourgeois state is a bulwark of conservatism; devoting its +energies to the preservation of bourgeois forms and practices and doing +its utmost to fulfill its counter-revolutionary role of resisting and, +if possible, destroying the institutions and practices needed to replace +the political institutions and practices of civilization by the new +institutions required to move mankind from the outmoded lifestyle of +civilization to a lifestyle beyond and above that to which humanity has +become adapted during the now obsolete epoch of civilization. + +At the same time, the socialist-communist variant of the bourgeois state +pattern is providing the framework within which the institutions and +practices needed for the transition from civilization to a newer and +more universal social order are being matured. At the next stage in the +birth process, the institutions and practices necessary for upbuilding +the social order that will replace civilization are being worked out in +theory and embodied in experimental practice. + +In practice, an accurate distinction must be made between the +conservative bourgeois state, the temporary transitional state and the +universal socialist-communist state that will shepherd humanity along +the difficult and dangerous path of the political life pattern beyond +civilization. In theory such distinctions are needed as part of the +scaffolding within which the social pattern of beyond-civilization will +be constructed. + +Like most decisive epochs of human history, the revolution through which +we are passing has had both a negative and a positive aspect. In Chapter +11 I wrote about one of its destructive aspects--the extreme +destructivity of two periods of general war. At this point, I would like +to list ten positive contributions made by the same revolution toward +the development of a social life style that is offering itself as an +alternative to civilization. + +1. NEW SOURCES OF ENERGY. Up to 1750 human beings had the energy of +the human body plus the energy of domestic animals. They used wind to +turn mills and sail ships and water to turn crude wheels. They also +burned various things, particularly vegetable fibres, to produce heat. +During the revolution they have learned to use steam, electricity and +chemical explosives. Recently they have learned to use the energy in the +atom, to use water power extensively and, to a slight extent, the energy +of the sun and the tides. + +2. The revolution has taught people who previously feared CHANGE, +to welcome change and take full advantage of discoveries and inventions +that modified nature and profoundly altered human society. + +3. Among the INVENTIONS were the extensive use of the wheel for +movement on land, the use of steam engines and electric motors for +moving, manufacturing and transportation and the use of electricity for +communication. + +4. INCREASED HUMAN MOBILITY on land and water, and, more recently, +in the air and, still more recently, in outer space. Easy and rapid +movement, and almost instantaneous communication brought people together +in towns and cities, built up trade in goods and services, increased +speed of communications and enabled people living at a distance from one +another to keep in close touch, bringing human enterprises and human +beings into continuing contact. Human life, thought and action were +coordinated. Increased mobility UNIFIED HUMAN SOCIETY. + +5. RESEARCH is now an accepted aspect of all phases of human life +and activity. Research is a recognized occupation. Research teams solve +problems, map the paths of enterprise. We are learning first to think, +then, only after careful study, decide on courses of action and follow +them through. + +6. The field of inquiry and research covered the entire range of human +experience. Information, resulting from research, provided the subject +matter of new sciences. In the new fields new skills were developed and +new professions built up. The members of this new TECHNOLOGICAL +INTELLIGENTSIA, added to the learned professions, created a large +group who expected and enjoyed affluent living conditions. + +7. SPREADING AFFLUENCE increased the number of families that +enjoyed abundance of goods and services, comforts and luxuries mass +produced and offered in a mass market, lifting people out of scarcity by +growing abundance. Scarcity ceased to restrain. Instead, people learned +the values of RESTRAINT, ECONOMY, FRUGALITY, SIMPLICITY. + +8. Increase in size and complexity called into being a new profession. +MANAGEMENT with the necessary PLANNING, BUDGETING, COST +KEEPING. + +9. Large numbers of well-fed, housed, educated and aware human beings +created the possibility of arousing, mobilizing and utilizing +people--especially young people--to take part in voluntary group +projects, co-operate and create. Such experiences developed SOCIAL +AWARENESS and led to LARGE SCALE MASS ACTION. + +10. People growing up in affluence, living above the rigors of poverty, +asked questions about themselves, their society and the universe in +which they lived. They learned that they and their fellows had not only +the five accepted "senses," but additional senses with corresponding +experiences. This opened their eyes to the possibility of additional or +extra senses, opening the immense field of "EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION," +E.S.P. + +These ten areas, opening up largely during the years of the great +revolution are "new wine" which cannot be contained in the old wine +skins. They raise questions and open up vistas which transcend the +narrower confines of civilization. They are among the materials and +facilities out of which a new world is coming into existence. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +MOVING TOWARD WORLD FEDERATION + + +One of man's earliest collective experiences is summed up in the saying: +United we stand; divided we fall. + +United we survive and prosper. Divided we quarrel, fight and sooner or +later break up into smaller sovereign competing groups. If human beings +wish to utilize nature or to enjoy the advantages of collective action +and group life they must get together and stay together. + +This necessity for collective action has appeared and reappeared all +through written history. It is one of the most important lessons of +present-day human experience. It holds for families, neighborhoods, +villages, cities, nations, for mankind as a whole. It is joint action +for the general welfare. + +The principle of collective action has been recognized and put into +practice during the ten centuries that span the rise of western +civilization--put into practice up to a certain point--the nation or the +empire. Beyond that point, collective action has taken two forms: +competition and conflict, including war, and coordination or cooperation +under agreement, contract or treaty. + +Among the outstanding results of the great revolution, improvement in +communication and transportation have brought humans into contact with +one another on an increasingly extensive scale, reaching its high water +mark in planet-wide networks of trade, travel, migration and diplomacy, +leading up to the One World which was so much in the foreground of +public discussions between the two general wars of 1914 and 1939. + +Much has been written on the subject. I contributed by two bits in _The +Next Step_, a book published in 1922 and _United World_, published in +1945. Perhaps the most critical failure of western civilization was its +inability or unwillingness to take that next step during the decisive +years that followed the Hague Conference of 1899. + +In listing the Ten Building Blocks for a New World (Chapter 13 of this +book) I began with world federation because in terms of the public life +of the earth around 1900, the planet was divided into two alliances of +nations and empires--the Allies, headed by Great Britain and the Central +Powers, headed by Germany. + +Instead of cooperating to gain their declared objectives of peace, +prosperity and progress these two power blocs engaged in an armament +race from 1903 to 1914, leading up to general war in 1914, with a second +general war between the rivals in 1939. + +When I was organizing Part II of this study (A Social Analysis of +Civilization) I had to decide whether to begin with economics or +politics. As an economist I was inclined to put economics first, but +since the study centered on civilization, and since all known +civilizations were not groupings of economic subdivisions but aggregates +of nations, empires and their dependencies, and since the expansion of +civilization has consisted in enlarging the geographical area of the +civilization in question, I decided to begin with politics. As the study +has progressed I have seen no reason for reversing the choice. + +On the contrary, since I began collecting data for this study at the +time of the first general war, I have watched the unfolding political +struggle for economic and cultural objectives with the increasing +conviction that politics is the primary focus, with economic forces +always in play, but usually in the background, leaving the center of the +stage to politics. + +This is another way of saying that the present-day world is divided +primarily into political nation states rather than into areas of +economic function. Always, economics is important. But, at least +superficially, political considerations are in the foreground to clinch +decisions. A time may come when economists or sociologists occupy the +central offices where primary decisions are made. That time has not yet +arrived. In so far as the present generation is concerned, politics is +in the foreground. The politicians make the crucial announcements and +sign the key documents. + +Therefore our survey of the Steps Beyond Civilization begins with +politics. Our attention centers on the political aspects of World +Federation with economic considerations present and always operating, +but not dominating the crucial decisions. + +For better or worse, in 1975 and the years immediately succeeding, we +will be living on a planet divided into some 140 politically sovereign +states. In view of the widespread pressure toward self-determination, +the number of sovereign states has increased considerably, especially +since war's end in 1945. + +Presumably the principal "united we stand" applies to those 140 +sovereign states. + +Sovereignty includes the right of self determination--putting the +interests of one particular state above the interests of the entire +family of nations--the part before the whole. Here is a contradiction +and a possible conflict of interest. Britain's Prime Minister Heath, +like many another spokesman in his position, summed up the issue in the +pithy phrase: "British interests come first." + +If the French, Italian, Japanese and other prime ministers take a +similar stand, implied by the principle of sovereignty, situations are +bound to arise in which the interests of two or more nations clash, +opening the way for conflicts at many levels: differences of +interpretation, negotiations in the course of which concessions may be +made by both parties. The differences may be settled by diplomats +sitting around conference tables or by armies on the battlefield. + +With 140 sovereign states on the planet, the probability of conflict +would seem to be overwhelming. As a matter of daily experience such +confrontations and conflicts do occur. Most of them are handled by +negotiation. A few lead to armed struggle. + +Since 140 sovereign states exist on one earth, means must be found that +will enable them to co-exist, if possible, without conflict, and +certainly without military conflict. The means generally relied upon +today for dealing with such problems is negotiation between +representatives of all parties at interest. At the national level this +would mean negotiations between representatives of the involved +governments. + +Negotiations between representatives of various governments are always +going on--dealing with political, economic and cultural issues. Within +each nation such negotiations are conducted between spokesmen for +various government departments. Internationally they are conducted by +representatives of various governments working through their diplomatic +or consular services. Within each nation and between nations +confrontations may be settled by negotiation. At each level they may +result in armed conflict. + +Governments exist to deal with conflicts and, where possible, to resolve +them before they reach the shooting stage. This is notably true in +domestic affairs because there are usually public officials charged with +the duty of dealing with problems. Internationally, unless there is an +international agency such as the Universal Postal Union of the +Organization of American States, the issue must be settled by special +representatives of the parties. + +The argument for a world government begins with the assumption that +means should exist to deal with international issues before they reach +an acute stage. Such means exist within each local government. Similar +arrangements should exist at the international level to deal with issues +that arise between governments. + +The political core of a social stage beyond civilization will be a +planet-wide, international, regional and local network of institutions, +integrated, coordinated and administered on the federal principle: local +affairs controlled locally; regional affairs controlled regionally; +international affairs controlled by a planet-wide political authority. +Such a relationship would imply states rights for the local authority; +regional rights for the regional authority, and full awareness in the +central authority of the possibility, at this juncture, of establishing +order, justice and mercy on the planetary level--in our present +terminology, a "world government." + +Basic to this federal structure would be the Jeffersonian assumption: +"That government governs best which governs least", with an amendment: +"provided that the authority in question governs sufficiently to +establish and maintain physical health, social decency, order, justice +and mercy in reasonable proportions throughout the area subject to its +jurisdiction". + +At each level, local, national, regional and planetary, there will be +committees, councils or other authorities with full responsibility for +the conduct of public administration at the local, the national, the +regional and the planetary or international level. + +Currently the federal principle is widely established at local and +national levels. Attempts are being made in various regions to +effectuate stable authorities at the regional level, such as the United +States of North America or the United States of Mexico. There has been +much talk of planet-wide government established by one wealthy and +militarily powerful nation over its peers, or by a voluntary association +with its peers. Institutions established thus far: League of Nations, +The United Nations, The World Court, the Universal Postal Union, have +fallen far short of stable, planet-wide, all inclusive political +authority. + +At the moment there are 122 states which are members of the United +Nations. There are perhaps an additional score of nations which have +applied for membership or which might be accepted if they made an +application. Accept this rounded figure, and we have perhaps 140 nations +or potential nations on the planet. Some are long established and +stable. Other nations are new-born, with small populations, few +resources and minimal means of defense or offense. By and large this is +the family of nations which might be coordinated into an effective world +authority which would be responsible for order, decency and peace in a +federally coordinated world. + +World authority, to be effective and reasonably stable, must be equipped +with sufficient delegated powers to maintain orderly and decent +relations between its members, establish peace, and carry out policies +necessary to provide and promote ecological and sociological welfare. To +achieve such results it must have a built-in balance between central +authority and local-regional self-determination. It must also enjoy +sufficient elbow-room to provide for social change and for consistent +social improvement. + +The goal of world government, as of any political enterprise that +pretends to represent human needs, will be social stability, security, +efficiency of service, and enlarged opportunities for citizens to speak +and act for themselves, directly or through their representatives, at +all levels. Politics is the theory and practice of the possible in any +given situation. Executives and administrators in Los Angeles, London +and Tokyo or in the United States, Britain and Japan will deal with +public transportation, public education and public law and order in +terms of general principles such as those stated in the opening +sentences of this paragraph. They will also face specific situations +arising out of climate, access to raw materials, custom, habit and other +ecological and cultural factors which differ profoundly from continent +to continent, nation to nation, city to city and district to district in +the same nation. + +Human communities have sought and found different means of dealing with +the problems of community administration. At one extreme of social +administration are various types of arbitrary, personal dictatorships. +The Greeks called them tyrannies--arbitrary rule by individuals or small +groups subject only to their own decisions. + +At the other extreme are social groups that arrive at decisions as the +outcome of discussion in which all group members may take part. Group +decisions may require unanimity or they may be the outcome of voting, +with a majority or plurality vote carrying with it the right and duty to +put decisions into effect as part of the public life of the community. + +Various forms of government have been established locally and +regionally. At the level of a civilization, the government has been +established almost universally as the outcome of armed struggle and +military conquest, and has been exercised through the use of armed force +in the hands of armed minorities. + +A century without general war, 1815 to 1914, led to a widespread +balance-of-power assumption that planet-wide peace and prosperity could +be established and maintained by preserving a balance between the armed +forces of individual nations or alliances. Hence there need be no more +general wars fought for survival or supremacy. + +The bitter struggle for markets, raw materials and colonies that +followed the French-German War of 1870 developed into an armament race +after 1899. From the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 to the outbreak of +general war in 1914, desperate efforts were made to maintain the +power-balance and avert a general war. The failure of these efforts +proved the ineffectiveness of the balance-of-power formula. + +Today it is generally taken for granted that a balance of power between +armed nations is no guarantee of peace and order. It is also taken for +granted that frivolous talk like that of an "American Century" after +1945 has no justification in the light of present-day history. As +matters now stand neither a balance between rival armed powers, nor the +domination of the planet by any one power can be relied upon to maintain +world order and keep world peace. + +Forms of self-government and representative government developed during +the bourgeois revolution and advocated and partially applied during the +proletarian up-surge, are being continued or are reappearing during the +current struggle for power and prestige at the planetary level. As the +planet approaches one world technologically, there is an increasing +possibility of a planetary political federation, directed by a world +governmental apparatus. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +INTEGRATING A WORLD ECONOMY + + +Repeated efforts have been made to establish large-scale, widely ranging +economies. This was the case during Egyptian and Phoenician +civilizations. It was certainly true of the economy of the Roman Empire +and of Roman civilization. + +Such efforts faced drastic limitations. The most formidable was the +narrow margin of surplus produced by hand labor in the forests, on the +fields and in the workshops, operated, in the main, with hand tools, +with minor inputs of energy supplied by domestic animals and with the +small amounts derived from wind and moving water. + +Two further limitations existed. First, as each civilization matured its +leaders and policy makers ceased to labor on the land or in the +workshops, preferring to keep their hands and clothes clean, to free +themselves from irksome demanding toil and devote themselves to tasks +more befitting "gentlefolk." This was notably true of landlords as a +class. It was also true of the richer traders, merchants and +moneylenders, particularly of the third and fourth generations. + +Expansion of empires and the civilizations which they developed entailed +military operations. Military operations, in their turn, produced +war-captives, who must earn their keep and, if possible, something more. +Sold in the market to the highest bidder, war captives and their +descendants became chattel slaves. As civilizations were expanded by +conquest and matured by struggle, they developed some type of forced +labor to balance the increased parasitism of the masters and the +growing numbers who were called upon to produce "services" rather than +material goods. + +Certain areas of civilized economies were taken over by the public +authorities. Planning and building of cities and their ports, of +highways, including bridges, of viaducts, aqueducts, of drainages for +the cities, of public buildings. The construction of defenses, including +city walls, were partly or wholly public enterprises. Temples and tombs +for the mighty were often in the same category. + +Maintenance of large elaborate households by political leaders, and in +later periods of empire building, by the successful merchants and +technicians, led to the employment of many servants, including +subordinate members and relatives of the elite. + +Much necessary labor was performed by members of each household. The +resulting economy was therefore fragmented at the household level with +virtually all of the energy supplied by human beings and domestic +animals. + +As each civilization developed its pattern of forced labor, including +the labor of war captives, it launched the deadly competition between +freemen and slaves which almost inevitably ended in favor of the slaves, +who were housed and fed by the masters and who could operate at overhead +costs lower than those involved in the hiring of wage or salaried +workers. + +Land ownership tended to center in the political-military leaders, the +temples and, as each civilization matured, in the hands of its +bourgeoisie. + +Integrating such economies proved to be a difficult, arduous task, well +beyond the powers of the average political, military or hereditary +leader. In a very real sense, the problems of management were extremely +personal and correspondingly concentrated in the hands of skillful +acquisitors. Nowhere was the impact of the 1750-1970 revolution more far +reaching than in the area of management. + +Economic activities, in the course of the great revolution, had less and +less connection with the homestead, and except for a tiny minority of +the personnel, had no connection with the family of the owner-operator. +The seat of the family--the home--continued to exist, but on a far more +restricted basis. Arts and crafts moved from the household into the +workshop, where they expanded both in extent and in complexity. Domestic +tasks were associated with hand labor and simple tools. The great +revolution filled the workshop with the ancestors of present day +machinery, but with a prodigious difference. In the early step from home +workshop to factory, hand tools in plenty were being used in the +workshops. As "modernization" progressed, hand tools were replaced by +specialized machines. + +The implements of specialization--the machine building tools and the +machine tools themselves--were housed in forests of associated +workshops. The mechanics of specialization sprawled over acres and +square miles of factory floor space. Nowhere were the results of the +great revolution more in evidence than in the vast difference between +the workshop attached to the house of the early industrialist and the +forest of chimneys and stacks, and the acres and square miles of +floorspace in present-day industrial establishments, with their +personnel numbered in thousands and the capital invested in plant and +equipment running into the millions or billions of dollars. + +Two centuries of the great revolution have given present-day industrial +society a capital plant the like of which has never existed on the +planet in any historical period. After two hundred years of meteoric +development, it exists today on a planet-wide scale and at a level of +all-pervasive dominance undreamed of even up to the middle of the last +century. + +Modern industry "plants"--steel plants, cement plants, open pit mines, +textile plants, machine tool plants, auto plants, rubber factories, oil +refineries--not only occupy extensive acreage per plant, but the same +interests and corporate managements operate dozens of plants in widely +separated geographical areas and produce a great variety of goods and +services. An experienced observer feels entirely at home in any +industrial center, on any continent. In Detroit, in Dusseldorf, in +Osaka, in Shanghai, in Bombay, the architecture of the plants is +essentially the same, the machines in the widely separated plants bear +a striking resemblance to one another, and the problems of management +are similar. + +Unit plants and their coordinated managements in the aggregate compose +the present-day world economy. They are the essence of its being. They +occupy the skyline and dominate the economic life of modern industrial +society. They are the units which make up the sum-total of modern +industry which, in its turn, is the bony structure around which have +grown the sinews and muscle of present-day planetary economy. + +Modern state structure goes back through the half dozen centuries during +which it has been developing. Its ancestors may be met with in the +history of previous civilizations. + +Modern industrial structure on the other hand is something essentially +new under the sun--newly imagined, designed, constructed, productive. It +has no ancestry before 1750 because its essential building unit--the +modern machine--did not exist previous to that date. + +In the last chapter we dealt with the growth of states into empires and +the aggregation of empires into civilizations with the possibility that +the existing states could be welded into a world federation. One of the +chief obstacles to such a development is the centuries of conflict +during which modern nations have been built up and the strong bonds of +nationalism have been established as a means of holding divergent groups +of people in line by particular oligarchies operating in particular +civilizations. + +On the economic level such difficulties are minimal. The process of +coordination and consolidation was far advanced before the end of the +last century. The practice of integration--joining productive units in +functional sequences--was also accepted and followed, with little regard +for political or cultural considerations. The result has been an +economic integration which has developed inside the chief industrial +nations and across national boundaries. + +Despite political obstacles, economic integration has proceeded with +giant strides, especially during the past hundred years. Under a well +developed world political federation the world economy could be +integrated and used to provide the necessaries, conveniences and minimal +comforts for the entire human family. There are nationalistic obstacles +to political federation. Economic integration is an obvious must and a +logical outcome of the industrial integration that has gone on so +swiftly during the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +When we talk about integrating the world economy we are dealing with a +problem which no previous civilization has faced because no previous +civilization had machines or the social and cultural institutions which +have grouped themselves around the ultra-modern machine phenomena. + +World economy in 1975 includes three essential elements: the planet +earth and its resources; the institutional structure of modern society; +and human beings with their diverse concepts and skills which provide +its motive force. These three factors, land, capital equipment, and +human energy, are the three-fold apparatus upon which 3.7 billion human +beings depend for the goods and services which sustain them from day to +day and year to year. + +At an earlier period this economic apparatus centered around the land +and its cultivation (agriculture). Since the onset of the great +revolution the goods and services have come increasingly from a +factory-office centered occupational apparatus. When we consider the +integration of the world economy, it is this industrialized, modern +economy that we have chiefly in mind. No previous civilization faced +such a problem. There are no real precedents upon which we can rely. We +must go forward, if we do go forward, experimenting with problems which +face the human family for the first time. + +The integration of planetary economy in 1975 is a total, or unitary, +problem. It is not a problem of one continent, of one nation or empire, +of one racial or cultural group. It is a problem which the human family +faces as a human family, occupying our planet Earth. It is our capital +equipment. It is the success with which we apply our know-how to the +earth, using our capital equipment and our skills, producing the goods +and services upon which our physical existence depends. We rise or fall, +sink or swim in terms of our own capacities, our own abilities to adapt +ourselves to historical circumstances which will determine the +conditions of life on the earth. Indeed, our decisions and consequent +actions may determine our own extinction or survival. + +Planetary economy will aim to provide the means of livelihood for its +constituents along six lines: to conserve the human heritage of natural +resources, using them sparingly and, where possible, adding to them; to +produce and distribute those goods and services which are needed to +maintain health and provide for social decency; to produce and +distribute goods and services honestly, efficiently and economically; to +assure simple necessaries for all, including dependents, defectives and +delinquents; to give high priority to local self-sufficiency; to +maintain enough central economic authority to guarantee adequate goods +and services to successive generations of the planetary population. + +An effective world government, therefore, must adopt and administer an +economic program designed to: (a) Utilize and conserve natural +resources, making them available, on a just basis, for the use of +successive generations; (b) End involuntary poverty and insecurity and +the exploitation of man by man and of one social group by another social +group; (c) Make necessary public services generally available on equal +terms, to all mankind; and (d) Guarantee equal opportunity to +earth-dwellers based on the greatest good to the greatest number. + +Feeding, clothing, housing and educating an agricultural village was a +prime consideration at an early stage in social history. Providing the +necessaries and amenities of life in a commercial-industrial city +occupied the attention of city fathers as a consequence of the shift +from agriculture to trade and commerce as the principle source of +livelihood. Caring for the physical, physiological and cultural needs of +populations in the United States, Britain, Japan and other growing +commercial-industrial nations presented difficult challenges. The +organization, expansion, defense and improvement of the American, +British, Japanese and any other contemporary empire, posed even larger +and more complex problems which have nagged mankind during recent +generations. Recently, the planet-wide revolution of 1750-1970 has +brought the entire human family with 3,700 million members isolated in +140 different nations, face to face with political, economic and social +problems on a planet-wide scale. These problems are planet-wide in their +dimensions. Measures designed for their solution must be equally +planet-wide. + +Villages, cities, regions and nations have learned, often the hard way, +how to think, plan and act in terms of their own interests, or, more +concretely, in the interest of their owners, masters and exploiters. It +is with politics and economics of this planet-wide level that we of the +present generation are particularly concerned. + +Dwellers in western Europe and North America have to deal with the +politics and economics of monopoly capitalism. Its central offices are +generally located in particular countries--Britain, Holland, France, +Germany, where big business enterprises had their beginnings and from +which representatives of oil, steel, textile, motor and banking +enterprises spilled over into the territory of their competitors as well +as into the "third world" of erstwhile colonies and other dependencies. + +Monopoly capitalism has made no real effort to organize a functioning +world economy. On the contrary, it has established, maintained and +consolidated centers of economic interests and activities at the +national level. In theory and in practice the bourgeois-dominated planet +is divided into economic and political states and spheres of influence, +each equipped with the separatist institutions of political sovereignty. + +Politically the task of setting up a competent world government has not +been seriously taken in hand. The same may be said for the organization +of a planned, organized, supervised planetary economy. So far as we +know, such world economic institutions and practices cannot exist in the +chaos of one hundred forty sovereign states, each exercising authority +over its economy, each with its own program for growth and expansion, +and putting its claims for wealth and power above peace, order, +justice, and mercy for the entire human family. + +General economic practice throughout the 1450-1970 experiments with +nation building, empire building, competitive struggle and sporadic +efforts at world conquest, occupation and exploitation have crossed +national boundary lines as a matter of necessity. It could not be +otherwise, because no nation has been able to reach the cultural level +of civilization on a basis of economic self-containment. Primitive +agriculture can maintain a high degree of self sufficiency. City +populations abandon self-sufficiency and adopt the principles of +expansion, occupation and utilization of foreign territory and +exploitation of resources and manpower, at home and abroad. + +As western civilization has matured, power struggles at the top, +conquest, occupation and exploitation have come more and more to the +fore until, in the era of monopoly capitalism, they dominate the field. +In this period of human history nothing less than the just sharing of +available goods and services will implement the principle of "to each +according to his need". + +Monopoly capitalism, throughout its entire history, has tended to +function internationally, moving across frontiers in search of raw +materials, markets, and fields of profitable investment. Inter-group +trade has been carried on between and through "foreign" markets, cities +and states. Not only has the flag followed the investor, but the +investor has used governmental agencies, including the military, to +protect economic interests, promote them and expand them. Early in their +history, western nations subsidized private organizations like the Dutch +East India Company and the British Hudson Bay Company and authorized +them to exercise quasi-public authority. International banking and +insurance paralleled international trade. + +Western civilization, from its earliest beginnings in foreign business +relations and ideological adventures like the Crusades, has spilled +across national frontiers in its search for adventure, for experience, +for information, for pelf and power. A part of the expansionist drive +was "strictly business" in character. Another part--international +conferences, public and private; tourism; the export of artifacts and of +information, were promoted by mixed motives, from missionary zeal for +the propagation of The Faith to international business for profit, +public and private. + +One of the most spectacular aspects of European expansion during modern +times has been the growth of production and trade; the rapid increase in +"foreign" investment; and governmental efforts to tie together +geographically and ethnically remote places and peoples into neat +bundles tagged Spanish Empire, British Empire, French Empire, Russian +Empire. Nineteenth and early twentieth century history centered around +such international experiments and included inter-state build-ups like +the European Common Market and the Organization of American States. + +War losses and emergency spending incident to warfare led to large scale +financial assistance from one government to another. Such transactions +are not confined to recent times, but during the war years from 1914 to +1945 they reached fantastic proportions. The United States foreign aid +program alone, following the war of 1939-45, involved grants and loans +of $125,060 million dollars from July 1, 1945 to December 31, 1970 +(_Statistical Abstract_ 1971 p. 958). Similar grants and loans were made +by other countries to their allies and associates. These examples +illustrate the build-up of an extensive international relationship that +has been an integral aspect of the 1750-1970 world revolution. + +Throughout this experience two parallel forces have been at work. One +was the effort to establish a stable, renewable and self-renewing social +environment. The other was the effort to adapt and remake man (human +nature) to fit into the rapidly changing social environment and to +expand and deepen relations with nature. + +Sociology, the science and art of staying together in more or less +permanent social groups, thus becomes the theory and practice of +association. Politics and economics are specialized aspects of +association. Political relations, economic relations and other aspects +of association make up the overall field of the human community or +human society. + +Groups of human beings are brought together and held together by various +means, among which communication is outstanding. At every level, from +the local to the general or universal, and in every aspect of politics, +economics and other forms of association, human beings communicate. + +One function of planetary association involves the establishment and +maintenance of a network of planetary communication. Locally, +nationally, regionally, and internationally the channels or means of +communication have been extensively developed. + +Devices designed to reproduce and elaborate oral and written +communication blanket the planet so extensively that the individual and +family privacy enjoyed by human beings before the middle of the last +century has literally ceased to exist. In its place is a communications +network that operates twenty-four hours in the day and seven days in the +week. By a move of the hand and a flick of a switch everybody can be in +touch with anybody and anybody with everybody almost everywhere. + +Channels of communication, trade and travel keep members of the human +race constantly in touch with one another. Except for the solitary, +living alone in the wilderness (urban or rural) there is no hiding +place. Mechanisms supplementing man's five senses, see, feel, hear and +report everything. + +Facility in communication provides a wealth of information. Using +available means of human communication, a central planetary authority +can inform, alert and arouse the entire human family with its 3,700 +million members. Socially minded, it could announce and initiate the +measures necessary to maintain peace and order through conformity to a +common program of social action. Coordinating, integrating and +administering the channels of communication at the planetary level will +be a primary responsibility of any planet-wide economic program. + +Planetary government will be responsible for establishing, maintaining +and improving a network of communication and education designed to +ensure both uniformity and diversity in the human population. The +revolution in science and technology has been particularly noteworthy +in the field of communication, extending from the family to the entire +human race; from the home telephone, the morning newspaper, the +phonograph, radio and television to regular mail delivery, the printing +press, the camera, lithography, the typewriter, tele-communication, the +computer, public address systems and the various devices for overhearing +and recording that produce more or less permanent records of casual +vocal expressions. + +Planet-wide communication in the 1970's provides an example of the +transformation from economic localism to economic worldism during recent +times. By its very nature, communication tends to involve all four +corners of the planet. In that sense, communication tends to become +unique. It is not a real exception, however. Through communication +channels, knowledge concerning every aspect of man's economy, from +agriculture to commerce and finance, crosses frontiers almost +automatically, strengthening, deepening and integrating planet-wide +economy. + +A planet-wide economy will not be designed, planned and coordinated as a +result of either military conquest or political expansion and predation. +Rather, it will be a public enterprise of the entire human family, +operated by a world government in the public interest for the social +service and well-being of mankind. + +The worldwide revolution of 1750-1970 provides the economic basis for a +planet-wide society--for One World. The real danger--that any local or +regional war may grow into another general war in which nuclear weapons +are used--provides reason aplenty to put the whole before the part and, +in the pursuit of general human welfare, to federate the political life +of the human family, following the many steps toward worldism already +taken by various aspects of its economy. + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +CONSERVING OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT + + +Beyond civilization we will conserve, share, beautify and, if possible, +improve the earth, which is our physical base of operations. + +The earth is an irregular sphere, one of a number of planets circling +the sun, from which we get light, heat and radiation. The earth has a +shell or crust made of various minerals. Two-thirds of its surface is +water of various depths up to six miles. Above the surface is an +atmosphere, some twenty miles thick, composed of various gases, dust +particles and water vapor. Operating throughout the earth there are +vibrations of different wave lengths. + +As a whole the earth is a going concern that carries out its daily, +seasonal, yearly business of providing a home for an immense variety of +forces; for living forms, in the earth, on the earth, in the water and +in the air. The earth and its attributes are the common host or mother +of us all. + +Some of earth's inhabitants are "alive". Many of the living forms move +about--and reproduce themselves, passing through a life cycle from birth +to death. + +Some among the living forms cluster together into more or less permanent +groups which develop social relationships including communities in which +individuals are born, live and die. + +Speaking in metaphors, the sun is the common father of us all, providing +us with light and heat, the earth is the common mother of us all, +providing us with sustenance. We living beings, progeny of sun and +earth, pass through a span or cycle of earthly existence--helping one +another, ignoring one another, jostling one another, annoying and even +killing and devouring one another. + +This is a roundabout way of saying that nature, human beings and human +society are part and parcel of a total relationship which includes the +planet earth, the solar system and an immense range of celestia which +includes minute particles of celestial dust, like our earth, and +majestic assemblies of celestial notables like the Island Universe of +which we are unnumbered and barely noticed particles. + +At some point in this vast assemblage, actually before the assemblage +came into existence, there were responsible, animating forces in play. +There was also the responsibility for the use or exercise of the +operating forces. We humans are a product of those forces. We also share +in their functioning. Consequently we share in the responsibility which +is associated with their exercise. + +It is the task of philosophy to designate the responsibility; to +describe it, measure it and perhaps to assign it. At any rate, we find +ourselves in a position where certain things are expected of us, perhaps +even required of us as members of the human family and/or of the human +family as a functioning whole. + +It is entirely possible that, instead of overlooking, ignoring, +bickering, quarreling and periodically maiming and killing each other +wholesale, we humans should be devoting our energies, emotions, thoughts +and plans to furthering the larger purpose of which the earth and its +inhabitants are small segments. In a word, that we humans should be +acting as a responsible part of a functioning whole engaged in the vast +enterprise of being and becoming. + +Whatever our ultimate tasks may be, our immediate problem is three-fold: +(1) To make the earth the fittest possible living place for all of its +inhabitants; (2) to organize human society in the way best calculated to +achieve that objective; and (3) to make every reasonable effort to +prepare ourselves to play a meaningful part in this cosmic drama to +which we have been assigned. + +Item (1) is the theme of this chapter, item (2) is the theme of Chapter +17. Item (3) is the theme of Chapter 18. + +Passing beyond civilization we will attempt to conserve, share, beautify +and if possible to improve our earth. + +Our first task is to make the earth the fittest possible place for _ALL_ +of its inhabitants. In a way that is a simple assignment, but its +implementation will take us into every nook and corner of the land, +water, air, radiational field, and every other aspect of the planet, +including the weather. + +When we say _ALL_ forms and phases of life we mean all. All microscopic +life, all lichens and mosses, all vegetation on land, in the water, in +the air. All insects, all birds, all fish, all quadrupeds. All two +legged animals. All centipedes and all those in between. + +All forms of life have been assigned to our earth for a purpose, or have +made a place for themselves in the vast scheme of things or are clinging +parasitically to life after their assignments have been fulfilled or as +their usefulness is drawing to a close. + +In a broad sense, that which lives on the earth, including mankind, has +a right or an opportunity to be here, living to the utmost of its always +limited capacity. How limited? Limited by the similar rights of all +other forms and aspects of life. In a word life on the earth--each life +and all life--is a shared opportunity. + +Doubtless there are planners, regulators and arbitrators whose task it +is to decide, at any particular moment, who shall survive and who shall +perish. Actually we humans perform a part of that function every time we +thin out a forest, weed a garden, select our seed or teach a class. At +one stage of life we are the judges, at another stage we are the judged, +performing multiple tasks that must be fulfilled during each moment of +each day and each year. + +In our Island Universe this earth is small. But in each backyard, on +each acre or square mile of earth, decisions may be made or are being +made that determine survival, utility, order, beauty. The results of +those decisions appear constantly in the life all about us. + +We have all been in homes where neatness, usefulness and good taste +abound. We have been in villages and towns where the same conditions +prevailed. On the other hand, we have been in situations that can be +described only by the words littered, disorderly, chaotic. We have also +seen neat orderly homes in disorderly, slovenly neighborhoods. Much +depends upon who makes the decisions and whether the plans that are +carried into effect promote or obstruct the ultimate purpose. + +At the moment, we have the satisfaction of orderly, beautiful +neighborhoods at the same time that we are surrounded by a disorderly, +littered, chaotic international battleground. + +The earth with its oceans and its atmosphere is a storehouse containing +many if not most of the essentials for survival, growth and development, +for mankind as well as a multitude of other life forms. Perhaps its most +valuable single asset from the human viewpoint is its topsoil. Topsoil +plus light, air and moisture provide the elements necessary for +producing vegetation. Vegetation, in its turn, furnishes the nourishment +on which animals thrive. + +At the top of our priority list for the well-being of the earth stands +the injunction: conserve and build topsoil. + +Topsoil is lost through erosion--wind erosion, water erosion, erosion +through over cropping. It is held in place by stones, grasses, and the +roots of shrubs and trees. Untouched by human hands, on the prairies and +in the forests, topsoil is deepened year by year as winter frosts break +up soft rocks, as dead grasses, leaves, twigs break down into humus, to +become part of the topsoil and provide the nourishment for a new round +of vegetation. + +Topsoil is renewable, replaceable. Lost through cropping and erosion, it +may be rebuilt and deepened by natural processes. In temperate climates +with normal rain and snowfall, the topsoil of grasslands or a forest may +be deepened year by year and century by century. Topsoil may also be +deepened by dust storms that pick up particles of humus from dry lands +and carry them to moister areas. + +Through a carefully controlled sequence, semi-desert lands planted first +to grasses and then to shrubs and trees can be protected against wind +erosion. As vegetation flourishes it increases dew formation and +rainfall. Plant roots prevent runoff and retain the water in gulleys and +low places. Evaporation builds up moisture content in the atmosphere. +Water vapor forms drops and falls in rain or snow. + +Foresighted husbandry not only prevents erosion but, practiced on a +sufficiently broad scale, increases air moisture and modifies +climate--the weather. + +We are less fortunate with some of the critically important minerals +that make up the earth crust. + +During early centuries in the history of western civilization +adventurers and prospectors concentrated on the precious metals. The +voyagers and discoverers who sailed fifteenth century seas were seeking +supplies of gold, silver and precious stones that could be cut and +converted into the highly prized jewels adorning the crowns and scepters +of the mighty. + +Production at that stage meant agriculture, with side occupations such +as hunting, fishing, weaving, tanning, pottery, thatching and peat +cutting, in the all but continuous countryside. There was a very little +mining, but outside of the commercial towns and the growing capital +cities people made their living by taking care of domestic animals and +tilling the soil. Between seed time and harvest they tightened their +belts and prayed the Powers that Be for a bountiful yield. If it came +they feasted. If the crop failed they struggled to survive on the narrow +margin between hunger and starvation. + +If they saw any money it was likely to be copper, with perhaps an +occasional piece of silver. Gold was for the rich, of whom at that +period there were precious few, even among the owners of land and the +wielders of power. + +Country folk barely scratched the surface of the earth. Roads were wheel +tracks in the mud. Bridges were fords that became more or less +impassable with high water. + +These assertions sound strange and romantic to the modern beneficiaries +of asphalt and reinforced concrete. They were the lot of most Europeans +and North Americans when our great grandfathers and great grandmothers +were in their prime. + +What has made the difference between their use of the earth and ours? +Chiefly, the newly tapped sources of energy and the wide variety of +minerals--whose names were unknown except to scholars and scientists +before 1750. It is the new sources of energy and the only recently +utilized metals that have made the difference. + +Farm land can be used and abused many times before its productive +possibilities are exhausted. Even then, with foresight, technical +proficiency, the investment of labor and capital, agricultural land can +be restored to fertility. Iron ore, tin, copper and tungsten are +extracted from the earth, refined, put to some use or wasted as the case +may be, but they are gone. They may be replaced by other minerals. +Through geological ages they may redeposited in the earth's crust. But +to all intents and purposes, they are finished. + +It is a source of pride to promoters and propagandists for the status +quo that western man has removed more metals and minerals from the +earth's crust in the past two hundred years than his predecessors +removed during the previous two thousand years. It is also a source of +danger, because the possibilities of taking those particular minerals +from that particular cubic foot of the earth are ended. + +Replaceable natural resources such as soil fertility, grasses and trees +can be restored and reproduced. Irreplaceable natural resources are +exhausted by one use. In so far as they are concerned, that part of the +earth's crust has been impoverished--made poorer. + +Wasted through neglect and careless use, squandered in the senseless +destruction of war, the earth is still a rich treasure house for its +multitudinous forms of life. Its remaining treasures can be carefully +conserved. Such replaceable resources as topsoil, vegetation and water +can be husbanded. Oceans, mountains and, deserts can be dealt with as +we proceed with our programs for the most economical use of the natural +resources that remain to us. + +Western man is presently emerging from a boisterous era of invention, +discovery, of multiplying productivity and corresponding waste of +irreplaceable natural resources-temporarily justified by "national +security" and "war emergency." The temporary loss of replaceable +reserves and the permanent loss of irreplaceable resources is none the +less tragic, no matter how urgent the immediate cause for their +consumption. + +At this stage in the history of earth's conservation, when so much is +waiting to be done, if each family, each village and town, each city +state and nation will do its bit to conserve, plan, shape, utilize, +beautify, improve what remains of the natural environment, the results +will be impressive enough to justify the time and means devoted to the +enterprise. + +Wherever we go with our plea for the foresighted and economical use of +the earth and its remaining resources, we are met with the question: +"But what can I do?" The answer is simple. Find your place in the +nearest team working to utilize, conserve, and, where possible, enlarge +the natural wealth of the planet. If no such team exists, join with your +neighbors in organizing one. Take seriously your assignment to use the +part of the earth with which you are in contact intelligently, +economically, wisely. + +Whether you are a novice or a professional, a homesteader or a longtime +resident, be sure that each contact you make with the earth enlarges its +possibilities of utility, order, beauty. + +This crusade to save and utilize the earth as the common mother of so +many forms of life must be carefully planned and well organized through +successive generations. Men have spent far too much time and energy in +destroying. The time has come when they must conserve, plan, shape, +utilize, beautify, improve. + +If the energies now going into business, sport, social events, +frivolities, make-believe and the deliberate destruction of waste and +war could be directed to planning, utilizing, beautifying on the +circumferences and at the centers of population concentrations, immense +forward strides could be taken in a single generation. + +The planet still has immense, unused or little used reserves of natural +resources. The old order is slipping, floundering, wasting. Civilization +has told the best of its story and is busy writing its epitaph. The +revolution of 1750-1970 provides the opportunity for a new beginning. +The place is here. The time is now. Let us conserve, beautify, share, +utilize and, in so far as possible, improve our natural surroundings. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +REVAMPING THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PLANET + + +Beyond civilization we could develop a sociology-a cluster of +associations, institutions, outlooks, purposes and practices designed to +revamp the social life of the planet in much the same way and with the +same general outlook with which we approach the political, economic, +sociological and ideological problems arising from the presence, on the +planet Earth, of some 3,700 million different human beings. + +There are at least two approaches to the sociological aspects of our +planet-wide, coordinated society. One way is that with which nature's +cyclism has made us familiar--the "day" of manifestation (activity) and +the "night" of rest (recuperation, restoration and renewal). This might +be described as a natural, gradual evolutionary way. + +The other way is based on creative intervention which shortcuts +evolutionary gradualism in the same way that a great leap shortcuts many +ordinary steps. + +Perhaps the conception can be illustrated in a most effective way by the +alternative presented during the great revolution of 1750-1970. At the +beginning of this epoch man walked the earth literally, except when he +sailed on the water or used the horse or some other swift animal to +travel by land. In the course of the great revolution mankind has +learned to move his body at speeds which sometimes exceed the movement +of sound, on the land, on the water, through the air and into space. He +has done this short-cutting by revolutionary changes in types of energy +coming from outside his physical body. In another sphere--communication +devices--man has stepped up the movement of his emotions and thoughts +and his creative imagination beyond the speed of light. + +This analogy is not complete, nor is it wholly convincing. But the great +revolution in science and technology, applied in the field of social +science can quite conceivably provide humanity with the means of +short-cutting the normal or "natural" processes in sociology as it has +already short-cutted the normal or "natural" process in human +transportation and communication. + +As long as human beings accept the normal, traditional, "natural" +principles of association and group action, humanity will continue on +the tread-mill of civilization with its long established cycles of +beginning, expansion, exploitation, maturity, conflict, decline and +extermination. + +This aspect of planetary sociology may be illustrated by the rise and +decline of total membership in the human family. We know that Roman +civilization passed through a completed cycle of population expansion to +an optimum, followed by a catastrophic population decline. Western +civilization has been experiencing a population expansion or explosion +that can be measured with a moderate degree of statistical accuracy. +Planetary human population doubled from 500 million in 1650 to 1000 +million in 1850. Between 1850 and 1950 population more than doubled +(from 1000 million to 2,500 million). In 1975 the human population of +the earth is close to 3,700 million. + +An essential aspect of world government will be a population program +designed to adjust social structure and planning to the means of +production and to make generally available to all humans and, where +possible, all living things, the results of invention, discovery and +experience with affluence, general security and wide variations of +vocational and avocational choice. In practice such a program would +include the planned utilization and conservation of nature and the +conscious improvement of society by society. + +Social planning at the planetary level could deal chiefly with large +national or regional groupings, more or less divergent in viewpoint but +conscious of the necessity for bringing local and regional groups +together in order to secure common agreement and to take part in +directed joint actions. Such efforts must aim at sufficient cohesion to +provide for normal social function at all levels; sufficient +permissiveness to allow for a measure of self-determination at all +levels; sufficient authority to carry on production and distribution at +all levels, and sufficient libertarianism to tolerate discussion and +opposition at all levels, with a maximum degree of self sufficiency and +self-determination at all levels. + +Nowhere is the need for social planning more in evidence than in the +sphere of human population. In the early years of the present twentieth +century, the human population was doubling in about 50 years (from 1500 +million in 1900 to 2500 million in 1950, from 1,900 million in 1925 to +3,800 million in 1975). Had this rate of growth continued for another +hundred years the planet's fertile acres would have been fully occupied +by jostling crowds with _standing-room only_ signs in the more desirable +living spaces. Japan, the United States, several countries of West +Europe and China have launched campaigns to reduce net population +increase to one percent per year or less. + +A culture level, to be effective in the present predicament of a human +race (oscillating uneasily between the possibility of social advance and +the probability of recession into another Dark Age of ignorance, +superstition and social stagnation), must include certain essential +elements. First and foremost, it must be planet-wide. Given planetary +unification by communication, transportation, travel, migration, trade +and commerce, and cultural interchange, one world has become a factual +reality. World oneness is laced by contradictions, confrontations, +conflicts; by traditional, customary, habitual, ideological, legal, and +national barriers of greater or lesser rigidity. Despite these divisive +forces, our need to function in terms of planetary oneness is so great +that the term "citizens of the world" not only makes sense, but is +accepted and even flaunted in the face of tough restrictions and hard +nosed nationalism. + +Segments of humanity that are ready and willing to sign up as world +citizens already enjoy world consciousness, carrying world passports; +and are experimenting with various aspects of worldist thinking, +contact, organization. They are ready and willing to take part in a +multitude of planetary experiments in world-wide human association. + +The great revolution of 1750-1970 has made two notable contributions to +the institutions of western civilization. In the field of politics it +has contributed the nation state. In the field of economics it has +contributed industrialization with its twin sociological consequence, +mechanization and urbanization. + +Machines and cities are the Siamese twins of the modern age. They are +also the twin forces that helped to push the nation state into its +strategic position of sovereign independence. + +Nationalism today is a unifying force inside the frontiers of the 140 +nations that presently litter and clutter the earth. Beyond each +frontier, however, nationalism has become one of the most divisive +sources of misunderstanding, controversy, disruption and conflict +presently cursing mankind. In the exercise of their sovereignty the +oligarchs who make policy and direct procedure in each sovereign state +put national interests first. On a planet which currently hosts 140 +sovereign states this policy of putting the interests of the part before +the interests of the whole results in controversy, conflict, and may +result in collective self-destruction. + +It is reassuring and encouraging to compare the rise of nationalism and +Europeanism during the past thousand years with the rise of planetism +and worldism from 1450 to 1970. The development of nationalism and +Europeanism is still incomplete, but the drive in that direction has +thus far survived the fragmenting forces of self-determination and +political independence which have played so vital a role in human +society since the beginning of the present century. Europeanization is +still a dream rather than a reality. The forces of regionalism, +nationalism, and separatism still dominate European life. But the +ideology and techniques of Europeanization are widely recognized, +accepted and put into practice. The development of worldism seems to be +following a parallel course. + +Consequently, wisdom, foresight, and the acceptance of change as a major +factor in all social relationships seem to justify our assumption that +sooner or later man's survival on the planet will depend on a degree of +worldist thinking, association and institutionalism that will guarantee +the preservation of order and decency at the planetary level. + +Since conformity implies and involves a will to diversity, measures to +establish and maintain order and peace would include the widest possible +latitude and the utmost effort to encourage the greatest possible +diversity at regional, national and local levels. Thus diversity would +become a virtue in much the same sense that conformity became a virtue +in bourgeois Europe toward the end of the last century and in North +America during the Joseph MacCarthy period. Through the past dozen years +American youth has reversed the trend, adopting a permissiveness under +which the sky is the limit in language, clothing, sexual conduct and +professional choice and behavior. + +Non-conformity is all very well as protest against super-conformity, but +it fails utterly to meet the basic need of the 1970's for a mass +movement away from the institutions and practices of civilization, plus +a disciplined and purposive mass determination to assume attitudes, +adopt practices and establish institutions leading beyond civilization +to a world culture pattern which insists upon conformity up to a point +necessary for survival and social advance, and beyond that point, a +diversity--including recognized and organized opposition at the +planetary center. At the same time there must be a degree of regional +and local diversity that will provide for the utmost independence, +self-confidence, self-expression and regional and local +self-determination compatible with the basic principle: to each in +accordance with need. + +Beyond civilization, matters of general concern will take precedence at +the same time that matters of regional and local concerns will be dealt +with regionally and locally. In such a society individuals and +communities at all levels will be schooled and experienced in +self-discipline and prepared to follow conduct patterns that emphasize +the principle: live and help others to live to the fullest and the +utmost. + +Beyond civilization lies the recognition and practice of the principle +that the welfare of the whole takes precedence over the demands of any +of its parts. At the same time, each part or segment of the social whole +has specific rights that the directors of the whole are bound to +recognize, respect, defend and implement. + +Such results can be achieved under a social pattern aimed at respect for +life--all life; the preservation and improvement of the conditions under +which the good life can be lived by all members of each community as +well as by the human family as a whole. If human society is to be +preserved and progressively improved it must encourage individuals and +cherish institutions whose responsibility and duty it is to stimulate +self-criticism to a point that will make survival and social improvement +the first charge on community life--from the locality, through the +region to the whole human family. + +Should self-discipline and self-criticism falter, militant minorities +must urge and initiate those revolutionary changes which are necessary +for the health and well-being of any ailing human community. This is one +of the contradictions that faces every human enterprise, including the +human race itself. + +Cyclic renewal or regeneration is one aspect of life on our Island +Universe. The principle operates in the life cell, and from the cell on +up and out, to the more extended and extensive aspects of life and +being. The course is well marked and increasingly understood. +Alternatively, humanity can put its creative imagination to work; plan, +organize, prepare and by a carefully designed, revolutionary technique +take a great leap onto another culture level, establishing other norms +beyond those currently accepted by civilized peoples. + +"Beyond civilization" lifestyles are being planfully introduced in order +to save humankind from impending disaster. In that sense, they are +emergency measures. Developmentally, they are being designed as a +planned replacement of the life style current in the matured centers of +western civilization. + +Under such conditions the habit patterns of civilizations could be +deliberately abandoned or superceded by life styles more appropriate to +the institutions and practices of human beings prepared to live and able +to live and develop in a community which is establishing itself on a +level beyond civilization. + +Let no reader retort: Old things are best; old ways are most secure; +beware of the errors of human judgment, the lures and wiles of human +imaginings, the reckless enthusiasm of inexperience; the machinations +and subversions of the counter-revolution. + +Whether he will or no, man has already advanced far along the path that +leads beyond the culture level of civilization into a culture pattern +which includes new means of association and new social institutions. The +most obvious examples of the universal pattern which the human race has +been developing during the present epoch are to be found in the "one +world" consequences of the planet-wide revolution in science and +technology. + +Planetary fragmentation which accompanied the dissolution of Roman +civilization divided and sub-divided mankind into unnumbered +self-contained segments: families, tribes, classes, villages, cities, +kingdoms, principalities, nations, empires. They were separated from one +another by geographic, ethnic, ideological and political barriers which +were intensified by tradition, custom, migration, and the competitive +struggles among the elite for pelf and power. Ignorance and superstition +played a major role in the decentralizing process. Conflicts at various +levels led to further social segmentation and isolation of autonomous +social groups. + +In the backwardness of those Dark Ages--curiosity, fellow feeling, mass +migration, the spirit of adventure, trade, travel and the need for +common action to master nature and repel enemies--broke down barriers +and created fields of mutual interest and general well-being, reversing +the trend toward fragmentation and replacing it by a trend toward +universality which reached its high point during the closing years of +the nineteenth century. The slogan of this movement was "United we +stand, divided we fall. The bell which tolls for one, tolls for all. +When one benefits all benefit. Peace, progress and prosperity promote +general welfare." + +Two general wars in 1914-18 and 1939-45, brought pre-meditated, +deliberated suffering, hardships and death to multitudes. Each war led +to a clamor for peace and order that resulted in a World Court, The +League of Nations and the United Nations. The efforts at planet-wide +united action for peace and disarmament were paralleled and supplemented +by the growth of specialized public services for communication, travel, +scientific interchange, arms limitation. They were further augmented by +a spectacular expansion of trade, travel, capital investment and +scientific research and interchange. + +Events since war's end in 1945 have marked out the steps which the human +race might take in the immediate future to deal with the new problems +arising out of the world revolution of 1750-1970 and to stabilize human +life on the planet. + + Step 1. Revise the United Nations Charter to make all citizens + of member nations also citizens of the United Nations + and therefore under its direct jurisdiction. + + Step 2. Delegate to the United Nations authority to levy taxes + or otherwise provide its own income. + + Step 3. Call a planet-wide convention of delegates from all + nations, authorized to draft a world federal constitution + and submit it for ratification by all member + states. + + Step 4. When approved by two thirds of the states represented + at the constitutional convention the constitution + so adopted would became the basis for world + law and the administration of world affairs. + + Step 5. Inaugurate a world government that would be responsible + for maintaining and promoting peace, order, + stability, justice, equality of opportunity and general + welfare at the international level. + +Heretofore, the nearest approach to a universal state has been an +empire like that of Egypt or Rome built by conquest and maintained by +military authority exercised by the imperial nucleus over its associated +and subordinated territories. The universal state described above would +be an association of sovereign states, each delegating a sufficient +measure of its sovereignty to enable the World Federation to act as a +responsible planet-wide government. + +The probable consequences of these five forward steps have been +summarized by Barbara Ward and Rene Dubos (_Only One World_ N.Y. Nostrom +1972 pages 28-29). "In every case the needed steps take us away from +division, from single shot interventions, separatist tendencies and +driving ambitions and greeds. We have to grasp and foster more fully the +truly integrative aspects of science. We have to revise our economic +management of incomes, of environments, of cities. We have to place what +is useable in nationalism within the framework of a political world +order that is morally and socially responsible as well as physically +one." + +Up to this point in social history, critical situations have usually +been dealt with on the battlefield. Might measured right. The victors +carried the day, won the right to exploit their defeated rivals and +weaker neighbors. The result was planet-wide political chaos, and an +economic free-for-all, in which political power and economic superiority +bestowed upon their possessors the right to plunder and exploit +geographic areas limited only by existing means of communication and +transportation. At no known point in social history were conquerors and +exploiters able to unify the earth politically and exploit its total +economic resources. + +A planned, stabilized future for humanity will be assured when the earth +is governed much as cities, states, nations and empires have been +governed in the past and the present, but with one essential difference. +At no known past time have all human beings been represented in a +government authorized to make and enforce world law. In the absence of +law, chaos and armed conflicts have determined the course of human +affairs. Under a recognized world federal government, world law will +bring, for the first time, the practical possibility of a law and order +determined by and for the human population and charged with the +responsibility for establishing and maintaining planetary public policy. + +World law will be only one aspect of the new situation that will result +from the establishment of a planned, stabilized future for humanity. +Other aspects of the new society will include: + +1. Shaping the future of nature on and in the planet, with all of its +potential riches. + +2. Perhaps also taking a hand in determining the future of other +celestial bodies making up our solar system. + +3. Shaping human society, the man-made and man-remade human heritage +that plays so vital a role in determining the course of human +life--individual and social. + +4. Shaping and guiding man--the gregarious, imaginative, venturesome, +productive--destructive, creative animal. + +5. Building up in human society respect (reverence) for being, respect +for life with its multitudinous variations of opportunity for individual +and social activity. + +6. Arousing interest and dedicating time, thought and energy to the new +science and new arts grouped together under the title Futurology. + +7. Having a hand in perpetuating and shaping one segment of our +expanding universe in accord with the Cult of Excellence: good, better, +and best ever! This is an exciting, constructive, long-range project +worthy of the attention and devotion of any being, even the most +ambitious and omniscient. + +8. Aiming at the Truth--the workability, improvement and the +perfectability of our planet Earth as a recognized, accepted and +essential part of our planetary chain and of our Island Universe. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +MAN COULD CHANGE HUMAN NATURE + + +Man could conserve natural resources; he could remake human society. But +man himself? There, perhaps, is the root of the problem we are +discussing. + +Can man change himself? Can he change human nature? Could human beings +as we know them be transformed sufficiently to live and survive under +the life-style that replaces civilization? + +In our universe as we know it today, from the least to the greatest, +from the most minute to the most extensive, change is one of the basic +principles of existence. Nature changes. Human society changes. Changes +in nature and in society are paralleled by changes in man +himself--changes in outlooks and purposes, changes in ways of feeling, +thinking and acting. + +Human beings have lived under the aegis of tradition, custom, +habit--thinking and acting "normally" and "naturally" in ways accepted +by their forebears and followed by them with little or no regard for +reason, foresight, or creative imagination. Rudiments of all three +capacities were known to exist in human beings. On the whole, the status +quo has been preferred; innovation frowned upon and innovators +discouraged, denounced, reviled and sometimes even put to death. + +In the field of natural science revolutionary short-cutting through the +use of man's creative imagination has been widely used. The great +revolution is one aspect of the anticipated result. Similar +revolutionary short-cutting in the field of social science and social +technology is bound to produce a "new man" in the same way that similar +practices have remodeled, regenerated and renewed man's relations with +nature, and his theories and practices of association. + +Despite efforts of the Establishment to impose conformity, +non-conforming individuals continued to be born and to grow up as +deviants, misfits and intentional non-conformists. Some of these rebels +against the established social order left home, joined the army or went +to sea. Others stayed at home, bided their time and, when opportunity +offered, joined with like-minded fellows in organized underground +opposition or open rebellion against the status quo. + +History reports the existence of such dissident individuals and social +groups and movements in one civilization after another. + +In a very real sense any invention, discovery or innovation in any field +of human thought or action, if widely accepted or adopted automatically, +becomes a revolt against the status quo. Our experience with innovation +during two centuries of the great revolution gives us every reason to +suppose that the flow of scientific and technical invention and +discovery will continue for an indefinite period into our future. On the +whole the evidence suggests increase rather than decrease of innovation +and therefore of change. + +A time of troubles such as that through which western civilization is +now passing offers individuals and social groups unique opportunities to +play significant roles in shaping the course of events. In every human +population there are individuals who are dissatisfied with the status +quo and prefer change to status. For such individuals a time of social +troubles is a holiday. + +There is also an ever-renewing social group for whom a time of troubles +presents a challenge and an opportunity--the young people of the +on-coming generation. + +Adults are generally conditioned and shaped by the social situation into +which they were born and in which they matured. Young people are passing +through the conditioning process. They are undergoing the process of +rapid change. + +Young people in their teens and early twenties stand, usually hesitant, +on the threshold of life. They are bursting with energy, eager, hopeful, +anxious to enter the stream of adult activity. Inexperienced, they +under-estimate the difficulties, taking up any line of activity that +promises quick results. They are impressionable and generally seeking "a +good life." + +Such resources of energy and idealism exist in every generation and +reappear as the generations follow one another. Youth groups have played +active roles in one country after another where opportunities were +restricted by the establishment and revolutionary propagandists painted +a rosy future. Political nationalism in the eighteenth century and +economic and social emancipation in the nineteenth century mobilized +high school and college age youth in the Americas, Europe, Asia and +Africa. + +It is folly to assert that human nature is a given and unalterable +quantity in every social situation and that since "you cannot change +human nature" intentional social changes are out of the question. The +facts are otherwise: + + 1. There is a wide diversity in human beings ranging from + herculean physical strength to pitiable weakness; from the + mental power of genius to the nonentity of imbecility; from + outstanding and unquestionable talent in arts and letters + to illiteracy and clumsy inefficiency. This wide diversity + in human capacity is one of the outstanding features of + human nature, recorded again and again in history and + encountered in all human aggregates. + + 2. There is a period in human life when the habit patterns + of childhood are exchanged for the habit patterns of adulthood. + At this turning point, youth is likely to follow + dynamic and purposeful leadership. + + 3. There is a wide diversity in social situations, from rock-ribbed + stability, to entire communities teetering on the brink + or plunging over the brink into the maelstrom of revolution. + Such diverse situations have existed again and again + during the 1750-1970 revolutionary epoch. + + 4. When a revolutionary situation develops, a revolutionary + leader well-established in a community trembling on the + brink of a revolutionary overturn may seize the reins of + power and establish a regime founded on opposition principles, + dedicated to another set of principles and practices. + When such a revolutionary coup is successful the bells of + history have tolled for the older order and the trumpets + of victory have sounded for the new society. + + 5. The intensity and the direction of the social changes which + radiate out from the climax of a revolutionary situation + and the consequent, subsequent attempts at counter-revolution, + are the outcome of active, purposive intervention by + all of the social groups present at the center of revolutionary + activity. + +The current shift from a laissez-faire economy ("letting nature take her +course"), to a planned, managed, controlled economy is a precedent which +gives us a foretaste of what will lie ahead when a planet-wide federal +government undertakes the planning, direction and management of a +planet-wide economy and society. + +The outcome cannot be determined in advance. Unexpected situations will +arise, the resolution of which will shape the fate, present and future, +of mankind. In a very real sense, our eggs are all in one basket--the +Earth. Our future, for generations to come, may be determined by the +decisions we are making or the social policy we are initiating at the +present moment. + +Large scale research and experiment should go a long way toward +developing the skills required by competent and successful planetary +leadership. Political experiments like the United States of North +America or the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics or the League of +Nations or the United Nations, the planet-wide search for petroleum or +the joint scientific efforts that went into the splitting of the atom, +have given us opportunities to develop the science and art of +planet-wide leadership. + +Behind and beyond our training courses--our formal educational system +(which should be in the front rank of our priorities)--we could train +apprentices in every occupational field, selecting the most apt, the +most eager, the seemingly best qualified and giving them every +opportunity to try out their skills and improve their qualifications in +their chosen fields of endeavor. + +Aspirants for any occupational assignment would divide themselves into +three groups: those who feel that they have chosen wisely, find +themselves in congenial surrounds and want to spend coming years in the +occupation of their choice; those who are uncertain and still unable to +decide upon the field of their life activity; and third, those who have +chosen badly, are dissatisfied with the occupational groove in which +they find themselves and who are ready to move into another field at the +first opportunity. + +The well adjusted will constitute the elite of their chosen occupations, +learning its skills and joining with other well satisfied professionals +in passing on their enthusiasm and knowledge to the next generation of +aspirants for inclusion in the same production teams. The undecided +should be the object of special attention. They have entered an +occupational field on an experimental basis and should be advised and +helped during the experimental period when they are deciding to make a +go of it or to try for something more congenial or at least more +acceptable. + +Misfits who have made a wrong choice and who have no clear call to stay +where they are should be advised and helped to find more congenial +occupational surroundings. + +We may think and experiment with this selective process as though it was +easy and probably final. Nothing could be further from the reality. Even +the best adjusted have moments of uncertainty and indecision about their +occupational futures. The less adjusted spend a part of their lives +looking around for a more attractive field. + +In every field, some of the best adjusted go as far as their interests +and capacities carry them and then shift over into other occupations +which, in turn, offer them more chances to employ their talents to +greater advantage. + +In every field of human endeavor individuals come and go. They should +stay where they seem to be useful and go when their usefulness is +decreasing or coming to an end. + +Balance between status and change is as desirable for the individual as +it is for the group. The decision to stay or go should remain open to +the endless round of individuals who comprise any working team. The +existence of such flexibility is limited, however, by the need to +maintain a working force of interested, alert, eager individuals--skilled, +adjusted and disciplined in group endeavor and achievement. + +We are describing the unending process of selection which goes on from +hour to hour and day to day in any well ordered social group. Every +group has its fields of endeavor, its goals and its scale of priorities. +Individuals come and go. The group carries on. Excellence in group +performance depends upon its competence in selecting, training and +coordinating its endeavors. + +Every social group has its hard corps of trained and tested veterans. +Also it has its problem of aging. The apprentice of yesterday becomes +the experienced, skilled operator of today. Tomorrow brings retirement +for those who have reached the age limit of service and who as a matter +of group routine are replaced by newcomers. In the course of this cycle +the directors of the group have their opportunity to improve the level +of group efficiency by phasing out the old and incorporating the new. + +The range of capacity, from perception and facility to ineptitude and +incompetence, holds for the new generation as it did for the old. The +tone and performance level of each group is determined by the +effectiveness of this selective process. + +At some point it becomes necessary to inquire into the biologic aspects +of any social enterprise. We are doing our utmost to select and educate +and train the fit. Are we producing potential fitness? + +Long experience has taught us that we cannot produce a silk purse from a +sow's ear. Eugenics emerges as an important aspect of every long term +group endeavor. Qualities and capacities are handed on from parent to +offspring. Are we reproducing fitness or unfitness? + +As we move beyond civilization onto a more mature and more complicated +culture level, we may have a workable system of social priorities, but +does our oncoming stream of manpower have the interest, the imagination, +the competence, the sense of social responsibility and the staying power +necessary to arouse in a series of generations the will and +determination to carry out social policy? + +Are the oncoming generations able and willing to shoulder the loads of +clearing out the rubbish accumulated through ten centuries of western +civilization, make effective use of science, technology _and_ available +human capacity and move onward and forward to new levels of social +achievement? + +We could develop a corps of socially responsible technicians as we have +developed a corps of competent scientists and technicians in the field +of natural science. In each field priorities are constantly changing. +Each field is called upon to meet the changes by making corresponding +changes in its personnel, its education and its apprenticeships. + +In addition to formal schooling and apprenticeship we have a vast +network for the distribution of information and the formation of public +opinion. The printing press, the camera and other means of communication +determine the levels of information and the willingness of the public to +keep abreast of the shifting social scene. + +A social structure resembles every other human meeting place--it tends +to accumulate dead wood. There are two answers to this problem: periodic +housecleaning, without fear or favor, together with careful scrutiny of +the apprentices and other newcomers in the field. + +Every social group has its quota of defectives and +delinquents--biological and social, physical, mental, emotional. Here +the critical problem is where to draw the line. Perhaps the best general +answer is to measure productiveness, including those who make a net +contribution, including those whose presence is desirable and excluding +undesirables. Again this involves periodic housecleanings. + +Throughout the past two centuries mankind has been confronted by an +epoch-making, many sided development--the great revolution of +1750-1970. As I write, the great revolution is modifying the structure +and functioning of human society and, consequently, the forces which +condition, shape and, in large measure, determine the directions and +channels in which humanity lives, moves and has its being. + +The great revolution is changing man's relation to nature, to the +structure and function of human society and the ways in which men think, +feel, act and live. The great revolution has shifted the human living +place from rural to urban, replaced a large measure of self-employment +by wagery, lifted large segments of mankind out of scarcity into +abundance, led to widespread migrations across Europe and from continent +to continent, expanded nations and built empires. In the course of these +developments Europe became the center of world economic, political and +cultural affairs, held the position briefly and lost it in the course of +two general, suicidal wars. + +Speaking broadly, such a period in the life of any society may be +described as a revolutionary situation--one in which changes are made +frequently, rapidly and with far reaching consequences. In a word, the +existing social pattern is in process of being turned over, turned +upside down, transformed by forces which seem to operate according to +their own principles and often quite independently of human intention or +intervention. + +Our society--western civilization--is undergoing a revolution. People +born into a rapidly changing society are often tempted and sometimes +compelled to play significant roles in the revolutionary process. +Unconsciously or consciously, unwilling and unwitting or deliberately +and purposefully they are revolutionaries. + +Among the participants in the revolutionary process, the far-seeing, +imaginative, perceptive and mature develop into purposive +revolutionaries. In the course of a series of political, economic and +cultural revolutions like those which played so fateful a part in China +between 1899 and 1969, an entire generation is born, grows up and, in +larger part, retires from active life or dies off. + +Long continued cultural changes play a part in local history. They have +an equally important role in the lives of neighboring nations and +peoples. With present means of communication, transportation and travel, +the influence of revolutionary events such as those in China from 1899 +to the present day may be profound. + +The bourgeois revolution from 1750 to 1840 centered largely in West +Europe and the Americas. In scope it was economic, political, cultural. +The Chinese and other revolutions of the present period, beginning with +the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the Chinese Revolution of 1911, are +once more transforming the economic, political and cultural life of +mankind. + +UNESCO's _History of Mankind_ (Harper and Row), particularly its Volume +6 titled _The Twentieth Century_, presents voluminous comments from a +wide range of qualified scientists and commentators on the changes +associated with the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +The economic, political and cultural life of the majority of human +beings has been modified by the events comprising the great revolution. +Its influence has been, and continues to be, planet-wide. Consciously or +unconsciously, human beings have been brought into contact with +influences that are transforming them as they revolutionize human +society. + +Western man and his way of life have been primarily responsible for this +great revolution. The changes brought about in the human life pattern in +the course of the great revolution have created a new world--in +structure, in function, in outlook, in stepped-up capacity for even more +spectacular changes in the future. + +Instead of regarding human beings and human society as unchangeable and +sacred we must regard both as a part of our social problem: taking the +steps necessary to reach and occupy the highest possible levels of +social and individual health and effectiveness. We can and should make +every effort to improve human society. We should be equally concerned to +improve man and his nature. + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +MAN COULD BREAK OUT OF THE AGE-LONG PRISON HOUSE OF CIVILIZATION AND +ENTER A NEW WORLD + + +We humans have been living for ages with various lifestyles--as hunters +and fishermen, as herdsmen, as cultivators of the soil, as craftsmen, as +traders and merchants, as professionals, as exploiters, as parasites, +wreckers and plunderers. On the whole, our energies have been spent in +relatively small, self-sufficient groups, staying close to nature, as a +part of nature. + +Occasionally we have turned from this "natural" way of life, to build +towns and cities, experimenting with large scale mass enterprises and +expanded aggregates of population, wealth and centralized authority to +which we have given the name of civilizations. + +These civilizations, in their turn, have passed through a recognizable +life cycle--the cycle of growing, developing, maturing, aging, breaking +up and disappearing. One aspect of their civilized life was the keeping +of records. Another aspect was building with baked clay and stone. Baked +clay, some metals and stone, have withstood the wear and tear of time, +sheltered in the temples and tombs which we are uncovering, deciphering, +translating. + +While engaged in these scholarly pursuits, our variant of the +pattern--western civilization--has been passing through the customary +life cycle. If we read the signs correctly, western civilization reached +the high point in its cycle toward the end of the last century. Since +then, for seventy-five years, it has been on the decline. + +If we accept the cycle of civilization as one of the facts or sequences +presented to us by history, we may continue to pass submissively through +the successive stages of decline until western civilization is +liquidated by the same forces that wiped out preceding civilizations. +This would be the normal course of a cycle of civilization as it appears +in recorded history. + +Need we follow this course? Must we follow it? + +History answers "yes" and also "no." + +History answers "yes"--the record to date reads that way. + +But the record of history also shows that men have repeatedly interfered +and intervened in the historical process by discovery and invention. The +historical record is subject to change. Man is not entirely free. +Neither is he helplessly bound on the wheel of necessity, presently +known as civilization. + +In Chapter 10 we listed a number of discoveries and inventions which +have greatly increased man's control over his own destiny. As these +innovations are embodied in the life styles of planet-wide human +society, there is every likelihood that men can deal with the future +almost as comprehensibly as they now deal with the past. Those who take +this position argue that humanity has reached a point at which it may +break out of the present cycle of civilization and begin a new cycle +which will correspond with the possibilities brought to mankind during +the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +The idea is not new. It has appeared repeatedly in various forms: +individual withdrawal from the world and its troubles to live solitary, +perfected, sin-free existences; the formulation of plans for utopian or +ideal communities; the establishment of such communities--apart from the +workday world; revolutionary mass movements away from the current time +of social troubles into a more workable, more acceptable, more basically +productive and fundamentally creative life style. + +Hermits and reclusive monastic life need not concern us here. They are +to be found in many parts of the existing society. They live their lives +apart from the main currents of human life. We may make the same +comment, with slight modifications, on intentional communities +organized within the bounds of surrounding civilizations. They meet the +needs of exceptional individuals who find the existing order intolerable +and who wish to move at once into a more congenial community life. +Intentional communities founded to demonstrate particular social or +economic theories usually are short-lived, covering, at best, one or two +generations. + +Intentional communities organized around ethical or social principles +are more enduring, lasting through generations and sometimes through +centuries. During their existence they may have considerable influence +on the communities of which they are a part. At best they parallel the +life of the civilization against which they protest, while they share +its problems. Religiously oriented intentional communities may be found +today in many of the countries composing western civilization. + +What concerns us here is the split of western civilization into two +broadly divergent groups: capitalism and socialism-communism. + +Capitalism, in its present monopoly form, is the outcome of a thousand +years of development. Throughout its existence it has been politically +and economically competitive. The vehicle of political competition began +as the nation, then continued as the empire. Economically, the vehicle +of competition has become the profit-seeking business corporation, +backed politically and often subsidized economically by the nation or +empire. + +As western civilization has developed, nations and empires have tended +to form more or less permanent alliances. Business corporations likewise +have tended to establish conglomerates which include widely divergent +businesses, some limited to one nation or empire, some international. + +Historically, the present-day business community developed out of a +segmented European feudal society as a protest against political +restrictions. Its early key-note was laissez-faire--freedom of +businessmen to make economic policy and accumulate profits. The +practical outcome of laissez-faire economy has been monopoly or finance +capitalism functioning through the sovereign state or empire. + +Marxian socialism-communism, organized and developed largely since 1848, +has grown up as a rebellion against monopoly capitalism. At it matured, +after revolutions in Mexico, China, Tsarist Russia and East Europe, it +became an alternative and even a competitive life style. Marxism has +been, at least in theory, cooperative rather than competitive. Its +objective has been not private profit but a higher standard of economic +and social life for exploited masses of the business community and of +the Third World. Capitalism has had as its slogan "Every man for +himself". The slogan of Marxism is "Serve the whole people". + +Until 1917 Marxism was a body of social theory and a program of specific +political demands. In the period from 1848 to 1917 Marxism operated +through minority political parties organized in each nation, but linked +together internationally in loose federations, except during the brief +existence of the Communist International from 1919 to 1943. + +Beginning with the Russian Revolution of 1917, Marxism became a basic +state doctrine, first in the Soviet Union and subsequently in more than +a dozen other nations of East Europe and Asia. The area of Marxist +influence, as expressed in socialist construction, spread slowly from +1917 to 1943 and rapidly during and immediately after the war of +1936-1945. + +Today about a billion human beings live in countries of East Europe and +Asia calling themselves socialist-communist. A second billion human +beings live chiefly in West Europe, the Americas and Australasia calling +themselves capitalist. A third billion, the remaining segment of +mankind, living chiefly in Africa, Asia and Latin America make up the +"Third World," most of which consists of former colonies and +dependencies of the 19th century empires. + +At the beginning of the great revolution in 1750 the planet was occupied +by the European empires, their colonies and dependencies, with a segment +under the control of the crumbling Chinese and Turkish empires. The +ensuing two centuries witnessed a political, economic and social +transformation that reached across every continent. + +The revolutionary process is far from complete in 1975. Capitalism and +Marxism are still pitted against each other--ideologically, politically, +culturally. The Marxians form a revolutionary front. Capitalists retort +with counter-revolution. Nation by nation the third world is taking +sides. + +The capitalist world is suffering from the rise and fall of the business +cycle, from inflation and unemployment, from the scourge of militarism; +from the exhaustion of two general wars in one generation; from absence +of any positive common program or commonly accepted means of +administering public affairs; from its failure to provide its young +people with a satisfactory reason for existence, and from the fatal +malady of fragmentation which is the logical counterpart of every major +effort at coordination, consolidation and unification. Western +civilization, despite repeated efforts, was never able to establish the +kind of superficial unity that marked the high point in the Egyptian and +Roman civilizations. The stresses and strains of the current great +revolution have introduced into western civilization new disintegrative +forces of which the capitalist-Marxist confrontation is the most +extensive, divisive and decisive. + +The Marxist world, in its spectacular rise during less than a century, +offers the only workable alternative to declining and disintegrating +western civilization. It presents an alternative theoretical program for +dealing with the transition from the built-in competitiveness of western +civilization to the built-in cooperativeness of a planned, coordinated, +federated socialist-communist world order. + +The Soviet Union and its East European socialist neighbors have survived +the wars of 1914 and 1936; have survived the capitalist conspiracy to +strangle infant Marxism in its cradle. In a remarkably brief period the +Soviet Union has moved from a position of cultural backwardness to +become the number two nation in productivity and perhaps even number one +in fire power. + +Today Asia's active development of several variants of Marxism is +defended against any repetition of Hitler's 1941 drive to the East by +the massive land barrier of the Soviet Union and its East European +Marxist associates. + +On the west, Asia is protected by the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean +against the determined efforts of the Washington government to check the +spread of Marxism. Washington's current effort to become _The_ Pacific +power and also _The_ Asian power have been blocked and perhaps thwarted +by the defeat of General MacArthur and his international forces in the +Korean War of 1950-53, and by the unanticipated and unbelievable +resistance mounted by the peoples of South East Asia against the +repeated efforts made by Washington to replace the French imperial +presence there after its overwhelming defeat in 1954. + +The decisive political developments in South and East Asia following +war's end in 1945 were first, the expulsion of the British, French and +Dutch from their military strongholds in the area; second, the +spectacular unification of China and its rapid advance from inferiority +and political inconsequence to a place among the three major world +powers; third, the meteoric comeback of Japan after its unconditional +surrender in 1945; and fourth, the failure of the costly effort mounted +by Washington after 1954 to establish itself in a position from which it +could dominate the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. + +So much we may learn from history. Turning from the past and looking at +the trends of the immediate future, it seems likely that Marxism will +continue for at least some years to be the dominant force in Asia. +Furthermore, the Marxian presence in Asia will include both the Soviet +Union in Northern Asia and China in South Asia. Both countries are +unquestionably stabilized economically and viable politically. Both are +headed away from capitalist imperialism. Both are moving toward Marxian +forms of socialism-communism. + +The wars in South East Asia after the expulsion of the French in 1954 +were organized, financed and armed primarily by the Washington +government. They were avowedly aimed at the up-rooting of Marxism from +the area. They not only failed in their main objective but they gave +the Soviet Union and the Chinese a chance to pit their advisers, +technicians and military equipment against that of the United States as +the major capitalist contender in the area. This phase of the +counter-revolutionary drive to reestablish monopoly capitalism and +imperialism in the Far East thus far has met with decisive and +humiliating defeat. + +This defeat marks the end of the capitalist occupation of Far Asia. It +also opens the way for the Marxists to demonstrate the workability of +socialism-communism as a lifestyle for Asians and, presumably, for other +segments of the Third World. + +Success of the Marxists in maintaining and extending their presence in +Asia will make it politically and culturally possible for them to take +five essential steps: + +_First_, to extend the developing pattern of collective responsibility +and collective action around the earth as rapidly as possible. If such +an extension proves feasible, it should give Marxism a real priority in +stabilizing the economy and building up the political vigor of the Far +East. + +_Second_, organized counter-revolution could be liquidated and +revolutionaries, willing to take on the responsibility, could be +provided with necessary authority, leadership and equipment. + +_Third_, moving along with the formulation and fulfillment of carefully +developed plans for socialist construction in all of its ramifications, +to close the door gradually, step by considered step, on exploitation +and profiteering. In their places, well-laid plans could be drawn up for +developing a people's socialist-communist economy in the more backward +areas of Africa, Asia and the Americas. + +_Fourth_, the new economy could be federated as it was established and +stabilized, with special attention to the need for a maximum of local +self help to balance against pressures toward bureaucracy and the +development of overhead costs. + +_Fifth_, with one eye on its need for integration into a +socialist-communist collective planetary economy, the other eye must be +kept on the planetary chain of which the earth is an essential part. + +Life is a process operating through the linking of causes and their +effects. This is as true of social life as it is of individual life. +Reviewing history we check man's past actions and learn by so doing. +Turning to the future we plan and prepare to set in motion that +conglomerate of causes (plans) best calculated to assure a good life +individually, socially, cosmically--with a strong emphasis on the time +honored sequence: good, better, best. + +It is our opportunity, our destiny, and our responsibility to keep on +living, constructing, creating. We must live, not die. We must not stop. +We must go on. + +By such steps we humans could by-pass the restrictions and limitations +imposed on human creative genius by the structure and function of +civilization. In its place we could elaborate a substitute +inter-planetary culture in which a chastened, improved, rejuvenated +humanity could play a creative role, in accordance with our capacities +and our destiny as an integral part of the joint enterprise to which our +sun furnishes light, warmth and vibrant energy. We have latent among us +the talent and genius necessary to play such a part. Do we also have the +imagination, courage and daring to accept the challenge and take our +post of duty in the team that is directing the expansion of our +expanding universe? + + + + +SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES + +Among the books consulted in preparation of this essay on civilization +as a social institution, UNESCO _History of Mankind_ holds first place. +The authors describe the work as "the first global history, planned and +executed from an international viewpoint". The subtitle of the six +volumes is "Cultural and Scientific Development". + +The work is published under the auspices of the United Nations +Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by an International +Commission presided over by Professor Pauls E. deBerredo Carneiro of +Brazil. The Commission consists of 23 members, mostly academicians from +23 countries. The commission also has a corresponding membership of 93 +drawn chiefly from the academic personnel of 42 countries. + +Textual material for the _History of Mankind _was prepared and edited by +hundreds of experts in the widely ranging fields covered by the +_History_. Final approval of the text came from the Commission. In cases +where there were differences of opinion or of interpretation, varying +and opposing points of view are presented. + +_The History of Mankind _is in six volumes. + +I. Prehistory and The Beginnings of Civilization. + +II. The Ancient World. + +III. The World A.D. 400 to A.D. 1300. + +IV. The World A.D. 1300 to the End of the Eighteenth Century. + +V. The World in the Nineteenth Century. + +VI. The Twentieth Century. All but the first volume of the _History_ +deal with the epoch during which civilization has played a fateful role +in world affairs. + +Professor Arnold J. Toynbee's ten volume _Study of History_ is concerned +chiefly with the rise and decline of those civilizations which have left +a noteworthy historical record. His emphasis is geographical and +political rather than cultural and social. The same thing may be said of +other histories of civilization. They stress personalities, nations and +empires. + +There are few books which approach the study of civilization as a stage +or level of human culture. Among them are: + + Abbott, Wilbur C, _The Expansion of Europe_, N.Y.: Holt, 1918. + 2 vols. + + Adams, Brooks, _The Law of Civilization and Decay_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1943. + + Adams, Brooks, _The New Empire_, N.Y.: MacMillian, 1902. + + Adams, George B., _Civilization During the Middle Ages_, N.Y.: + Scribners, 1914. + + Albanes, Ricardo C, _La Civilizacion y el Communismo Marxista_, + Habana: Cultural S.A., 1937. + + Ashley, Percy W., _Europe from Waterloo to Sarajero_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1926. + + Baikie, James, _The Life of the Ancient East_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1923. + + Ballester Escalas, Rafael, _Historia de la Civilizaciones_, + Barcelona: Gasso, 1961. + + Balmes, Jaime Luciano, _La Civilizacion_, Barcelona: Lopez Lansas, + 1922. + + Barnes, Harry E., _A Social History of the Western World_, N.Y.: + Appleton, 1921. + + ----, _A Survey of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: Crowall, 1947. + + Bell, Clive, _Civilization, an Essay_, London: Chatto and Windus, + 1928. + + Blackmar, Frank W., _History of Human Society_, N.Y.: Scribners, + 1926. + + Bornet-Perrier, Paul, _L'Unité Humaine_, Paris: Alcan, 1931. + + Bose, Pramatha, _Epochs of Civilization_, Calcutta: Newman, 1913. + + Breasted, James H., _A History of Egypt_, London: Hodder and + Stoughten, 1921. + + Brier, Royce, _Western World_, Garden City: Doubleday, 1946. + + Briere, Yves de la, _Grands Imperialismes Contemporaires_, Anvers: + Association des Licencées de St. Ignace, 1925. + + Brodeur, Arthur G., _The Pageant of Civilization_, N.Y.: + McBride, 1931. + + Brown, Lawrence R., _The Might of the West_, NY.: Obolensky, + 1963. + + Bruce, Maurice, _The Shaping of the Modern World 1870-1914_, + N.Y.: Random House, 1958. + + Brugmans, Hendrik, _Les Origines de la Civilization_, Liege: + Georges Thone, 1958. + + Bryce, James, _Holy Roman Empire_, London: MacMillan, 1903. + + Burns, Edward M., _Western Civilizations, Their History and + Their Culture_, N.Y.: Norton, 1968. 2 vols. + + Burns, Emile, _Imperialism_, London: Labor Research Department, + 1927. + + Callot, Emile, _Civilization et Civilizations_, Paris: Berger-Levrault, + 1954. + + Casson, Stanley, _Progress and Catastrophe_, London: Hamilton, + 1937. + + Chapot, Victor, _The Roman World_, London: Paul, 1928. + + Childe, V. Gordon, _New Light on the Most Ancient East_, London: + Kegan Paul, 1934. + + Clough, Shepard B., _Basic Values of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: + Columbia University Press, 1960. + + Clough, Shepard B., _Rise and Fall of Civilization_, N.Y.: Columbia + University Press, 1957. + + Crozier, John B., _Civilization and Progress_, London: Longmans, + 1892. + + Cunningham, William, _Western Civilization_, Cambridge: University + Press, 1900. + + Demangeon, Albert, _Le Declin de l'Europe_, Paris: Payot, 1920. + + Dorpsch, Alfons, _Economic and Social Foundations of Western + Civilization_, N.Y.: Harcourt, 1937. + + Douglas, Sholto O.G., _A Theory of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1914. + + Elias, Norbert, _Uber den Prozess der Zivilisation_, Basel: Falken, + 1939. + + Farrington, Benjamin, _Science and Politics in the Ancient World_, + London: Allen and Unwin, 1939. + + Fischer, Eric, _Passing of the European Age_, Cambridge: Harvard + University Press, 1943. + + Fleiweiling, Ralph T., _The Survival of Western Culture_, N.Y.: + Harper, 1943. + + Forrest, J.D., _Development of Western Civilization_, Chicago: + University of Chicago Press, 1907. + + Fougeres, Gustav and others, _Les Premiers Civilisations_, Paris: + Alcan, 1926. + + Frank, Tenney, _Economic History of Rome_, Baltimore: John + Hopkins Press, 1927. 2nd ed. + + Frank, Tenney, _Roman Imperialism_, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1914. + + Freud, Sigmund, _Civilization and its Discontents_, N.Y.: Norton, + 1961. + + Friedell, Egon, _A Culture History of the Modern World_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1930. + + Friedjung, Heinrich, _Das Zeitalter des Imperialismus_, Berlin: + Neufeld und Henius, 1914. 3 vols. + + Georg, Eugen, _The Adventure of Mankind_, N.Y.: Dutton, 1931. + + Glotz, Gustav, _Aegean Civilization_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1925. + + Goddard, Edward H. and Gibbons, P.A., _Civilization or Civilizations_, + London: Constable, 1926. + + Gollwitzer, Heinz, _Europe in the Age of Imperialism_, N.Y.: + Harcourt, Brace, 1969. + + Goshal, Kumar, _People in Colonies_, N.Y.: Sheridan House, 1948. + + Grigg, Edward W.M., _The Greatest Experiment in History_, + New Haven: Yale University Press, 1924. + + Guizot, F.P., _Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe_, N.Y.: Appleton, + 1938. + + Gupta, N.K., _The March of Civilization_, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo + Ashram, 1959. + + Haas, William, _What Is Civilization_, London: Oxford University + Press, 1929. + + Hankins, Frank H., _The Racial Basis of Civilization_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1926. + + Harris, George, _Civilization Considered as a Science_, London: + Bell and Daldy, 1872. + + Heard, Gerald, _The Source of Civilization_, London: Cape, 1935. + + Hertzler, G.O., _The Social Thought of the Ancient Civilizations_, + N.Y.: McGraw Hill, 1938. + + Hubbard, Arthur J., _The Fate of Empires_, London: Longmans, + 1913. + + Innes, Harold B., _Empire and Communication_, Oxford: Clarendon, + 1950. + + Louis, Paul, _Ancient Rome at Work_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1927. + + Lowie, Robert H., _Are We Civilized?_ N.Y.: Harcourt Brace, + 1929. + + Lubbock, John, _The Origin of Civilization_, London: Longmans, + 1875. + + McCabe, Joseph, _The Evolution of Civilization_, London: Watts, + 1921. + + Majewski, Erasme de, _La Theorie de l'Homme et de la Civilisation_, + Paris: Le Soudier, 1911. + + ------, _La Science de la Civilisation_, Paris: Alcan, 1908. + + Maritain, Jacques, _Twilight of Civilization_, N.Y.: Sheed and + Ward, 1943. + + Marshak, Alexander, _The Roots of Civilization_, N.Y.: McGraw + Hill, 1972. + + Marvin, F.S. ed., _The Unity of Western Civilization_, London: + Oxford University Press, 1929. + + Means, Philip A., _Ancient Civilizations of the Andes_, N.Y.: + Scribners, 1931. + + Moraze, Charles, _Essai sur la Civilisation d'Occident_, Paris: + Colin, 1950. + + Moret, A. and Davy, G., _From Tribe to Empire_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1926. + + Morgan, L.H., _Ancient Society_, N.Y.: Holt, 1907. + + Morris, Charles, _Civilization: An Historical Review of Its Elements_, + Chicago: Griggs, 1890. + + Mumford, Lewis, _Technics and Civilization_, N.Y.: Harcourt + Brace, 1934. + + Pendell, Elmer, _The Next Civilization_, Dallas: Royal, 1970. + + Quigley, Carroll, _The Evolution of Civilizations_, N.Y.: + MacMillan, 1961. + + Randall, Henry J., _The Creative Centuries_, N.Y.: Longmans, 1944. + + Rod, Edouard, _L'Imperialisme_, Paris: Revue des Deux Mondes, 1907. + + Rostovtzeff, Mikhail I., _Economic and Social History of the + Roman Empire_, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926. + + Schneider, Hermann, _The History of World Civilization_, N.Y.: + Harcourt Brace, 1932. 2 vols. + + Schumpter, Joseph, _Zur Soziologiedes Imperialismus_, Tubingen: + Mohr, 1919. + + Schrecker, Paul, _Work and History_, Princeton: + University of Princeton Press, 1948. + + Schweitzer, Albert, _The Philosophy of Civilization_, N.Y.: + MacMillan, 1949. + + Seignobos, Charles, _The Rise of European Civilization_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1938. + + Sellery, George C., _The Founding of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: + Harper, 1929. + + Spengler, Oswald, _Decline of the West_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1928. + + Swain, Edgar S., _A History of World Civilization_, N.Y.: + McGraw Hill, 1938. + + Toynbee, Arnold J., _A Study of History_, N.Y.: Oxford, 10 vols. + + UNESCO, _Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind_, N.Y.: + Harper and Row, 6 vols. + + Walker, C.C., _The Biology of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1930. + + Walsh, Correa Moylan, _The Climax of Civilization_, N.Y.: + Sturgis, 1917. + + Wells, H.G., _The Salvaging of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1922. + + Widney, Joseph, _Civilizations, their Diseases and Rebuilding_, + Los Angeles: Pacific Publishing Co., 1937. + + Zimmern, Alfred E., _Greek Commonwealth_, Oxford, Clarendon + Press, 1911. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Civilization and Beyond, by Scott Nearing + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12320 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Civilization and Beyond + Learning From History + +Author: Scott Nearing + +Release Date: May 10, 2004 [EBook #12320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CIVILIZATION AND BEYOND *** + + + + +Produced by Matthew Mello and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The typographical errors of the original are +preserved in this etext.] + + + +CIVILIZATION AND BEYOND + +Learning From History + + +By Scott Nearing + +This book is not copyrighted. It may be reproduced by anybody and +distributed in any quantity as a whole. It should not be summarized, +abbreviated, garbled or chopped into out-of-context fragments. + +Social Science Institute, Harborside, Maine + +August 1975 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Preface + INTRODUCTION: Thoughts about History and Civilization + + PART I _The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization_ + 1. Experiments in Egypt and Eurasia + 2. Rome's Outstanding Experiment + 3. The Origins of Western Civilization + 4. The Life Cycle of Western Civilization + 5. Features Common to Civilizations + + PART II _A Social Analysis of Civilization_ + 6. The Politics of Civilization + 7. The Economics of Civilization + 8. The Sociology of Civilization + 9. Ideologies of Civilization + + PART III _Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete_ + 10. World-wide Revolution Disrupts Civilization + 11. Western Civilization Attempts Suicide + 12. Talking Peace and Waging War + + PART IV _Steps Beyond Civilization_ + 13. Ten Building Blocks for a New World + 14. Moving Toward World Federation + 15. Integrating a World Economy + 16. Conserving our Natural Environment + 17. Re-vamping the Social Life of the Planet + 18. Man Could Change Human Nature + 19. Man Could Break Out of the Age-Long Prison-House + of Civilization and Enter a New World + + + +PREFACE + +LEARNING FROM HISTORY + + +Human history may be viewed from various angles. The easiest history to +write concerns the doings of a few well known people and their +involvement in some memorable events. History may also concern itself +with inventions and discoveries: the use of fire, of the wheel or +smelting metals. It may center around sources of food, means of shelter, +or the making of records. It may be concerned with the construction and +decoration of cities, kingdoms and empires. + +Social history enters the picture with travel, transportation, +communication, trade. Human beings group themselves in families, clans +and tribes, in voluntary associations; they compete, plunder, conquer, +enslave, exploit; they co-operate for construction and destruction. +Political history is but one aspect of man's group contacts and group +projects. + +There have been histories of particular civilizations and of +civilization as a field of historical research. With minor exceptions +none of the authors that I have consulted has attempted an analytical +treatment of civilization as a sociological phenemenon. + +Scientists start from hunches, examine available data, advance tentative +conclusions, test them in the light of wider observations, and round out +their research by formulating general principles or "laws." This +scientific approach has been used in many fields of observation and +study. I am applying the formula to one aspect of social history: the +appearance, development, maturity, decline and disappearance of the vast +co-ordinations of collective, experimental human effort called +civilizations. + +"Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, where are they?" asked Byron. He might +have added: "What were they? How did they come into being? What was the +nature of their experience? Why did they rise from small beginnings, +develop into wide-spread colossal complexes of wealth and power, and +then, after longer or shorter periods of existence, break up and +disappear from the stage of social history?" + +Such questions are far removed from the lives of people who are busy +with everyday affairs. In one sense they _are_ remote; in the larger +picture, however, they are of vital concern to anyone and everyone now +living in civilized communities. If Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans +and Carthaginians built extensive empires and massive civilizations that +flourished for a time, then broke up and disappeared, are we to follow +blindly and unthinkingly in their footsteps? Or do we study their +experiences, benefit from their successes and learn from their mistakes? +Can we not take lessons out of their voluminous notebooks, avoid their +blunders and direct our own feet along paths that fulfil our lives at +the same time that they meet the widespread demand for survival and +well-being? + +Civilization has been extensively experimental. Several thousand years, +during which civilizations have appeared, disappeared and reappeared, +have been too brief to establish and stabilize a hard and fast social +pattern. As the complexity of civilizations has increased, variations +and deviations have grown in number and intensity. With the advent of +western civilization a culture pattern is being put together which +differs widely from its predecessors. + +All civilized peoples seem to have developed from simple beginnings and +experimented with broader and more complicated life styles. In western +civilization the number of experiments has increased and the span of +their deviations seems to have broadened. Under the circumstances an +analysis of civilization must take for granted not only social change +but the development of, human society along lines which link up the +outstanding structural and functional ideas, institutions and practices +of successive civilizations. + +I propose in this inquiry to state certain accepted facts from the +history of civilizations and of contemporary experience. I also propose +to analyze the facts and generalize them in such a way that the results +of the study may provide an understanding of the human social past, +together with some guide-lines that will prove useful in the formulation +and implementation of the present-day policy and procedure of civilized +peoples, nations, empires and of the western civilization. + +This book is not a popular treatise, nor is it a textbook. Rather. it is +an attempt to summarize an area of critical human concern. Academia may +not use such material: nevertheless it should be available to students +and administrators who must plan and direct the social future of +humankind. + +_Civilization and Beyond_ rounds out a series of studies that I began in +1928 with _Where Is Civilization Going_? The series has extended through +_The Twilight of Empire_ (1930), _War_ (1931) and _The Tragedy of +Empire_ (1946). Up to 1914 my field of study was confined largely to the +economics of distribution. The war of 1914-18 pushed me rudely and +decisively into the broader field. I have described the process in my +political autobiography: _Making of a Radical_ (1971). + +I hope that this study will provide a useful link in the chain of +material dealing with the structure and function of man's social +environment, leading directly into an action program that will conclude +the preservation and loving economical use of nature's rich gifts and +the dedication of thousands of young aspiring men and women to the good +life here, now and indefinitely, into a bright, productive and creative +future. + +As of this date seven publishers have examined the manuscript of this +work and declined to publish it. All felt that it would not find any +considerable reading public. Nevertheless, I feel that the work should +be printed and distributed because it carries a message that may be of +first rate importance to the future of my fellow humans. + +Scott Nearing. + +Harborside, Maine May 5, 1975 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +THOUGHTS ABOUT HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION + + +We may think and talk about civilization as one pattern or level of +culture, one stage through which human life flows and ebbs. In that +sense we may regard it abstractly and historically, as we regard the +most recent ice age or the long and painful record of large-scale +chattel slavery. + +From quite another viewpoint we may think of civilization as a +technologically advanced way of life developed by various peoples +through ages of unrecorded experiment and experience, and followed by +millions during the period of written history. It is also the way of +life that the West has been trying to impose upon the entire human +family since European empires launched their crusade to westernize, +modernize and civilize the planet Earth. + +A third approach would regard civilization as an evolving life style, +conceived before the earliest days of recorded human history and matured +through the series of experiments marking the development of +civilization as we have known it during the five centuries from 1450 to +1975. + +Thinking in terms of this age-old experience, with six or more thousand +years of social history as a background, it is possible to give a fairly +exact meaning to the word "civilization" as it has been lived and is +being lived by the present-day West. It is also possible to understand +the history of previous civilizations in cycle after cycle of their +rise, their development, decline and extinction. At the same time it +will enable the reader to recognize the relationship (and difference) +between the words "culture" and "civilization". + +Human culture is the sum total of ideas, relationships, artifacts, +institutions, purposes and ideals currently functioning in any +community. Three elements are present in each human society: man, nature +and the social structure. Human culture at any point in its history is +the social structure: the aggregate of existing culture traits, the +products of man's ingenuity, inventiveness and experimentation, set in +their natural environment. + +Civilization is a level of culture built upon foundations laid down +through long periods of pre-civilized living. These foundations consist +of artifacts, implements, customs, habit patterns and institutions +produced and developed in numerous scattered localities by groups of +food-gatherers, migrating herdsmen, cultivators, hand craftsmen and +traders and eventually in urban communities built around centers of +wealth and power: the cities which are the nuclei of every civilization. + +Urban centers, housing trade, commerce, fabrication and finance, with +their hinterlands of food-gatherers, herdsmen, cultivators, craftsmen +and transporters, are the nuclei around which and upon which recurring +civilizations are built. Within and around these urban centers there +grows up a complex of associations, activities, institutions and ideas +designed to promote, develop and defend the particular life pattern. + +A civilization is a cluster of peoples, nations and empires so related +in time and space that they share certain ideas, practices, institutions +and means of procedure and survival. Among these features of a civilized +community we may list: + + (1) means of communication, record-keeping, transportation + and trade. This would include a spoken language, a method + of enumeration, writing in pictographs or symbols; an + alphabet, a written language, inscribed on stone, bone, + wood, parchment, paper; means of preserving the records + of successive generations; paths, roads, bridges; a system + for educating successive generations; meeting places and + trading points; means for barter or exchange; + + (2) an interdependent urban-oriented economy based on division + of labor and specialization; on private property in the + essential means of production and in consumer goods and + services; on a competitive survival struggle for wealth, + prestige and power between individuals and social groups; + and on the exploitation of man, society and nature for the + material benefit of the privileged few who occupy the summit + of the social pyramid; + + (3) a unified, centralized political apparatus or bureaucracy + that attempts to plan, direct and administer the political, + economic, ideological and sociological structure; + + (4) a self-selected and self-perpetuating oligarchy that owns + the wealth, holds the power and pulls the strings; + + (5) an adequate labor force for farming, transport, industry, + mining; + + (6) large middle-class elements: professionals, technicians, + craftsmen, tradesmen, lesser bureaucrats, and a semi-parasitic + fringe of camp-followers; + + (7) a highly professional, well-trained, amply-financed apparatus + for defense and offense; + + (8) a complex of institutions and social practices which will + indoctrinate, persuade and when necessary limit deviation + and maintain social conformity; + + (9) agreed religious practices and other cultural features. + +This description of civilization covers the essential features of +western civilization and the sequence of predecessor civilizations for +which adequate records exist. + +Successive civilizations have introduced new culture traits and +abandoned old ones as the pageant of history moved from one stage to the +next, or advanced and retreated through cycles. Using this description +as a working formula, it is possible to understand the development +followed in the past by western civilization, to estimate its current +status and to indicate its probable outcome. + +Long-established thought-habits cry aloud in protest against such a +description of civilization. Until quite recently the word +"civilization" has been used in academic circles to symbolize a social +idea or ideal. Professor of History Anson D. Morse of Amherst College +presents such a view in his _Civilization and the World War_ (Boston: +Ginn 1919). For him, civilization is "the sum of things in which the +heritage of the child of the twentieth century is better than that of +the child of the Stone Age. As a process it is the perfection of man and +mankind. As an end, it is the realization of the highest ideal which men +are capable of forming.... The goal of civilization ... is human society +so organized in all of its constituent groups that each shall yield the +best possible service to each one and thereby to mankind as a whole, +(producing) the perfect organization of humanity." (page 3). + +Such thoughts may be noble and inspired; they are not related to +history. We know more or less about a score of civilizations that have +occupied portions of the earth during several thousand years. We know a +great deal about the western civilization which we observe and in which +we participate. Professor Morse's florid words apply to none of the +civilizations known to history. Certainly they are poles away from an +accurate characterization of our own varient of this social pattern. + +We are writing this introduction in an effort to make our word pictures +of mankind and its doings correspond with the facts of social history. +With the nuclear sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, it is high +time for us to exchange the clouds of fancy and the flowers of rhetoric +for the solid ground of historical reality. The word "civilization" must +generalize what has been and what is, as nearly as the past and present +can be embodied in language. + +Civilization is a level or phase of culture which has been attained and +lost repeatedly in the course of social history. The epochs of +civilization have not been distributed evenly, either in time or on the +earth's surface. A combination of circumstances, political, economic, +ideological, sociological, resulted in the Egyptian, the Chinese, the +Roman civilizations. One of these was centered in North Africa, the +second in Asia, the third in eastern Europe. All three spilled over into +adjacent continents. + +No two civilizations are exactly alike at any stage of their +development. Each civilization is at least a partial experiment, a +process or sequence of causal relationships, altered sequentially in the +course of its life cycle. + +These thoughts about culture and civilization should be supplemented by +noting the relationship between civilizations and empires. An empire is +a center of wealth and power associated with its economic and political +dependencies. A civilization is a cluster or a succession of empires +and/or former empires, co-ordinated and directed by one of their number +which has established its leadership in the course of survival struggle. + +The total body of historical evidence bearing on human experiments with +civilization is extensive and impressive. It covers a large portion of +the Earth's land surface, includes parts of Asia, Africa and Europe and +extends sketchily to the Americas. In time it covers many thousands of +years. + +Experiments with civilization have been conducted in highly selective +surroundings possessing the volume and range of natural resources and +the isolation and remoteness necessary to build and maintain a high +level of culture over substantial periods of time. In these special +areas it was possible to provide for subsistence, produce an economic +surplus large enough to permit experimentation and ensure protection +against human and other predators. Egypt and the Fertile Crescent were +surrounded by deserts and high mountains. Crete was an island, extensive +but isolated. Productive river valleys like the Yang-tse, the Ganges and +the Mekong have afforded natural bases for experiments with +civilization. Similar opportunities have been provided by strategic +locations near bodies of water, mineral deposits and the intersections +of trade-routes. Others, less permanent, were located in the high Andes, +on the Mexican Plateau, in the Central American jungles. + +Histories of civilizations, some of them ancient or classical, have +been written during the past two centuries. There have been general +histories in many languages. There have been scholarly reports on +particular civilizations. Prof. A.J. Toynbee's massive ten volume _Study +of History_ is a good example. Still more extensive is the thirty volume +history of civilization under the general editorship of C.K. Ogden. +These writings have brought together many facts bearing chiefly on the +lives of spectacular individuals and episodes, with all too little data +on the life of the silent human majority. + +At the end of this volume the reader will find a list, selected from the +many books that I have consulted in preparation for writing this study. +Most of these authorities are concerned with the facts of civilization, +with far less emphasis on their political, economic and sociological +aspects. + +In this study I have tried to unite theory with practice. On the one +hand I have reviewed briefly and as accurately as possible some +outstanding experiments with civilization, including our own western +variant. (Part I. The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization.) In Part +II I have undertaken a social analysis of civilization as a past and +present life style. In Part III, Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete, I +have tried to check our thinking about civilization with the sweep of +present day historical trends. Part IV, Steps Beyond Civilization, is an +attempt to list some of the alternatives and opportunities presently +available to civilized man. + +Any reader who has the interest and persistence to read through the +entire volume and to browse through some of its references will have had +the equivalent of a university extension course dealing with one of the +most critical issues confronting the present generation of humanity. + + + + +_Part I_ + +The Pageant of Experiment With Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +EXPERIMENTS IN EGYPT AND EURASIA + + +Thousands of years before the city of Rome was ringed with its six miles +of stone wall, other peoples in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa were +building civilizations. New techniques of excavation, identification and +preservation, subsidized by an increasingly affluent human society, and +developed during the past two centuries of archeological research have +provided the needed means and manpower. The result is an imposing number +of long buried building sites with their accompanying artifacts. Still +more important are the records written in long forgotten languages on +stone, clay tablets, metal, wood and paper. These remnants and records, +left by extinguished civilizations, do not tell us all we wish to know, +but they do provide the materials which enable us to reconstruct, at +least in part, the lives of our civilized predecessors. + +Extensive in time and massive in the volume of their architecture are +the remains of Egyptian civilization. The earliest of these fragments +date back for more than six thousand years. + +The seat of Egyptian civilization was the Nile Valley and its estuary +built out into the Mediterranean Sea from the debris of disintegrating +African mountains. Annual floods left their silt deposits to deepen the +soil along the lower reaches of the river. River water, impounded for +the purpose, provided the means of irrigating an all but rainless desert +countryside. Skillful engineering drained the swamps, adding to the +cultivable area of a narrow valley cut by the river through jagged +barren hills. Deserts on both sides of the Nile protected the valley +against aggressors and migrants. Within this sanctuary the Egyptians +built a civilization that lasted, with a minor break, for some 3,000 +years. + +Egyptian temples and tombs carry records chiseled and painted on hard +stone, which throw light on the life and times of upper-class Egyptians, +including emperors, provincial governors, courtiers, generals, +merchants, provincial organizers. In a humid, temperate climate these +stone-cut and painted records would have been eroded, overgrown and +obliterated long ago. In the dry desert air of North Africa they have +preserved their identity through the centuries. + +Since the Egyptians had a few draft animals, and little if any +power-driven machinery, energy needed to build massive stone temples, +tombs and other public structures must have been supplied by the forced +labor of Egyptians, their serfs and slaves. + +Egypt's history dawns on a well-organized society: The Old Kingdom, +based on the productivity of the narrow, lush Nile Valley. The products +of the Valley were sufficient to maintain a large population of +cultivators: some slave, some forced labor, about which we have little +knowledge; a bureaucracy, headed by a supreme ruler whose declared +divinity was one of the chief stabilizing forces of the society. Between +its agricultural base and its ruling monarch, the Old Kingdom had a +substantial middle class which procured the wood, stone, metals and +other materials needed in construction; a corps of engineers, +technicians and skilled workers, and a substantial mass of humanity +which provided the energy needed to erect the temples, monuments and +other remains which testify to the political, economic, and cultural +competence of the ruling elements and the technical skills present in +the Old Kingdom. + +Foremost among the factors responsible for the success of the Old +Kingdom was the close partnership between the "lords temporal" and the +"lords spiritual"--the state and the church. The state consisted of a +highly centralized monarchy ruled by a Pharoah who personified temporal +authority. This authority was strengthened because it represented a +consensus of the many gods recognized and worshiped by the Egyptians of +the Old Kingdom. The monarch was also looked upon as an embodiment of +divinity. Some Egyptian pharoahs had been priests who became rulers. +Others had been rulers who became priests. The two aspects of public +life--political and religious--were closely interrelated. + +In theory the land of Egypt was the property of the Pharoah. Foreign +trade was a state monopoly. In practice the ownership and use of land +were shared with the temples and with those members of the nobility +closest to the ruling monarch. Hence there were state lands and state +income and temple lands and temple income. The use of state lands was +alloted to favorites. Each temple had land which it used for its own +purposes. + +Political power in the Old Kingdom was a tight monopoly held by the +ruling dynasty of the period. During preceding epochs it seems likely +that rival groups or factions had gone through a period of +power-survival struggle which eliminated one rival after another until +economic ownership and political authority were both vested in the same +ruling oligarchs. This struggle for consolidation apparently reached its +climax when Menes, a pharoah who began his rule about 3,400 B.C., in the +south of Egypt, invaded and conquered the Delta and merged the two +kingdoms, South and North, into one nation which preserved its identity +and its sovereignty until the Persian Conquest of 525 B.C. + +The unification of the northern kingdom with the South seems to have +been a slow process, interrupted by insurrections and rebellions in the +Delta and in Lybia. Inscriptions report the suppression of these +insurrections and give the number of war-captives brought to the south +as slaves. In one instance the captives numbered 120,000 in addition to +1,420 small cattle and 400,000 large cattle. + +Using these war captives to supplement the home supply of forced and +free labor, successive dynasties built temples, palaces and tombs; +constructed new cities; drained and irrigated land; sent expeditions to +the Sinai peninsula to mine copper. Such enterprises indicate a +considerable economic surplus above that required to take care of a +growing population: the high degree of organization required to plan and +assemble such enterprises, and the considerable engineering and +technological capacity necessary for their execution. + +Chief among the binding forces holding together the extensive apparatus +known as the Old Kingdom was religion, with its gods, its temples and +their generous endowments. Each locality consolidated into the Old +Kingdom had its gods and their places for worship. In addition to these +local religious centers there was an hierarchy of national deities, +their temples, temple lands and endowments. The ruling monarch, who was +official servitor of the national gods, interpreting their will and +adding to the endowments of the temples, was the embodiment of secular +and of religious authority. + +Egyptians of the period believed that death was not an end, but a +transition. They also believed that those who passed through the death +process would have many of the needs and wants associated with life on +the Earth. Furthermore they believed that in the course of their future +existence those who had died would again inhabit the bodies that they +had during their previous existences on Earth. Following out these +beliefs the Egyptians put into their tombs a full assortment of the +food, clothing, implements and instruments which they had used during +their Earth life. They also embalmed the bodies of their dead with the +utmost care and buried them in carefully hidden tombs where they would +be found by their former users and occupied for the Day of Judgment. + +Holding such views, preparation for the phase of life subsequent to +death was a chief object of the early Egyptian rulers and their +subjects. One of the preoccupations of each new occupant of the throne +was the selection of his burial place. Early in his reign he began the +construction of suitable quarters for the reception of his embalmed +body. The great pyramids were such tombs. Other monarchs constructed +rock-hewn chambers for the reception of their bodies. In these chambers +in addition to a room for a sarcophagus were associated rooms in which +every imaginable need of the dead was stored: food, clothing, furniture, +jewelry, weapons. + +Adjacent to the royal tomb favored nobles received permission to build +their own tombs, similarly equipped but on a smaller, less grandiose +scale than that of the pharaoh. By this means the courtiers who had +attended the pharaoh in his life-time would be at hand to perform +similar services in the after death existence. + +Construction and maintenance of temples and tombs absorbed a +considerable part of Egypt's economic surplus. These drains on the +economy grew more extensive as the country became more populous and more +productive. Thanks to the lack of rain in and near the Nile Valley and +despite the depleting activities of persistent vandalism these +constructs have stood for thirty centuries as monuments to one of the +most extensive and elaborate civilizations known to historians. Despite +the absence of detailed records, Egyptian achievements under the Old +Kingdom indicate an abundance of food, wood, metal and other resources +far in excess of survival requirements; a population sufficiently +extensive to produce the necessaries of existence and a surplus which +made it possible for the lords temporal and spiritual to erect such +astonishing and enduring monuments; high levels of technical skills +among woodsmen, quarrymen and building crews; the transport facilities +by land and water required to assemble the materials, equipment and man +power; the foresight, planning, timing and over-all management involved +in such constructs as the pyramids, temples and tombs which have +withstood the wear and tear of thousands of years; the willingness and +capacity of professionals, technicians, skilled workers, and the masses +of free and slave labor to co-exist and co-operate over the long periods +required for the completion of such extensive structural projects; the +utilization of an extensive economic surplus not primarily for personal +mass or middle-class consumption but to enhance the power and glory of a +tiny minority, its handymen and other dependents; and a considerable +middle class of merchants, managers and technicians. + +Speaking sociologically, the structure of Egyptian society from sometime +before 3,400 B.C., to 525 B.C., passed through four distinct phases or +stages. During the first phase, the Nile Valley, which had been +separated by tribal and/or geographical boundaries into a large number +of more or less independent units, was consolidated, integrated and +organized into a single kingdom. This working, functioning area (the +land of Egypt) could provide for most of its basic needs from within its +own borders. In a sense it was a self-sufficient, workable, liveable +area. Egypt was populous, rich, well organized, with a surplus of +wealth, productivity and man-power that could be used outside of its own +frontiers. Some of the surplus was used outside--to the south, into +Central Africa, to the west into North Africa, to the north into Eastern +Europe and Western Asia, inaugurating the second phase of Egyptian +development. During this second phase Egyptian wealth, population and +technology, spilling over its frontiers onto foreign lands, established +and maintained relations with foreign territory on a basis that yielded +a yearly "tribute," paid by foreigners into the Egyptian treasury. The +land of Egypt thus surrounded itself with a cluster of dependencies, +converting what had been an independent state or independent states into +a functioning empire. + +The land of Egypt was the nucleus of the Egyptian Empire--center of +wealth and power with its associates and its dependencies. The empire +was held together by a legal authority using armed force where necessary +to assert or preserve its identity and unity. + +Expansion, the third phase of Egyptian development, involved the export +of culture traits and artifacts beyond national frontiers, extending the +cultural influence of Egypt into non-Egyptian lands inhabited by Egypt's +neighbors. Merchants, tourists, travelers, explorers and military +adventurers carried the name and fame of Egypt into other centers of +civilization and into the hinterland of barbarism that surrounded the +civilizations of that period. + +Thus the land of Egypt expanded into the Egyptian Empire and the +culture of Egypt (its language, its ideas, its artifacts, its +institutions) expanded far beyond the boundaries of Egyptian political +authority and established Egyptian civilization in parts of Africa, Asia +and Europe. + +The era of Egyptian civilization was divided into two periods by an +invasion of the Hyksos, nomadic leaders who moved into Egypt, ruled it +for a period and later were expelled and replaced by a new Egyptian +dynasty. + +The fourth period of Egypt's experiment with civilization was that of +decline. From a position of political supremacy and cultural ascendancy +Egyptian influence weakened politically, economically, ideologically and +culturally until the year of the Persian Conquest, 525 B.C., when Egypt +became a conquered, occupied, provincial and in some ways a colonial +territory. + +Egyptian civilization can be summed up in three sentences. It covered +the greatest time span of any civilization known to history. Its +monuments are the most massive. Its records, chiefly in stone, picture +massed humans directed for at least thirty centuries toward providing a +satisfying and rewarding after-life for a tiny favored minority of its +population. To achieve this result, the natural resources of three +adjacent continents were combined and concentrated into the Nile Valley +through an effective imperial apparatus that enabled the Egyptians to +exploit the resources and peoples of adjacent Africa, Asia and Europe +for the enrichment and empowerment of the rulers of Egypt and its +dependencies. The disintegration and collapse of Egyptian civilization +occupied only a small fraction of the time devoted to its upbuilding and +supremacy. + +Before, during and after Egyptians played their long and distinguished +parts in the recorded history of civilization, the continent of Asia was +producing a series of civilization in four areas: first at the +crossroads joining Africa and Europe to Asia; then in Western Asia (Asia +Minor); in Central Asia, especially in India and Indonesia and finally +in China and the Far East. + +Experiments with civilization during the past six thousand years have +centered in the Eurasian land mass, including the North African littoral +of the Mediterranean Sea. Within this area of potential or actual +civilization, until very recent times, the centers of civilization have +been widely separated geographically and temporally. Occasionally they +have been unified and integrated by some unusual up-thrust like that of +the Egyptian, the Chinese or the Roman civilizations. In the intervals +between these up-thrusts various centers of civilization have maintained +a large degree of autonomy and isolation. Only in the past five +centuries have communication, transportation, trade and tourism created +the basis for an experiment in organizing and coordination of a +planet-wide experiment in civilization. + +Nature offered humankind two logical areas for the establishment of +civilizations. One was the cross-roads of migration, trade and travel by +land to and from Asia, Africa and Europe. The other was the +Mediterranean with its possibility of relatively safe and easy +water-migration, trade and travel between the three continents making up +its littoral. Both possibilities were brought together in the Eastern +Mediterranean with its multitude of islands, its broken coastline, and +its many safe harbors. + +The Phoenicians developed their far-flung trading activities around the +Mediterranean as a waterway, and the tri-continental crossroads as a +logical center for a civilization built around business enterprise. + +Aegean civilization occupied the eastern Mediterranean for approximately +two thousand years. Its nucleus was the island of Crete. Its influence +extended far beyond its island base into southern Europe, western Asia +and North Africa. Experiments with civilization on and near the Indian +sub-continent centered around the Indonesian archipelago and the rich, +semi-tropical and tropical valleys of the Ganges, the Indus, the Gadari, +the Irra-waddy and the Mekong. Although they were contiguous +geographically and extended over a time span of approximately two +thousand years they were aggregates rather than monolithic +civilizations, retaining their localisms and avoiding any strong central +authority. + +Beginnings of civilization have been made outside the +Asian-European-African triangle centering around the Mediterranean Sea +and the band of South Asia extending from Mesopotamia through India and +Indonesia to China. They include the high Andes, Mexico and Central +America and parts of black Africa. In no one of these cases did the +beginnings reach the stability and universality that characterized the +Eurasian-African civilizations. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +ROME'S OUTSTANDING EXPERIMENT + + +Among the many attempts to make the institutions and practices of +civilization promote human welfare, Roman civilization deserves a very +high rating. First, it was located in the eastern Mediterranean area, +the home-site of so many civilizations. Second, it was part and parcel +of a prolonged period of attempts by Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, +Babylonians, Mycaenians, Phoenicians and others in the area to set up +successful empires and to play the lead role in building a civilization +that would be more or less permanent. Third, the Romans seemed to have +the hardiness, adaptability, persistence and capacity for +self-discipline necessary to carry such a long term project to a +successful conclusion. Among the widely varied human groups occupying +the eastern Mediterranean area between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D., the +Romans seem to have been well qualified to win the laurel crown. + +Western civilization is an incomplete experiment. Its outcome remains +uncertain. Its future still hangs in the insecure balance between +construction and destruction, between life and extinction. It is "our" +civilization in a very real sense. It was developed by our forebears. We +live as part of its complex of ideas, practices, techniques, +institutions. Since we are in it and of it, it is difficult for us +humans to judge it objectively. + +Roman civilization, on the contrary, is a completed experiment, one that +came into being, developed over several centuries, attained a zenith of +wealth and power, then sank gradually from sight, until it lived only as +a part of history. A study of Roman civilization has two advantages. +First, its life cycle has been completed. Second, it is close enough to +us in history and its records are so numerous and so well preserved that +we can form a fairly accurate picture of its structure and its +functions. It was written up extensively by the Romans themselves, by +their Greek and other contemporaries and by a host of scholars and +students; since the break-up of Roman civilization as a political, +economic and cultural force in world affairs. + +Rome's experiment is sometimes called Graeco-Roman civilization because +Greece and Italy were close geographical neighbors and also because +Greek culture, which reached its zenith by 500 B.C. and was closely +paralleled by the rise of Roman culture, had a profound effect in +determining the total character of Roman civilization. In a very real +sense Graeco-Roman civilization was the parent of western civilization. +Among the many completed civilizations of which we have fairly adequate +records, those concerning Rome are most complete and most available. + +The story of Roman civilization begins in the Eastern Mediterranean +Basin in an era when Greek and Phoenician cities, together with segments +and fragments of the Egyptian-Assyrian-Babylonian civilizations were +competing for raw materials, trade and alliances. Egyptians had been +supreme in the area for centuries. The Sumerian, Aegean, Chinese, +Hittite, Assyrian and Indian civilizations had enjoyed periods of +dominance but had never reached the level of supremacy enjoyed by the +Egyptians. + +When Rome came on the scene as a first-rate power, circa 300 B.C., the +crucial land bridge joining Africa, Europe and Asia was being passed +from hand to hand, with no power strong enough to succeed Egypt as the +dominant political-economic-cultural force in the region. Historically +speaking it was an interregnum, a period of transition. Egypt had ceased +to dominate the public life of the area. The trading cities of the +Greeks and the Phoenicians were pushing their way of life into the front +ranks among the recognized powers. The kingdoms of Asia-Minor were +still warring for supremacy in a field which none of the local kingdoms +was able to dominate and hold for any considerable period of time. + +Public affairs at the African-European-Asian crossroads were being +periodically disturbed and upset by the intrusion of Asian marauders and +nomads who came in successive waves, defeated and drove the native +inhabitants off from the choicest land and settled down in their places, +only to be pushed out in their turn by fresh Asian migrants. + +The African-European-Asian triangle was a meeting place and a battle +ground. Phoenician and Greek cities brought to this scene new factors +and new forces: the rudiments of science; trade and commerce, including +a money economy, accounting and cost keeping; the elements of economic +organization; the conduct of public affairs by governments based on law +rather than on the whim and word of a deified potentate; and the +construction of cities and city states built on these foundations. + +Rome entered the picture when the forces of political absolutism based +upon an agriculture operated by serfs and slaves had fought themselves +to a standstill and exhausted their historical usefulness. The times +called for new forces capable of adapting themselves to a new culture +pattern extending over a greatly enlarged world. The Romans, with their +Greek associates, were in a position to fill the gap. + +Romans lived originally in Latium, a small land area in southern Italy +on the Tiber River far enough inland to be protected against pirates. +They built a city which finally covered seven adjacent hills and +developed a community of working farmers, merchants, craftsmen and +professionals. The farms were small, averaging perhaps eight to fifteen +acres, an area large enough to provide a family with a stable though +meagre livelihood. The farmers were hard working and frugal. + +At this period of Roman history and mythology Latium was one of many +communities occupying Italy. Each was self-governing. Each took the +steps necessary for survival and expansion. Like their neighbors, the +inhabitants of Latium were prepared to defend themselves against piracy, +brigandage and ambitious, aggressive rivals. Defense took the form of an +embankment and a water-filled moat which surrounded the early +settlements and provided shelter for herdsman and farmers in case of +emergencies. + +At some point in pre-history, presumably when Etruscan princes were in +control of Roman affairs, the protective earth embankment which +surrounded the Roman settlements was strengthened by building a moat 100 +feet wide and 30 feet deep. Behind the moat was a stone wall 10 feet +thick and 30 feet or more in height. Parts of this defense were built +and rebuilt at various times. When completed they were about six miles +in length, enclosing an area sufficient to accommodate the chief +buildings of the city and living space for a population of perhaps +200,000 people. + +The defenses were designed to prevent interference or intrusion into the +life of the Romans. Behind them the inhabitants constructed temples, a +forum, palaces and other public buildings, bringing in clean mountain +water by an aqueduct that eventually reached a length of 44 miles, +constructing an extensive system of drains and sewers that disposed of +city wastes, building a network of roads that eventually gave the Romans +access first to all parts of Italy and later to the entire Mediterranean +Basin. They also replaced the wooden bridges over the Tiber and other +rivers by stone bridges carried on stone piers and arches. + +Early in their building activities the Romans learned to make a cement +so weather-resistant that many of their constructs are still usable two +thousand years after the Romans built them. These and similar building +operations made Rome one of the show places of the Graeco-Roman world. +They also provided for the Romans a level of stability and security far +beyond that of their neighbors in that part of the unstable Italian +peninsula. + +At the time Rome was founded, presumably about 700 B.C., the Italian +peninsula was occupied by a large number of principalities, kingdoms and +tribal nomads, newly arrived from eastern Europe and Asia. The struggle +for pasturage and fertile soil, for dwelling sites and trading +opportunities, went on ceaselessly. Romans, like their neighbors and +competitors, were reaching out to provide themselves with food, building +materials, trade opportunities, strategic advantages. They expanded +peacefully if possible, using diplomacy up to a certain point and only +engaging in war as a last resort. But since the entire Italian peninsula +was occupied by more or less independent groups, each of which was +seeking a larger and safer place in the sun, the outcome was ceaseless +diplomatic maneuvering, using war as an instrument of policy in the +struggle for pelf and power. Four centuries of power struggle, in which +Romans played an increasingly prominent role, gave the Roman Republic +and its allies substantial control of the entire Italian peninsula. +Beginning as one among many small independent states in Italy, the +inhabitants of Latium emerged from four centuries of competitive +diplomatic and military struggle as the de facto masters of all Italy. + +Power struggles are carried on by contestants who occupy a particular +land area with its resources and other advantages. Latium was small in +extent (some 2,000 square miles) and had very limited natural +advantages. Operating from this restricted base, through four centuries +of diplomacy, intrigue and war, the Romans enlarged their base of +operations to include the whole of Italy. In this crucial era of its +history Rome expanded its geographic-economic base to a point from which +it could use the natural and human resources of all Italy as a nucleus +upon which to build the Roman Empire in Europe, West Asia and North +Africa. + +At the beginning of this period the Mediterranean Basin housed a number +of African, Asian and European empires. Each exercised authority over a +part of the Mediterranean littoral. Each empire was built around its +central city or cities. Each empire had its distinctive institutions and +practices. During these centuries all of the empires were defeated, +conquered, occupied and either dismembered or otherwise brought under +Roman control. + +Extension of Roman authority, first over the Italian peninsula and +subsequently over parts of Europe, Africa and Asia, was the result of a +policy of expansion that was aggressively, persistently and patiently +followed by Roman leaders and policy makers. Neighboring territories +were amalgamated into the nucleus of the Roman Empire. More remote +territories were associated by treaty as allies of Rome, as dependent or +client dependencies of Rome, and as colonies or provinces of the Roman +Empire. In all cases they were integral parts of an expanding political, +economic and military sphere of influence with Rome, and later Italy, as +the center and nucleus. In the course of this development the expanding +Roman Empire grew to be the wealthiest and most powerful political, +sociological and cultural unit in the Euro-Asian-African area. + +The Roman imperial cycle spanned some thirteen centuries. During this +period Roman life was transformed from its small, local seat of +authority in Central Italy into its new stature as the outstanding power +in the Mediterranean area. Economically it extended from peasant +proprietorship and a use economy to a market-money economy; from a +society of working peasant farmers to an economy resting upon war +captives reduced to slavery; from an economy based on production for +trade and profit to an economy based on power-grabbing, special +privilege, speculation and corruption; from an austerity economy based +on primary production to an economy based on affluence, exploitation, +and gluttony. + +These revolutionary transformations in the Roman economy were +accompanied, politically, by hardening of the division of Roman society +along class lines with the resulting contradictions, antagonisms, and +class struggles, including open class warfare. + +Domestic contradictions, confrontations, civil strife and formal civil +war were present throughout the entire history of Rome. They existed in +embryo in the earliest days of the original settlements on the seven +hills over which the city of Rome eventually spread. As Rome and its +interests became more complex socially and more extensive geographically +the number and variety of contradictions, confrontations, civil and +military conflicts increased correspondingly. + +In terms of individual human lives the changes which took place in +Roman society during the six or seven centuries that elapsed between the +early Roman settlements and the reign of their Emperor Augustus were +profound and far-reaching. Many communities of diverse and often +incompatible backgrounds and interests were herded together, +helter-skelter, into the City of Rome, Latium, the Italian nucleus and +the subsequent alliances, federations, conquests, consolidations into +colonies, occupied areas, provinces and spheres of influence. The +greater the number and diversity of these interests and relationships, +the greater the probability of conflict. This empire building process +was not gradual and directed with scrupulous care to preserve the +amenities and niceties of polite social intercourse. The job was done by +and under the direction of military leaders who are traditionally in a +hurry to get results. The subordinates who carried out military +decisions were volunteer-professional soldiers, mercenary adventurers +and conscripts drawn form the four corners of the empire. As the empire +grew in extent and as its troubles multiplied, the military was more +frequently called upon to take over and iron out difficulties. + +Domestically, in the city of Rome and its immediate environs, there were +several sharp lines of cleavage; between Roman citizens and +non-citizens; between the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the working +proletariat and the idle proletariat; between the rich and the poor; +between freeman (citizens) and the slaves who grew in numbers as the +wars of conquest and consolidation multiplied war captives; between the +civilian bureaucrats and the members of the military hierarchy. + +In the brief period of maximum territorial expansion following the +defeat and destruction of Carthage, the frontiers of the Roman Empire +were pushed out ruthlessly, North, East, West and South. In the +hurly-burly of rapid expansion individual rights were ignored, local +communities and entire regions were overrun, depopulated and resettled +with the tough disregard of individual and local interests that must +characterize any quick, general movement--economic, sociological or +military. If the expansion, expulsion and rehabilitation had produced +greater degrees of stability and security for individuals and social +groups they might have been tolerated and assimilated by the diverse +populations caught up in the maelstrom of drastic expansion. But rapid, +coercive social transformation produces neither stability nor security. +Its normal consequence is chaos, conflict and further change. In the +course of these internal conflicts the Roman Republic was gradually +phased out. In theory it persisted until the establishment of the +military dictatorship of Julius Caesar. Practically, while many of its +forms remained, the conduct of public affairs passed more and more into +the hands of political leaders who were able to command the backing of +the legions. + +When the first war against Carthage was launched in 265 B.C., Carthage +was at the height of her power. Situated on the North African Coast +almost directly across the Mediterranean from Italy, the Carthaginians +were in effective control of the western Mediterranean. Carthage was +firmly entrenched in Spain. It was trading extensively with the British +Isles. Fleets of Carthaginian war ships patrolled the Mediterranean +guarding against piracy and economic or political interference by +rivals. + +Roman political and business leaders, inexperienced in international +political dealings and the promotion of international trade, found their +further expansion to the west blocked by Carthaginian political, +economic and military installations. The result of the confrontation was +a series of three wars that began in 265 B.C., and ended in 146. During +these 119 years an established power, Carthage, struggled to preserve +its position against aggressive Roman efforts to take control of the +West Mediterranean basin. The Carthaginians, under the able generalship +of Hannibal, mobilized a military force (including elephants), marched +from Spain over the Alpine passes into Italy reaching the gates of Rome. +Romans countered with the slogan: "Carthage must be destroyed!" When the +third Punic war ended in 146 B.C., with the defeat of the Carthaginian +military forces, the city of Carthage was leveled. + +The defeat of Carthage gave the Romans control of the western +Mediterranean. During the same period Roman interests were pushing into +East Europe and Western Asia. In 214 B.C., Philip of Macedon had made an +alliance with Hannibal, directed against Rome. Consequently, three wars +between Rome and Macedonia followed, the third ending in 168 B.C., with +the defeat of the Macedonians and their subordination to Roman authority +in the form of a Roman governor. + +When opposition to Roman influence developed in Greece in 148 B.C., a +commission of ten was appointed by the Roman Senate to settle affairs in +the Greek peninsula. The city of Corinth was burned to the ground and +its lands were confiscated. Thebes and Chalcis were also destroyed. The +walls of all towns which had shared in the revolt against Rome were +pulled down. All confederations between Greek cities were dissolved. +Disarmament, isolation and Roman taxation were imposed on the Greek +cities and the oversight of affairs was assigned to the Roman governor +of neighboring Macedonia. + +Successful wars against Syria and Egypt extended Roman control over +additional territory in West Asia and North Africa. A map of Italy at +the time of the Roman Federation in 268 B.C. shows Rome as the most +powerful among two score minor associates in the federation. A map of +the Roman Empire at the death of Augustus in 14 A.D. shows a Roman +Empire extending from the Atlantic seaboard on the west to Central +Europe on the north, the Black Sea on the east and a generous strip of +Africa on the south. + +Within three centuries Rome had expanded from its position as a minor +state in Italy to the effective control of those portions of three +continents which bordered the Mediterranean. Conquests during the +following century further extended the Roman frontiers. + +Under the Caesars Rome was a society in the throes of political +transition. Roman Emperors, backed and frequently selected by the +military, were exercising despotic power. They still paid lip service to +the Constitution, an instrument that had relevance during the life of +the defunct Republic. In the era of the Caesars the law slumbered and +might ruled. The turbulent masses were fed and housed by the Roman +Oligarchy to which the Emperors were ultimately responsible. The far +flung territories conquered by military power and held by military +occupation were subject to the authority of the same Roman Oligarchy. + +Behind the shams, frauds and tyrannies of a political dictatorship +paying lip service to the corpse of a defunct Republic lay the stark +realities of a bankrupt economy. Throughout the era of the Caesars the +Roman Empire continued to expand geographically. It also came into +contact and conflict with peoples so remote from Italy that for them +Rome was only a name for tyranny, extortion and exploitation. Julius +Caesar and his immediate successors penetrated these remote territories, +subjugating them, levying tribute, appointing governors and other +officials, policing them, pretending to rule over them. To do this +soldiers were marching on foot into regions that lay thousands of miles +from the mother city. To be sure, they marched over Roman roads and +bridges so well constructed that some of them are still being used at +the present day. + +But the excellence of Roman engineering could not match up to the +implacable limitations of time and distance. Nor could they overlook the +need for building the physical structure of Roman economy as they +advanced into enemy territory. Equally decisive were the political +consequences of the property confiscation and forced labor required to +establish and maintain Roman power and enrich greedy Roman officials and +their lackeys and overseers. + +Rising overhead costs, with no corresponding growth of income, an empty +treasury in Rome, and a persistent policy of fleecing the provinces to +pay for the normal costs of bureaucracy, plus its extravagances and +excesses, could lead to only one possible outcome. Higher taxes and more +ruinous levies in the newly conquered provinces could not fill the +insatiable maw of deficit spending. + +Inflation was the immediate result, accompanied and followed by the +debasement of currency and new expropriations of private property. +Government expenses consistently exceeded income. The situation was +aggravated by the growth of parasitic elements which persistently +produced little or nothing and as persistently multiplied their luxuries +and extravagances. The parasites grew richer. The impoverished masses +suffered the normal deprivations of poverty plus the weight of steadily +rising over-head costs. As Roman authority extended farther from its +center, the chasm between its income and its out-go widened. + +Slave labor aggravated the situation. There was a time when Roman +farmers and craftsmen did their own work. That time ended with the +enslavement of war captives who swamped the labor market. Like any +parasitic growth, slavery and forced labor destroyed the fabric of a +largely self-contained economy based on peasant proprietorship. + +Roman economy was honey-combed with problems created by deficit +spending, currency devaluation and exploitation. At its base was a +foot-loose urban proletariat made up largely of refugees from a +countryside given over increasingly to the employment of military +captives as slave labor. The city masses at the outset were extensively +unemployed. Increasingly they became unemployable, parasitic, restless, +demanding. + +At the outset the slave revolts were local and occasional. As the slaves +grew more numerous unrest spread and hardened into organized resistance. +Spartacus, a slave, led a revolt which mobilized armies, defeated the +Roman legions in a series of battles and ended only with the death of +Spartacus and the dispersal of his forces. + +Local and provincial affairs under the Roman Empire were administered by +a self-seeking corrupt bureaucracy. + +Expansion by means of military conquest increased the influence of the +military at the expense of the civilian administrators. The consequent +burdens of militarism reached from the bottom to the top of Roman +society. Eventually, under the Caesars, the military selected emperors +from among the rivals for the purple of imperial authority, and used the +legions under their command to protect and promote their own political +fortunes, thus maintaining a form of latent and frequently open civil +war. + +Colonial unrest and provincial self-seeking were promoted by +conspiracies among Rome's less dependable allies. + +Wars of rivalry between Roman candidates for top preferment shifted the +power-balance out of civilian hands into the grip of the military. Step +by step and stage by stage the Roman Empire became a warfare state +maintained at home and abroad by the intervention of the military. Wars +of rivalry at home in Rome were paralleled by wars of rivalry abroad. + +During the Era of the Caesars Rome became the Eurasian-African honey +pot. Wealth centered there. Authority was enthroned there. Power was +generated there. Throughout the sphere of Roman political influence, of +trade and travel, the central position of Rome was recognized and +acknowledged. Not only knowledge and authority, but folklore mushroomed, +with Rome as its central theme. Asian nomads, searching for grass, Asian +potentates seeking new worlds to conquer and plunder, heard of Rome and +finally went there. All roads led to Rome. Thousands of miles of stone +roads were built as binding forces to hold the Empire together and +defend it against all possible enemies. It was along these roads that +the legions marched as they pushed back potential invaders and extended +the frontiers. It was these same roads and bridges that made easy and +sure the advance of the Asian hordes that would one day occupy and loot +the home city. Roads and bridges enabled Roman authority to maintain and +extend itself. The same roads and bridges provided a freeway that led +into the citadel of Roman power. + +Under the Caesars the Roman Empire achieved its greatest geographical +extent and exercised its widest cultural influence. The city of Rome was +the capital of the western world. There was one state, one law, one +economy, one official language, one military authority. + +Despite its apparent massiveness, Roman civilization was not a monolith. +Rather it was a conglomerate, consisting of many parts held together by +connecting social tissues which Rome and Italy alone supplied. In the +first instance there was a division into provinces, colonies and newly +acquired territories. The provinces, under their Roman appointed +governors, enjoyed a large measure of economic and cultural +self-determination within the Roman Empire. Beyond the Roman Empire lay +territories and peoples associated with Rome by treaties, bound to Rome +by trade and travel, in some cases paying tribute to Rome, but enjoying +sufficient autonomy as peoples, nations and empires maneuvering for +position and advantage, frequently allying themselves with non-Roman +areas and occasionally conspiring to by-pass Roman authority and even to +challenge Roman supremacy. + +This political diversity along the defense perimeter of the Roman Empire +existed in a chaos ranging from questioned authority to open defiance +and military challenges to Rome and the threat of Romanization. Along +this defense perimeter were stationed the legions that guarded the +frontiers. Across it moved trade, travel, incursions, invasions and +periodic reprisals as a result of which the more turbulent neighbors +were brought within the sphere of Rome's influence or, in cases of +extreme dissidence and resistance, were depopulated, colonized and added +to the Roman conglomerate. + +It goes without saying that the influence of Roman culture extended far +beyond the Roman defense perimeter, reaching peoples, nations and +empires to which Rome was little more than a name. The no-man's land +between what-was and what-was-not Rome not only existed in a state of +perpetual uncertainty, but provided a battle field for the smuggling, +brigandage, the periodic border clashes, the migrations, incursions, +invasions and punitive expeditions that are the characteristic features +of every ill-defined political boundary. + +Roman civilization under the Caesars was a centralized absolutism with a +large measure of peripheral deviation and autonomy. It was directed by a +central oligarchy and patrolled, defended and extended by a military +force unified in theory but in practice grouped around the outstanding +personalities and subjected to the vagaries and upsets always associated +with power politics in the hands of military backed political despots. + +Roman civilization, like all social organisms, came into being, moved +toward maturity, reached a plateau of fulfillment from which it +declined, broke up and eventually disappeared into the interregnum known +as the Dark Ages. The entire episode occupied a dozen centuries. Its +beginnings were unimpressively local. At the height of its wealth, power +and cultural influence it bestrode the Eurasian-African triangle. Its +decline and disappearance were no less spectacular than its meteoric +rise to fame and fortune. + +I would like to summarize the Roman experiment and some of its lessons +by listing and commenting briefly on the forces that built up Roman +civilization and those forces which resulted in its decline and +dissolution. + +Primary up-building forces in the Roman experiment: + + 1. Establishing the city of Rome as a stable, defensible center + of merchandising and commerce, transport, finance, population, + wealth and power with a hinterland of associates + and dependencies. As it turns out, the city of Rome has + outlived both the Roman Empire and Roman Civilization. + + 2. Steadfast dedication to Roman interests first, by all necessary + means and despite costs which at the time seemed to + be excessive. + + 3. A recognition of that which is possible, especially in political + relationships. The acceptance with good grace of a + half-loaf where no more was available. + + 4. Consistent, persistent aggression and expansion where such + policies were beneficial to Rome, with little or no regard + for their effects on Roman associates, allies, friends or + enemies. Studied ruthlessness. + + 5. Rewarding Rome's friends, allies and associates with economic, + political and cultural advantages. Implacably punishing + and where necessary exterminating Rome's persistent + enemies. + + 6. Wide tolerance of local cultural variation in matters that + did not conflict with the major principles and practices of + Rome's central authority. + + 7. Taking defeats in their stride, paying the price, and recovering + lost momentum. Again advancing along avenues + which led to Roman success and aggrandizement. + + 8. Indomitable persistence in the pursuit of major objectives. + + 9. After the reigns of Julius Caesar and Augustus, concentrating + power in a single person and his chosen brain trust, + using that power to further aggrandize the Roman Empire + and Roman Civilization. + +This category is not complete. It aims to answer the basic question: In +a situation where a thousand contestants entered the knock-down and +drag-out struggle, first for survival and then for supremacy, what +qualities or qualifications enabled Romans to win the laurel crown of +victory? + +Paralleling the up-building forces that established Roman supremacy were +counter-forces which undermined and eventually destroyed the Roman +Empire and Roman civilization: + + 1. The growth of city life at the expense of rural existence. + At the outset of its life cycle, Rome was essentially rural. + At the end of the cycle Roman culture was turning its + back upon ruralism and moving into a culture that was + to be chiefly urban during an entire millennium. In that + millennium Rome, her associates and dependencies, experimented + with a culture that was essentially urban, but + encircled, dependent and eventually replaced by a culture + that was essentially rural. + + 2. During the millennium between 600 B.C. and 500 A.D. + the Romans and their associates succeeded in bringing + large parts of Europe, Asia and Africa under their control, + but the control was so rigid and temporary that tribalism + and local nationalisms broke loose from the fetters of central + authority and coercive integration, shattering the + structure of Roman civilization and its structural core--the + Roman Empire. Instead of resulting in closer cooperation, + the strategy and tactics of the Roman builders and + organizers led to contradictions, bitter feuds, civil strife, + independence movements which combined with expansionist + diplomacy and periodic wars to discourage, frustrate + and eventually to eliminate peace, order and planned + progress. + + 2. The spread of chattel slavery had a profound effect upon + the texture of Roman life. At the outset Roman family + farms housed the bulk of the population. During the cycle + of Roman civilization unnumbered millions of captives + were seized in the course of military operations and reduced + to slavery. By the end of the Roman cycle the + work-load of agriculture, commerce, industry, mining, + transport, and the domestic life of the well-to-do was + carried by slaves. Basically, therefore, the Roman world + was divided first into Romans and non-Romans and second + into masters and slaves, with a third category which consisted + of an immense bureaucracy (including the military), + a professional and technological group and a heavy burden + of persistent parasitism. + + 4. Growth of the abyss that separated wealth and the + wealthy from mass poverty in the cities and the countryside. + The abyss was widened and deepened by the presence + of slavery. More extensive and more frequent foreign + conquests added to the volume of slave labor in a market + already glutted and reduced the price of slaves. Against + this super-abundant cheap slave labor, free labor could + compete only by reducing its standard of living and thus + deepening the abyss of poverty. At the other end of the + social arc, the rich were able to surround themselves with + multitudes of slaves who provided the energy needed to + carry on the complex life of Roman civilization. As the + Roman world expanded, the abyss widened, deepened + and became all but impassable. It was from such lower + depths that Spartacus and other leaders of rebellious slaves + drew sufficient manpower to challenge and for a time + even defeat the full military power of Rome. + + 5. Built into the structure of Roman civilization was the + potential of civil war. The contradictions of mass slavery + and poverty side by side with boundless leisure and + abundance was only one side of the picture. Each of the + more distant provinces became a possible base from which + ambitious governors or generals could wage wars of independent + conquest at the expense of Roman authority. Each + newly subjugated people, smarting under defeat and the + heavy hand which Rome laid on its dissidents and opponents, + became a potential center for disaffection, conspiracy + and rebellion against Roman authority. + + 6. Conflicts over power succession, in the provinces, and + more significantly in the mother city, added another + aspect to the many sided pressures. As there was no legal + means of determining the succession, the end of each + imperial reign offered the probability of military intervention. + + 7. Deification of emperors, during the era of the Caesars, + led to the denigration and degradation of the common + man. The fact that the common men of Rome were more + and more likely to be poor slaves furthered the process + and deepened the abyss between the haves and have-nots. + + 8. Among the forces of disintegration operating in Rome + none was more potent and more decisive than the numerical + growth of the military and the increasing probability + that any one of the growing contradictions and conflicts + would lead to intervention by the military. Roman emperors + were dictators and their retention of authority + was increasingly decided by the legions which were + willing and able to fight for the perpetuation and extension + of their authority. + + 9. The extensive, complicated, elaborate structure of Roman + civilization involved a persistent and implacable rise of + overhead costs of food and raw materials, of production, + of transportation, of the bureaucracy, including the military. + The area of Roman civilization increased arithmetically. + Overhead costs rose geometrically. They were + expressed in an empty treasury, rising taxes, inflation, + expropriation, the degradation of the currency. + + 10. Side by side with the rise in overhead costs went the + increase of parasitism among the rich and among the poor. + Something-for-nothing was the order of the day. Speculation + was rampant. Gambling was universal. Instead of + living by production of goods and services, Romans let + the slaves do their work and lived by their wits. + + 11. From top to bottom of Roman society negative forces + replaced positive forces. Self directed labor gave place to + slavery; participation in productive activity yielded to + parasitism; productivity was subordinated to destructivity; + the spirit of independence was replaced by the acceptance + of increasing arbitrary individual authority. + + 12. Roman society constantly faced and consistently failed + to solve the contradiction between centralism and local + interests and local rights. This contradiction increased + with increasing size, diversity and complexity. + + 13. Psychological forces played a part in the breakdown and + break-up of Roman civilization. People lost faith and hope. + They became disillusioned and cynical. They forgot the + common good and devoted themselves to the gratification + of body hungers. They turned from proud service of + fatherland to the pursuit of pleasure for pleasure's sake. + Romans lost freshness and vigor. Creativeness had never + been as highly regarded among the Romans as it was + among the Greeks. Life was lived closer to the surface. It + was confined more and more to the present. Growth in + the volume of Roman life sapped its vitality so that there + was less surplus for experiment and innovation as more + and more of the social income was devoted to meeting + overhead costs. + +Moralists have insisted that the decline and dissolution of Roman +civilization resulted from the abandonment of moral standards. +Undoubtedly this was true. The upstanding womanhood and manhood of early +Rome was replaced by a wealth-seeking, pleasure-loving, parasitically +inclined population. But these features of Roman life under the empire +and during the period of Roman decline were the outcome of political, +economic and social forces that have characterized one civilization +after another. Instead of insisting that Rome declined and fell because +it was immoral, it would be far more accurate to insist that Rome +declined and fell because the objectives which it sought, the means it +employed and the civilized institutions which it developed contained +within themselves oppositions and contradictions which led to decline +and dissolution. Rome declined and fell because the ideas, institutions +and practices upon which it depended--the ideas, institutions and +practices of civilization--could lead to no other outcome. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATIONS + + +An experiment with civilization presently spans the planet Earth. It is +called "modern," "contemporary" or "western civilization." Its +artifacts, institutions and practices predominate in Europe, North +America and Australasia. They play a prominent role in the lives of +Asians, South Americans and Africans. + +Two thousand years ago a long established Egyptian civilization was +passing into the shadows. Civilizations in China and India were +developing. Roman civilization was approaching the zenith of its +ascendancy. + +A thousand years ago Roman civilization, like that of Egypt, was a +memory; Chinese and Indian civilizations were holding their own, while +the followers of Islam were reaching out into Central Asia, North Africa +and Eastern Europe. + +In east central Europe and around the Mediterranean the beginnings of +western civilization had made their appearance and were expanding their +control along the Eurasian trade routes and beginning to penetrate +western and northern Europe. The Crusades had introduced Asian culture +traits into the European backwoods. Hardy European and Asian mariners +were penetrating the Americas. Dark ages of ignorance and superstition +which had held sway in Europe for centuries were coming to an end. +Western civilization was beginning to draw the breath of a new life. + +The vast structure of Roman civilization had split West from East. The +Eastern Empire retained its form and continued its culture for centuries +after its break with the West. Meanwhile the West fragmented into +smaller and smaller units, increasingly self-contained and increasingly +isolated. Cities raised and manned their own walls. The countryside +broke up into smaller and smaller divisions over which the Holy Roman +Empire exercised little more than a shadowy authority. Each landed +estate had its stronghold or castle. Each locality looked after its own +interests. The massive Roman Universal State, stretching for centuries +across parts of three continents, had broken up into a multitude of tiny +semi-sovereign, semi-independent fragments. Some of the fragments as +leagues, alliances and coalitions were reaching nationhood. + +New dawn was illuminating the Dark Ages. Western man was sorting and +re-assembling some of the scattered fragments of the defunct and +dismembered Roman civilization. The task was colossal. Rome's "one +authority, one law, one language" hegemony had been replaced by an all +pervading diversity. The closely knit Greco-Roman Empire had been +superseded in Europe by a sparsely inhabited, roadless wilderness, +largely bereft of trade, using waterways as the easiest means of +communication and transport. The economy was built around wood cutting, +charcoal burning, backward animal husbandry, hand-tool agriculture, +hand-craft industry, the rudiments of commerce and finance centered in +trading cities. The great houses of the aristocracy and the gentry, +scattered villages, towns and walled cities were preoccupied and +disrupted by endless feuding and between-seasons warfare. + +Adding to the chaos of this dismembered society were the controversies +over dynastic succession. Intermittent incursions of migrating hordes +from central Asia pushed their way into central and southern Europe. +Covert and open conflicts between ecclesiastical and secular authority +added to the general lethargy, confusion and chaos. + +Europe struggled for centuries to free itself from Asian invasion and +occupation. At the same time Europe was improving its agriculture, +restoring its trade and expanding its hand-craft industries and its +commerce. Towns grew in population and productivity. Life-standards rose +in the cities. Cities based on trade and commerce extended their +authority and became city-states. Commercial cities joined their forces +to form trading leagues. + +Lords spiritual and temporal, who had ruled Europe for centuries, were +joined by lords commercial, enriched by the growth of trade, transport +and developing industry. + +Generations passed into centuries--the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth +and seventeenth. From small local beginnings the nations of western +Europe emerged: Spain, Portugal, the Low Countries, France, Britain, +Italy, Austria and eventually Russia. Each was a consolidation of local +principalities, earldoms, dukedoms, kingdoms. Each was passing through +the rural-urban transformation. Each was outgrowing feudalism and +producing a larger and larger group of businessmen, professionals, +tradesmen, craftsmen and maturing a middle class and a proletariat. +After the fifteenth century each state was spilling over its own +frontiers, annexing or losing neighboring territory, spreading beyond +the boundaries of Europe into the teeming markets of Asia and the newly +discovered treasure-house of the Americas. + +A score of European peoples were engaged in the give-and-take of this +struggle for wealth and power--for land and its resources in Europe, +North Africa and the Near East; for booty, trade and overseas colonies. +As the struggle grew more intense smaller and weaker nations dropped out +of the contest or were partitioned and gobbled up piecemeal. + +Such was the condition of Europe's free-for-all in the closing years of +the seventeenth century and the opening decades of the eighteenth +century, while three developing forces pushed into the forefront of +European life: the enlightenment and science, representative government, +and the industrial revolution. + +Enlightenment broadened the social basis of knowledge and learning. +During the Dark Ages, knowledge and learning were a monopoly of a tiny +privileged minority composed of priests, scholars and a segment of the +aristocracy. Monasteries, great houses and trading cities sheltered this +monopoly. The countryside was a sea of ignorance, superstition, +oppression and exploitation. With the printing press came books. Books +promoted literacy and curiosity. Literacy and curiosity led to +speculation, experiment, discovery and the formulation and spread of +ideas. The product of these forces was science, which had had a long +period of gestation in North Africa and Asia. + +Dark Ages of localism, with landlords, priests and soldiers directing +public affairs led to the concentration of wealth and power in the +landed aristocracy and the church. But traders in the countryside and +merchants in the centers of commerce held a talisman that opened before +them ever increasing sources of wealth. Country dwellers harvested one +crop a year. When crops were poor they starved. At best the margin of +profit was thin. Traders and merchants made a profit every time they +found a customer. The countryside lived on a use economy supplemented by +barter. As money increased in quantity it was loaned at rates of +interest by merchants and bankers who owned it and used it for their +purposes. Accumulating wealth and money enabled the traders, merchants, +bankers and manufacturers to out-buy and out-point landlords and +churchmen. Politically, these changes reduced the authority of absolute +monarchies. In their places representative governments made their +appearance. + +The third force that surfaced in Europe after the end of the Dark Ages +was the industrial revolution, which led to fundamental changes in the +means of production at the same time that advances in natural and social +science produced their practical counterpart--an explosive expansion of +technology. + +Science, representative government and the industrial revolution led to +a rapid and extensive transformation of western society sometimes +referred to as the bourgeois revolution. As the bourgeois revolution +worked its way into the structure and function of European society, the +developing class of businessmen and professionals who had begun to +challenge the power-monopoly of the "lords spiritual and temporal" ended +by establishing a higher power monopoly under the control of business, +military, public relations oligarchy. This revolutionary transformation +of modern society took place during the thousand years that elapsed +between the crusades and the closing years of the nineteenth century. +The resulting social transformation had its geographical homeland in +Europe from which it spread around the planet. Politically, these forces +found expression through the commerce-dominated, profit-seeking, +colonizing empires, with the nation-state as nucleus. Colonizing empires +became the dominant force in Europe and in the non-European segments of +the planet which were gradually brought under European imperial control. + +In the course of voyaging, "discovery" and the establishment of trade, +Europeans set up military outposts and maintained increasingly large +naval forces. The avowed object of these military and naval build-ups +was to defend and promote Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French and British +imperial interests. Actually military and naval installations were +marking out and maintaining the defense perimeters of their respective +colonial empires. One of the widely accepted axioms of the period +equated colonies with national prosperity. The more successful +colonizing empires of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries became the +strongholds of nineteenth century monopoly capitalism. + +Industrial revolution, flowering in Europe during the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries, gave the European commercial empires a lead over +potential rivals based on Asian wealth-power centres. As a result of +this lead European empire builders were able to establish and maintain +their authority in India and Indonesia, dismember the Turkish and +Chinese empires and partition Africa among themselves. Their only +potential rivals were the lumbering, isolationist United States of North +America and the newly awakened Island Kingdom of Japan. Both of these +non-European nations began playing serious wealth-power roles in the +same period from 1895 to 1910. Up to that point Europe continued to be +the homeland of monopoly capitalism. The chief centers of heavy +industry, commerce and finance were in Europe. European merchant fleets +and European navies sailed the seas. European banks and business houses +dominated planetary financing, insuring and investing. + +Viewed from outside, the ascendancy of Europe seemed to be complete. +Europe held the strategic strong points: productivity, wealth, the means +of transportation, mobile fire-power. By the end of the nineteenth +century Europe was the monopoly-capitalist motherland. The rest of the +planet was made up of actual or potential dependents under European +authority. From these outsiders living at subsistence levels, Europeans +could get their supplies of food and raw materials at low prices and to +them Europeans could sell their surplus manufactures, their commercial +services, and their investment capital at high prices. The resulting +European prosperity was expected to continue indefinitely into the +future. + +This planetary structure, with Europe as the center of wealth, power, +art, science, free business enterprise and wage slavery, progress and +poverty, left the majority of mankind living as dependents and +colonials. The situation embodied several confrontations: + + 1. The masters of Europe might quarrel among themselves. + + 2. Non-Europeans might set up rival wealth power centers + and challenge Europe's world hegemony. + + 3. Colonials and other dependants might demand independence, + and equal status in the family of nations. + + 4. Rootless middle classes and the wretched of the earth + might join forces and pull down western civilization's house + of cards. + +Western civilization, like its predecessors, was accepting and following +one central principle: expand, grab and keep. The application of this +principle took the form of an axiom of public and private life: might +makes right; let him take who has the power; let him keep who can. + +Grab and keep, in a period of rapid economic expansion, led each of the +burgeoning European empires to the zealous defense of its frontiers as +the first principle of imperial policy. The second principle: +geographical expansion, followed as a matter of course. Expansion inside +Europe, with its tight frontier defenses, meant war with aggressive +rivals. Expansion abroad, especially in Asia and Africa, was less costly +and might prove more profitable. As a consequence, from 1870 onward, +British, French, Dutch, Russia and German colonial territory increased; +European armaments multiplied. Each expanding empire prepared for the +day which would give it additional square miles of European and foreign +real estate. + +Grab-and-keep, with its resultant chaotic free-for-all, was the rule of +thumb accepted and followed by the West during the decline of Roman +power and through the middle ages to modern times. + +The "might makes right" formula was in violent conflict with the "love +and serve your neighbor" professions of Christian ethics. Nevertheless, +it was the accepted overall principle of private enterprise economy and +the ruling ethic of Western statecraft. The principle was formulated in +five propositions or axioms: + + 1. Make money, honestly if possible, but make money. + + 2. Every businessman for himself and the devil take the laggards. + + 3. We defend and promote our national interests. + + 4. Our national interests come first. + + 5. Our country, right or wrong. + +These five propositions were the outcome of a millennium of experience +with the Crusades and extending to the present century. They are the +outcome of preoccupation with material incentives that can be stated in +two words, profit and power. + +Such propositions, applied to everyday affairs, produced an economy and +a statecraft which favored the interests of a part before those of the +entire community. Where the whole is favored before any part there is a +possibility of co-existence and even of cooperation. Placing a part +before the whole involves competition all the way from the marketplace +to the chancelleries where the fate of nations is discussed and decided. + +The above five propositions or axioms result from preoccupation with +material incentives: profit and power for managers, disciplined +co-ordination for subordinates, affluence, comfort and recognition for +the favored few. They provide the ideological background for twentieth +century western civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +THE LIFE CYCLE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION + + +Like its predecessors, western civilization from its inception was +essentially competitive. As it developed, the commercially, technically +and politically supreme Spanish, Dutch, French and British Empires +battled individually, or in rival alliances, for plunder, colonies, +markets and raw materials. + +From the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, to the Victorian Jubilee in +1897, Great Britain became and remained top dog economically, +politically and to a large extent culturally. Britain was the workshop. +British shipping was omnipresent. The pound sterling was the chief +medium of foreign exchange. The British Navy patrolled the seas. English +was replacing French as the language of commerce and diplomacy. + +During this British Century, from 1815 to 1897, Great Britain was +dominant among the European great powers, but it was never supreme. +Always there were countervailing forces. For centuries France had been a +major factor in the control and direction of European affairs. Defeat at +Waterloo reduced but did not destroy French influence. After 1870 +Bismark's Germany began playing a major role. Russia, Austria, Holland, +Italy and Spain were also European powers. Overseas, the United States +of America and Japan were spreading their imperial wings. + +With the explosive advances made by science, technology, productivity, +income and wealth accumulation, other countries were moving to the fore. +Even though Britain maintained her actual levels of economic output and +potential diplomatic presence she was one among several relatively equal +European states and world empires. At the same time her natural +resources were being depleted and with the growing importance of cotton, +rubber and petroleum, all of which Britain must import, her economic +ascendancy was progressively undermined. During the wars of 1914-18 and +1936-45 Britain entered an era of decreasing relative importance. Her +empire was largely intact, but her economic and political strength was +stretched to the breaking point. + +Throughout its history, until the wars of 1914-45, western civilization +had its headquarters in central and west Europe, with branch offices +elsewhere on the planet. At no time after 1870 did any one European +power occupy a position of easy superiority over its rivals. If Great +Britain was top dog, France, the long established continental power was +snapping at her heels. Germany was an expanding power of major +consequence. To the North and East lay Russia, with its vast territories +and its persistent pressures into East Europe and Far Asia. By any +standard of political measurement Europe was in no sense a universal +state. Literally it was a potential battle field. War fortunes and +misfortunes revolutionized the Europe of 1870-1910. They also realigned +the planetary power structure. Heavy war losses down-graded all of the +erstwhile European powers. Central and West Europe ceased to be the +planetary hub. At the same time America and Asia shouldered their way +toward the center of the world stage. From London, Paris, Berlin and +other European vantage points the 1870-1945 era could be described as a +period of world revolution. + +For half a century United States money and arms were used to stabilize +capitalism. For many years Washington through its control of all Latin +American states (except Cuba after 1960) had been able to dominate +United Nations policy, exclude socialist nations, notably China, and hem +in socialism. Through this period Washington subsidized and armed +counter revolution. Its anti-socialist-communist doctrine had been +accepted and largely followed by the West. + +Washington's drive to cripple and stamp out socialism-communism was +accepted and followed particularly by the states with fascist leanings. +Since many western states had large and influential socialist minorities +and since several of them had been governed by coalitions in which +socialists-communists played a substantial role, acceptance of +Washington's anti-socialist program never won wholehearted support in +Europe. Atlantic alliance countries voted against the admission of +People's China to the United Nations during the Dulles Era. The +stalemated outcome of the Korean War (1950-3) called Washington +anti-socialist policies into serious question. The stupidities, +mendacities and wanton cruelties of the United States' undeclared +Vietnam War, even before the advent of Johnson and Nixon, had so +weakened Washington leadership that no major power would associate +itself with the adventure. The "Allies" in Vietnam were the U.S.A. and +two or three vassal Asian states. + +Half a century of cold war and co-existence punctuated by military +invasions and hot wars, fought between groups from both sides in the +class struggle, faced mankind with several undeniable facts: + + 1. Planet-wide economic, political and social changes had been + made during the previous half-century. + + 2. Capitalism was no longer supreme as it had been before + 1900. On the contrary, since 1950 the planet has been divided + along class lines--capitalism versus socialism. + + 3. Socialism-communism is one of the most obvious facts of + present-day planetary life. + + 4. Capitalism is losing ground, especially in Europe. + + 5. Socialism is gaining ground, especially in Eurasia. + +Co-existence presupposes recognition of these five propositions and a +willingness to abide by the outcome of the evolutionary-revolutionary +process, through which the western world is passing. + +During several centuries, ending in 1900, western civilization passed +through an era of consolidation and integration that brought its +sovereign segments into increasing stable relationships. The most +advanced of these relationships took political shape in the half-dozen +European empires which controlled the planet in 1900. Side by side with +the consolidation of the planet into nations and empires there was +another process, world-wide in scope, which made the facts and products +of science and technology and their duplication the common property of +mankind, creating a cultural synthesis far more universal than the +political synthesis in nations, empires, the League of Nations or the +United Nations. + +Any social synthesis includes positive and negative aspects which +function side by side. One builds up. The other wears down. For +centuries the building forces in western civilization were in the +ascendant. Since the turn of the century a shift of forces has been +under way. The wearing down forces presently are in the ascendant. Had +it been less competitive and more cooperative and co-ordinated, western +civilization might have taken another step in advance by extending +cultural unification into the political arena. The League of Nations and +the United Nations were efforts in this direction. Neither succeeded in +breaking down sovereignty far enough to permit planet-wide political +federation. + +Having failed to co-ordinate and establish a planet-wide authority +during the critical years following 1870, western civilization accepted +the antithesis of co-ordination and entered a period of fragmentation: + + 1. During the century and a half from 1815 to the present + day, as facilities for co-ordination were multiplied by discovery + and invention, Europe remained stubbornly fragmented + into more than a score of sovereign states. Minor + changes were made in boundary lines and in internal relationships + of property and privilege, but the European maps + of the period present a record of persistent fragmentation + of the continent into strongly frontiered sovereign segments. + + 2. Break-up of the European empires after two general wars + led to the fragmentation of each empire into self-determining + sovereign units. + + 3. The "third world," consisting chiefly of European empire + fragments, has not consolidated, but after the Bandung + Conference of 1955 has consisted of a fragmented Africa + and Asia torn by domestic and inter-state conflicts and + harried by the persistent intervention of the western powers. + + 4. Rivalry in the Pacific and in Asia has been heightened by + the meteoric rise of Japan as a world power, the dismemberment + of the Japanese Empire after 1945 and the fierce + subsequent economic competition between Japan and her + planetary competitors, chiefly the United States. + + 5. United States efforts to coordinate Latin America as a + source of raw materials and a market for manufactures and + investment capital have not produced a United Latin + American front against a common Yankee menace, but a + sturdy refusal even of the tiniest Latin American Republic + to surrender or limit its sovereignty has pushed a thorn + into the vulnerable side of Washington's Monroe Doctrine + control of the western hemisphere. + + 6. The high point in divisiveness was the decision of the + United States spokesmen to inaugurate the American Century + by establishing control over the Pacific Ocean, making + itself the chief power in Asia and installing U.S.A. authority + in the power vacuum left by the expulsion of Britain, + France, Holland and Japan from the territories composing + their former empires. Local wars begun in Korea (1950) + and extending across Southeast Asia have strengthened the + determination of the local peoples to defend themselves at + all costs against imperialist invaders from Europe and North + America. + + 7. The United States has been rich enough since 1945 to build + and maintain a navy that can patrol the Atlantic and Pacific + Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea and maintain large military + forces in various European and Asian waters. This + policy has been justified by the Truman-Johnson-Nixon + Doctrine of determined opposition to the extension of + socialism-communism and the consequent perpetuation of + the cold war. + + 8. In theory the socialist world is unitary. In practice it is so + fragmented by national boundary lines and ideological differences + that its members have not been able (during recent + years) to get together and discuss their major common + problems. + +United States wealth and military equipment have been sufficiently +over-whelming to support the program of an American Century during which +one nation might establish a universal state exercising planet-wide +authority along the lines of the Universal State established by the +Romans at the zenith of their power. In practice the program has not +worked out. On the contrary, opposition to the United States as _the_ +world power or even as _the_ power in Asia has grown steadily and +quickly into a widespread "Anti-Americanism" or "anti-Yankeeism." + +Conceivably a universal anti-American movement might develop a hot war +similar to the anti-Hitler coalition of the 1930's. If that precedent is +followed, however, the defeat of the United States would be followed by +a period of fragmentation similar to or even more intense than the +fragmentation of the 1950's and 1960's. + +Present efforts to shore up the insolvent U.S.A. economy and the +resulting opposition of America's leading European trading partners is +not reassuring. If western civilization has passed the zenith of its +development and entered a period of decline and fragmentation even a +figure of Napoleonic capacities would be sorely pressed to breathe new +life into its disintegrating social structure. At the moment, to the +best of our knowledge, no such genius is in sight. + +Western civilization is in some ways unique. In the main, however, the +development of its life cycle has been typical. May we take it for +granted that western civilization has turned its corner or may we assume +that it is still replete with the possibilities of further maneuver, +development and expansion? Perhaps the best way to approach the problem +would be to ask three questions: What contribution has western +civilization made to human nature, to human society and to mother +nature, and what further contribution can it make in the foreseeable +future? + +Individuals, born or reared in any form of society are adjusted, shaped +and conditioned by the social pattern of which they are a part. Each +society attempts to stamp the individuals with its own image and +likeness. The success or failure of this effort to assure individual +adjustment to the social norm and conformity to its practices varies +with the prosilitizing enthusiasm of the society and with the ration of +adaptability and self-consciousness of its individual members. + +Western civilization has produced a bourgeois human being intensively +conscious of his capacities and anxious to try himself out in the +rough-and-tumble of the market place and on the battlefield; to +initiate, undertake, direct, administer. In the main, these are +characteristics of the human male, though the female often possesses +them in a greater or lesser degree. + +Western civilization has opened the doors wide to aspirants eager to win +out in the game of grab-and-keep. It has been equally kind to their +chief executives, organizers and managers who rank second or third in +the chain of command. These individuals come from widely different +backgrounds. The social mobility of a bourgeois society gives them +opportunity to climb high on the ladder of preferment. + +Many of those who fall into line, adapt themselves to the civilizing +process, accept with alacrity the chances that come their way, but do +not reach the top of the success ladder. They have the health, energy +and assertiveness necessary to keep climbing. They accept their +assignments and carry them out with modest success. They are the lesser +executives who work themselves out by the time they are fifty and find +some sinecure or safe position near the top of the social pyramid. + +Below the high command posts there is a wide range of handymen and +specialists who fill particular positions and place their time, energy, +experience and expertise at the disposal of the high command. Among them +are scientists, engineers, technicians. Equally important are their +spokesmen, advisers and apologists: lawyers, preachers, teachers, +writers, speakers, publicists, carefully chosen for their ability to +apologize, passify, justify and reassure. On the political side are the +diplomats and politicians. Protection for their persons and property is +provided by the police and the armed forces, composed of highly paid, +well-trained, well-armed destroyers and killers. + +Social stability and mass support come from an extensive middle class +composed of public servants and body servants, small tradesmen, +self-employed craftsmen, rentiers and retired persons who are assured +body comforts, social recognition and preferment for themselves, their +relatives and dependants. Members of this middle class are recognized on +occasion, pampered, amused, diverted, bored, frustrated and eventually +corrupted by the soft living which their middle class status makes +possible. + +Close to the middle class come the white collar workers and the better +paid blue collar workers. Their lives are cluttered with gadgets and +fringe benefits. Their homes are paid for or bought on credit. + +Below these more or less regularly employed workers on salaries and +wages come the semi-employed, racial or class underlings living in +poverty at or near the subsistence level. + +Associated with this range of bourgeois occupations and often closely +identified with it are owners of family farms, tenants and hired hands. + +Outside of the employment range, but dependent upon the economy are the +defectives and delinquents, the parasites who live on cake and the +parasites who live out of garbage cans. + +Beyond these categories, in the American Empire, there are the colonial +compradors and handymen who enjoy standards of living comparable to +their opposite members in the North America nucleus. Below them are the +colonial masses who live their entire lives under conditions of +uncertainty and insecurity. + +Millions of young people across the planet, born into the complicated +and bewildering social network of western civilization after war's end +in 1945 and graduated from school after the onset of the Vietnam War in +1965, find themselves in a complex, frustrating jungle. Should they fit +in or drop out? Those who are more conventional and adaptable fit in as +best they can, although the recent high unemployment rate among the +youth indicates that the adjustment is often difficult. Millions of the +less adaptable drop out. + +Such a situation could have been foreseen by the initiated. Preparations +could have been made in advance to deal with it when it arose. In the +absence of adequate preparation the result is the chaos incident to +every downturn of the private enterprise business cycle, magnified in +this case by the regressive forces released during the disintegration of +the entire social fabric. + +Two other areas require a word of comment. Among human faculties are +ambition, imagination, ingenuity, inventiveness, creativity. Human +beings are, to a greater or lesser degree, cosmically aware. In the +physical field western civilization handsomely rewards initiative. In +the social field it has been far less generous. Imagination and cosmic +consciousness have been quite generally listed among the undesirable +endowments of mankind. + +Western civilization, in the early years of the present century, +produced a generation of insecure, unsettled, anxious, worried, harried +people. This is generally true of young, middle aged and old, of rich +and poor. Rapid social transition from expansion and advance to +contraction and retreat is a traumatic, hectic experience for any human +being. + +Western civilization in the early years of its decline has not brought +out the more generous aspects of human nature. In the best of times a +materialistically oriented society appeals to the more material and less +spiritual aspects of human beings. A period of social decline leads away +from principled conduct toward unashamed opportunism. + +The current generation, born and reared in a disintegrating civilization +has been sorely tested and tried. From such tests the strong and +purposeful are likely to emerge stronger and more determined. For the +weak and vacillating the consequences are likely to prove disastrous. +The individual born into western society during its current "time of +troubles" has not had an easy row to hoe. + +What has western civilization done to human society as such? + +Western civilization has urbanized its society. Until recently in +Europe and until very recently in North America, the majority of people +were living outside of cities, in villages or on the land. From their +flocks and herds or from their cultivated land they fed themselves and +the cities. Mechanization reduced the demand for labor power in the +countryside. At the same time the growth of industry, trade, commerce +and "services" increased the demand for labor power in the cities. +Relatively the countryside was poor while the cities were rich. The high +prizes were in the cities, bright lights, crowds and the seductive +excitements of seething mass life. Incessant human contacts were part +and parcel of city life. City landlords collected high rents, city +merchants found many customers. City manufacturers could pick and choose +their wage and salary underlings among throngs of young and not so young +jobseekers. + +Western civilization grew in and around its cities. Both in form and +function it was urban rather than rural. + +Western civilization specialized its society, mechanized it and later +computerized it, making social relationships depend less and less on +personality and more on the position of the individual in a working team +or on an assembly line. Human beings ceased to have names. Instead they +acquired numbers on the payroll, on their homes, on their identity +cards. + +Specialization and division of labor, plus power-driven machines +increase productivity, income, surplus. In the countryside goods and +services often are scarce. In the city they are likely to be +super-abundant. + +Growth of wealth and income provide support for an increase in +population. Hence the population explosions in cities and in centers of +developing industry, trade and commerce. Countries passing through the +industrial revolution expanded their populations. Recently, the +population of some countries has doubled each twenty-five years. + +Western civilization has been militarized as it was mechanized. Every +tool is a potential weapon. The truck becomes a tank, the airplane a +bomber. War making, like other aspects of western civilization, was +mechanized. Formerly war had pitted man against man. Mechanized war +pitted machines and their attendants against other machines and their +human attachments. The same mechanical forces that built cities, +factories and ships converted these agencies of production into +instruments of destruction. Each country in the civilized West fortified +its frontiers, trained officers in special schools, mobilized young men +and women for military service, stockpiled weapons, multiplied +fire-power, making western civilization an armed camp, with guns +pointing in every direction. + +Regimentation of city life, of industry and commerce, of war, of +education and public health followed one after another as the individual +human became more and more a cog in a vast social mechanism. This +regimentation dulled imagination at the same time that it deified greed, +with "gimme, gimme;" "more, more;" as its watch words. + +At certain points in its development western civilization has lifted +itself temporarily above the material forces that hemmed in the life of +primitive man. The Renaissance was one such period. The Enlightenment +was another. A third was the scientific breakthrough from Darwin and +Marx to the research and experiments which split the atom and +inaugurated the space age. These gains were offset by the growing +planet-wide chasm between wealth and poverty, the plunder and pollution +of man's natural and social environment and the terrifying growth of +destructive power revealed during two prolonged general wars in one +generation. + +Mechanized war demonstrated its destructivity, physically, socially, +psychologically. Prolonged war accustomed an entire generation of +mankind to unnecessary suffering and the deliberate twisting, maiming +and destroying which are characteristic features of the war-waging +civilized state. + +Exposure of an entire generation to wholesale destruction and mass +murder as a way of life had two quite divergent effects. It converted +sensitive introverts into pacifists. It produced millions of trained +destroyers and killers, experienced in the science and art of +mechanized warfare. Pacifists opposed, denounced and resisted the +warfare state and its progeny. Masses of trained destroyers and killers, +the "new barbarians," gained experience and improved their +qualifications by taking part in conventional warfare and in the +innumerable guerrilla adventures and operations that accompanied and +followed conventional wars. + +Previous civilizations have been harried, hectored and undermined by +migrating "barbarians" who had heard of accumulated wealth and had come +to share or perhaps to take over the "honey-pot" and lick up the honey. +Western civilization has faced the problem of migration, intensified by +population explosion. But the "barbarians" who are tearing the social +body of western civilization limb from limb are not outsiders, invading +a civilization in order to plunder and sack it, but the offspring of +well-to-do civilized affluent communities who have repudiated the +acquisition and accumulation of material goods and services, turning, +instead to the satiation of body hungers and the freedom of social +irresponsibility. + +Western man has spent ten centuries in building a civilization aimed at +economic stability and social security for the privileged. The "new +barbarian" progeny have rejected this civilization of affluence and are +busily engaged in fragmenting the social apparatus that has made +affluence possible. In a word, western civilization has organized and +coordinated, but in the process it has sowed the seeds of +disorganization and chaos. + +One last word about the effect of western civilization on human society. +The West has littered and cluttered the planet with an immense variety +and with enormous quantities of gimmicks and gadgets from tin cans to +airplanes that fly faster than sound, and rockets that carry their +occupants to the moon. Western productivity has multiplied greatly. Too +often it has by-passed utility, ignored quality and outraged beauty. +More often than not its goods, services, institutions, practices and +ideas have remained at the surface without reaching down to life's +essentials. + +If life can be fragmented into "physical," "mental," "emotional," +"energetic," "spiritual," and "creative" it must be evident that the +western way has smothered life's more significant aspects under a +blanket of trivialities, non-essentials and inconsequentials. + +Western civilization has stressed competition, aimed at the acquisition +and accumulation of material goods and services. The competitive +struggle, in its civilian and military aspects, has played fast and +loose with the contents of nature's storehouse. + +Through uncounted ages Mother Nature has set up a knife-edge balance +among the multitude of aspects and differentiated forms that have +existed and still exist on the planet. Humanity has increasingly upset +this balance of nature, ignorantly and often stupidly, without pausing +to determine the resultant changes. Nowhere is this upset more in +evidence than the changes in climate and animal life and their +possibilities of survival brought about by the erosion of topsoil. Paul +Sears, in his _Deserts on the March_, has told the story. It can be +summed up in four words: deforestation, overgrazing, erosion, drifting +sands. + +Another aspect of man's aggressions against nature is the wanton +destruction of wildlife--like the American bison and the wood pigeon. + +Still another example is the extraction from the earth's crust of +minerals and metals accumulated through ages and used to turn out +frivolous gadgets or, more disastrously, the materials and machines of +civilized warfare. Instead of conserving natural wealth, rationing it +and thus extending its use to succeeding generations, western man has +burnt it up in the firestorms deliberately kindled during the seven +disaster years from 1939 to 1945. + +In the course of its existence western civilization has replaced food +gatherers, cultivators and artisans by hucksters and professional +destroyers of mankind and ravagers of the living space afforded by the +earth's land mass. + +Western civilization has done its most far-reaching disservice to +mankind by separating and estranging man from nature. For ages man lived +with nature as one aspect of an evolving ecological balance. +Civilization's basic unit--the city--as it sprawls, cuts off man from +more and more contacts with the earth and its multitudinous life forms; +with fresh air, sunshine, starshine; with nature's sequences--day and +night, the procession of the seasons; with the birth, growth, death +animating so many of nature's aspects. The city is man-made. Well +planned, properly built and organized, it might have become an ornament +beautifying and exalting nature. Page the cities of the West one by +one--they are monotonous, ungainly, ugly slums and rookeries set off by +an occasional bit of creative architecture. + +Western civilization has differed in certain respects from the long line +of its predecessors, stretching back through the centuries. In one sense +it has matured, ripened, taking its ideas and practices from its nearest +of kin. In the course of its life cycle it has already made distinctive +contributions: + + 1. It has become more nearly planet-wide than any of its + known forerunners. + + 2. It has developed unique approaches and controls through + its science and its technology, inaugurating the power age + by making riotous use of nature's energy sources. + + 3. It has extended man's conquest of the planet and begun + his adventures into space. + + 4. It has enlarged the field of human creativity by increasing + the number and proportion of men and women trained and + experienced in productive and creative enterprises. + + 5. It has opened the door to study and experimentation in + extrasensory perception--man's "sixth" sense. + + 6. It has made possible an unprecedented increase in the + human population of the planet. + + 7. It has raised its potential for destruction far above and + beyond its potential for production and construction. + + 8. It has brought together, classified and indexed the ideas, + materials, techniques and generalizations which made possible + this study of civilization, its appearances, disappearances + and reappearances. + + 9. Europeans have carried the burdens of western civilization + and inherited its disintegrative consequences for so long a + period that the fate of western civilization and the fate + of present day Europe are closely interwoven. + Western civilization seems to have reached and passed the + zenith of its lifecycle without achieving the political integration, + the stability or the unified authority attained by the Romans and + the Egyptians at the high points in their lifecycles. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +FEATURES COMMON TO CIVILIZATIONS + + +Each civilization that has left legible records or significant +traditions during the past five or six thousand years has made +distinctive contributions that modified the culture pattern of its +predecessors and its contemporaries. At the same time all of the +civilizations have had certain common features that are the +characteristic aspects which justify the general definition of +civilization presented in the Introduction to this study. + +Civilization is the most comprehensive, extensive and inclusive life +pattern achieved by terrestrial humanity. Starting locally and following +the three basic principles of urbanization, expansion and exploitation, +each civilization has charted a course that led from tentative local +beginnings through a cycle of growth, maturity, decline, decay and +dissolution. + +The civilizing process is essentially collective, subordinating the +interests of each part to the interests of the whole, while allowing +sufficient home rule to enable each part to have the political, economic +and cultural advantages enjoyed by the other parts, always excepting the +privileged position occupied by the civilization's dominant empire and +its nucleus. + +Necessarily a civilization is composed of more or less disparate +segments, each one (before its inclusion in the collective whole) +maintaining a large measure of sovereign independence. Utilizing +advanced techniques of communication, exchange, and transportation, the +separate sovereign units are coordinated, consolidated, unified and +universalized. The result is an aggregate of parts, differing in many +local respects, but acknowledging the authority of the power center and +contributing material goods and manpower to its support and defense. The +main sociological purpose of each civilization has been to impose +central authority and universality upon political, economic and +ideological diversity. + +Every civilization has been confronted with the advantages of unity over +diversity. Every civilization has professed its devotion to unity. Every +civilization at one or another stage in its development has subordinated +unity to the increasingly insistent demands of diversity. + +For at least six thousand years one civilization after another has +sought to achieve centralization and universality. In every instance of +which history provides a legible record, centralized, universalized +institutions and practices have fragmented into diversity and stubborn +localism. + +Western civilization is part and parcel of this generalization. +Generation by generation and century by century it has professed and +proclaimed the advantages of universality while it yielded to the +persistent demands of nationalism, regionalism and localism. Throughout +the latter years of the nineteenth century the will to unify gained much +ground. The tide turned with the turn of the century. For the first half +of the present century the forces of unity and of diversity seemed +stalemated. War's end in 1945 saw the shadow of a universal state +flicker across the screen of history. With the adjournment of the +Bandung Conference in 1955 the shadow dissolved and was replaced by the +strident nationalisms that have become an outstanding feature of +planetary politics, economics and social organization. + +Despite the insistence of reason and experience that strength and +stability are the result of unity,--tradition, custom and habit have +held human society at the level of political, economic and ideological +diversity. Nowhere in history is this generalization more emphatic than +in the failure of the European standard-bearers of western civilization +to replace a millennium of diversity, discord and conflict by a unified, +coordinated, co-existing, cooperating European community. + +At its best a civilization is insecure and even unstable, disturbed and +upset by an increasing domestic struggle for preferment and power that +includes rivalry, competition, revolt, rebellion, civil war and wars of +self-determination carried on by unassimilated regional, provincial and +colonial elements. From beyond their frontiers civilizations have been +assailed by rival aspirants for power, by armed bands in search of +plunder or by migrating peoples seeking greener pastures. All of these +forces have held the ground for diversity and barred the way to +universality. + +Another factor of great consequence leading to the instability of +civilizations has been the concentration of wealth, power, privilege, +comfort and security in the hands of a minority, in sharp contrast with +poverty and insecurity among the less well-placed majority. Generally, +the privileged minority has been relatively small and the exploited +majority overwhelmingly large. + +Still another disturbing factor in each civilization is the +transformation of its military arm from a means of defense against +external enemies into a major factor in the direction of domestic +affairs. The professional military build-up has frequently usurped the +state power and became king-maker by virtue of its monopoly of weapons, +organization, and its highly trained personnel of professional +destroyers and killers. + +Upset by one or another of these disturbing and disruptive forces, +civilized populations have panicked and retreated from their +collectiveness toward more localized, more fragmented, less social and +more individual life patterns. Such a retreat rounds out the later +phases of a cycle of civilization--the phases of decline and final +dissolution. + +Civilizations perish in the first instance because of internal +contradictions and conflicts, the struggle to grab, monopolize, and keep +wealth, status, power. + +They perish because of the division of the nucleus and its associates +and dependencies between those who work for a living, those who have an +unearned income and those parasites who scrounge for a living. They +perish because of the hard class and caste lines that grow out of +economic contradictions; because of the development of a social +pyramid, layer above layer, until the summit is reached where there is +standing room for only a few. Competent, talented persons may rise from +level to level in this pyramid. A political and social bureaucracy +develops which feeds at the public trough. Then comes a bitter struggle +to get both feet in the trough and keep them there side by side with an +equally determined effort to exclude outsiders and other intruders. An +army of volunteers and novices is converted into a military +establishment which becomes a state within the state, extending its +control until it makes policy, selects top leaderships and carries on +its internal feuds and wars of succession dividing the defense forces +and using them for partisan purposes. Overhead costs rise; deficits in +the public treasury grow; so does public debt. Inflation follows, and +the debasement of the currency. Levies are made on private wealth for +public purposes. There is expropriation of the property of political +enemies. Espionage, secret agents, the growth of informers become part +of the society, along with the use of assassination as a political +weapon, the increase of violence and crime, and eventually, a flight +from the cities. + +This tragic enumeration only skims the surface of the many and various +aspects of a situation that reaches its breaking point in civil war, +famine, pestilence and eventually in depopulation. + +Social dissolution is accelerated by provincial revolts against central +authority; by survival struggle between the empires which were +coordinated and consolidated into the civilization; by revolt in the +subordinate and dependent segments of the civilization; by rivalry and +conflict between racial, cultural and political sub-groups forced into +the civilization, held there by coercion, policed by armed force and +taking the first opportunity to win political independence and self +determination. + +While the momentum for expansion lasted, the civilization grew in wealth +and power. When it waned, disintegration set in. Changelessness seems to +be impossible in a social group. A civilization either expands or +withers, builds up or falls to pieces. + +Starting from one or more local groups, each civilization has reached +out "to conquer the world", occupy it, organize it, dominate it, exploit +it, perpetuate itself. In each case expansion, occupation, domination +and exploitation are limited by human capacity (human nature); by the +relative brevity of a single human life; by the extreme variations in +the capacity of successive leaders. It is limited by geography; by the +means of transportation and communication; by overhead costs that +increase geometrically as the civilization expands arithmetically; by +the means of delegating responsibility; by accounting devices, available +raw materials and labor power; by power struggles inside the ruling +oligarchies; by the failure to maintain a balance between centerism and +localism; by growing local demands for self-determination; by the +invasion of nomads seeking to plunder the tempting honey pot at the +nucleus of the civilization. + +Such limitations are political, economic and sociological. Psychological +forces are also at work. The vigor and vitality of the early builders +gradually spends itself. The will to austerity and the sense of loyalty +and social responsibility are diffused and diluted. Bureaucracy +degenerates into a rat race. The paralysis of parasitism replaces the +will to power. Physical gratification gains priority over the service of +the gods. Consistently, through its entire written history, civilization +has been built upon what the civil law of all nations calls "robbery +with violence". In every instance when the robbers have grabbed +everything in sight, and gorged to the point of physical satiety, they +fall to quarreling among themselves or turn with boredom and disgust +from the whole sodden mess of discord, disorder and degeneration. + +Each step, from the establishment of an urban nucleus of expansion, +through the building of rival empires to the final struggle for supreme +power, involves the violent subordination of lesser interests to the +interests of one supreme authority. Violence takes precedence over +persuasion and negotiation. In each case the final appeal is to armed +combat using the most sophisticated weapons available. + +During the "time of troubles" which overtakes each civilization, war +and the threat of war become normal aspects of domestic and +international relations. A specialized war-making bureaucracy is +organized; war plans are made; war games (rehearsals) are carried on, +and wars are fought as a means of determining which nation or +combination of nations shall have access to raw materials and markets, +dominate the trade routes, control the weaker peoples, own and exploit +the colonies. + +To the victor, war is the means of extending national or imperial +frontiers and legalizing expansion at the expense of the vanquished. +Defeat in war leads to the imposition of indemnities, the payment of +tribute, the transfer of territory to the victor and in extreme cases +the extermination of the defeated nations or empires. + +Settlements imposed by violence and policed by victors lead to +resentment, antagonism, hatred and the build-up of a desire for revenge, +including the restoration to the vanquished of lost territories. The +logical outcome of such a situation is preparation for a war of +independence by the vanquished, countered by military occupation, rigid +suppression, and exploitation by the victors in the previous struggle. + +War is taken for granted as an instrument of policy. It is employed by +civilized nations and empires as a means of expansion. Wars of +independence and restitution follow conquest, dismemberment and +annexation. Civilized nations and empires prepare for war and wage war +as a normal aspect of civilized life. + +Civilization, and in particular western civilization, is a time-bomb, +built to detonate and scatter its fragments far and wide. It is a type +of booby trap in which humanity has been caught periodically and +horribly mangled. Without exception, each civilization has contained the +forces and equipment needed for its own annihilation. At no time +reported by history has this formulation been more obvious than during +the decades immediately following war's end in 1945. Destructivity was +lifted to new levels of efficiency by electronic communication, the tank +and the airplane. It was further escalated by atomic fission and +nuclear fusion. Advances in science and technology had made dramatic +increases in the tempo of production and construction. Utilization of +atomic energy had stepped up destructivity to the nth power. + +Based on assumptions that oft-repeated experience has proved to be false +and misleading, civilization in the 1970's is unstable and insecure. +Most civilizations are strangled in their cradles or plundered and +demolished in the course of the never-ending political, economic and +military conflicts which have marked and marred civilizations since the +dawn of history. The national and imperial survivors of these struggles +in every known instance have been largely or wholly led by military +adventurers and plunderers in search of booty, fame and power. With +professional plunderers, destroyers and murderers occupying the seats of +power, it is only a question of time and occasion before rising overhead +costs and the misfortunes of war result in their overthrow and +replacement by better organized, better armed invaders who slaughter and +enslave their predecessors and usurp and abuse their power. Of +necessity, civilizations are self-destructive, built as they are on the +ebb and flow of power struggle. + +Successive conflicts involve an indefinite volume of overhead costs, +which grow with the intensity and extent of the expansive survival +struggle, creating a series of crises along a path that leads to +self-destruction and the return of the experimenters to a condition of +pre-civilized self-containment. + +We in the West, looking back on our own immediate history, refer to this +pre-civilized status as the Dark Ages. Actually, such Dark Ages are the +transition stages between two periods of experiments with the building +of civilizations. In view of this oft-repeated experience, modern man +must look upon an epoch of civilization not as a way of life, but an +adventure of suicidal self-degradation and ultimate self-destruction. + +Each cycle of civilization has had its peculiarities, determined by the +geographical and historical factors surrounding its origin and +development. Yet all have had features in common. Among the common +features we would list: + +1. A revolutionary movement within the societies under +consideration. In each experiment with civilization the culture pattern +was transformed from pastoral and/or agricultural to a culture based on +trade, commerce and finance; from rural to urban; from simple to +complex; from local toward universal. + +2. In each case an independent, self-directing, expanding state was +built around an urban center. + +3. In each experiment a simple, local, social structure was extended, +expanded, specialized, sub-divided, integrated, consolidated. + +4. In each experiment a relatively static society passed into the +control of an emerging class of peddlers, merchants, traders, +speculators, business enterprisers and professionals who were not +directly involved in the conversion of nature's gifts into goods and +services ready for human use, but in political and cultural practices +which enabled the emerging bourgeois class to stabilize and extend its +wealth and power and build an economic structure that augmented unearned +income and laid the foundation for predation, exploitation and +parasitism. + +5. In each experiment an amateur apparatus for defense and/or aggression +matured into a professional military means for enlarging the +geographical area and strengthening the economic and political authority +of the new trading-ruling classes. In each empire and each civilization +there was an evolution of "defense" forces from voluntary to +professional status, from subordinate to dominant status, from +participation in public life to political supremacy over all aspects of +public life. + +6. In each experiment massed labor power (slave, serf, or wage-earner) +was assembled, organized and trained to build roads, bridges, aqueducts, +housing facilities and eventually to operate agriculture, construction, +industry, trade and commerce, public utilities and other services in the +interests of an oligarchy. + +7. In each experiment a capital city (and associated cities) became the +nucleus for accumulating wealth, constructing public buildings, +providing means of transportation and sources from which raw materials +could be secured for city maintenance and for the provision of sanitary +facilities, means of recreation and diversion. + +8. In each experiment there was a competitive struggle between rival +communities, each passing through the rural-urban transformation. The +result was an increasing conflict for survival, for expansion and for +local supremacy. + +9. Each experiment expanded along lines that led the more successful to +build traditional empires consisting of wealth-power centers and +peripheries of associates and dependents. + +10. Each experiment produced a competitive survival struggle between +rival empires that would determine eventual supremacy. + +11. In each experiment one among the local and regional contestants +defeated, conquered, dismembered, assimilated or destroyed its rivals +and emerged as victor, giving its name to a civilization: Egyptian, +Babylonian, Persian, Roman. + +12. In each experiment the victims of imperial aggression, conquest, +exploitation and assimilation, conspired, united, resisted and revolted +against the dominant power. The result was endemic civil war. + +13. Within each experiment, as the civilization matured, the same +confrontations appeared at the nuclear center and in the +provincial-colonial periphery: + + a. Extremes of riches side by side with slum-dwelling poverty. + + b. Expanding unearned income, with one class (the propertied and + privileged) owning for a living and another class (peasants, + artisans, serfs, slaves) working for a living. + + c. Intensified exploitation of mass labor side by side with the + proliferation of parasitism throughout the body social, consisting + of individuals and social sub-groups whose contribution in the form + of goods produced and services rendered was less than the cost of + maintaining the participants. + + d. Economic stagnation. Public spending in excess of public income; + higher levies and taxes to replenish the empty treasury; rising + prices due to excess of demand over supply; public borrowing with + no means for repayment; the issue of money without corresponding + reserves; degradation of currency through decrease of its metal + content; unemployment among citizens due chiefly to increase in + forced labor of war captives and other slaves; public insolvency + due to territorial over-expansion; excessive overhead costs; + nepotism, bribery, corruption in public service; an over-large + bureaucracy feeding at the public trough. + + e. Revolution in the nuclear center and fierce suppression. + Provincial revolt. Revolt in the colonies. Endemic civil war. + + f. Migration toward the central honey-pot; invasion by rivals and + adventurers seeking to control it, plunder it and guzzle its + contents. + + g. Dissolution of the society; boredom; ennui; loss of purpose and + direction; growing dissension; power struggle and avoidance of + responsibility for trends that were little understood and generally + beyond the control of existing officialdom. + +Histories of individual nations and empires and histories of +civilizations and civilization assemble and present a great body of +factual information which support and substantiate this factual summary. +The present study aims to organize the facts, to compare them and to +draw conclusions as to the benefits and detriments; the practicality or +futility; the wisdom or folly of building empires and merging them into +civilizations. + +These conclusions are based on several thousand years of experiment and +experience with the civilized life pattern. Time after time, in age +after age, human beings by the millions have poured faith, hope and +unbounded energy, devotion and dedication into the upbuilding of the +urban nuclei of successive civilizations. Details have varied. Ultimate +conclusions have been the same. One civilization after another has +passed into the limbo of history leaving, sometimes, splendid ruins as a +testimonial to its evident inadequacy to meet the survival needs of +oncoming generations. + +Such conclusions, based on history, are underlined by current experience +with the over-ballyhooed, over-priced variant of the life pattern which +signs itself western civilization. Dating from the Crusades a thousand +years ago, western civilization has been promoted, built up and carried +forward by the blood, sweat and tears of credulous, hopeful, eager human +beings. Its promises have been wonderful; its performance, especially +since 1900, has been pitifully inadequate, superficial and unsatisfying. + + + + +_Part II_ + + +A Social Analysis of Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +THE POLITICS OF CIVILIZATION + + +Several thousand years ago humankind began experimenting with the life +style which we are now calling civilization. Presumably it was not +thought out and blueprinted in advance but worked out by trial and +error, episode by episode, step by step--perhaps, also, leap by leap. + +Historical and contemporary experiments with this lifestyle supply a +fund of valuable information, some of which has been covered in the +earlier chapters of this book. Our next task is to analyze and classify +this information under four headings: the politics, the economics, the +sociology and the ideology of civilization. (When the information is +properly arranged, we can do something with it and about it.) + +Politics is the part of social science and engineering which is +concerned with the organization, direction and administration of human +communities. We use the word to cover the conduct of public affairs in +any social group more extensive than a family. Hence we refer to village +politics, town politics, national politics, international politics and, +in the present instance, to the politics of civilization as a way of +life. + +Each sample, referred to in our examination of typical civilizations, +was built around a center, nucleus or homeland consisting of one or more +cities with their adjacent hinterlands. The nucleus of the developing +civilization was also the nucleus of an empire. Each nucleus was a +center of planned production; accumulating wealth, growing population +and expanding authority. Certain locations are better suited than +others to provide the essentials of a civilization nucleus. + +The first requirement for a nucleus is a tolerable climate, primarily a +satisfactory balance between heat and cold. Before the general use of +fire as a source of warmth human populations were concentrated at or +near the tropics. With the increasing use of artificial heating and +lighting human beings were able to cluster farther and farther away from +concentrated equatorial sunlight. + +The second requirement of such a location is a strategic position in a +crossroads, in a network of transportation and communication. + +The third requirement is a readily available source of the food and +building materials necessary to feed, house, and clothe a community and +provide it with some of the niceties of daily living. + +The fourth requirement is the presence of sufficient man-power to +operate the nucleus and provide a surplus for defense and for its +extension and expansion. + +The fifth requirement is defensibility against aggression or invasion. + +The sixth essential is the availability of sufficient raw materials to +meet the requirements of the nucleus, provide the exports needed to +maintain a favorable trade balance for the nucleus and permit of its +expansion, advancement and enrichment. + +Seventh, and in some ways, the most important requirement for the +establishing of an empire or a civilization nucleus, is the presence of +a will to live, a will to grow, a will to advance, competence in +management, and a dogged persistence that will remain constant through +generations or centuries of adversity, and still more demanding, through +long periods of security, comfort and affluence. + +Eighth, and by no means least important, is the capacity to fight and +win the aggressive trade and military wars incidental to the defense and +expansion of the nucleus, of the empire, and eventually of the +civilization. + +The ninth requirement is tolerance, receptivity to new ideas and +practices, the capacity to adapt and to assimilate the outside elements +which are constantly incorporated into the growing, expanding empire or +the civilization. + +Finally, as we read the history and observe the development of nuclei, +empires and civilizations, we are impressed by the role of outstanding +individuals who occupy positions of responsibility over sufficiently +long periods or with sufficient intensity to leave a lasting impression +on the ideas, practices and institutions of their times. This +requirement covers the practice of effective leadership. + +Our concern, at this point, lies primarily with the first eight of these +requirements for survival and success in building up empires and +civilizations. + +Empires and civilizations are established during periods of social +expansion when the up-building and out-going urges are widely felt. The +surge produces not a single center of growth and expansion but dozens or +scores of competitors, each aiming to win and keep a position well in +advance of its rivals. The resulting up-surge and free-for-all, which +usually lasts for centuries, is a characteristic and recurring feature +in the political life of every civilization. + +This statement is less a requirement for success in organizing the +nucleus of a civilization, than a generalization about the natural and +social milieu out of which competing nuclei arise. Success of one among +the many competitors is a characteristic feature of the struggle for +nuclear survival, development and perhaps for eventual supremacy. + +From earliest times waterways have provided the readiest means of +getting about. All that was needed was a hollow log, a raft, a primitive +canoe. Movement by land was impeded by mountains, deserts, forests, +swamps, water courses. Movement by water was a natural. + +More and bigger boats required shelter against storms and protection +against destruction by enemies. A good harbor with an adjacent walled +town or city was the answer to this need. + +Good harbors and navigable waterways are notably absent along the west +coast of South America and notably present in the Eastern Mediterranean. +Consequently, the South American West Coast line is sparsely settled to +this day, while the Eastern Mediterranean has been crowded with peoples, +teemed with trade and commerce, carried largely by sea, between cities +that occupied the best access to waterways. + +Safe harbors and navigable waterways made trade and transport easy and +cheap. As each wave of human advance turned from animal husbandry and +agriculture to bourgeois practices of industry, commerce and finance, +locations at strategic points along trade routes were first occupied by +occasional markets and fairs and eventually by trading towns and cities. +Geography was a decisive factor. + +Fertility was equally important. In the early stages of social +development transportation was difficult, dangerous and expensive. +Sources of food and building materials were found within a short +distance of the growing trade center. Again geography played a decisive +role. A deep, sheltered harbor backed by a desert could not attract and +support a thriving trade center. Food and raw materials are +indispensable to concentrations of human beings. + +The Nile Valley, like that of the Ganges and the Yellow River, provided +the fertility and transport, the food and raw materials that have +sustained concentrated human populations for many thousands of years, +forming part of the base for Egyptian, Indian and Chinese civilizations. +Animal husbandry and grain farming, coupled with fishing and forestry, +made possible the growth of cities and laid the foundations for the +nuclei of these civilizations. + +Temples, tombs and other public constructs provided the centers around +which Egyptian civilization was built. The stone, wood and other raw +materials used in the building of these unique examples of human +handiwork were floated up and down the Nile from their sources of +origin. Annual Nile floods provided silt deposits necessary to fertilize +farms and gardens. Nile water, impounded during floods, irrigated the +land during the long dry seasons. Banked by deserts, the Nile was a +ribbon of fertility running through a largely uninhabited wilderness. +The upper reaches of the Nile lay in the mountains of Central Africa. +The Nile delta, built up through ages by silt deposits, provided a +meeting place where African, European and Asian traders could exchange +their wares and lay the foundations for the civilization of lower Egypt. +The Nile also provided the means of communication which connected Lower +Egypt with Upper Egypt and led, finally, to the unification of the two +areas in a long enduring and prestigious Egyptian civilization. Once +again geography was laying down the guide lines within which +civilizations have been built up and liquidated. + +Thus far we have noted the role of physiographic factors that have led +to building the nuclei of empires and civilizations. They have been +parallelled by social factors as men took advantage of natural +opportunities to concentrate, feed and house ever larger human +aggregates. + +Empires and civilizations have been built up by comparatively large +numbers of human beings concentrated in relatively small spaces. +Wandering food gatherers and herdsmen ranged widely in search of game +and grass. Cultivators settled in villages from which they could work +the land. If crops were scanty, population was sparse. Only abundant +crops, dependable, season after season, provided the basis for large +settled populations. + +Large, settled populations, adequately supplied with the essentials of +life, enabled human beings to organize social centers in which a +comparatively few people, tending their animals and working the land, +could release a comparatively large part of the population to devote its +time and energy to trade and commerce, to industry and transport, to the +arts and sciences and to the organization, direction and administration +of large scale enterprises such as government, the military, +construction and the mobilization of sufficient labor power to carry on +and enlarge their enterprises. In its simplest essence this was +politics. + +Egyptian government, in its broad sense, rested on a class structured +society: the aristocracy, the priesthood, officialdom, businessmen, +highly trained scientists and engineers, skilled craftsmen and an +immense proletariat consisting of tenant farmers, peons, slaves and war +captives. + +At the top of the political structure was an absolute monarch who +wielded power that was limited only by the ambition, tolerance and +loyalty of his associates--nobles, priests, soldiers, businessmen and +political advisers, and by the willingness of the rural and urban masses +to work and fight for their overlords. A number of the monarchs +(Pharaohs) ruled for long periods--up to sixty years. It was during +these long reigns that the Egyptian Kingdom was organized, strengthened +and unified, the rule of the monarch was safeguarded; ambitious nobles +were placated or destroyed; and the leadership succession was determined +and assured. + +The nucleus of the Egyptian Empire was a dictatorship by a +self-perpetuated elite, headed by lords spiritual and temporal. Both +groups held land, accumulated wealth and exercised authority. It was a +government combining the theory of absolutism with the practice of +public responsibility. It was sufficiently arbitrary to get things done. +It was sufficiently inclusive to recognize and utilize special ability. +It was sufficiently structured to carry on from dynasty to dynasty. It +was sufficiently flexible to consolidate scattered communities into the +Old Kingdom, to unite Lower and Upper Egypt, to extend its authority +into Central Africa, the Near and Middle East and parts of Eastern +Europe, thus laying the foundations for history's most extensive and +long-lasting civilization during the period 3500 to 500 B.C. + +I have used the Egyptian example of nucleus organization because of the +phenomenal successes achieved by the Egyptians in maintaining an empire +for at least 3,000 years. For a considerable part of those thirty +centuries Egypt was top dog in the strategic area where Africa joins +Eurasia. + +The nucleus is the hub from which the spokes of empire and of +civilization radiate. The radius of authority and the vast stretches of +occupied, exploited territory constitute the circumference of the wheel. +The nucleus is the center of wealth and power surrounded by a cluster +of associates and dependencies. The control, direction and +administration of the nucleus is parallelled by the control, direction +and administration of the total complex--the empire and/or the +civilization. + +The development from nucleus to empire and from empire to civilization +creates three sets of political problems: those arising from the +administration of the nucleus; those arising out of contacts between the +nucleus and the circumference, between the associates and dependencies +and the nucleus, and those arising out of the determination of the +associates and dependencies to sever their connections with the nucleus, +win their independence, and take part in the unceasing efforts to +establish new nuclei, win the unending power struggle and shift the +power center. + +Relationship between nucleus and periphery are the normal outcome of the +expansion of a nucleus into an empire. Each growing urban center reaches +out for an extension of its territory; for the food and raw materials +required by a growing population; for markets that can absorb the goods +and services exported by the urban center to pay for its necessary +imports of food and raw materials. + +Politically speaking, the essential problem is to maintain a +relationship that will keep the imports coming in and keep the exports +going out. Imports may take the form of plunder seized by the strong in +contacts and conflicts with weaker neighbors; tribute paid by the weak +to the strong at the insistence of the strong, or trade in which each +side gains something. Empire building involves all three methods. + +In virtually all instances the nucleus is richer and stronger; the +periphery is poorer and weaker. In virtually all instances these +relative positions have been the outcome of military operations in which +each party has tried to impose its will upon its rivals. In each case +the spoils went to the victor, who forced defeated rivals to cede +territory, to pay tribute, to give hostages or in some other fashion to +agree upon a settlement that left the victor richer and stronger and the +vanquished poorer and weaker. + +Politically speaking, the relation of nucleus to periphery was that of +superior to inferior. Where the discrepancy was very great it resulted +in a relation of master and vassal or even master and slave. + +An empire or a civilization, consisting of a wealth-power center and a +periphery of associated and dependent territories and peoples, led to a +living-standard differential in favor of the center. It also involved +the establishment of a political apparatus strong enough to perpetuate +the relationship by collecting tribute and taxes from the weak and +depositing them in the treasure chests of the strong. The outcome was a +civil bureaucracy backed by a military or police strong enough to defend +and perpetuate an unpalatable superior-inferior position. + +Once established, both the civilian bureaucracy and the military +apparatus tended to maintain themselves, to extend their privileges and +strengthen their positions. Since controversial issues, domestic and +foreign, are generally decided by force or the threat of force, the +military became the strong right arm of authority. + +These confrontations and contradictions created three sets of political +problems: centralism versus localism; established central authority +versus provincial rights and self-determination; the concentration or +centralization of authority in the hands of a select few civilian and/or +military leaders, responsible to the central authority, who made on the +spot decisions and took action. + +Under the institutions and practices of civilized society, the select +few were in a position to call in the military which was organized for +emergency action and was constantly standing-by. The military was +trained, disciplined and held a monopoly of weapons. + +Civilizations frequently begin as commonwealths or federations forged in +the course of survival struggle. In any such struggle the military will +of necessity play a major role. As the competitive survival struggle +develops, one of the contending parties establishes its superiority by +winning military victory. In the course of this struggle the +commonwealth, a cluster of equals, yields place to the pattern of +empire--a center of wealth and authority with its associates, +subordinates and dependencies. + +The strong right arm of politics includes man-power, money and weapons. +The politics of civilization faces a simple mandate: establish, +stabilize and perpetuate a nucleus of wealth and authority; build around +the nucleus a periphery of associates and dependencies. + +Historically, the process was a long one extending through generations +and probably centuries. Throughout the struggle individuals must have +the necessities of daily life. Community activities must be housed, +equipped, staffed, supported. + +Pastoral and village life were based on a use economy. People produced +what they needed and consumed their own products. Each tribe, family, +village was a more or less self-sufficient unit. When they were +threatened or invaded people defended themselves as best they could. At +worst they abandoned their homes to the invaders and fled into the +forests, mountains or deserts. + +Towns and cities, with their industries, trade, commerce, their +permanent housing and capital equipment faced a radically different +situation. Since they could not carry their wealth on their backs they +must stay put and defend themselves or face irreparable losses. Defense +required careful, extensive, expensive preparations: walls, equipment, +stored food, personnel. Unless the city was sacked and burned during +survival struggles it remained as a vantage point to be held at all +costs. If surrendered and occupied by assailants, it was equally +valuable to invaders who were prepared to settle down, take advantage of +the site, the capital equipment and exploit the available manpower. + +Whether occupied by friend or enemy, towns and cities were centers of +actual or potential wealth and power. They were also consumers of goods +and services many of which could not be home-produced. Food must come +from herdsmen or farmers. Building materials must come from forests or +mines. Such raw materials, the essentials of daily life, must be brought +into urban centers when and as wanted. + +Food and raw materials could be secured occasionally by plunder. A +regular supply depended on trade and commerce, or on tribute levied and +collected periodically from associated or dependent peoples. In the long +run trade and commerce proved to be more reliable and more productive +than plunder. + +As urban centers grew and developed, they established regular channels +of trade and communication, by land and water. Along these channels +needed imports moved into the urban centers and exports in exchange +moved from the urban centers into the back country or the provinces. At +every stage in the process care must be taken to prevent intervention by +thieves, robbers or envious rivals. Two devices were used to meet this +situation: money to facilitate exchange and a defense organization to +deal with intruders. + +Money and its uses developed money changers, money lenders and banks. +Bankers and banks exchanged currency at a profit and extended credit. + +Weapons in the hands of trained personnel evolved into locally employed +police and centrally organized armed services, performing police +functions and fighting wars, domestic and foreign. + +Politics, local, regional or national, developed with the growth of +population, the profits of expanding urban life, production, technology. +As its scope broadened geographically city survival depended +increasingly on wealth and power (money and weapons). + +During periods of peace and stability the civil authorities controlled +public affairs. In emergencies, such as natural disasters, invasion, +civil or international wars, the military authorities took command. + +Military authority is an institutional feature of every civilization. In +periods of public danger it enjoys complete ascendancy. Like civil +authority, the military is a permanent and frequently the dominant +feature of each civilization. It is assured of ample income and +entrusted with the installations and implements of war making. Both in +income and in prestige the military holds a preferred position. + +Since military functions center about destroying the person and +property of the "enemy"--domestic or foreign--public funds are made +available or are pre-empted by the military during periods of martial +law. As a civilization becomes more complex and extensive, the funds at +the disposal of the military tend to increase. The same factors of +extent and complexity lead to larger and larger numbers of +confrontations and conflicts in which the military is called upon to +play the leading role. Increasingly, therefore, the military is at the +center of policy making. Finally a point is reached at which war, civil, +colonial or international is always in progress somewhere within the +territories occupied by the civilization. At such periods civil law +slumbers and military authority is more or less dominant and permanent. + +Under the slogan "defense of civilization," military necessity and +military adventurism shape public policy, empty the public treasury, +bankrupt and eventually destroy the superstructure of a civilization. + +The nucleus which lies at the heart of an empire or a civilization has a +political life cycle that runs from the unstructured or little +structured aggregation of confederation or self-determining local groups +to a highly centralized political absolutism holding and exercising its +authority by the use of the military. The steps in this process have +been clearly marked in earlier civilizations. They are playing a +decisive role in the day-to-day life of western civilization. They +extend from early forms of government under leaders selected or elected +by popular acclaim or at least by popular consent, to more or less +permanent leadership enjoying many political privileges, including the +selection of its successors. + +Under the pressure of social emergency, engendered within the social +group or imposed from outside the group by migration, intrusion or +invasion, leadership takes the measures which it considers necessary to +preserve and/or extend its authority. Each emergency offers leadership +an opportunity or an excuse to by-pass custom and/or law, overlook +whatever public opinion may exist and proceed to the measures needed to +meet the emergency. In each organized social group the exercise of +authority has provided the leadership with a near-monopoly of money and +weapons in the hands of a permanent military elite. The use of this +elite to deal with the emergency is accepted by civil authority as a +matter of course. + +When social division of function has produced and armed a military +elite, leadership turns to this elite in any emergency arising from +natural disaster or social crisis. The outcome is a community directed +by a military arm seeking to perpetuate and enlarge its own role in the +determination and exercise of public authority, using any means which +seems likely to produce the desired results. + +Politically, therefore, any expanding empire or civilization reaches a +point at which absolute monarchy, exercising unquestioned authority, +makes and enforces public policy by the use of the military or with its +help. + +Many commentators write as though the essence of civilization was its +art galleries, concert halls, its universities and its libraries. Such +agencies are the trappings, decorations and fringes of a civilization. +There is no justification for such a selective approach. The strong +right-arm of every civilization has been its wealth (money) and its +martial equipment (its guns). + +Success in politics has been described as the art of selecting the +possible and bringing it to fruition. Every community is more or less +fragmented by deviations, contradictions, confrontations and conflicts. +These fragmentations begin in the personality and extend through the +entire social structure--from the individual, through the family, such +voluntary associations as the sports club, the trade union, the +merchants' association, the educational system, the political party, the +municipal or the national government. + +Unrestrained and undirected social fragmentation leads to conflict, +destruction, perhaps to chaos. Success in politics rests on an +understanding of the chaos and its causes and an integration of +conflicting forces behind specific programs and around charismatic +personalities. + +One aspect of the problem is especially disturbing and baffling to the +uninitiated. Compared with the brief adulthood of an individual the life +span of communities is immensely long. The individual is at his or her +best for a few years or decades. Communities and their institutions +endure for hundreds and in some cases for thousands of years. Under the +most favorable conditions an individual can hope to play a part in +community affairs for a decade or two. Before he comes on the stage of +public affairs and after he leaves it, social life stretches +indefinitely. + +Politics is one aspect of that more or less extensive social experience. +Its immediate objective is to bring order out of chaos and replace +randomness by purpose and if possible by plan. + +In the wake of the bourgeois revolution, which was directed particularly +against monarchy and generally against absolutism, the most obvious and +attractive social pattern was a republic, ruled by the citizens in a +manner which in their opinion was best calculated to promote their +safety and happiness. + +Under a republican government public affairs would be openly and freely +discussed by the citizens at a time or place of their choice by word of +mouth, through a free press or in public gatherings. At stated intervals +elections would be held at which all citizens of proper age would select +representatives and a legislature or parliament where questions of +public concern could be debated and appropriate measures adopted. +Implementation or execution of these measures would be placed in the +hands of executive officers responsible to the parliament. As a +safeguard against any miscarriage of the public will, the right of +petition was guaranteed. In some instances the right of referendum and +recall was provided. To obviate any miscarriage of justice, provision +was made for courts, responsible to the citizenry, as an independent arm +of government competent to protect and assert popular rights. + +Overall, citizens of the republic, through duly elected representatives, +would draw up and proclaim a constitution containing a general plan of +the governmental machinery. When adopted by the legislature or +parliament this constitution became the law of the land. Governmental +activities were carried out and laws were enacted in conformity with +constitutional provisions. In practice the citizens of the freest +republic were face to face with one of the oldest political dilemmas +confronting mankind: the question of leadership and followership. + +In almost any social situation, from trivial to grave and critical, some +one woman or man volunteers advice and often initiates action. If no one +approves, the initiative falls flat. If there is a chorus of approval, +the crowd follows the lead of its spokesman. If some approve while +others disapprove or remain silent, a show of hands is in order. If +there are real differences in the group, some taking one side, some +another side with no chance of common action, the group may divide into +several factions, some remaining in the assemblage, others departing, +with their spokesmen leading the way. + +In such confrontations there are many determining factors, the +experience and wisdom of the leadership; the urgency of the subject +under discussion; the depth of the separation between opposing factions; +the experience of the citizenry and their willingness to compromise on +divisive issues; the willingness of the factionalists to abide by a +majority decision. + +Experienced leadership, which has enjoyed a period of public approval +long enough to build up not only a group of devoted followers, but a +group of place-men and office-holders who owe their positions to the +leader, can assemble a bureaucratic or political machine, adopt measures +and take the steps necessary to keep its chosen leader in a life job, +with the possibility of naming a successor. + +Republics have adopted various measures to prevent the establishment of +a self-perpetuating dynasty, by limiting public office-holding to a +stated number of years; by providing that the office holder may not +succeed himself. Political leaders may avoid such provisions by staying +in the background, having their closest associates elected to office, +and when their term is ended, secure the selection of other associates +upon whose personal fidelity they can rely. + +All such measures require that the leader keep the favor of a +considerable number of his constituents. To avoid this often difficult +or disagreeable task the leader and his close associates may persuade +their constituency to by-pass both constitution and parliament, enlist +the support of the military, seize power and establish an arbitrary +dictatorship of admirals and generals or establish a committee of +military leaders who will pick out civilian office holders willing to +follow the political line laid down by the military leaders. + +As republics gain in wealth, increase their power and broaden their +geographical base by bringing outside peoples under their sway, their +dependence upon military means of resolving public controversies becomes +greater. This is particularly true where outsiders brought under the +republic's authority have mature political institutions including their +own leaders and their own ways of dealing with public relations. + +Given such a situation, the control by the republic over the +policy-making apparatus of dependencies is likely to have been +established by force of arms. In such a case it is only a matter of time +and occasion when the dependency will demand the right of +self-determination and be prepared to fight for independence of "foreign +tyrants, oppressors and exploiters." + +Minor inexpensive military operations for the suppression of colonial +revolt which are quickly and successfully ended may add to the stature +of empire-building leaders. But major operations, long continued, +expensive and inconclusive, will undermine the prestige and weaken the +position of the most firmly seated imperialist. The Boer War against the +British and the wars waged by the Koreans and the Vietnamese against a +series of occupiers and exploiters are excellent examples of the +operation of this principle. + +As empire building proceeds under its inescapable expansionist drive, a +point will be reached at which the overhead costs of maintaining the +empire will exceed the income. As that point is approached in one after +another of the empires comprising the civilization, the central +authority will be successfully challenged by the dependent, colonial +periphery. Ordinarily, such challenges will coincide with the +inter-imperial wars which have periodically disrupted every civilization +known to history. When such a coincidence does occur, as it did in +western civilization from 1914 to 1945, the bell is likely to toll +loudly for the civilization in question. + +Measures usually adopted to prevent such a catastrophe--martial law, +military dictatorship, self-perpetuating monarchy, divine authority, are +more than likely to heap fuel on the flames of rebellion and lead into a +social revolution. + +An unstructured social group operating under the competitive principle +"Let him take who has the power" tends to develop into absolutism. At +any stage in the history of a civilization this development can take +place. + +Civilization, therefore, comes into being with this built-in +contradiction: the strong and predatory exploit the weak, but at a +certain point protect the weak and nurture the defenseless. Exploitation +by the rich and powerful is recognized and accepted as a prerogative +enjoyed by the rich and powerful. At the same time limitations are +placed on the character and intensity of the exploitation. + +This dichotomy is perpetuated by agreements, laws and constitutions +which guarantee the property rights and social privileges by which the +rich and powerful safeguard and increase their wealth and power. Under +the same agreements, laws and constitutions, the privileges and rights +of the defenseless and weak, are specified. + +Political institutions in every civilization, including that of the +West, have accepted and adopted a regulatory structure under which +limits are imposed on profiteering. The domestic life of a civilization +consists of an establishment within which exploitation can continue in a +manner which the constitution makers and legislators consider to be as +efficient as possible and as fair as possible to all of the parties +concerned. + +As a civilization matures, wealth and power (the means of exploitation) +are increased in volume and concentrated in fewer hands. The resulting +absolutism with its immense structure of wealth production and its +well-organized military arm, imposes conformity to its decrees, +servility, peonage and even slavery on the working masses. The masses, +in their turn, organize, agitate, demonstrate, strike, sabotage, and +periodically take up, arms in defense of their lives and their +livelihood. + +We are describing certain political aspects of a process of social +selection which has dominated one civilization after another. At the +present moment it has reached a critical stage in the West. We apply the +term "social selection" to the result of this process because there is a +parallel between the natural selection of the biologists and the social +selection which sociologists observe in the rapid and extensive changes +presently taking place in the centers of western civilization. + +Natural selection is a process in the course of which many compete and +contend while only a few survive and mature. + +Social selection is a similar knock-down and drag-out struggle in which +peoples, nations, empires and civilizations take part. Many enter the +contest but only a few live to write their story in the long and complex +history of civilizations. + +At the outset of such a contest, the European-Asian-African cradle of +the coming western culture contained numerous political +fragments--kingdoms, principalities, cities, city states, inert peasant +masses, migrating tribes--struggling locally and regionally for a place +in the sun, or for additional territory and extended authority. These +struggles reached the military level in local wars, regional wars, +general wars. In the course of this survival struggle, the weakest and +least effective contestants were defeated, dismembered and gobbled up by +their stronger and more efficient opponents. + +Local struggles--in the Near and Middle East, in North Africa, in +eastern, central and western Europe--were trial heats in the course of +which many contestants were eliminated, while the survivors continued +the process of city, nation and empire building at higher and broader +levels. It was only after five hundred years of such conflicts that the +outlines of western civilization took definite political form:--a group +of battle-hardened contestants, centered in Europe, heavily armed and +equipped, intent on protecting and enlarging their home territory and +extending their authority over dependencies and colonies in various +parts of the planet. + +This survival struggle continued for another three hundred years, down +to the beginning of the present century, reaching its highest level of +intensity between 1914 and 1945, with contestants from all of the +continents taking an active part. In this present round the contestants +are nations and empires, organized in ever-changing alliances. Some of +the contestants are old, scarred and battle weary. Others are young and +vigorous, recent entrants in the planet-wide contest for pelf, +possessions and power. + +During the later years of the struggle, after war's end in 1945, +erstwhile dependencies and colonies of the disintegrating European +empires declared their independence, joined the United Nations as +sovereign states and played active parts in the battle for survival. + +African development typifies the process during the later phases of +western civilization. When voyaging and discovery became a leading +activity of European nations around 1450 A.D. northern Africa was +directly involved, but the bulk of the continent--Equatorial +Africa--remained almost entirely untouched. After 1870 the pattern was +dramatically altered as British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and +Italian forces moved inland, staking out their claims. + +Division of Africa among the great powers reached its culmination when +this process was completed, about 1910, when the whole vast continent of +Africa excepting Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa had been parcelled out +among the rival European empires. In terms of geography and population, +Africa was still African. Politically it was pre-empted, occupied, +dominated and exploited by European empire builders, who used the over, +all trade name of western civilization. + +Excessive costs of empire building, including the disastrous losses of +military struggle from 1914 to 1945, impoverished and weakened the +European overlords to such an extent that they could no longer maintain +their footholds in Africa. At the same time African minorities in +various parts of the continent launched independence movements under the +slogan of self-determination, drove out the European occupiers, +organized political states and declared that Africa must be governed by +and for Africans. + +Much of Africa, at the time, was organized along tribal lines, which cut +across the boundaries drawn by the European imperialists between their +colonial territories. The resulting chaos temporarily removed Africa +from any meaningful role in the planet-wide contest for pelf and power. +Africans are politically sovereign. Economically and culturally they +remain dependent on their former European masters. + +Politically, western civilization is in a state of flux. Its European +homeland is basically divided by potent fears, ambitions, feuds and +conflicts, and separated geographically from North America and Asia. +Despite several attempts to unify the continent politically, Europe was +disrupted, fragmented and weakened by two general wars in a single +generation. The European empires were politically and economically upset +by widespread colonial revolt in Asia and Africa. Spectacular +achievements of socialism-communism, particularly in East Europe and +Asia, added to the previous fragmentation a new line of division between +capitalist West Europe and socialist East Europe. This process of +fragmentation is giving separatist forces ascendancy over the forces of +integration and unification. + +In Roman and Egyptian civilizations, the period of survival conflict led +to the centralization of wealth and authority. After five centuries of +suicidal competitive struggle, the European homeland of western +civilization is criss-crossed by sharp lines of division. Furthermore, +the shift of production and military power from Europe to North America +and Asia reduces the probability of speedy European integration. + +In the more important centers of western civilization the chief item of +public expenditure is preparation for a war of air, water and land +machines that may extend technologically into a nuclear war. While we +have no precedent that would enable us to gauge the consequences of an +extensive nuclear war it seems reasonable to assume that it would +further fragment an already fragmented European continent. + +The heavy burdens of militarism which western civilization is presently +carrying, have unbalanced budgets, which lead to inflation and to +onerous burdens of debt and taxes. It seems unlikely that a group of +warfare states like the top western European powers can escape the +economic contraction which presently threatens them and regain solvency +and stability through fiscal reforms or readjustments in tariffs and +trade. + +Our analysis of the politics of civilization may be summarized in four +general statements: + + 1. Each civilization has consisted of a cluster of empires, + nations and peoples which at some previous period have + enjoyed independence and sovereignty. + + 2. Relations between these erstwhile sovereign units have + been determined by a shifting mixture of diplomacy and + armed force, with war playing a determining role in the + process. + + 3. In the course of survival struggle, political leadership within + the civilization has shifted back and forth as one group + has succeeded in establishing and maintaining its authority + over the entire civilization. + + 4. A general axiom of the politics of civilization might read: + + At the conclusion of each war among civilized peoples + the victors are entitled to make the following declaration: + We operate under the Law of the Jungle: "Let him take + who has the power and let him keep who can." We have + the power. We have grabbed the real and personal property + of our neighbors and we propose to keep it. Our + friends are welcome to attend our Feast of Victory. Let + our enemies beware. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +THE ECONOMICS OF CIVILIZATION + + +Politics involves the exercise of authority--the policy making, +planning, control, direction and administration of a community. Economic +forces provide the wealth, income and livelihood--the wherewithal upon +which a community depends for its physical existence, its survival, its +geographical extension, the continuance of its life cycle. + +There is no sharp line separating economics from politics. While the two +fields are different in character and scope, they are so interrelated +and interwoven that any successful attempt to separate them would leave +the inquirer with two segments of a lifeless social cadaver. In the +course of this exposition it will become increasingly evident, as the +political and economic lines cross and re-cross, that the two fields are +inseparable parts of a total body social. + +One civilization after another has begun with a predominantly rural +economy that has become increasingly urban as it matured. Food +gathering, pastoral life and small scale agriculture were rural. Trade, +commerce, manufacturing and finance, concentrated populations, increased +division of labor, specialization, inter-communication and +interdependence produced the trade center, the commercial metropolis and +the general purpose city. + +Herdsmen and land workers, dependent on grass and rainfall, lived close +to the subsistence margin and were at the mercy of forces they could not +control. Traders and money changers, with an eye for business in a +growing marketplace made a more ample living. At the same time the more +successful among them accumulated capital which they loaned or invested +in stocks of goods, shops, warehouses, caravans, ships. By hiring +labor-power they multiplied their own limited physical capacities. By +investing in varied enterprises they assured themselves against possible +loss in any one of them. They also multiplied the possibilities of +profit. + +Trade, finance and commerce, by producing a regular flow of abundant +income, brought into existence a new field of occupations and a new +class--business and the businessmen. Herdsmen and farmers depended for +their livelihood on nature, her niggardliness or generosity. The +businessmen required only the presence of a group large enough to +purchase goods and services, pay rent and interest, work for wages and +leave the profits to the enterpriser. Each profit beyond the subsistence +level enabled the businessmen to expand, buying more goods, hiring more +labor, making still greater profits. + +Communities of businessmen pooled their profits, extended their markets, +built fleets, enlarged cities. Through joint action they engaged in +plundering expeditions and collected tribute from their victims. +Organized fabrication turned out the goods and services which were +marketed for profits. The resulting wealth enabled the successful +businessmen to build houses, stock them with consumer goods and art +treasures, hire servants, live sumptuously. Productivity, wealth, +prosperity filled their honey pot to overflowing. + +Honey pots provide the "good things" of life for their owners. They also +tempt outsiders. Honey-pot owners fear pilfering by their servants; fear +sponging by their relatives, friends, neighbors; fear robbers and +kidnappers; fear migrating hordes on the lookout for plunder. Defense is +a necessary aspect of each rich household, neighborhood, city, nation, +empire, civilization. + +The sequence from productivity, through prosperity, wealth accumulation, +abundance and the measures needed to defend and safeguard the +accumulations, leads to an affluent community or society. It also calls +into being new and distinctive class forces. + + I. The business class (hucksters and profiteers), a self-seeking, + aggressive group of adventurers, promoters and + organizers of bourgeois society to whom _profit_ comes + first. At one or another stage in the life cycle of every + civilization aggressive bourgeois greed for wealth and + power makes itself felt. Their role in western civilization + has been outstanding. The business class through + its control of the productive apparatus and the sources + of credit has been able to surround itself with subordinates, + scientists and other experts, apologists, strong-arm + squads (police and military), spies and assassins. + + II. A middle class, made up of business class subordinates + plus self employed tradesmen, professionals, independent + farmers and craftsmen. + + III. A class of blue collared and white collared producers of + goods and services who hold their jobs during good + behavior. When not needed or wanted they are pushed + into the ranks of the partially or wholly unemployed. + Most civilizations have added to the working force serfs, + peons and/or chattel slaves. + + IV. A class of hangers on--economic parasites--who consume + more than they produce. The payment of unearned income + to property holders and the creation of monopolies + enables this class to live on rent, interest and profit in + proportion to their ownership. As parasitism increases + and multiplies it proves to be a dead weight which + eventually drags down any economy that tolerates it. + + V. A class of dependents, defectives and delinquents, supported + by society but contributing little or nothing to + its maintenance or its advancement. + +Every civilization has maintained a greater or lesser degree of mobility +between the classes. Mobility makes it possible for those with greater +ability and energy to leave the countryside, settle near the +market-place and climb the ladder of success. It has also made it +possible for policy makers to dump those whose services are no longer +needed or wanted by the ruling oligarchy. + +Among the driving economic forces in a civilization are hunger, fear, +greed, ambition. In practice these forces have proved far more effective +than whips and clubs in the hand of slave drivers. They animate the +rat-race for pelf, power, "success", which attracts idealism, energy, +ability and throws out the carcases of those no longer able to make a +contribution to the wealth and power of the oligarchy and its +establishment. + +Hunters, herdsmen, cultivators, craftsmen, mariners, miners perform +services that maintain the solvency of any economy in which they play a +leading role. Fast talkers, adventurers, promoters, manipulators, +gamblers add little or nothing to the income of the communities in which +they operate. Often, however, as gargantuan consumers, they play an +important role in building up the deficits which finally wreck an +economy. + +Accumulations of wealth in market centers tempts the ambitious and the +adventurous to enter the rat-race and grab more than their pro-rata +share of the honey. The most obvious way to do this is to secure +possession of the honey pot. + +Far away, in the tribal past of a civilization, lay a period of scarcity +in which the members of the community shared the scarce income or +starved. As the tribal wealth increased, the leaders, their families and +retainers got more than a fair share of the available goods, services, +preferment, privileges. At a very early stage the "ants" stored away +what they could spare, while the "grasshoppers" had a "good time". +Investing their stored wealth in land or productive enterprises the +"ants" added unearned income to their normal earnings from productive +labor. + +Because the "ants" held the wealth of the community they were able to +exercise authority and determine community policy. One result of their +decisions was the creation of titles to land and stored wealth. A second +result was the institution of property-custom and later of property-law +under which those who owned property enjoyed special privileges which +gave them still larger shares of the community wealth and income. + +Wealth ownership and the exercise of authority, concentrated in one +person or family, created a basic division in the community between +those whose livelihood depended on their labor and those whose income +was determined by their ownership of property and their exercise of +authority. In the course of time this development divided the community +into a property-owning, governing minority which was wealthy, and a +property-poor majority whose livelihood depended upon the willingness of +the property holding minority to use their land and productive +implements in operations that turned out goods and services. + +Property ownership and income were protected by law. Labor income +depended on the bargaining power of the property-less majority. Property +income yielded wealth to the property owners. Labor income, under the +pressure of competition in the labor market, yielded only subsistence. +Thus the community was divided into owners and workers. The owners +controlled and spent or invested the income. The workers were provided +with the necessaries and a few crumbs of comfort. + +Private property and property law supported by state power +institutionalized a basic division in every civilization. One segment of +a civilized community enjoyed wealth and power; other segments produced +goods and performed services. The owners were rich; the producers were +poor. Riches side by side with poverty are characteristic features of a +civilized society. + +Exploitation has been the economic backbone of every civilization from +earliest times to the present day. Each civilization has exploited and +used up its natural resources. In every civilization individuals, +groups, classes and sometimes castes have exploited or used up fellow +humans and fellow creatures to suit their own purposes and advance their +own interests. + +Abraham Lincoln gave a classical definition of human exploitation in a +simple sentence: "It is the principal that says you work and toil and +earn bread and I will eat it." + +Exploitation of nature and of fellow beings by man began long before +written history. During periods of civilization, and notably in +present-day civilization, exploitation has determined social +relationships. It has also become one of the pillars of every civilized +community. + +Civilized peoples use up natural resources as a matter of course. The +more advanced technically have stripped their environments of +replaceable and irreplaceable resources. They have also perfected +techniques for using the productive power of their fellow creatures. One +way to do this is by owning the body. Another way is ownership of land, +capital and consumer goods which enable the owner to live without labor +on the products resulting from the labor of others. + +Owners of property and wealth receive an income because they are owners. +They may be very young or very old, able-bodied or helpless. Their +livelihood comes to them not because of anything they do, but because of +the property titles which they own. + +The owner of land may collect rent. The owner of capital may collect +interest. The owner of an enterprise may collect profits. Each lives by +owning. + +Workers produce goods and services. They are paid an income proportioned +to their production. + +Owners of land, capital and consumer goods are paid incomes proportioned +to their ownership. + +Workers work for a living. Owners live by ownership, chiefly of land and +the implements of production. + +Owners of property frequently are rich. Workers, by comparison, are +poor. The line separating owners from workers also separates riches from +poverty. + +Income from services rendered, from work, is earned income. Income from +property ownership, by contrast, is unearned income. + +The relation between earned and unearned income is not confined to one +generation. Under laws passed by the owners and their retainers the +owners of private property may give or bequeath this property to their +descendants. In the course of time a community is divided between +workers who are poor and owners who are rich. Since the rich need not +work in order to live, they and those associated with them may live on +the unearned income derived from property ownership. In a word, they may +become parasitic. + +Parasitism may lead to social decay. Generation after generation, the +owners and their dependants may live in comfort or even in luxury while +those who work and their dependents may lack simple necessities. This is +the confrontation of riches and poverty which has played so large a role +in every civilization. + +Through the ages, in one civilization after another, the glaring +contrast between riches and poverty has appeared, dividing the community +and laying the foundation for class struggle and class war, both of +which decrease social efficiency, intensify class antagonism. + +In the early stages of any culture cycle, barter is replaced by a money +economy. Money is a medium of exchange, usually issued by a public +authority and used in daily transactions, to pay tribute or taxes and to +meet other general expenses. In its earlier forms it is made of +relatively scarce materials that are in general demand, limited in +supply and easily divisible into smaller units. Gold, silver and other +metals meet these requirements and have been used as money through the +ages. + +Cash money and promises to pay speed up wholesale and retail exchanges +in the market place. They fill the bill in normal times. But there are +emergencies and other exceptions. One of the commonest of the +emergencies is war. + +In a previous chapter we pointed out that war is a characteristic +feature of a civilization that has passed the top-point of its expansion +and begun to decline. Then the chickens come home to roost. Civil war, +colonial wars and wars between imperial rivals follow each other, +creating emergencies in which demand for certain strategic goods and +services rises steeply, with no corresponding increase in supply. Prices +increase. The common defense requires immediate purchase of supplies. +The public treasury is exhausted. The government borrows from money +lenders (bankers). It also prints paper money and puts it in +circulation. + +If the credit of the government is good, if the emergency is of short +duration, matters right themselves and the economy survives without +serious derangements. But war-emergency disrupts and sometimes destroys +an economy. This outcome often results from military defeat. + +Another exception to normal economic transactions is buying on +credit--buying today and paying tomorrow. The temporary gap between +purchase and payment is filled by credit--a promise of the purchaser to +pay later and the confidence of the seller that the bill will be paid. +Such credit transactions are covered by notes, bonds and mortgages made +out by the buyer and accepted by the seller. Until the debt is settled, +the borrower pays the seller interest at an agreed rate. Bankers enter +the picture, providing capital and collecting interest on their loans. + +Where credit is abundant and relatively cheap, borrowers spend beyond +their incomes, hoping to pay later when the loan falls due. Borrowing +and over-spending are among human frailties. They are also forms of +risk-taking or gambling. Who knows whether the banker who promises to +pay on demand will be alive and doing business next week when his +promise to pay is presented for settlement? When the promise to pay is +issued by a government which decides the value of currency, and accepted +by that government as payment for taxes and other obligations, it is +more readily acceptable than paper issued and guaranteed by an +individual money lender or banker. + +Each civilization has had a background of simple use economy--food +gathering, animal husbandry, agriculture--in which most of the people +produced what they needed and consumed what they produced. Such an +economy employs money rarely. + +In a money economy those who have cash use it to pay their bills or +settle their accounts. + +Those who buy on credit pay interest to money lenders. The money +lenders, later the bankers, make their profits by helping others to +spend beyond their own means. The money-lender also accepted loans from +others, promising to pay them back at a later date, and giving the +lender a piece of paper, specifying the amount of the loan. The paper +promise to pay became a bank-note, passed from hand to hand. It had no +intrinsic value, but as the money lender promised to pay cash for the +note on demand, it was accepted in payment of debts or for the purchase +of commodities. + +When a shirt-maker turns out a product and exchanges it for a pair of +shoes made by a shoemaker there are no overhead costs. Each producer +adds to his wardrobe an item that makes his life more satisfactory. + +Examples of simple barter are seldom found in market economies. +Civilized society assembles quantities and varieties of goods and +services in the market place, invites consumers to choose among the +wares and provides money to make transactions quick and easy. Civilized +society supplements money with credit on the principle: buy and use +today; pay tomorrow. Civilization goes beyond these bare essentials of +merchandizing by furnishing transportation and communication, making +long term loans at interest, writing insurance, developing the +techniques of accounting and management. Customers who visit the market +have basic human needs--the necessities of life. Beyond these +necessaries, there are conveniences, comforts, luxuries. The markets of +civilization cover the entire range of human needs and human wants from +necessaries to luxuries. + +Civilized merchandizers take two other steps aimed to activate +consumption. They develop new lines of merchandise that will have more +customer appeal, leading to new wants. They also advertise new wares +that will create new wants, bring back old customers and attract new +ones. + +For the foot-weary customer who has shopped away his energy and +enthusiasm for buying more and more, a civilized marketplace furnishes +food and shelter, recreation, entertainment and culture--beer, +libraries, concert halls and circuses as well as food, clothing and +shelter. + +These multiple functions of a civilized economy are part and parcel of +the changes which have converted the simple barter deal of exchanging a +pair of shoes for a shirt into a specialized, civilized market place. +They also cause civilized economies to devote far more time and money to +marketing goods and services than they spend in their manufacture. In a +broad sense, these supplementary costs are "overhead." + +Shirt makers and shoemakers convert raw materials and partly finished +goods into shirts and shoes. Operating costs of manufacture are minimal +in a civilized economy. The major items that go into the final price of +the product are overhead costs. + +Current accounting practices include in overhead: taxes, interest, +insurance and general items. Actually the price of goods and services in +a civilized economy includes minimal charges for raw materials and labor +and maximum charges for overhead. + +There is another phase of overhead which pyramids with each advance in +the extent and complexity of a civilization--taxes to cover the costs of +government. As the civilization expands and specializes, governmental +services multiply. The number of government workers grows in proportion +and often out of proportion to the total production costs. Expenses of +government rise and with them the corresponding need to increase taxes. + +Overhead costs in the village or small town are low. Much of the "public +service" is done by citizens who volunteer their time and energy. In the +centers of civilization public service is a profession, often well paid +and usually quite permanent. + +Expansion is a basic feature in the life of every civilization. +Expansion increases overhead costs. When American Indians made their +silent way through the forests or roamed the plains there was no +overhead. Each provided his own means of locomotion. With roads came +bridges. With roads and bridges came capital costs. As dirt roads gave +way to macadam and macadam to asphalt and concrete, as country roads, +winding over hill and through dale were replaced by graded superhighways +cut straight through or built over all obstacles, the cost per mile rose +fantastically. All of these added costs appeared somewhere in the tax +bills which citizens were required to pay. + +In any enterprise overhead costs rise in direct proportion to the extent +and complexity of the social order. As they rise, they increase the +prices of the goods and services which citizens (or consumers) must pay +for their livelihood. A good illustration of this principle is the price +of an identical acre of land: in the remote countryside; on an improved +highway; in the suburbs of a growing city and at the city center. + +Increasing wealth brings greater risks. Wealthy cities like wealthy +individuals and families must pay for their protection against robbery +and piracy; against extortion and expropriation. Among important +business enterprises insurance ranks high. The costs and profits of +insurance are suggested by elaborate insurance company buildings and the +high salaries paid to their officials. + +Insurance, usually a private overhead, comes high. Public insurance: +maintenance of law and order, crime and punishment, the secret and open +police, the armed forces, (land and sea and air) are vastly more +expensive. If, to these limited costs of overhead are added the costs of +militarism as a public enterprise and the ruinous costs of military +adventurism and its inevitable wars, the mounting costs lead to +insolvency and eventual economic and social ruin. + +Another overhead cost which plays havoc with civilized nations and +peoples is the support of a bureaucracy. Increased extent and complexity +exhaust the community capacity for voluntary service and lead into an +era where the volunteers who carried on the limited public activities of +a village are supplemented and eventually replaced by a constantly +growing body of public servants. Growing extent and complexity plus the +need for finding safe places for those who are useful to the rich and +powerful, widens and deepens the public crib. In large enterprises, +private as well as public, paper work employs a small army, which must +be fed and housed at a level worthy of "a great nation." Business +machines reduce the personnel necessary for a given social enterprise, +but their high capital and operational costs increase overhead. + +Another aspect of overhead costs is the multiplication of parasitic +professions. In simple villages, there are few body servants, no +able-bodied individuals who fetch and carry at the word of command, or +who only stand and wait for the moment when some whim, fancy or real +need may call for their services. + +Village life, with its limited area and still more limited resources, +has little economic surplus upon which parasitism can feed. There is +landlordism, of course, but the margin of surplus is small. The city, +the province, the nation, the empire present a different picture. +Parasitic professions abound and proliferate: money changers, money +lenders, realtors, confidence men, gamblers, fortune tellers, priests, +entertainers, artists, thieves, robbers, and prostitutes abound, consume +more than their share of the community income, without making an +equivalent return in production or service. Their support adds to the +social overhead. + +Another source of social overhead are the numerous followers of the +"something for nothing" cult who receive unearned income--an income +derived from civilization in its mature and its final stages. + +Broadly there are two types of income--earned income and unearned +income. Earned income is something for something--or return for goods +provided or service rendered. Unearned income is something for +nothing--an income derived from some monopoly, privilege, sinecure or +form of property ownership. + +Property in persons or things has been a characteristic feature of all +civilizations. Property owners, receiving rents, interest, dividends, in +proportion to the amount of property which they own are not called upon +to make equivalent return in exchange for their property--based income. +This personal parasitism of property owners is aggravated by provisions +of property law under which the owners of property can give, sell or +bequeath these sources of unearned income to family members, friends, +associates. + +Eventually, unearned income, handed on through generations, creates a +class or even a caste of citizens who live without rendering an +equivalent of services, on the labor of their fellows, adding a +significant amount to the total of overhead costs. + +Wealth ownership, the exercise of power, living in luxury on unearned +income, add to overhead costs, but are accepted as respectable in +civilized communities. Another and far less respectable form of social +parasitism is the manipulation of social forces in a way that will bring +the operator more than a fair share of social income with no equivalent +in service. Such is "politics" or "politicising." "Politics" as a +source of livelihood takes many forms, some less legitimate than others. + +The most usual source of office-holding is the humble work of the clerk, +handyman or messenger, responsible for carrying out the nagging routine +of government. Beyond this common labor of public service are public +servants skilled in their several professions. Beyond and above them are +department heads and still higher are the appointed or elected officials +responsible for the success or failure of a given public policy. + +Who are the occupants of town, city, state, and national positions of +authority and responsibility? Preferably they are elected or appointed +because of their popularity or are the successful product of civil +service examinations. At worst they are appointed as a return for favors +or else because they are relatives or friends of successful politicians +or their backers. + +Whatever its source and however efficient or inefficient its +performance, the body of paid public servants increases with the +expanding life of locality, region, province, state, nation and empire. +With its growth goes corresponding accommodations in wages and salaries, +office space and equipment and other routine outlays. Frequently the +increase of the emoluments of bureaucrats, especially at the higher +levels of authority and responsibility, creates sinecures which are +filled by parasites or by individuals who are engaged in shoring up the +bureaucracy rather than rendering a public service. The outlays +necessary to finance such a top-heavy bureaucratic fabric grow in direct +proportion to the age and rigidity of the bureaucracy, draining off +public funds into private coffers and adding uncompensated elements to +overhead costs. If inflation is a problem, at or beyond the apex of an +imperial epoch or cycle of civilization, financial costs rise +correspondingly. + +The chief overhead cost in every civilization is and has been war. +Examine the budget of the United States or any other leading civilized +power. From two-thirds to three-quarters of central government outlays +are for war in the past and preparation for war in the future. + +The net result of rising overhead costs appears in the history of all +previous civilizations. They are eating out the vitals of western +civilization while we write and read these words. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +THE SOCIOLOGY OF CIVILIZATION + + +Sociology is the science and art of association. + +Human associations range from kinship groups like the family, tribe and +clan to larger more complex groups like villages, towns, cities, +nations, empires, to still more inclusive leagues, federations and +civilizations. + +In a broad view, sociology includes politics, economics and ideology. +For the purposes of our social analysis, we have divided the field into +four separate categories, beginning with politics, continuing through +economics and drawing our study together under the general headings of +sociology and ideology. + +No civilization that we have studied can be regarded as an intentional +or projected or planned enterprise. On the contrary, civilizations have +developed and matured in true pragmatic fashion, taking one step after +another because their predecessors had followed this course or because, +given the human urges and the available natural and social +opportunities, the next step seemed to be determined by previous steps +plus the momentum of the enterprise. In the course of this development +an ideology was built up and modified in such a way as to justify and +strengthen the entire project. + +When William Penn received a grant of land from the English Crown, he +was already committed, ideologically, by the Quaker faith to Quaker +methods. Without ever seeing his proposed home across the Atlantic he +drew up a plan for his City of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia), and for +the organization and conduct of his enterprise. The entire project was +formulated in Penn's mind and put on paper. This is a good example of an +intentional community. + +No civilization so far as I know, has followed such a sequence. +Certainly in the civilizations with which we are most familiar, +political and economic forces, the principles of necessity and +availability have led to the formulation of an ideology that would +justify and promote the interests of the social group which was +controlling and directing the community or communities in which the +civilization was maturing. + +Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that each of the component +elements making up the expanding civilization--each people, city, state, +nation, empire--developed its own total culture pattern, subject to the +pressures mutually exerted by neighboring communities. The aggregate of +these culture patterns, separately and often antagonistically matured, +comprised a lesser totality called an empire and a larger totality +called a civilization. It is with this larger totality that we are +concerned. + +We propose to analyse the sociology of civilization under the following +headings: (1) the structure or anatomy; (2) the function, physiology, or +process; (3) motive forces in civilization; (4) contradictions and +conflicts, with a final section on the life cycle of civilization. + +The structure of human society consists of specialized economic, +political, administrative and cultural groupings assembled and +maintained in relationships that supply necessities, conveniences, +comforts, luxuries for the individuals, together with capital goods and +services for the social groups composing the civilization. + +In terms of social history the growth of structure has proceeded from +the horde, tribe and clan to the family, village, city, city-state, +nation, empire, civilization. These steps are not necessarily +sequential. Under varying social conditions they have been determined +and modified by particular historical situations. The smallest and most +intimate building block of human society has been the family. The +largest and most inclusive has been the civilization. The family as a +social group has existed for long periods, over wide areas, in immense +numbers. Civilizations have been few and often far between. They have +arisen out of particular historical situations, played distinctive +roles, written their own histories and made varying contributions to the +sum total of human culture. In the long time intervals and the wide +geographical distances that have separated civilizations human beings +have lived within more local and less complex social structures. + +Civilized human society is distinctive in structure. While it varies in +detail from one civilization to another, its broad outline is +unmistakable. Each civilization has been built, defended and perpetuated +in and around cities. + +Between civilizations, in time and space, most human communities have +been self-sufficient. Whether as food gatherers, pastoral people or +cultivators of the soil they have produced and consumed the food, +shelter, clothing, implements and weaponry required for their survival. + +The city, whether a political capital or a center of trade and commerce, +was sharply separated from the self-sufficient countryside. The city, by +its very nature, could not be self-sufficient. Food, building supplies +and raw materials were not produced inside the city limits, but must be +produced in the hinterland from which they were transported to the +cities. City dwellers devised means of paying for the production, +transportation and marketing of these necessary imports. The countryside +can and does exist independently of the city because it can provide the +goods and services on which its existence depends. The city, on the +contrary, cannot exist without the supplies produced in the hinterland +and transported to the city. + +Urban centers of civilization have for their background a pastoral and +agricultural source of food supplemented by fabrication, merchandising +and financing. Instead of the occupational uniformity of the +countryside, the city offers a wide range of occupations, increased +productivity, quick and substantial profits resulting in a build-up of +capital on one side and enlarged consumer spending on the other. +Consequently the successful competitor in the race for supremacy +develops productivity, accumulates wealth, expands capital spending, +enlarges the scope of the arts, thereby augmenting the city's +attractiveness to business enterprise and migrants from the hinterland. + +As the capital city grows in wealth and opportunity it requires larger +imports of food, raw materials, building supplies, manpower. Growing +internal need leads to greater external expansion. Economic, political, +administrative and cultural needs not only increase the demands of the +city on its existing hinterland, but they lead to a demand for a more +widely extended hinterland. + +The countryside is the goose that lays the golden eggs. The city +gathers, guards and eventually consumes the eggs or converts them into +capital forms and lives in part on this unearned income. + +The city is the mecca which attracts by its wide ranging opportunities. +It is also the center in which policies are made and offered to the +countryside as normal facts of life. The countryside accepts city +leadership including a higher wealth-power per capita ratio for the +city. + +Cities, with their accumulations of population and wealth, are walled or +otherwise defended. When danger threatens, countrymen often move inside +the walls until the danger abates. + +Cities and city life increase and expand with the growth and expansion +of civilization. Cities are the centers from which civilization grows +and expands. Historically, a number of cities or city-states have +competed for survival and supremacy. One by one they have dropped out of +the race or have been out-classed, defeated and/or absorbed by the +victors in the competitive struggle. One location proved to be more +advantageous than others. The inhabitants of one locality were more +skillful, more far sighted than those of rival localities. Many +competed. Eventually one survived the final round of struggle, emerging +as the nucleus of an expanding empire and a maturing civilization. A +protracted conflict raging first in Italy and later in the entire +Mediterranean basin, resulted in the Roman Empire and eventually in +Roman civilization. A similar series of struggles, this time +planet-wide, gave the British a taste of planetary supremacy in the +nineteenth century and opened the door wide enough to give the United +States oligarchy a glimpse of an American Twentieth century, which never +eventuated. + +Occupational differences within the city led to a differentiated class +structure. As the trading city developed, businessmen eventually played +a dominant role because they were able to command larger incomes, +accumulate more wealth and offer more aggressive leadership. + +Nuclei of both empire and civilization were associated with a cluster of +allies, client states, dependencies and colonies related to the center +by economic interests and by diplomatic bargains or political controls. +They paid tribute or taxes as the price of living within the defense +perimeter of the ruling elite, conforming to the chief aspects of its +culture and in emergencies taking refuge inside the city defenses. + +The city center made and implemented policy and provided local +leadership in emergencies. Inhabitants of the city enjoyed a superior +status and had a higher standard of consumer-living than most of those +who inhabited the countryside and the hinterland. + +A structured society based on division of labor and/or function enjoys a +competitive superiority over a classless community. The structured city +was not only richer than the countryside, but it was in a position to +provide leadership, to plan and implement policy and act more +effectively. + +A civilization consists of a cluster of associated allies, clients, +dependencies, and colonies bound together by economic, political and +cultural ties. Since armed force has been the chief instrument for +bringing these elements together, the agency responsible for exercising +armed force enjoys priority in a listing of the structural institutions +of civilization. + +Land owners, often acting as military chieftains, dominated the +hinterland of a civilization. The city was dominated by businessmen. The +unification of city and hinterland and the complex of cities and +hinterlands composing a civilization established a governmental +apparatus in which all ruling elements were represented. In the earlier +stages of a civilization there may have been assemblies or parliaments +composed of representatives of various interests. As the civilization +was unified by war, representation was replaced by some form of monarchy +in which one supreme commander, emperor or pharoah was the final judge +and arbiter. The monarch set up a network of public authority, regional +as well as universal, provincial as well as central, and garrisoned it +with professional soldiers and sailors paid by the monarch and +responsible to him. + +Corresponding with this political structure was an economic structure +consisting of a central treasury, a uniform system of weights, measures +and values, a system of spending priorities, decided by the central +authority, a source of income: taxes, tribute, booty, sufficient to +cover expenditures. + +A civilization which ran a chronic deficit--over-spending its +income--moved year by year, through debt, inflation, currency +degradation, and repudiation toward its own disintegration and ultimate +bankruptcy. The historical record is very clear on this point, +especially in Roman civilization and in western civilization after 1870. + +Most civilizations have had a body of religious institutions staffed by +a priestcraft, which has shared power with the economic overlords. +During certain periods in the long history of Egyptian civilization the +priestcraft held the balance of power. So great was its ascendancy that +the spoils of war and the gains of peace were shared by the temple +treasury and the royal treasury. In some cases the temple treasuries had +priority. + +All civilizations for at least five thousand years have had a +professional military of sufficient consequence to play a leading role +in policy making and to claim a lion's share of the spoils of military +victory. In some cases civil and military authority were merged in one +supreme commander--emperor, pharoah. At other times, notably in Rome, +after the fall of the Republic, the Pretorian Guard nominated and +appointed its emperors. + +Well up toward the summit of each known civilization, four groups have +shared authority and competed for supremacy: land-lords, wealth-lords, +war-lords and priests. Where these four major shapers of public policy +and directors of public administration were of like mind, they shared +wealth and power. When they differed, one or another enjoyed priority +and exercised some measure of control over the other three. + +Less personal, but of major concern among the institutions of +civilization were the channels of communication and transportation that +have played so decisive a role in the life of every civilization. Top +ranking among the means of communication were common language, spoken +and written on metal, papyrus, paper; a unified system of accounting and +cost keeping; permanent records. Among the means of transport were +waterways, including canals, viaducts, roads, bridges skillfully built +and kept in good repair. + +Another significant institution of civilization is the idea of +ownership, the division of property into public property and private +property and the right of the private property owner to do what he will +with his property, subject always to the over-riding principle of +eminent domain: the right of the community to expropriate private +property for public uses, with or without compensation. + +Another institution of civilization is the provision of public services +in addition to means of communication and transportation. These public +services include a water supply; the disposal of waste; public defense +of life and property; food and diversion (bread and circuses) for the +needy; fire prevention and fire fighting apparatus; educational +facilities, including libraries and reading rooms; outside recreational +facilities such as parks and play-grounds. All of these facilities could +be provided by the rich and powerful for themselves and members of their +families. They could be supplied more effectively and apportioned more +justly when they were public services open to all. + +The countryside lacks the financial and the administrative means of +providing a wide range of public services. Indeed, countryside dwellers +pride themselves on being able to provide necessary services on a +family, household or village basis. City dwellers learn to regard such +public services as a matter of public right. Their existence is a magnet +which draws a steady stream of migrants from the countryside into the +cities. + +Civilizations are dominated by business interests. It is for them to +provide facilities for the transaction of business, cash money, credit +instruments, installment buying, means for changing money, insurance, +discounting facilities. As a civilization grows in wealth and population +the political apparatus becomes a major employer, a major producer of +goods and services, a major purchaser of producer and consumer goods, a +major agency for borrowing, lending, insuring, in short a major factor +in the multitudinous activities of a commercial, industrial community. + +Classes, class interests and class lines are a part and parcel of all +civilizations. They are less rigid and more flexible than similar lines +existing in an agrarian community where land ownership plays so large a +role in determining social forms and social functions. In a static +agrarian community dominated by landlords, war-lords and the clergy, +rigid class lines help to hold the community together. In a community +dominated by business interests, both labor power and purchasing power +must be free to respond to demand and supply. This is as true in a +planned public economy as it is in a private enterprise economy. In +accordance with the same principle, facilities are provided for the +movement of individuals back and forth across class lines. + +The specialized, interdependent structure of civilization with its city +control of the hinterland, its products and inhabitants, enabled the +city-centered oligarchy to accumulate and concentrate wealth and +monopolize power, to skim the cream from the available milk, monopolize +the cream, distribute the skimmed milk judiciously and thus perpetuate +its ascendancy through generations and centuries. During periods of +expansion civilized communities develop a dynamism which maintains their +ascendancy. In subsequent periods of contraction form takes over, +imposing conformity on the status quo. + +During their periods of expansion civilizations are dynamic. Their +history records growth at home, expansion abroad, exploitation, +domestic and foreign under the pressure of effective motivating forces. +The resulting dynamism leads to the contradictions, confrontations and +conflicts which have studded the internal and external life story of +every civilization. + +Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of the dynamic functioning of +civilization is its growth in magnitude. It might be more accurate to +describe the process as an explosive expansion--explosive because rapid +and spectacular. + +Form limits function. At the same time function modifies and ultimately +determines form. The two factors are omnipresent and complementary. +Except for purposes of analysis they are two inseparable aspects of +every human society. Where form predominates, social status results. +Where function predominates fluidity, flexibility and dynamism are the +outcome. Rapid change occurs on the home front at the same time that it +is taking place abroad. + +Growth at home takes place in two fields. The first is the extension of +the homeland frontiers, broadening the geographical area of the nucleus +around which the civilization is being built. The second aspect of +growth involves an increase in multiplicity, variety and complexity and +perhaps also a higher level of quality. Increase in quality is an +optional feature of growth and expansion. Toward the end of a cycle of +civilization quality declines. + +For the record we list fourteen aspects of the domestic growth of +civilization: (1) population; (2) production of goods and services; (3) +trade, commerce, finance; (4)wealth, capital, income, capital +construction; (5) the defense establishment; (6) growth in numbers and +in variety of consumer goods and services; (7) specialization; (8) +formal education, literacy, learning; (9) advances in science and +technology; (10) growth in the arts; (11) rising standards of luxury for +the oligarchy and growth in the volume of the professional and technical +middle class and their living standards; (12) growth of the state +bureaucratic apparatus in its complexity and in the number of its +personnel; (13) growth of the sources of unearned income and especially +in the number of persons living on unearned income; (14) growth of +dependents, delinquents, criminals and other outlaws. This list is not +exhaustive, but it is indicative of the wide area in which domestic +growth takes place. + +Paralleling their domestic expansion, civilizations expand +geographically up to the point of diminishing returns, determined by the +growth of overhead costs. This process has taken the civilization, its +personnel, its institutions and practices into territory not heretofore +occupied, sometimes with the consent of the "foreigners", but more often +in the teeth of their determined and long-continued opposition. + +Expansion of a civilization is of necessity a movement from an urban +center and beyond the urban center. Each civilization has been built +around one or more urban nuclei which accepted and practiced expansion +as the primary law of their beings. + +Expansion takes many forms. It may be peaceful, as travel is peaceful. +It may be competitive, as trade is competitive. It may be economically +aggressive; the search for markets, for raw materials, for investment +opportunities carried on simultaneously by representatives of long time +rival cities, states, empires. It may be a movement for a place in the +sun; mass migration, colonization. It may take the form of planned +military invasion having as its purpose the conquest and occupation of +foreign territory; the subjugation of the citizenry of the conquered +lands; the establishment of an alien government in the conquered +territory; the reduction of the "natives" to the status of second class +citizens in their own homelands; exploitation of the natural resources; +the levying of tribute; the imposition of taxes and the expropriation of +moveable articles such as bullion, works of art and other treasure by +the invaders, conquerors and occupiers. + +Policies of expansion, conquest and occupation rely upon weaponry and +war-making as essential instruments. Historically their role has been +frankly recognized by builders of every empire and the leaders of every +civilization. All civilizations known to history prepared for war and +utilized war as the final arbiter in their pursuit of expansionist +policy. Empire builders and civilizers have taken it for granted that +might made right. The mighty, in terms of military striking power and +killing power, have fought over and inherited the earth. + +The practices of every civilization have centered about exploitation--of +natural resources, of labor power, of rivals in the race for supremacy, +of weaker and less aggressive peoples. Expansion gives the ruling +oligarchy of the expanding nation, empire or civilization command of the +strategic vantage points from which the principle of exploitation can be +made continuously operative. + +We have dealt with exploitation in connection with the economics of +civilization (Chapter 7). Its central concept is the "you work--I eat" +formula. In sociological terms it extends far beyond livelihood, into +the relations of man with the natural environment (ecology); the +management and direction of labor power and policy making; social +administration and policy implementation, including policing of the +territories lying within the frontiers of the nation, empire or +civilization, plus contacts and relationships with territories lying +outside the frontiers: in short, with the success or failure, the +domination or subordination of the territory under consideration. + +Structurally and functionally a civilization cannot remain static. It +must expand or contract. If it expands, crossing frontiers and +penetrating areas heretofore considered foreign or alien, and proposes +to remain in those alien territories, it must have sufficient means at +its disposal to continue the administration of its home territory and at +the same time to take on the administration of the newly acquired +foreign territory. + +Home territory administration has as its broad purpose the utilization +of available means to attain its ends and serve its interests. +Administration of areas into which the home forces are penetrating must +attain the same ends and serve the same interests on the "you work--I +eat" axiom. Unless the newly acquired territory can attain those ends +and serve those interests it is a liability, not an asset, and its +continued existence will pose a threat to the expansionist venture. + +Natural resources, plus labor power, plus effective management and +direction must be integrated in the interests of the entire enterprise. +Self determination is of secondary consequence, coming into play only +after the interests of the whole have been assured and safeguarded. + +There is of course the collective principle under which the interests of +the whole can be best served through the cooperation of its component +elements. But this is a horse of quite another color. It presupposes the +willingness of the respective parts to enter voluntarily into a +cooperative relationship. Sociologically speaking this is the antithesis +of the situation we have been considering: expansion and exploitation in +the interests and for the purposes of the expanding forces. So long as +expansion and exploitation are accepted and practiced as the basic +principles of any community, so long independence and self-determination +will be irrelevant and inimical to the dominant elements in the nation, +empire or civilization under consideration. + +Under the "you work--I eat" formula natural resources will be utilized +in the manner best calculated to advance the interests of the ruling +oligarchy. Who will be the judge, jury and executioner in the case? Who +else but the concerned ruling oligarchy? + +In the history of civilization this principle has been followed +systematically. The forests have been cleared away, the land has been +overgrazed, cultivated and exposed to the erosive attacks of sunlight, +air, water and frost. Wood from the forests has been hauled to the +cities and burned, has been used to construct palaces and temples, +houses and ships, with no recognition of the principles of priority or +renewal. If wood was available where must it go? The oligarchy decided +the issue in terms of ostentation and expediency. Rarely during recorded +human history have there been oligarchs who said: "Irreplaceable +resources like minerals must be used with extreme economy. Replaceable +resources like forests or top-soil must be used and at the same time +replaced and if possible augmented." + +Decision making in the civilizations reported by history has been +chiefly in the hands of specially privileged minorities. The purpose of +these minorities has revolved around the provision of comforts and +luxuries for the decision makers and their dependents and the increase +of their wealth and power. Rarely has any ruling oligarchy said: "The +continuance of our privileges and our barest existence is the result of +labor power applied to natures gifts. We must safeguard nature and +improve the health and vitality of those who do the world's work. If, +due to unforeseen circumstances, over which we have failed to exercise +adequate control, there is some shortage, let the idler and the wastrel +suffer. Under all circumstances the producers must have all those goods +and services needed to preserve their productive efficiency." + +Through the entire course of written history the shrewdest, the +strongest, the best fed and most comfortably housed have gained wealth +and power, kept them and added to them. This has been the central +sociological principle followed by the wealth-owning, power-wielding +oligarchs of one civilization after another. Nature has been polluted, +despoiled, pillaged. Society has been exploited and plundered. Most +civilizations, during most of their history, have been led and ruled by +the rich and powerful, who have used their wealth and power to advance +their own interests, with scant respect for the hewers of wood, the +drawers of water and the tillers of the soil. Those at the imperial +center have milked the periphery. Cooperation has been occasional and +confined largely to pre-civilized communities. In all civilizations +exploitation has been the rule; the exploitation of nature, of labor +power and of the social fabric. + +The record of natural resources exploitation is well known. Paul Sears' +_Deserts on the March_; Fairfield Osborn's _Our Plundered Planet_; +William Vogt's _Road to Survival_, and Rachel Carson's _Silent Spring_ +tell the story of the misuse and the extravagant abuse of nature. The +record of labor power exploitation is less publicized. + +Food gatherers like the North American Indians had no machinery and a +minimum of implements or weapons. They migrated with the weather and the +available game, traveling with their possessions. Herdsmen also moved +about in search of pasture. Land workers faced four new problems. They +must stay with their land and make a weather-proof habitat in dwellings +and villages. They must make the implements needed for farming, building +and defense against marauders. They must accumulate and preserve enough +food to carry them from one harvest to the next. They must improve and +beautify their artifacts and constructs. Traders added a fifth +must--they must produce and accumulate stocks to meet the needs of +various customers as well as their own greed for profits. + +Successive stages, from food gathering to trading and manufacturing, +required more energy--human energy, animal energy, and eventually +mechanical energy. Part of this energy enabled humans to survive, +another part enabled them to multiply. Still another part made it +possible for one portion of the population to live without productive +work on the work output of their fellow creatures. This exploiting +minority was headed by land owners, soldiers and priests. + +Landowners built themselves and their dependents strong houses and +castles. Much of the labor power that went into this construction was +"forced." The laborer gave the landlord labor time in exchange for the +privilege of working part of the land for his own support. Soldiers +defended the landlord and joined plundering forays on the territory of +neighbors. The priests, in exchange for sustenance, mollified "higher +powers" and built temples in which the people could gather, worship and +be admonished. + +Farsighted, energetic, resourceful men (and women), using mass +productive energy, built themselves castles, built their priests temples +and mobilized serfs, war captives and slaves who worked in gangs for +generations and centuries to assemble the raw materials, construct and +decorate the buildings, and perform the services needed to operate the +enterprises and to provide their owners and masters with the +necessaries, comforts, luxuries. + +As centers of civilization grew richer and more powerful they defeated +neighboring peoples, brought some of them home as war captives and +exacted from their defeated rivals promises to pay yearly tribute in the +form of timber, metals, food and often of slaves. + +Mobilization of energy resources had been proceeding on a small scale +for ages. Successful civilizers made this one of their chief tasks, +mobilizing energy forces and materials and using them to build palaces, +temples, mausoleums and whole city complexes with appropriate defenses +against marauders and other enemies. + +Administrative networks, adequate to produce such results, planned and +directed the construction and administered and policed the operations. +Using elaborate techniques of communication, transportation, +fabrication, beautification, accounting, planning, initiative, +leadership, mobilization, maintenance and replacement of labor power, +imposition and sharing of authority, discipline, adjustment to deviation +and opposition, means for dealing with revolt and rebellion, the +builders of civilization performed their necessary tasks. + +As civilizations have matured they have grown at the nucleus, expanded +abroad and experimented more or less successfully with various means of +exploiting nature, man and human society. Most of the competitors for +survival and supremacy dropped out or were forced out in the course of +continuous survival struggles. + +Survivors of the obstacle race dealt successively with personal +rivalries; class conflicts; civil wars; dictatorships; tyrannies; with +overhead costs that grew more rapidly than income; with empty +treasuries, inflation, depression, economic stagnation; with increases +in top-heavy bureaucracies; with parasitism; with hooliganism; with the +growing role of the military in decision making and administration; +sharing the honey-pot with migrants and invaders; with rivalry and power +struggle at home and abroad; with division, fragmentation and eventual +dissolution. + +Any student of the sociology of civilization must turn from this +analysis of function with the conviction that whatever the advantages of +civilization as opposed to earlier phases of human association, the +pattern of civilization in action is workable only to a very limited +extent. Civilization is not an example of perpetual motion. Rather it is +a social life cycle, with a beginning and an end, and a peck of +troublesome contradictions and conflicts in between. + +Civilization is an integrative process. During the course of its +competitive survival struggle, potential building units of an expanding +civilization are tested out and included or rejected in much the same +way that a stone-mason checks and tests the individual stones of which +his wall is being built. The analogy is not entirely accurate. A wall +becomes a completed part of a total structure. A civilization is a +process of existence from conception and birth to dissolution and death. +At any point in the process there is a delicate balance between +integration and disintegration. As a matter of fact, both integration +and disintegration exist and act, constantly, side by side. If the +integrative forces are in the ascendant, form is built and function is +accelerated. If the disintegrative forces are dominant, form breaks down +and function stagnates. + +This shifting balance and/or imbalance with its resulting build-up +and/or break-down exists geographically, biologically, sociologically. +It can perhaps be best described as successive change. It cannot be +referred to as evolution except in its integrative aspect. +Disintegratively it becomes devolution. + +Civilization is a result of sociological build-up at a certain cultural +level. It has not been universal in all human societies, but +exceptional, both in time and in geographical space. + +What has caused the pattern of civilization to appear, disappear and +reappear again and again during the period of written history? + +There have been many answers. The most general answer is divine +intervention by beings above and beyond mankind. Whether such +intervention has taken place or is taking place, human beings are unable +to say with finality, but several thousand years of recorded history, +plus our own daily experience provides convincing proof that the +political, economic, ideological and sociological constructs which have +appeared and disappeared in the course of social history are, at least +in large part, the products of human brains and human hands. They are +man-made. + +The social pattern of civilization, like other social patterns which +preceded civilization and which continue to exist side by side with +civilized communities, is the result of human ingenuity and human +energy, of human inertia, ineptitude, and the human urges to build, +decorate and destroy. + +Variety in human culture is caused by the variety in the human natural +environment, the human social environment and in man himself. + +Natural advantages exist and vary from place to place. There are fertile +valleys; there are also mountains and deserts. There are a few fine +harbors, but for the most part landings are difficult and dangerous. +Certain islands have become the bases of civilizations, but this is true +of only a very small number of many existing islands. + +Civilizations have flourished in certain climatic zones and not +elsewhere. At one historical period civilizations were established in +the tropics and semi-tropics. In the present period they are located +chiefly in temperate climatic belts. + +Another source of differences between civilizations is the variation and +the adaptability of certain peoples to the peculiar conditions out of +which civilization grows. + +Still another explanation of the presence or absence of civilization in +particular times and places is the "great man" theory of history. All +human communities, pre-civilized and civilized, have had gifted leaders +whose thoughts and actions have brought about social changes. These +"greats" were the divinely, ideologically or sociologically inspired. +Divine inspiration or revelation led to the founding of religious +faiths. Ideological and sociological inspiration resulted in domestic +cultural changes and the extension of economic, cultural and ideological +activities into foreign lands, thus pushing the frontiers of nations, +empires, and civilizations farther from the chief wealth-power centers. + +Thomas Carlyle wrote that history is the lengthened shadows of a few +great men. Arnold Toynbee concluded from his _Study of History_ that +religion has been a prime motive force in the building and preservation +of civilizations. + +Technology has been a motive force of hard-to-define importance in +revitalizing, changing, expanding and perpetuating civilizations. +Increased productivity, expressing itself as increases in income, +accumulated wealth and various forms of capital investment, have +provided the economic basis for population growth and the more effective +exploitation of natural resources and labor power, advances in the means +for transportation and communication, accounting, planning management +and "defense." + +Among the social motive forces responsible for the development of +civilization is the accumulation of wealth in an impoverished world. The +most important single factor in this connection was the development of a +class of businessmen in a society dominated by landlords, churchmen and +soldiers. Landlords, churchmen and soldiers lived during periods of +animal husbandry and primitive agriculture on the very narrow margins +produced during bountiful harvests. When harvests were bad, husbandmen +and farmers were reduced to starvation levels. Lacking means of storage +and refrigeration as well as facilities for transporting heavy materials +such as food, fuel and building materials, pre-civilized society +accumulated wealth slowly in mobile forms (precious metals and jewels) +and made few productive investments. + +The advent of trade (business) and the trading class created a small but +potentially powerful class whose income and wealth were not derived from +direct contact with nature but came from trade, money changing, lending, +insuring and other activities associated with the accumulation and +investment of wealth in profit-yielding enterprises. Only in a secondary +sense did business depend on animal husbandry or agriculture. As their +primary task businessmen devoted themselves to the exploitation of labor +power and the storage and merchandising of the products turned out by +herdsmen, farmers, craftsmen. Part of their profits went into more +elaborate standards of feeding, clothing and housing themselves and +their dependents. Another, and a more crucial part of their profits went +into ships, warehouses, and the implements used in converting raw +materials into consumer goods and services, transporting them to the +markets, displaying them and persuading consumers to diversify their +needs, purchase a greater variety of goods and services and thus +increase the number and profitability of business transactions. + +As this process mushroomed with the expansion of civilization, consumers +demanded a greater number of more expensive artifacts and consumer +capital goods, from housing and house furnishings such as bathrooms and +well-stocked kitchens to refrigerators, washing machines, air +conditioners, telephones, television sets, bicycles, automobiles and +elaborate recreation facilities and equipment. The expansion of mass +production and the mass market paced one another, constantly raising the +ante. + +Mass production, mass marketing and pyramiding profits resulted, first +and foremost in the enrichment of businessmen. Their riches +automatically pushed them into a position of pre-eminent importance from +which they were able to make public policy and utilize public authority +for the protection and advancement of their own class interests. It also +called into being a vast array of new professionals; teachers, +engineers, scientists, technicians, social workers and propagandists, +converting the "middle class" from a shadowy remnant of feudal society +into the largest class numerically and the most influential class +politically in the entire modern community. + +At the same time, economic enrichment and expansion increased the +importance of the war-making apparatus. The expansion of civilization +has involved a competitive struggle carried on constantly along several +fronts, economic, political, cultural, ideological. The means of +struggle in every civilization has included the military as a political +force and as a final arbiter in deciding who should win and who should +lose civil and inter-group wars. Victory and defeat determined the fate +of land and natural resources, populations, capital installations, +taxing facilities, domestic policing. This deterministic role of the war +machine has never been more dramatically in the foreground than during +the crucial years from 1910 to the present day, when war apparatus costs +have topped the list of government expenditures. + +Growth of state functions with the expansion of the economy has +resulted in the creation of a vast state bureaucratic apparatus. Heading +this bureaucracy are the ministers of state, each with a separate +department. Under the department heads are sub-departments, sub-divided +in their turn into bureaus or separate offices. At each level, functions +are assigned and salaries are fixed. Entrance into this anthill is +sometimes by personal favor, sometimes by examination. Once in, however, +barring misbehavior, or some catastrophe like the abolition of a +particular bureau, the office holder is in for life with a pension when +he is retired for age. + +Inside the bureaucracy there is a slow movement determined by seniority. +There is also some skipping, as when new bureaus are formed or when +death or retirement offer opportunities for the favored few to move +forward or skip upward. As we read the record, the bureaucracy existed +in the days of Egypt's Amenhotep, or in those of Rome's Augustus Caesar, +as it exists today--locally in every municipality, province, nation and +empire and generally throughout western civilization. + +Every civilization known to history has had its priestcraft as well as +its statecraft. Statecraft spawned its bureaucracy. Priestcraft spawned +its theocracy. Both patterns have inter-penetrated entire civilizations. +Each locality, region and district has had its representatives of state +and of church. In some instances the church took precedence. In others +the state was supreme. As the civilization matured, using war as the +chief instrument of policy, the state in the person of military +dictators has tended to predominate. In every civilization the state has +collected its taxes and the church has collected its tithes. + +The net result, in every civilization, has been a ruling oligarchy, +self-appointed and self-perpetuating, which has shaped policy, planned +and directed administration, exercised authority and lived comfortably +and at least semi-parasitically on the backs of the underlying urban and +rural masses, sharing its sinecure with its middle class handymen. In +some times and in certain localities the oligarchy has maintained a +representative front. Elsewhere it has functioned arbitrarily. In +extreme cases one man has ruled for a brief period. Generally the +oligarchy has held the reins of authority. + +Each phase of human society has had its oppositions, its confrontations, +its conflicts, proportioned to its magnitude, its specialization and the +interdependence of its component parts, its ratio of change to stability +and its foresight, plans and preparations for dealing with changes when +they occur. Since civilization, of all known forms of human association, +is the largest, most specialized and most interdependent, it is in +civilization that we should expect to find the most intensive and +extensive contradictions, confrontations and conflicts. + +Among the many oppositions of civilized association five are +outstanding: the we-they relationship; rural versus urban life; +subsistence versus acquisition and accumulation; hard work versus ease, +luxury and parasitism; poverty versus wealth. + +Civilization is not only complex and interdependent in form, it is +avowedly competitive in its functioning. Politically, nation building, +empire building and the establishment and maintenance of each +civilization is a competitive struggle between declared rivals to gain +and keep place and power. Economically, the efforts to get and keep +natural resources and labor power and to use them to _Our_ advantage and +_Their_ disadvantage dominates the field of livelihood. Ideologically +_We_ are right, while _They_ are wrong. Culturally _We_ are superior. +_They_ are inferior. + +The _We-They_ relationship developed very early in the history of the +human family. Individuals and small, more advanced groups have reached a +level of understanding and living based on the cooperative inclusive +formula of _"We, Ours, Us",_ but every civilization known to history has +accepted and adopted the competitive, divisive formula and poured energy +and wealth into the political, economic, ideological and cultural +struggle to take and keep for individual, local or class advantage. + +Resulting oppositions fragmented civilization: (1) urban vs. rural life, +city vs. hinterland; (2) cooperation vs. competition; (3) acquisition +and accumulation vs. sharing; (4) riches vs. poverty; (5) the individual +vs. the group; (6) status vs. change. + +These fragmenting forces have been accepted, adopted and given priority +by civilizations as they developed predominance. As they grew in +magnitude they limited or subordinated the forces of integration and +unification. + +Opposites and oppositions lead to confrontations along class lines, +geographic lines, cultural lines, color lines, racial lines. The +traditional confrontation of rural vs. urban life is doubly underlined +by two factors: first, the countryside operates generally on a use +economy with pay for services largely in kind or by barter. The city +operates under a market economy with payment for services usually in +money. Second, the standards of life and work are more primitive in the +countryside than in the city. Third, as the civilization advances toward +maturity, city population increases while it declines in the +countryside. Consequently vigorous, energetic, adventurous people leave +the deteriorating countryside. + +Increasingly the owners of land and capital live in the cities, visiting +the countryside for holidays and recreation, leaving rural areas to +servants, peons, serfs and slaves. Small owning farmers are bought out +or expropriated. Unable to make a living in the countryside they move to +the city. Lacking city skills they work as casual labor or are +unemployed. The city is divided between enterprisers, their +subordinates, owners of country estates and members of the state +bureaucracy on one side and vassals, servants, serfs, and slaves and the +unemployed on the other. The rich and powerful become richer and more +powerful. The poor and dependent grow in numbers--protest, demonstrate, +riot, revolt. + +This class struggle dominates public life in the urban centers of every +civilization. The rich offer petty reforms and minor benefits to the +impoverished, semi-employed city masses. At the same time the urban +oligarchy breaks up into rival factions: the Ins and the Outs. The Ins +hold public jobs, spend public money, award contracts and pass around +favors. The Outs wait and maneuver for their turn at the public +pie-counter. Both Ins and Outs appeal for mass support. + +Oppositions and confrontations lead to conflicts which have studded the +life of every civilization. Conflicts include wars which may be divided +into six groups: (1) Wars of expansion, conquest, colonization directed +toward the enlargement of the territories included in the civilization. +(2) Wars of survival among adjacent nations and empires. (3) Wars fought +to suppress unrest and revolt in the colonies and dependencies of an +empire or civilization. (4) Wars fought to repel the invasion of +migrating peoples attempting to occupy territory over which an empire or +a civilization claims jurisdiction. (5) Peasant, serf and slave revolts +and rebellions against the authority of empires or civilizations. (6) +Civil wars to determine the leadership of particular empires; wars of +leadership succession; conflicts and power seizures within particular +oligarchies. + +In every civilization final decisions regarding domestic and foreign +issues have been made by an appeal to arms. There were laws and legal +institutions in many civilizations under which confrontations might have +been prevented and armed conflict avoided. Where these legal means +failed to provide solutions, contestants turned to armed force as the +final arbiter. + +Competitive survival struggle has played a prominent role in the life of +every civilization known to history. Competition at its highest level +employs armed force as its instrument of policy. War, domestic and +foreign has, therefore, dominated the history of every civilization. +Walter Bagehot called war a state maker. In the same context, war may be +referred to as a civilization maker. + +Conflict, including war, has played a major role, often a determining +role in building and maintaining civilizations. It has also been a major +and perhaps _the_ major factor in undermining and destroying +civilizations. Arnold Toynbee contends that war has been a "proximate +cause" of the overthrow of one civilization after another. No observer +of current western civilization can fail to note the determining part +played by war during the first half of the present century. + +Every completed civilization known to historians has passed through a +sociological life cycle: origin, growth, expansion, maturity, violent +premature dismemberment and death in the competitive survival struggle +or gradual decline and eventual dissolution. + +Every completed civilization has had small, local beginnings, on an +island like Crete, or a group of islands like the Japanese Archipelago, +or a tiny spot like Latium on the Tiber River, or an isolated area like +the desert-surrounded Nile River Valley in Africa. The seed ground or +nucleus of each civilization has been a small, well-knit group of +vigorous, energetic people, well-led, living in an easily defended, +limited area, enjoying relative isolation, but also having ready access +to the outside world. + +At the beginning the growth cycle has moved slowly, from victory to +victory, as competing neighboring peoples have been brought under the +authority of the victor in local wars. After generations or centuries of +struggle a point is reached at which the nucleus of the growing empire +begins to expand, through trade, colonization, diplomatic alliances, +conquest, into an era of survival struggle in which rival cities reach +out for the same piece of fertile land, the same markets, the same +mineral deposits. Again the life and death survival struggle tests out +the people, their leaders, their ambitions, determination, tenacity. + +Earlier struggles were local. Now the struggle area has become regional. +At the outset the peoples were amateurs in the science and art of +expansion, occupation, consolidation, exploitation. Through the hard +school of struggle they became professionals. From victory to victory +they gained in territory, in wealth, in administrative skill. One by +one, rivals were eliminated, annexed or associated with the nascent +empire which was by way of becoming the central empire of a maturing +civilization. + +Generations of effort and centuries of time have gone into the empire +building process. The farther the civilization has expanded, the greater +the necessary input of manpower, wealth, enterprise and administrative +talent needed to keep the enterprise strong, solvent, masterful. + +Eventually the expanding civilization reaches a point at which the costs +of further expansion are greater than the income derived from further +extension of its authority. Up to this point expansion had paid its own +way. Beyond this point it is a losing proposition--politically, +economically, sociologically. At this point begin times of troubles; bad +harvests; colonial or provincial revolts; power struggles between +individuals or classes in the homeland; new rivals moving in to share in +the prospective plunder of the mother-city. + +From this time of troubles the civilization enters a new phase of its +lifecycle. Up to this point victory has brought plunder and prosperity +which have financed new foreign adventures and led to new victories. +Beyond this point lies stalemate, economic stagnation, military defeat. +Building an empire and establishing it as the central force in a +civilization is a long and arduous process. Once the process is +reversed, the decline may move quickly or slowly, but as it proceeds the +civilization is fragmented and eventually dissolved or taken over by a +more vigorous rival. + +At all stages of this cycle there have been life and death survival +struggles. Peoples, nations and empires entered the contest, played +their parts, made their contribution to the up-building process. There +were ups and downs, advances and withdrawals, victories and defeats. +There were many contenders for survival and supremacy. Usually there was +one survivor which gave its name to the civilization. + +The period of ascendancy of any civilization has been historically +brief. The struggle to the summit was long and exhausting; the descent +from the summit more rapid than the ascent. Literally, like the bear +that went over the mountain to see what he could find, and who found the +other side of the mountain, the civilizations that have reached the +summit of wealth and power have found on the other side of the summit a +steep downward sloping time of troubles that ended in dissolution and +liquidation. + +Civilization, as a sociological life pattern, has proved to be seductive +and alluring in prospect, but in retrospect unsatisfactory and +frustrating. Civilization has proved to be not an opportunity for the +ambitious, but a trap for the ignorant, inexperienced and unwary. For +the many contestants who set out to conquer the world the experience +has been disappointing and on the whole disastrous. For the few who have +reached the summit the experience has been frustrating. + +Civilization as a way of life is like any other contest. The struggle is +good for those who are able to benefit from it by learning its lessons. +Whether they win or lose is a matter of no great consequence. For the +losers the experience often is heart breaking and death-dealing. + +Students of social history have been tempted to draw a parallel between +the biological life cycle of an individual and the sociological +lifecycle of a civilization. There are elements of likeness between +biological birth, growth, maturity, old age and death of human +individuals and of human civilizations. All of the individuals and +civilizations that we know have passed or are passing through such a +lifecycle. The same thing may be true of the larger universe of which we +are a minute fragment. However exact or inexact it may prove to be, the +parallel certainly is unmistakable, alluring. It may also be seductive +and mortal. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +IDEOLOGIES OF CIVILIZATION + + +This study was laid out along inductive lines: an examination of the +facts with such generalizations as the facts suggest or justify. We +began our social analysis of civilization by presenting noteworthy facts +concerning the politics, economics, and sociology of various +civilizations. In the present chapter we deal with their ideologies. + +We are accepting and following the fourth variant definition of +"ideology" presented by Webster's New World Dictionary: "The doctrines, +opinions or way of thinking of an individual, class, etc." In this case +we are reporting on the doctrines, opinions, thought forms and action +patterns of entire civilizations. + +Our concern is not with the doctrines, opinions and ways of thinking and +acting advanced by elite minorities. Such an approach would involve a +study of comparative ideologies. Rather we are asking what civilized +peoples were trying to do, as measured by their political, economic and +sociological activities, programs and purposes. + +It may be presumptuous for an individual to generalize about +civilizations of which he knows so little. On the other hand, if we +recognize the limitations under which all assumptions and +generalizations operate it is possible and often helpful to assume and +generalize, although the generalizations may be no more than interim +reports, subject to later amendment, correction or rejection. + +What were the prevailing ideas of civilizations and what ideas were put +into practice? What purposes dominated and directed the lives of +civilized peoples? How successful have civilized peoples been in +achieving their objectives? + +At the outset we must realize that in any complex society there are wide +ranges of ideology, from the body of ideas held by small uninfluential +sects to the purposes, ideas, policy declarations and actions of +governing oligarchies. We do not wish to defend or attack the ideas, but +to summarize them and understand them in a way that will give a group +picture of the purposes, ideas, policies and day-to-day activities of +the civilizations in question. For convenience in our discussion we will +take up, first, civilized societies as collectives, and then the +operation of civilized ideology as expressed in the lives of +individuals. + +Presumably the most immediate purpose of all civilized peoples has been +survival, getting on as a collective or group from day to day, through +summer and winter, under normal conditions, and/or in periods of stress +and emergency. If the group cannot survive it loses its identity, +breaking up into the self-determining parts of which it is composed. + +Survival means continued existence as a group--in the face of disruption +from within or attack and invasion from without. The group which +survives continues to exist and to act as a group that maintains the +common defense and promotes the general welfare. + +Each social group competing for survival has a sense of its own identity +and a belief in its capacity to survive. This ideology is strengthened +by the belief that the group has special qualities and is protected by +powerful entities that will guarantee its success in the survival +struggle. The group considers itself better qualified to survive than +neighbor groups. Such ideas, carried to their logical conclusion, make +the group in question superior to its neighbors in survival qualities +and a people chosen by its gods. + +A superior people, chosen by its gods, is in a class by itself. Other +people, by comparison, are inferior. It is the destiny of the superior +people to take the lands of their inferior neighbors, and, whenever +opportunity offers, to defeat the neighbors in battle, capture them and +force them to do the bidding of the captors. + +Cults of ideological superiority are widespread. Put into successful +practice by a victorious tribe, nation or empire, they develop into +cults of superiority which assert: "We, the victors, are stronger, +better people than our weaker neighbors." As one victory follows another +the belief in superiority grows. People in an expanding empire or +burgeoning civilization are obviously better survivors than their less +successful competitors. + +Competitive survival struggle modifies the cultures of both victors and +vanquished. The dispersal and adoption of culture traits, supplemented +by negotiation and accommodation, broaden the geographical area of the +victors, increasing the population and adding to the material resources, +the wealth and income of the enlarged group. It may also involve the +corresponding decrease of the geographical area, population, wealth and +income of the vanquished. + +In order to protect itself, preserve itself, to enlarge itself and, +where possible, to improve itself, each competing groups aims to set up +standards of ideas and conduct to which all living members of the group +are presumed to agree and to which they must adhere. When new members +enter the group, by birth or adoption, they are duly indoctrinated with +the group ideology. Early in their history the individuals and +sub-groups composing every civilization adopted such standards and +promulgated them by the decree of a leader or by the common consent of +associated groups, as the outcome of negotiation, discussion, give and +take. During the history of every civilization such agreements were +reached and recorded in compacts, treaties, laws, constitutions, +specifying the nature and limits of the collective cultural uniformity +at which the community aimed. + +The struggle for collective uniformity was long and often bitter. +Individuals and factions resented and resisted the imposition of group +authority. Internal conflict led to civil wars in the course of which +the group was divided or the solidarity of the group was reaffirmed +despite hardships imposed on disagreeing, divergent minorities. + +Closely paralleling the group need for survival and uniformity +(solidarity) was the need for group expansion, or extension. In the +competitive struggle for survival which played such an important role in +the life of pre-civilized communities, strategic geographic location was +often decisive. Soil fertility, mineral deposits, timber reserves, +access to waterways, location on trade routes all played a part in +community survival, stability and growth. + +Such geographical advantages are few and far between. Often they are +already occupied and defended by stable communities. Their control and +utilization are basic in determining the survival or elimination of +rivals in the competitive struggle. + +Above and beyond the need to occupy the "corner lots" of the planetary +land mass was the urge of civilized peoples to advance from littleness +to bigness as a goal in itself. Confined by limitations on communication +and transportation, pre-civilized man was circumscribed and localized. +With the advent of cultivation, land workers were tied to a particular +piece of real estate on which they lived and worked. When asked whether +the village across the valley was Sunrise Mountain the local peasant +could reply: "How should I know? I live here." + +Reacting against restricted living and pressed by curiosity and the +spirit of adventure, the imaginative and adventurous members of each +generation pressed outward from the homeland toward wider horizons. Many +traveled. Some migrated. Others pursued the will o' the wisp of +expansion by adding field to field. The grass always looked greener on +the other side of the mountain. The ambitious expansionist therefore +tried to control both sides. + +"Move on! Move on!" became the watchword, without any particular +emphasis on quality. In one civilization after another bigness +(magnitude) was accepted as a symbol of success, because "the more you +get and keep, the happier you will be." + +Mastery of strategic advantages, plus the illusion of mere bigness, +without any specification to quality, became keys to survival and +success. + +Civilized man exploited natural advantages and augmented his power over +nature and society by increasing his wealth and multiplying the +population. At the outset of the struggle strategic geographical +advantages were occupied and utilized by local groups. Through survival +struggle, one of the groups, better organized, better led, more +determined and productive, succeeded in securing possession of one +strong point after another, until an entire region, like the Nile Valley +or the Mediterranean Basin had been conquered and occupied by a single +great power. The measure of success in the power struggle is the +occupation of strategic strong points. Natural resources, including land +and labor power, are among the chief spoils of victory. + +Seven basic goals or principles were involved in the building of +civilizations: group survival; propitiating the gods; recognizing and +following aesthetic principles; achieving and stabilizing property and +class relations; expansion (bigness); individual conformity to the +collective pattern; and collective uniformity in a united world of human +brotherhood. At times and in places the basic propositions were +accepted, rejected, fought over. Each civilization which followed them +successfully was able to establish itself, maintain itself, and up to a +certain point add to its prestige, wealth and power. + +The first goal was success in the struggle for survival. Collective +uniformity and expansion opened the path to wealth and power, in the +city, state, the empire, the civilization. From a multitude of local +beginnings the struggle for expansion and consolidation led to ever +larger aggregations of land, population, capital and wealth concentrated +in the hands of an increasingly rich, powerful oligarchy, protected and +defended by a military elite pushing itself ceaselessly toward a +position from which it could make and enforce domestic policy and order. + +A second collective goal has been propitiating and wooing the unseen +forces of the universe: holding their attention; keeping them on "our" +side; relying on their influence for defense against enemies, mortal and +immortal, and help in providing water in case of drought, fertility, +assistance in healing the sick, comfort for the dying, consolation for +the bereaved and success in business deals. These multiple aspects of +ideology are summed up under the term "religion". + +Each civilization has had its religious ideas and ideals, its religious +practices and institutions. Many civilizations have divided their +attention between civil ideology and religious ideology. In some cases +religious ideology took precedence, resulting in a theocratic society +under the leadership of religious devotees. In other cases, notably +Roman civilization and western civilization, religious ideology was +subordinated to secular interests. + +In the early stages of western civilization, religious ideology took +precedence over secular ideology. With the rise of the bourgeoisie, +secular ideology moved into the foreground, making loud religious +professions, but also making sure that business-for-profit had the last +word in the determination of public policy. + +A third collective ideological goal of civilization has been aesthetic; +the yen for symmetry and balance; the love of beauty; the desire for +harmony; the quest for excellence; the lure of magnificence; the search +for truth. Out of these urges have arisen the pictorial and plastic +arts, architecture, music, the dance, science, and philosophy, providing +outlets, occupations and professions that have colored and shaped many +aspects of civilized living. + +A fourth collective goal of civilization has been the establishment and +maintenance of social structure, including classes and/or caste lines +based partly upon tradition, partly on function and partly upon +proximity to the honey-pot, the wellspring of wealth, income, prestige +and power. + +Since the principle of private property has been implicit in every known +civilization, the ownership of land, capital and consumer goods and +services has been a prerogative of the ruling oligarchies, shared by +them with their associates and dependents and used as their chief means +of establishing and maintaining the "you work, I eat" principal of +economic relationships. + +Private property, and its derivative, unearned or property income, has +enabled the ruling oligarchies of civilized communities to receive the +first fruits of every enterprise. They have also enabled the oligarchs +to establish a priority scale of income distribution under which those +who held property and its derivatives could have first choice among +available consumer goods and services. Second choice went to the +associates, retainers and defenders of the oligarchs. Third choice went +to the preferred, professional experts who spoke for and represented the +oligarchy. Fourth choice went to the artisans--skilled designers, +builders, fabricators. What remained went to hewers of wood and drawers +of water, the workers, women and men, who provided the necessaries, +comforts, luxuries upon which physical survival and social status +depended. Generally this proletarian mass, including chattel slaves, +serfs, tenant farmers and war captives, were outside the pale of +respectability. In a caste-divided community they were scavengers and +untouchables, living a life close to that of domestic animals. + +Most civilizations have permitted gifted individuals to move vertically, +from the bottom toward the top levels of the social pyramid. Vertical +movement was severely restricted, however. Generally people lived, +served and died on the class or caste level into which they were born. + +Members of classes and castes are not free agents. They have privileges +and rights. They also have obligations and duties. Classes and castes +are functioning parts of an interdependent social whole which can +maintain balanced order only so long as each segment recognizes its +obligations and performs its duties. + +Social balance therefore depended on class collaboration. Successful +collaboration, in its turn, is the outcome of a general acceptance of +class and caste and general willingness to go on living and functioning +in a class divided society. + +A fifth collective goal of civilization has been expansion from the +nucleus outward, with final authority exercised by and from the nucleus. +At the outset of the survival struggle which led to the establishment of +one language, one religion, one law, one authority, one loyalty, each +among the many contestants had its own language, its own religion, its +own law, its own authority. + +These rival forces were temporarily confederated against internal +disruption or foreign invasion. ("Liberty and union, now and forever, +one and inseparable.") In the course of the survival struggle, the +separate parts of which the civilization was composed began with the +local autonomy permitted by confederation, and ended up with one among +the many contestants donning the imperial purple and establishing itself +as the master and supreme dictator--the Caesar or Pharoah of the +conquered, unified world. + +Foreign territories conquered and brought by force of arms within this +imperium were subjects of a central authority which they never really +accepted. Authority continued to be exercised from the imperial nucleus. +The newly conquered territories were policed by professional soldiers +whose primary loyalty was national but whose responsibility was to the +aggregate composing the Roman or the Egyptian civilization. + +The acid test of the expanding civilization was embodied in the degree +of acceptance of wholeness as opposed to self-determination. Were the +individual members--the provinces and colonies composing the +whole--willing and able to sink their differences in an unquestioned +wholeness, or were they prepared at the first opportunity to exercise +their right to self-determination and declare their independence of the +whole? + +The resolution of this question constituted the sixth collective goal of +civilization: to establish a whole in which the component members were +able and willing to recognize the axiom that the interests of the whole +come before the interests of any of its component parts. + +The issue of central authority versus local self determination has been +one of the basic issues of the present century because during the +preceding period, the British, French, Dutch and Spanish Empires had +been built up by the conquest and occupation of foreign lands. If the +nineteenth century was an epoch of expanding imperial authority, the +twentieth century has been an epoch of the dismemberment of empires by +movements for independence and self-determination. + +Seventh, and finally, among the collective goals of civilization, each +has developed an ideology that justified empire building by conquest, +exploitation, chattel slavery, peonage, wagery, the supremacy of the +empire nucleus, the subordination of the periphery to the nucleus and +other aspects of ascendancy and mastery including "divine" rights in +politics and "natural" rights in economics. + +Civilizations expect the individuals and groups of which they are +composed to preserve the status quo, work as disciplined members of an +effective team and be satisfied with the outcome. This brings us back to +the goal with which we began this discussion of the collective goals of +civilizations: The primary task of any civilization is to survive. + +Each individual human being, living and working in a civilized community +occupies a sphere of action, enjoys the advantages and disadvantages and +accepts the responsibilities and duties which pertain to his sphere. +Within his sphere the individual succeeds or fails in so far as he leads +a rewarding personal life and contributes his share toward the +collective life of the group to which she or he belongs. + +If the individual in a civilized community is to live a good life, the +first task is to maintain normal health, good spirits and a +determination to get the most out of life and to contribute at least the +equivalent of what he receives in service to his group. + +As a civilization expands and extends its influence, the individual must +contribute his mite to the entire enterprise while adding to his own +store of goods and services. Acquisition and accumulation satisfy a +human desire to have and to keep. They also add to the wealth and well +being of the community on the widely accepted utilitarian formula: +happiness comes in direct proportion to the extent and variety of ones +possessions. + +In most civilized communities the building unit is a family. It is this +family unit, usually directed by a male or father figure, who acts for +the family and represents it in the community. + +In passing, the reader should note that the breakdown in family life now +so prevalent in many parts of western civilization is a departure from +the civilized norm. It is really a measure of the extent to which +western civilization itself is disintegrating. + +The revolution in science and technology, mass production and the +distribution of goods and services through a mass market have put +acquisition and accumulation of goods and services as a life-goal to a +severe test. Until the early years of the present century no +civilization had provided affluence for more than a small fraction of +its population. The vast majority consisted of slaves, serfs, war +captives, and tenant farmers. Only an exceptional few were in a position +to live in comfort or luxury on unearned income. As each civilization +matured, ownership of land and capital diverted the flow of consumer +goods and services into the coffers of a diminishing proportion of the +total population. The vast majority lived at or below the subsistence +level. General affluence was a goal that was talked about and dreamed +about, but there was no way to test its practical effects on the +population as a whole. + +Under conditions presently existing in many parts of the West, millions +of individuals and families following the utilitarian principles of +acquisition and accumulation have secured and kept an abundance of goods +and services in strict accordance with utilitarian principles. Yet they +have not been and are not happy. + +Quite the contrary, in many cases they are unhappy, particularly in the +second and third generations of affluent family life. This is notably +true in the United States, Scandinavia, Switzerland and other parts of +western Europe. It is true to a lesser degree in New Zealand and +Australia. + +Millions of families in these countries, with all their possessions, +fail to enjoy peace and happiness. On the contrary, they are so acutely +unhappy that many of them have come to regard acquisition and +accumulation as a sterile rat-race. Consequently multitudes of people, +young and old, have turned their backs on civilization, separating +themselves from their affluent homes with their glut of consumer goods +to live at non-civilized or pre-civilized levels. These individuals are +avowedly anti-civilization in so far as its material incentives are +concerned. + +Similar attitudes were expressed in previous civilizations. Socrates +went barefoot through the streets of Athens. Diogenes lived in a tub. +Uncounted numbers of Indian holy men and early Christians rejected all +affluence, embraced poverty, lived simply and austerely. Religious +asceticism is no novelty. But the wholesale rejection of acquisition and +accumulation as a way of life certainly marks a turning point in the +popular attitude toward the utilitarian axiom that human happiness is +directly proportioned to the quantity and variety of material +possessions. + +Civilization presupposes getting, keeping and exercising power over +nature, society and man. Each civilization has added to man's +utilization of nature. This has been a notorious aspect of western +civilization since the inauguration of the scientific-technological +revolution. After a century of intensified exploitation of the natural +environment, entire communities are reacting with dismay and disgust +against the resulting pollution of air, water and land, the wanton waste +of soil fertility, forests and minerals, and extermination of various +forms of "wilderness." Freedom to exploit nature's storehouse has not +brought happiness. On the contrary, it threatens the existence of other +life forms and even the continuance of human life on the planet. + +Private enterprise and other forms of permissiveness have led to +practices that circumscribe and hamper life. Their declared objective is +the liberation and enlargement of human life and well being. Where they +have been tested out they have proved themselves to be obstructive and +destructive rather than creative and constructive. + +Notable advances in science and technology have greatly increased the +human capacity to transform nature and remake society. Designed and +executed as a means of enhancing the general welfare, science and +technology might have promoted human well-being. But employed as a means +of exploiting nature and society for the benefit of a favored few, +science and technology, whether directed by European and American +promoters of the African slave trade, Spanish conquerors in Latin +America, by Belgians in the African Congo, by European whites in their +dealings with the North American Indians, by the Nazis in Europe, or by +Americans in South East Asia, have involved merciless exploitation +accompanied by revolting atrocities. + +Never in recorded history was the capacity of man to modify nature and +exploit society more publicly tested out than in the atom bombing of +Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the purposeful devastation of jungle life and +village life in large parts of Vietnam and Cambodia. Reported in the +public press and pictured, live, over radio and television, these latest +developments in the ugly record of man's exploitation of nature have +become part of the record of the decline and dissolution of western +civilization. + +Exploitation of human society for the benefit of the few at the expense +of the many is an old story that extends through the entire record of +written history. Every civilization has produced a cluster of +institutions and practices that enabled a few rich and privileged to +live in affluence at the expense of the impoverished many. This +juxtaposition of riches and poverty is the logical outcome of a system +of social relations designed to provide the few with comfort and luxury +while the many are forced to accept penury and hardship. Exploitation, +carried to its logical conclusion, permits and requires a parasitic +minority to live in abundance while the majority must content itself +with scarcity, extending to death from malnutrition. + +Another goal presented to individuals by the promoters and fashioners of +civilization is individual perfection, physical, mental, emotional, +moral. Every generation of human beings contains individuals who are +beyond the average--bigger, stronger, more talented, seeing farther, +searching more deeply, endowed with greater sensitivity, working more +conscientiously, imbued with a love of their fellows and determination +to serve them. Such individuals have genius in one or another form and +offer themselves and their products as a gift to the general welfare of +their generation. Scientists, poets, musicians, inventors, artists, +teachers, healers, philosophers, statesmen have appeared in each +civilization adding their mite to the sum-total of community culture. + +Innovators, moralists and counselors of perfection have played a +noteworthy part by advocating and often by living noteworthy lives. +Reports of their sayings and doings are part of the folklore and the +history of each civilization. If they did not set the tone of their +generation, they provided it with a model toward which their less +talented, less creative fellows might aspire. If they were creative +artists their works provided models which were admired, copied and +emulated by their successors. If they were moralists or philosophers +their sayings were recorded, respected and repeated by successive +generations. + +Each civilization has adopted lines of thinking and codes of action +which embody the best and most advantageous in theory and in practice. +These codes of thought, feeling and action are attributed to some +outstanding individual and passed on from generation to generation as +codes of conduct to which all right-thinking individuals may or should +aspire. + +Human beings know everything about themselves except whence they came, +what they should do and whither they will go. To compensate for this +lack of knowledge and wisdom each civilization has established and +maintained religious organizations and institutions whose duty it was to +search out the truth, record it and teach it to successive generations. + +In some civilizations the religious institutions have dominated the +secular. At other times and in other places the secular has maintained +its ascendancy over the religious. In still other cases the religious +and the secular forces have maintained an uneasy balance leading to +acrimonious bickering and sometimes to civil war. + +Central to their discussions is the nature of life. Is it continuous, as +it appears in vegetation and the animal kingdom, or is it discontinuous +like the rocks on the mountainside or the grains of sand on the +seashore? Those who live for the moment prefer discontinuity. Those who +observe their natural environment are forced to the conclusion that life +today is part of a sequence or progression which relates the life of +yesterday to that of tomorrow. + +Recorded history, from fossil and geological remains, to the books on +library shelves assures us that man has had a past. Projecting this +experience, it seems quite reasonable that barring accident or a +purposed intervention, man will have at least some future. To prepare +for that future, using the knowledge and wisdom at our disposal, seems +to be a must for any reasoning creature. + +Even for the short planetary life-span of the average human, the logic +of this position seems inescapable, whether it applies to the next hour, +day, year, or century. In terms of our children and grandchildren it is +even more impressive. Today we find it desirable to live as well as +possible. If there is any future, the same principle should apply to its +implementation and utilization. + +If the "hereafter" begins tomorrow and if those whose well-being +concerns us will probably be "alive" tomorrow, the science and art of +the future (futurology) takes its place beside other fields of theory +and practice as a must for all responsible members of the human race. + +If the conditions presently existing in human society affordment, skills +and technical experience necessary to make significant changes, why +wait? Why not proceed forthwith to live a better life? + +This dilemma has confronted individuals and sub-groups in various +civilizations. It has been particularly in evidence during periods of +decline and social disintegration. It has led people of both sexes and +all ages to uproot themselves from the old social order and reestablish +themselves in a social order "nearer to the heart's desire." + +Such efforts have been described as "intentional communities" to +distinguish them from a traditional, currently existing social order +which emerged from the past encumbered with vestigial remains and +obsolete institutions and practices having little or no relation to the +needs and wants of a changing world. + +Pilgrim Fathers in New England, William Penn in Pennsylvania, Lord +Baltimore in Maryland aimed to organize local intentional communities. +Similar efforts were made by the Mennonites, the Dukhobors, the +Hutterites, the Mormons in North America. The Christians during the +decline of Roman civilization led a movement to convert a large +geographical area to a new and better way of life. Followers of +Mohammed, several centuries later, made a similar effort to convert the +Eurasian-African world to their ways of thinking and acting. + +Young people by the thousands, in the United States and other western +countries, are turning their backs on western civilization and are +organizing enlarged families and communes that provide their members +with a modified social order which aims at improvements here and now. + +Necessarily such social experiments are looked upon with suspicion by +the Establishment. They are "new", "different", "subversive", "godless", +"wicked." Hence, they are criticized, denounced, raided and often broken +up as threats to existing law and order. + +Intentional communities may grow out of consumers' cooperation. They may +begin as farm collectives. Generally, however, they consist of the +followers of outstanding leaders of religious or ethical sects. Many +intentional communes spring up, mushroom-fashion, and disappear with +equal rapidity. Others endure for generations and centuries. + +In a very real sense they are pilot plants designed to correct +individual or social maladjustments and substitute new ways for old +ones. As pilot plants they experiment with deviations from existing +social norms, acting as a social laboratory in which new ideas and +practices are tested, modified, accepted, rejected. + +Change is one of the essential aspects of every society. There are +changes in personnel. In each generation individuals grow old and +retire. Others grow up and take over the tasks of organizing the +communities in which they live. Profound social changes result from +discoveries and inventions: the wheel, the arch, steam and gas engines, +electricity, atomic power. Cyclic changes occur in the economy. Social +changes follow alterations in the weather. Nations, empires, +civilizations are produced by the changing life forms. + +During long periods, social changes are so gradual that they are +unnoticed save by the more sensitive and perceptive. At other times, +social changes tumble over one another in an overwhelming revolutionary +flood which sweeps away the old, yielding place to new, "lest one good +custom should corrupt the world". + +Changes in society beget changes in ideology. Reciprocally, changes in +ideology lead to changes in social structure and function. The more +rigid the social order, the more stubborn its resistance to change. By +the same token, more fluid societies lend themselves more readily to +changes in practice and in theory. + +It is not possible to discuss ideology without some reference to the +closely related problems of means and ends. As we consider our existing +social establishment, in the light of unceasing social change, we must +deal with goals or objectives, with practicable modifications of social +form and function and with the way in which changes can be, might be, +will be brought about. + +One fact is obvious. Whether social change is major or minor, local or +general, it shifts the social balance. Any shift in the social balance +involves reactionaries, conservatives, liberals, radicals, some of whom +will gain, while others will lose in the course of each social +transformation. All will be concerned and involved. + +Since political change involves some alteration in the balance of social +forces, it behooves those who advocate and those who oppose social +change to maximize acceptance and minimize opposition in order to take +advantage of the gains and cut down the losses incident to all change. + +For present purposes we wish to make seven notes about means and ends. + + 1. _Opportunists_ propose to act now and win what they can + today. Never mind about tomorrow with its sequences and + consequences of today's action. Sufficient for the day is the + evil thereof. + + 2. _Pragmatists_ believe in serving their own interests, on the + theory that whatever serves personal interests must have + first priority. "What is good for me/us is good for the + universe". + + 3. _Experimentalists_ are prepared to try out any suggestion + which promises to achieve the desired goals. Singly and in + working teams they test and try out, seeking the most + effective means of reaching desired ends. + + 4. _Innovators_ formulate projects and test out results, checking + and rechecking as they search for more effective means + of achieving results. + + 5. _Radicals_ seek out the roots, digging, sifting, classifying, + assembling their findings, announcing their conclusions and + working to apply them in theory and practice to the structure + and function of their communities. + + 6. _Revolutionists_ are in a hurry. Disillusioned with the past and + the present they seek by "direct action" to create a new + social order, out of whole cloth, quickly, here and now. + Never mind the means, get results! + + 7. _Totalists_ have the whole truth, attained through reasoning, + experimentation, revelation. Having learned the truth, they + dedicate their energies to the propagation of the faith. + Where they encounter opposition they counter it and, if + necessary, annihilate it with its originators and advocates. + +As a matter of practical experience, proponents of all seven approaches +to social problems and social change employ a wide range of techniques +from persuasion to coercion. To support their projects they advance +logical arguments, elaborate half-truths, make emotional appeal; employ +trickery, deceit, preferment, privilege, flattery, soft living, bribery, +coercion, physical and social violence--individual and collective +extermination. + +Civilization as reported in history and in its current practice is based +on five faulty ideological assumptions: + + 1. _Competitive survival struggle results in social improvement._ + Survival struggle has certainly played a role in stimulating + discovery, invention and the diffusion of culture traits. Its + end results have always included civil and inter-group war + with its unavoidable costs in destruction, dissolution and + death. + + 2. _The effort to grab and keep, with its accompanying competition, + is a chief source of social progress._ The game of + grab and keep is play for children. Mature human beings + should strive to create, produce, share. + + 3. _The accumulation of goods and services brings happiness._ + At the out-set of life this may be true. But accumulation + for its own sake produces the miser. Misers are not happy + people. Riches yield happiness only as they are distributed. + Accumulation brings many headaches, and few abiding + satisfactions. + + 4. _Successful accumulators "have fun."_ Perhaps they do, for + a time, at the expense of others on whose backs they ride + and whose life blood they suck. But mature men and + women do not "have fun"; they shoulder and carry their + share of social responsibility. + + 5. _Progress can be measured by the multitude of personal + possessions._ Not so. True progress for humanity consists + in movement from having to doing; from the possessive to + the creative; from the material toward the spiritual. + +Ideologies have played a role in determining the structure and function +of every civilization. As civilization grows up, matures, and declines, +ideologies change with the changing times. In its early history each +civilization seeks acceptance for its picture of reality and its +techniques for reaching individual and social goals. As each +civilization declines and disintegrates, a multitude of counselors +clamors for attention to a particular formula that will prove acceptable +and workable in the existing emergent circumstances. + + + + +_Part III_ + + +Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +WORLDWIDE REVOLUTION DISRUPTS CIVILIZATION + + +Every organism, mechanism or social construct reaches a point in its +life cycle at which its existing apparatus must be repaired, renovated +and updated or scrapped, redesigned and replaced. Today western +civilization in its totality faces that dilemma. + +The culture pattern variously known as European, western or modern +civilization, dating from the Crusades, has existed for about a thousand +years, and spread across the planet. During that millennium western +civilization has passed through a life cycle similar to that of its +predecessors. According to Oswald Spengler's historical perspective, a +civilization passes through its life cycle in about a thousand years. If +the Spenglerian assumption is in line with the course of history, +western civilization should be in an advanced stage of decline and +should eventually disappear as a decisive factor in world affairs. + +Spengler's argument is fully and floridly presented in _The Decline of +the West_. The author offers a theory of history based on the existence +of an arbitrary and rather mechanical life cycle. It includes a period +of gestation, rise and expansion, a period of maturity and stability and +a final period of decline and dissolution. Spengler believed that +western civilization is in the grip of an irreversable decline. + +The Spenglerian perspective is based on the assumption of a normal +pattern in the growth and decline of civilizations. The normalcy on +which Spengler based his assumption was disrupted around 1750 when a +series of new dynamic factors entered the stream of modern social +history: + +I. Mankind gained access to immense stores of energy which supplemented +human energy, the energies of domesticated animals and a miniscule use +of water power and air power. To these traditional energy sources the +revolution in science and technology has added steam, electricity, and +the energy stored in the atom. + +II. These new sources of energy were harnessed and directed through +mechanical and chemical agencies that greatly extended human capacity to +convert nature's stored wealth into goods and services available for +human consumption, and to develop a surplus of wealth and a release of +manpower sufficient to build up a backlog of capital which, in its turn, +produced goods and services with economic surpluses convertible into +additional capital. + +III. This revolution in the tempo of production and capital accumulation +was parallelled by a like revolution in transportation and communication +by land, water, and eventually by air and in space. Electricity played +an essential part in the process by speeding communication and helping +to put transportation on wheels. + +IV. Building construction was also revolutionized--metals, concrete, +glass and synthetics replaced wood and stone as the basic construction +materials. + +V. New energy sources and the new capital expanded the volume and +variety of production far more rapidly than the increase in population +and turned the resulting surplus into a technical apparatus that made +possible mass production for a mass market. + +VI. Mass production, transportation, construction and marketing ushered +in an era of surplus that replaced the age of comparative scarcity with +an age of rapidly increasing abundance. + +Changes in the means of production play havoc with any established +social pattern. The economic alteration that accompanied and followed +the eighteenth and early nineteenth century transformation of western +economy overturned various aspects of the western social structure: + + 1. Representative government made its appearance and spread + widely; + + 2. Social services and social security, previously reserved for + the elite, were provided for wider and wider circles of the + population; + + 3. Changes in technology, advances in science, the replacement + of landlords, clergymen and soldiers by businessmen + and professionals, including the military, as the recognized + leaders of the modern society, put social control in the hands + of a new ruling bourgeois class; + + 4. The bourgeois revolution brought into existence two other + classes: the industrial proletariat as an ally and/or an + acceptable leader of the peasant masses of Europe. At the + same time it enlarged the middle class to a point at which + it was able to play a decisive role in the formulation and + direction of social policy in industrialized communities. + + 5. Fragments of the industrial proletariat and the greatly + enlarged middle class came together in an avowedly revolutionary + movement: socialism-communism, which reached + the power summit between 1910 and 1917. + + 6. The bourgeoisie countered with a cold war aimed to exterminate + socialism-communism, using propaganda, petty + reform and armed intervention as its chief agencies. + + 7. The high birth rate, the prolongation of life and mass education + provided society with a substantial body of skilled, + experienced, socially conscious, alert citizens, increasingly + aware of the historical changes through which they were + living and determined to intervene whenever their well-being + was threatened. + + 8. Extension and equalization of opportunity opened the way + for an informed citizenry to express itself and defend its + interests. + + 9. Emerging planet-wide social consciousness spread an awareness + that the concerns, plans and programs of any part of + the human family are of vital importance to the whole of + mankind. + +Change is a universal force which operates in nature, in society, in man +himself. At times it takes place so gradually that one day seems like +another. At other times it operates with furious energy, turning things +upside-down overnight. Such change, whether it takes place in nature or +in society is revolutionary. + +Rome's demise as a world power was followed by centuries of +quietude--The Dark Ages. These in turn yielded to a period of +revolutionary change that found its early expression in the voyages and +discoveries that spanned the earth after 1450. Three centuries later the +rebirth of western humanity expressed itself in the industrial +revolution that flooded across the planet and became an early stage of +the planet-wide sweep that has played havoc with nature, turned the old +society upside down and presently promises to produce a new society for +a reborn human race. + +World-wide revolution is the predominant force in the twentieth century. +Its existence and some of its consequences have become an all-embracing +theme for thought and discussion. They have put into the hands of +present-day humanity the ideas, experiments and experiences needed for +transforming nature, rebuilding social institutions and practices and +opening the way for mankind to move confidently into a future replete +with intriguing and exciting possibilities. + +An excellent summary of this entire field is appearing in a six volume +_History of Mankind_, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, +Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Volume six of the history +is titled _The Twentieth Century_. Particularly noteworthy is an +Introduction of more than a hundred printed pages, Part I, _The +Development and Application of Scientific Knowledge_, and Part II on +_The Transformation of Societies_. Events surrounding the war of 1914-18 +are correctly described as "a turning point in world history." (Vol. VI +p. 11) + +World revolution is one aspect of present-day society. From our present +vantage point we cannot tell how far it will go or what it will do to +humanity and its present habitat. + +Advances in science and technology have provided mankind with a new +stage on which to go through a new act and speak a new piece. What +effect will they have on the institutions and practices of western +civilization? Have they rendered the forms and functions of civilization +obsolete? Or can western civilization adapt itself or be adapted to the +very difficult situation created by the revolution through which human +society is presently passing? Can western civilization be reformed to +meet the new historical situation created by the great revolution or +must it be rejected and replaced? + +If the institutions and practices of western civilization can be +adjusted to meet the demands of the new situation created by the +scientific, technological, political and cultural revolution, the +reformed social apparatus may function in a new day that is dawning for +the human family. If reform proves to be impossible, the apparatus of +western civilization must be replaced by a social structure in keeping +with the requirements of the new age inaugurated by the innovations +introduced into the human culture pattern by the revolution of our time. + +There is widespread recognition of the need to keep the structure of a +society in harmony with necessary functions and updated to the +consequences of probable or possible discovery and invention. This is no +mean task as western experience during recent centuries has so clearly +demonstrated. Power elites of feudal Europe neither anticipated nor +prepared for the consequences of the industrial revolution. The result +was the smash and clatter of the American and French Revolutions (1776 +and 1789) and minor revolutionary shocks through the nineteenth century. +Power elites in western Europe dealt with mass production and its +consequent abundance of goods and services with mass marketing, social +security and other crumbs of affluence scattered among the restless +masses. But when the trade winds of the scientific and technological +revolution blew in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the Chinese +Revolution of 1911 and the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Romanoff +dictatorship was still ordering back the tide of social change and the +dominant United States oligarchy cold-shouldered the Mexican Revolution, +took sixteen years to recognize officially the Russian Soviets and +waited twenty-three years after 1949 before they were even on speaking +terms with the Chinese Communists. + +For two centuries, new ideas, institutions and practices have followed +discoveries and inventions as regularly as day follows night. The +consequent flood of innovations that has swept through the West and +across the planet in the past two generations has made drastic social +change a matter of the utmost urgency. The only open questions concern +the direction of the changes, their rapidity, and the success of the +social system in adapting itself to the shattering effects of newly +released social forces. + +Social change can come with the rush and turmoil of revolution or the +studied step-by-considered-step constancy of the conscious improvement +of society by society. Two powerful social forces limit gradualness. One +is human impatience. The other is the rapidity with which masses of +people all over the planet are being informed of the good-life potential +implicit in present-day western affluence. + +Impatience is emotional rather than rational. It is a compound of human +urges on one hand and on the other hand of the frustrations built up in +individuals and populations attracted by new wants and frustrated by +barriers of custom-habit; the carefully constructed apparatus of +direction, division and restriction (the State, the Church, the +communication media), and the potent class forces of the +counter-revolution. + +In every modern community the media of mass communication are +broadcasting information regarding the widening consumer prospects +created by the current revolution in science and technology. In every +modern community there are eager, ambitious, hopeful individuals urging +their fellow workers and fellow citizens to get moving toward the +promised land of peace and plenty. In every community the bureaucracy, +representing the more comfortable and secure elements of the population, +is asking the less well placed class groups to "take it easy," take "one +step at a time," and remember that "Rome was not built in a day." + +Conservatives, urging law and order under the status quo, have reason +on their side. The movement of a technologically oriented community from +monopoly capitalism into socialism-communism is without historical +precedent and therefore largely experimental. Plans are tentative; there +are shortages of materials and particularly of skills based on +experience. Costly mistakes are made leading to delay until they can be +corrected. The counter-revolution, abundantly financed by the forces of +reaction, operates constantly, in critical situations almost always +through the military, to preserve the "law and order" which are the +prime forces behind its wealth and its power. In an untrod, untested +area ignorance is a blank wall until it is pierced by ingenuity and +innovation. There are many ways to miss a defined objective and only a +few ways to reach it. + +Cautious, experienced people, living comfortably, are inclined to let +well enough alone. Restless, hopeful idealists are eager to reject, +modify, improvise and replace. + +Conservatives try to preserve both the structure and the traditional +activities of a community on the plea that a bird in the hand is worth +two in the bush. Liberals (moderates) would preserve the structure but +bring its activities up to date. Radicals would scrap the old and +replace it with a new structure and new activities geared to the new +possibilities and the new requirements. + +Survival wars from 1914 to 1945 marked not only the end of Britain's +planetary domination but the termination of Europe's planetary regency. +The events of the period also loosened the bonds that had held western +civilization together. + +A social structure which includes imperial nuclei and colonial +dependencies is constantly threatened by colonial unrest and revolt. +Colonial revolt, endemic in every civilization, became epidemic after +1943. The path to independence had been blazed by North and South +American colonials. It was followed after 1943 by the inhabitants of +British, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Asia and +Africa. The slogan of the independence movement was "self-determination." + +Before self-determination can operate there must be a "self" capable of +making decisions and carrying them into practice. Identification of the +"self," or "nationhood" as it was called in this era, involved bitter +domestic struggle, internal reorganization and consolidation. The +process was typified in the British Colonies of North America between +1770 and 1789 which produced the United States of North America. Asians +and Africans who gained their independence after 1945 faced a double +problem: the establishment of nationhood, and regional consolidation. + +The British colonies in North America won their independence as a loose +confederation of sovereign states. After war's-end in 1783, they were +able to form a regional federation: the United States of North America. +Despite their efforts, they were unable to include Canada, which was +under strong French influence. British colonials in Asia and Africa +after 1943 were less fortunate. After winning their independence as +Indians or Burmese, they were unable to take the next step and organize +a United States of Southern Asia. + +The Bandung Conference (in 1955) of representatives from Asia and +African countries failed to realize the hopes of its conveners. After +prolonged deliberations it was able to go no further than the "five +principles" of self-determination and co-existence, under which the +independence of each participating nation was reaffirmed and each agreed +not to interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbors. The +conference adjourned without establishing any form of organization or +making provision for further meetings. + +After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, hopes ran high for the establishment +of a bloc of Latin American States, led by the elected president of +Brazil, Joao Goulart, that might act as a bulwark against further +"yankee aggression" in Latin America. In 1962 a military coup overthrew +Goulart, drove him into exile, jailed and disenfranchised his supporters +and lined up Brazil, largest and most populous nation of Latin America, +solidly behind the Monroe Doctrine of United States supremacy in the +Americas, implemented by Washington's burgeoning "Pentagon diplomacy." + +African developments were even less fruitful than those in Asia and +Latin America. Asians and Latin Americans generally had reached the +level of self-identification necessary for statehood and national +self-determination. Large parts of Africa living at pre-national levels +of tribal identification, devoted their energies to the realization of +nationhood. Their constitutions announced their frontiers and proclaimed +their sovereignty, but inter-tribal rivalries and personal ambitions +turned each new nation into a battle field for prestige and authority, +with the military often making the final decisions. + +Asians and Africans had won telling victories in their struggle to drive +out their former imperial masters. When it came to the affirmative task +of organizing responsible regional federations, their failure was +dismal. Asia and Africa were regionally disunited. Former colonial +people, still monitored by alien representatives of monopoly capitalism, +were fragmented by the self-determination struggle into theoretically +sovereign nations many of which lacked the experience and the local +expertise which are the indispensible prerequisites of self-determination +and of fruitful regional federation. + +Another aspect of the world revolution produced more tangible results. +The latter half of the nineteenth century brought into being a +grass-roots movement of peoples demanding everything from petty reforms +of administrative machinery to planned revolutionary transformations of +the established monopoly capitalist structure. This movement +crystallized as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, pro-socialist +national and international struggle. From the publication of the +Communist Manifesto in 1848 until the beginnings of socialist +construction in 1917, it was a movement of protest against poverty, +unemployment, war, waste, inequality, exploitation. After 1917 it became +a movement to end imperialism, war and exploitation and substitute a +planet-wide social system that would give every human being a chance to +play a meaningful part in utilizing nature, improving society and +creating socialist women and men, capable of cooperating for the general +welfare of mankind. + +The Enlightenment had diminished ignorance, spread information and +brought elementary education to the masses. Self-government had given +people confidence in their ability to make the phrase "we, the people" a +working formula for social improvement. The Industrial Revolution had +converted millions of superstitious, frustrated peasants into craftsmen +and professionals confident in their ability to use nature effectively, +to advance their own interests and to improve society. These and +secondary social forces laid the foundation for the social revolution +that mushroomed across the planet during the opening years of the +present century. The occasion for the revolution was four years of +destructive war (1914-18) during which two rival gangs of imperialists +led their dupes and victims to shed blood and destroy property in a +struggle to decide which band of plunderers should exploit natural +resources and labor power for its own advantage. + +General war presented twentieth century man with a dilemma, an +opportunity and a choice. Should he continue the grab-and-keep society +that had flowered in Europe and elsewhere during the previous century, +with its consequent poverty for the many, unemployment, exploitation and +the power-struggle of the empires, or make a revolutionary change? As +the stalemated war of 1914-18 with its frightful destruction of life and +property continued year after year, the determination in favor of +revolutionary change grew and crystalized. + +David Lloyd George, Britain's Prime Minister, put the situation into +words presented to the Versailles Peace Conference on March 25, 1919: +"The whole of Europe is filled with the spirit of revolution.... The +whole existing order in its political, social and economic aspects is +questioned by the masses of the population from one end of Europe to the +other." (Memorandum of Lloyd George to the Peace Conference, 1922 Cmd. +1614.) + +Lloyd George proved a true prophet. Mass discontent and the spirit of +revolt spread rapidly. Soldiers at the front mutinied. The armies of +Tsarist Russia dissolved as the privates and officers alike returned to +their homes, determined to stop war, end Romanoff tyranny and build a +better life for the Russian people. To gain these results they replaced +the Tsarist absolutism by local, regional and nationally elected +people's Soviets. + +Before the War began in July, 1914, the socialist parties of Europe were +divided between moderates who were willing to accept welfare-state +reforms and allow the grab-and-keep structure of monopoly capitalism to +continue in authority, and revolutionaries who demanded the abolition of +capitalist imperialism and its replacement by socialism. European +reformist socialists shouldered arms in July, 1914, and shot down their +comrades across the frontiers. European revolutionary socialists, led by +Lenin in Russia, Liebknecht in Germany and Jaures in France gained in +strength as the war proceeded. Liebknecht and Jaures were assassinated. +Lenin lived in exile until he went back to Russia and led the +revolutionary forces that liquidated Tsarism in the closing months of +1917. + +For the first time in the history of western civilization, a proletarian +revolutionary force had established its authority over one of the most +extensive and populous nations on the planet. For the first time a +responsible government threatened to abandon the fundamental assumptions +and principles of western civilization. Could this new "subversive" +government survive in the merciless free-for-all in which western man +was engaged? Could it not only survive but build up a social system +which contradicted and condemned the underlying precepts of the West? In +a word, could socialism be built in one country, surrounded by civilized +monopoly capitalist powers? + +Historical events have answered these questions in the affirmative. At +this writing the Soviet Government has survived continuously for more +than half a century. During that period it has transformed economically, +politically and culturally backward portions of Europe and Asia into one +of the most advanced areas on the planet. + +Monopoly capitalist society assumes that productivity, wealth and +fire-power, effectively co-ordinated under competent authority, will +guarantee survival and perhaps win supremacy. Beginning its life in one +of the backward areas of the planet, the Soviet Union has met all of +these tests by converting itself into a first class world power. Its +productivity is second only to that of the United States. In wealth it +stands second among the nations. Its fire power has carried the Soviet +Union to victory in civil and international war. Its ruling +oligarchy--the Soviet Communist Party--has maintained its authority +through the stresses of domestic strife and major international +conflict. In terms accepted by the existing free-for-all West, the +Soviet Union is an established world power. + +Through the first three decades of its existence the Soviet Union was +the only government avowedly engaged in building a socialist rival to +monopoly capitalism and determined to replace capitalism as the dominant +planet-wide social system. After 1943 it was joined by a dozen other +European, Asian and American countries, dedicated like the Soviet Union +to the task of building socialism. In addition to these dozen countries, +several others such as India, Burma, Indonesia, Ceylon, Ghana and Libya, +declared their intention of building socialism by legal, and gradual +stages. Almost all of the countries busied with socialist construction +were in East Europe and Asia. The countries building toward socialism +were more widely scattered, but by and large they were Eurasian. + +From 1919 to 1943 socialist construction was directed, at least in +theory, by the Communist International with headquarters in Moscow--the +"general staff of the World Revolution". Under war pressure the +Communist International was dissolved in 1943. No equally inclusive +international socialist authority has since been established. + +World revolution is not confined to the Old World of +Africa--Asia--Europe. It is widely prevalent in the Americas where it +can claim a certain priority. Outstanding among colonial uprisings of +modern times was the rebellion of the British colonies of North America, +from 1776 to 1783. Even more widespread was the rebellion of the +Spanish, Portuguese and French colonies of Central and South America +which spanned most of the nineteenth century and extended on into the +twentieth. Russian Bolsheviks held the headlines on revolutionary +activity from 1917 to 1943 but it should not be forgotten that one of +the most prolonged and thorough-going revolutions of the present century +gripped Mexico from 1910 to 1917. At the beginning of this period Mexico +was a political semi-dependency of the United States. It was +semi-feudal, with a large population of Amerindians and a pre-industrial +economy. Foreign capitalists and entrepreneurs, including those from the +United States, played a leading role in the country. + +Mexico's 1910-1917 revolution was prolonged. It was also radical, +up-rooting many aspects of its old social pattern, speeding up the +bourgeois revolution, and preparing the way for a Mexican form of +populism and a Mexican foretaste of a proletarian revolution, initiated, +led and manned by Mexicans. + +Mexico's revolution resulted in two important developments that have +played a major role in socialist construction. Both contributions +appeared in the Mexican Constitution of 1917, adopted eight months +before the Russian Bolsheviks seized power in November. + +The first contribution was a chapter on the rights of labor. Bourgeois +constitutions had emphasized "civil" rights: the right to vote, trial by +jury; freedom of speech, press, assembly; the right to go and come; the +right to compensation when private property is taken for public +purposes; the right to modify or replace the existing constitution. The +Mexican Constitution of 1917 contained a detailed specification of the +rights of labor, including proper working conditions, adequate +compensation, education, health, social security. The Constitution also +contained a crucial property provision: the natural resources of Mexico +are the property of the Mexican people and cannot be alienated. + +This second provision was inserted in the Mexican Constitution at a time +when extensive concessions to develop Mexican resources had been handed +out to North American and European capitalists. It was inserted in part +because the social ownership and sharing of land and other +natural resources has been one of the basic demands of the +Socialist--Communist--Anarchist movements from their inception. + +Monopoly capitalism depends primarily on the private ownership of the +means of production, including natural resources. Capitalist opposition +to socialism is not only a matter of theory. In practice the private +ownership of natural resources enables the owner to charge rent to any +and all users. Natural resources are sharply limited and usually +localized. As population grows, demand for living space is intensified +and rents rise. It is not an accident that the stretches of "black +earth", of copper, iron, petroleum, the precious metals, and the land +occupied by Mexico City, London, New York and other population centers, +poured a stream of wealth into the treasuries and augmented the power of +their owners. + +Effects of the insertion into the Mexican Constitution of the provision +making natural resources "the property of the Mexican people" have been +far-reaching. One socialist country after another has written into its +constitution a provision that its natural wealth is the inalienable +heritage of its people. This provision has two important results: it +establishes natural resources as part of the public sector of the +national economy; it also limits the possibility of handing out +concessions to foreign exploiters, private or public. + +During the opening years of the present century socialist parties and +other forward looking organizations were demanding social ownership of +natural resources, public utilities and other social means of production +as the next logical step toward a more equitable distribution of wealth +and income. There was a possibility that such revolutionary changes +could be made under bourgeois law by exercising the right of eminent +domain, upon the payment of reasonable compensation to former owners. At +least in theory, the democratic majority in any bourgeois country could +put an end to private enterprise capitalism and establish socialism by a +constitutional amendment, legislative enactment, and a caretaker +political apparatus to administer and supervise the transition. + +Socialist parties were making "reformist" demands for better working +and living conditions and "revolutionary" demands for changes in +property and class relationships. Increased productivity and growing +affluence made it possible for a progressive bourgeois state to meet the +reformist demands, establishing a welfare state legally and +constitutionally. + +Under the bourgeois constitutions generally existing at the beginning of +the present century, a popular majority could adopt necessary +constitutional amendments, pass the necessary enabling laws and launch a +program of socialist construction. + +Such a program was part of the thinking of European and other socialist +leaders during the opening years of the present century. Inspired and +encouraged by the successes of socialist construction in the Soviet +Union and other socialist countries, middle of the road socialists +proposed to move gradually and legally from capitalism to socialism. + +Conservative socialists who were members of coalition governments in +parts of Eurasia, described such welfare states as victories for +socialism, despite the fact that they left the essentials of state power +in bourgeois hands. + +Between 1920 and 1950 the western world found itself in this essentially +revolutionary situation: the world-wide revolution in science and +technology had opened the way for the human race to turn its back on the +limitations and inadequacies of civilization and advance to a new level +of culture and human opportunity. + +The impact of this revolutionary situation expressed itself at several +levels: + + 1. Much of west and central Europe, important parts of North + America, much of Australasia, important parts of East Asia + and fringes of Africa had at least two generations of experience + with some degree of affluence. + + 2. Scientifically and technologically maturing societies that + had opted for socialism constitutionally and legally were + engaged officially in socialist construction. These countries + and peoples were located chiefly in Eurasia. + + 3. Former colonial and client dependencies of the nineteenth + century empires struggling for self-determination and statehood + were entering a stage of affluence. These countries + and peoples were mainly Afro-Asian. Some of them were + located in Latin America. + + 4. Countries and peoples still under the political, economic + and cultural umbrella of the formerly dominant empires + were at different stages in the completion of the bourgeois + revolution. Their ruling oligarchies--fascist or neo-fascist--were + stubborn defenders of remnants and fragments of the + nineteenth century bourgeois culture. Their stronghold was + the Atlantic Community. + +During the cold war years following 1945 each of these groups was +undergoing the drastic social changes incident to the worldwide +revolution of the period. Meanwhile mini-wars, civil and international, +were fought in the Americas, Africa and Asia. By common consent +conventional weapons were used and atomic weapons were kept in +mothballs. + +These experiences were highlighted in British Guyana and Cuba. British +Guyana was a Crown Colony, with a London-appointed Governor and a small +occupying force of British troops with an elected legislative assembly +and a considerable measure of home rule. + +Democratic socialists Cheddi and Janet Jagan helped to organize the +Peoples Progressive Party of British Guyana. Twice Jagan won a popular +electoral majority and was established as Prime Minister of the British +Colony. His two periods of administrative responsibility were badgered +and hectored by every reactionary force that could be mobilized inside +and outside British Guyana, from the British appointed governor to the +domestic and foreign business interests and the urban trade unions. +Before a third election British and American governments, business and +labor interests got together. Money was funnelled into the country +through trade union connections. Protests were staged. Riots were +organized. The electoral system under which the Peoples Progressive +Party had won its victories was altered in London and Jagan was replaced +by a system of proportional representation under which the P.P.P. was +defeated and a new regime inaugurated. + +Throughout the struggle the Peoples Progressive Party had insisted upon +winning popular majorities as a basis for establishing socialism in the +colony by democratic methods and legal means. Imperialist reactionaries +from Britain's Prime Minister and the President of the United States to +the A.F. of L.-C.I.O. retorted: "No you don't", and backed up their veto +with money, riots and guns. As a consequence of this counter-revolutionary +conspiracy, the Peoples Progressive Party was forced out of office and +an administration favorable to British, United States and native Guyanese +capital was substituted. + +A revolt was led by Fidel Castro and his associates against the +Washington-backed Batista regime in Havana, Cuba. When Cuba was seized +by United States armed forces during the Spanish-American War of 1898 +much of the island was in the hands of anti-Spanish rebels who were +demanding independence of Spain's imperialist rule. Between 1898 and +1959 seven million Cubans enjoyed technical independence. Actually the +island, located only 90 miles from Florida, was economically a United +States colony and politically a Washington dependency, with United +States armed forces stationed in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. After +seizing power in 1959, Castro went to the United States seeking a market +for Cuba's chief export, sugar; a source of food supplies not produced +in Cuba, and the manufactures necessary for the economic and social life +of an essentially agricultural island. + +Batista had emptied the Cuban treasury before he fled the island in +1959. Castro therefore needed loans to meet the immediate needs of the +Cuban economy. He also sought to continue arrangements under which the +chief market of Cuban sugar was in the United States. Castro was turned +down cold. All doors, political and economic, were closed to him. As a +revolutionary with left leanings he got the cold shoulder in New York as +well as in Washington. + +Faced by economic bankruptcy and political hostility in the West, Castro +turned to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. They bought +his sugar on long term contracts; provided him with manufactures; +extended loans. Under these economic and political conditions Castro's +Cuba had no choice. Of necessity it became a part of the socialist bloc, +took over the property of Americans and other foreign investors, planned +its economy and announced socialist goals, thus making the island of +Cuba the only outpost of socialist construction in the Americas. + +Socialists exercised authority in one country from 1917 until 1943. +Thereafter the land area devoted to building socialism steadily +increased. By the time China threw off imperialist leading strings and +opted for socialist construction in 1949, a third of mankind was living +on territory under nominally socialist control. Most of this territory +was Asian. An important part lay in eastern Europe. Until 1917, +effective control of the planet was held by a half-dozen empires headed +by the British, who exercised authority over a quarter of the human race +living on a quarter of the earth's land area. After 1917 socialism +mushroomed as a potential competing social system, challenging monopoly +capitalism in Europe, replacing it in large sections of Asia and even +threatening to destroy the foundations of western civilization. + +"Action and reaction are equal and opposite" is an axiom of physical +science which is also applicable in the social field. The sweep of world +revolution and the growth of socialism-communism after 1945 called into +being an opposing force of counter-revolution. The greater the successes +of socialism, the more ardent and assiduous was the counter drive, aimed +to modify, negate and, if possible, to destroy the revolution and +restore the social system of imperialism-colonialism built by monopoly +capitalism to its prerevolutionary status of planet-wide ascendancy. + +Winston Churchill personified this counter revolutionary drive. It was +he who proposed to "strangle the Bolshevik infant in its cradle". The +Peace Conferees, meeting in Versailles, heeded Lloyd George's warning of +March, 1919, and turned their attention to the urgent task of +strangling socialism. Revolutionary beginnings in central Europe were +stamped out. Funds were raised and arms were supplied to the +anti-Bolshevik forces in European Russia and Siberia. At the height of +the counter-Bolshevik crusade there were sixteen armies in Soviet Russia +with the common aim of destroying Bolshevism and restoring the country +to its previous status as one of the pillars of western civilization. +This military phase of the counter-revolution lasted for four years. It +failed. By 1922 the Soviet leaders were able to turn their energies to +the task of rebuilding a devastated country while they planned and +organized a socialist society. + +Counter revolutionary forces failed to overthrow the Bolsheviks during +the civil war of 1918-1921. They failed again when the Nazi armies +swarmed into the Soviet Union in June, 1941. The years from 1941 to 1945 +cost the Russians perhaps twenty million dead, six million dwelling +units and immense damage to their economy and their social organization. +When the war ended, responsible observers in the West predicted that if +the Soviet power survived, decades must elapse before the country was +back on its feet. + +War destruction had played havoc with much of Europe. The Soviet Union +was especially hard hit. Under the Marshall Plan billions of dollars of +United States aid were poured into Britain, France, Belgium and West +Germany. At the same time, the Soviet request for United States loans +was refused categorically by President Truman. Alone and unaided the +Soviet People repaired the extensive damage inflicted by the 1914-18 +war, the Russian Civil War and the 1941 military invasion from the West, +and went on with the task of socialist construction which the war had +interrupted. Within five years--by 1950--the Bolsheviks were again on +their feet, going strong, extending substantial aid to China and other +professedly socialist countries and playing a crucial part in the +struggle for disarmament and peace. + +At war's end in 1918 the Soviet Union was struggling to draw the first +breath of socialist life. Three decades later, after expelling the +Nazis, the Soviet Union was a sturdy giant of a nation standing head +and shoulders above its nearest European competitors. During the +interval, Soviet Russia was attacked, denounced, boycotted, encircled, +invaded, ostracized as the leading figure in "an international communist +conspiracy". When the policy of intervention and invasion failed, the +counter-revolutionaries turned to cold war. + +Whether or not there was a "communist conspiracy" to overthrow +capitalism, there was certainly an organized capitalist conspiracy to +overthrow socialism-communism. Representatives of the chief capitalist +empires made repeated attempts to subsidize anti-Bolshevik forces in the +Soviet Union. From 1918 to 1921 and from 1941 to 1945 they used every +available means, including military invasion, to overthrow the Soviet +Union and stamp out the beginnings of socialist construction in Central +and East Europe. + +From the military invasions of the Soviet Union immediately following +war's end in 1918, western spokesmen, led by President Wilson, did their +utmost to subsidize counter-revolution inside the Soviet Union, to send +American and other armed forces into the country, to villify, denounce, +boycott and handicap the Soviet Government. Sixteen years passed +(1917-1933) before Washington extended diplomatic recognition to the +Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. President Wilson did his best to +keep the Soviet Union and Mexico, both under the control of +revolutionary governments, out of the League of Nations. + +After the 1936-1945 war Washington played the same role with regard to +China, refusing for twenty-two years to recognize Socialist China +diplomatically, leading the drive in the United Nations to exclude China +from membership, although the United Nations Charter specified that +China should be one of the permanent members of the Security Council. +Secretary of State John Foster Dulles justified the policy of +blacklisting and boycotting China by declaring that there was no such +nation as China on the Asian mainland, only 650 million slaves, and that +Chiang Kai Shek's rump government on the island of Formosa was the +"China" specified in the U.N. Charter. + +Under the Truman Doctrine announced immediately after war's end in +1945, the United States refused to tolerate any extension of socialism, +whether by revolution from within or by invasion from without any +country. This doctrine was applied to Greece, to Iran, to Guatemala, to +Santo Domingo, to Chile. During the Korean War, which began in June, +1950, one of President Truman's first directives ordered the United +States Seventh (Pacific) Fleet to occupy the waters about Taiwan +(Formosa), which was historically part of China. + +In order to implement this anti-communist policy, Washington used a +newly created international secret service, the Central Intelligence +Agency or C.I.A., gave it an initial appropriation of $100,000,000 and +turned it loose to spy, corrupt, undermine and overthrow governments +that refused to accept or follow Washington's leadership. + +Between 1815 and 1914 the planet enjoyed a measure of peace and order. +In the three decades between 1914 and 1945, two general wars, a plague +of lesser wars, a general economic depression and a hurricane of +revolutions scourged the planet. Meanwhile, the revolution in science +and technology and its products penetrated almost every crack and cranny +of human society. + +Had the changes incidental to these rapid transformations been carefully +planned and supervised, the disturbances in the ecology and the shocks +to human society would have been less disturbing and upsetting. In the +absence of any planet-wide authority, there could be neither general +planning nor general supervision. There were warnings aplenty from +liberals and radicals who were attempting to keep the situation in +perspective, but such utterances failed to reach the great bulk of +mankind. + +Disturbing and upsetting products of the revolution in science and +technology--the harnessing of steam, the internal combustion engine, the +air plane, electronics, plastics, and the release of atomic energy--were +used to mutilate, destroy and kill. During the half century that began +in 1910, tens of millions were mobilized, fed, taught, armed, and led to +the slaughter fields by the masters of western civilization in two long +orgies of wholesale destruction and mass murder--1914-18 and 1936-1945. +Energies and techniques that might have brought peace and plenty to the +human family were used to set fire storms that incinerated property +while it degraded humanity to the horrors of mass suicide. + +In a very real sense these ghoulish results were the logical outcome of +competitive nationalism armed and equipped with the technology produced +during the two centuries of the great revolution. War is the most +carefully planned, most elaborate and most intensive form of +competition--the decisive climax of a life and death struggle for +survival. + +The great revolution had put into human hands almost infinite +possibilities for utilizing nature and improving the social environment. +With foresight, careful planning and skillful manipulation of forces and +trends the cultivatable portions of the planetary land mass might have +been turned into a garden of unending plenty dotted with marvelous city +centers of light and learning. + +In order to achieve such results it would have been necessary for the +human family to coordinate its efforts around an agreed division of +labor, share the goods and services produced and move from one level of +affluence to a level of abundance. + +Instead of joint efforts to achieve abundance and security, the most +prosperous and most highly developed centers of western civilization +consolidated their authority in sovereign states, surrounded by +forbidding frontiers, armed them with the most destructive agencies that +human imagination and ingenuity could devise, schooled the citizens of +each nation in the suicidal formula: "might makes right; every nation +for itself and woe betide the laggard and the loser." + +The logical ideology of such a formula was egomania, suspicion, fear and +hatred. Its outcome was a competitive life and death struggle for wealth +and power, with the nation or a bloc of nations as the units of +competition. The struggle at its highest level involved occasional local +wars and periodical general wars like those of 1914-18 and 1936-45. + +Before the great revolution such struggles were waged chiefly with +weapons wielded by human muscle power, supplemented with whatever animal +power was available. Equipped with the products of the technological +revolution, the struggle became a war of machines, powered by the +energies of nature. Retail killing and destruction was replaced by mass +murder and wholesale annihilation. + +Given the assumptions, the practices and the institutions of +civilization, the catastrophic losses of the present century could have +been foretold and, with competent leadership and disciplined +followership, could have been averted. But leadership was self-serving, +shortsighted and for the most part untrained, while followership was +split up into national and local segments, each following the suicidal +doctrine of every nation for itself and the devil take the laggards. + +Socialists-communists around the earth have spent a wealth of time and +energy during several generations predicting the present revolutionary +upset and preparing for it. They have been derided, denounced and +persecuted for their efforts. Despite bitter opposition they have +prepared for change, they accept change, they welcome it, because in +change they see the only path to improvement and betterment. + +They are learning to live with change and even to welcome it because the +time of troubles through which their society is passing is warning them +of the dangers they face. At the same time they are learning, bit by +bit, of the spectacular achievements of the billion human beings in +socialist-communist countries. + +The majority of mankind has been unprepared for revolutionary change. +When change came they resented it, maybe resisted it at the outset. + +Those who have a vested interest in capitalist imperialism--the real +backbone of the counter-revolution--join and support counter-revolutionary +organizations and take part in counter-revolutionary activities. + +Planners and organizers of the counter-revolution have the bourgeois +state generally on their side and enjoy the backing of the bourgeois +establishment, its organizations and its facilities. Since their object +is defense, they have no constructive program. Instead they stumble, +fumble and bungle as their system flounders into one disastrous crisis +after another. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +WESTERN CIVILIZATION ATTEMPTS SUICIDE (1914-1945) + + +Each bit of handiwork, each artifact, tool and machine is an expression +of man's wish and will. Each transcends nature and is an affirmation +that takes its place in the vast storehouse of human culture. + +Cities, the building blocks of civilization, not only transcend nature; +they replace her. Up to a certain point man lived more or less +consciously as a part of nature. Bit by bit and step by step man shifted +from the stream, the glade, the tree and the cave to the hut, the +village, the city, the nation, the empire, the civilization. + +Early in this study I wrote of civilization as an experiment: an +aspiration, a creative urge, a concept, a purpose, a unity of thought +and act, a conscious sequence of related actions, a construct of +multiplying complexity. + +These terms, by and large, are constructive and, to a degree, creative. +I might have written a parallel series of words associated with +destructiviness. In every social situation construction and destruction +are Siamese twins. One does not appear without the other. The same +forces, the same implements, the same institutions and practices that +construct can be used to destroy. + +Through ages, men learned how to establish, maintain and perpetuate +community and organize society. At every stage of the building process +it was necessary to check, to question, to evaluate, unlearn, tear down, +make a new start. Pushing up and tearing or wearing down is implicit in +nature. It is an essential aspect of human society. + +Each human being is a living example of production and destruction. Each +generation repeats the affirmation, modifying it little or much in +accord with circumstances. + +Modification means purposeful change--partially or wholly abandoning the +old and replacing it with something new. In the course of these changes +the conservative elements in man and in society, voluntarily or under +coercion, give up the old and learn how to use the new. The learning +process is always more or less painful, especially to people past middle +age. + +The world-wide revolution resulted from a long-continued related series +of affirmations, punctuated and interrupted by contradictions and +conflicts. + +Trends inherent in the world-wide revolution of 1750-1970 suggest a +cycle that reached its high point at the turn of the century and began +its downward course around 1900. The chief European empires were jointly +and severally involved in the bitter struggle for survival and supremacy +from 1870 onward. Until the outbreak of war in 1914, events followed an +irregular course marked by the shifting relationships of Italy and the +increased pressure from Germany for a showdown. The showdown was the war +of 1914-18, continued in a second phase from 1936 to 1945. + +Immediate political results of the showdown were victory for one side +and defeat for the other side. Economic, sociological and ideological +consequences were profound and far reaching. We noted some of them in +the previous chapter. + +UNESCO's _History of Mankind_ devotes its final volume six to the +twentieth century. The authors note that the chief European powers +emerged from the general war of 1914-18 "weakened in every way: in men +and wealth, in the balance of their economies and the stability of their +political structure and above all in their relation to other powers +rising or beginning to rise in other parts of the world". (Vol. VI p. +10.) + +Aside from the victory-defeat relationship which led to political +realignments during the post-war years, the essence of the experience +is to be found in the UNESCO phrase "weakened in every way". Another way +of describing the experience is to state that the participants in this +four year blood bath were "bled white." + +It is easy to be specific. In the course of the war sixty million people +were mobilized. Most of these people stopped what they had been doing +until mid-summer of 1914 and began an entirely new line of activity. Up +to that point most of them had been living with their families, in their +neighborhoods, going through a daily routine that included household +cares, production or service work, the conduct of neighborhood affairs, +the maintenance of normal livelihood activities, the upbringing of the +new generation and perhaps most important of all, adaptation to a +rapidly changing social situation. + +The changes that took place in the summer of 1914 involved an almost +complete reversal of purpose and direction. Up to that point Europeans +were devoting a considerable proportion of their time to production and +the maintenance of the normal life routine. At that point they left +their homes, exchanged ordinary clothes for uniforms, laid down the +implements of peace, picked up the weapons of war and prepared, under +very expert leadership and direction, a series of mass movements +designed to disrupt the ordinary life routine of other human beings on +the other side of lines drawn on a map, but having little relation to +customary life activity and even less to geography. + +Execution of this purpose involved a mass movement from the home +territory into that occupied by the "enemy". If the enemy resisted he +must be forced to do the will of the invaders. Instead of cooperating in +a joint effort to maintain and improve the general welfare, uniformed, +armed, expertly-led masses began beating up each other, until one side +gave in and cried "enough." + +Plans for war had been drawn and redrawn for years, for decades. +Elaborate preparations had been made. Destructive weapons had been +designed and built. Transport had been provided, food stored. Defensive +preparations had also been made in the form of fortifications so placed +as to obstruct or prevent "the enemy" from crossing the "frontier". + +When sport-lovers go from home for a day to play a competition in +another city or province, they go, play the game and then go back home +to continue the ordinary life routine. In the case of the project we are +now considering they left home in July, 1914 and returned months or +years later. Many never got back home because they were killed in battle +or died of wounds; many were "missing"; they disappeared. + +If casualties in the 1914-18 war had been numbered in dozens, or scores +or even in hundreds, the communities from which they came could have +gone on without them--handicapped perhaps but not seriously disrupted. +But when they were numbered in thousands and tens of thousands it was a +quite different story. Actually, they were numbered in millions. + +Mobilized to carry on the war were 42.2 million on the Allied side. On +the side of the Central Powers, 22.8 millions. The total: 65 million. 12 +million of those mobilized were Russian, 11 million were Germans, 8.4 +million were French, 8 million were from the British Empire. From +Austro-Hungary came 7.8 million, from Italy, 5.6 million. Turkey +furnished 2.9 million, Bulgaria 1.2 million; 4.4 million came from the +United States; 0.8 million from Japan. Lesser numbers came from other +countries. + +Except for Spain, the largest contributions of war conscripts came from +the countries with the largest populations. With the exception of Spain, +all of the great powers of Europe provided the "cannon fodder"; the +human beings which Europe's "great powers" assembled to take part in +this profligate orgy of mass murder which went on for more than four +years, from July 1914 until November 1918. + +Body count reports and "estimates" give the total number of human beings +murdered in the four year period as 8,538,315. (The legal definition of +"murder" is killing, not accidentally but with the intention of taking +life.) + +This figure of 8.5 million murdered human adults, most of them in the +prime of life, refers to the murdered bodies that were recovered and +disposed of. In addition there were "prisoners" and "missing." + +As the 1914-18 war proceeded it became less a series of combats between +human beings; more and more it was a war of machines such as +battleships, tanks, big guns and by war's end, of airplanes. Human +beings drew up the plans, made the blueprints, shifted the gears, pushed +the buttons. Their efforts were supplemented and multiplied by the +killing power of physics, chemistry and mechanics brought to the task of +wholesale murder, which produced 8.5 million dead human bodies. + +"Prisoners and missing" accounted for 7,750,000 additional human beings. +Many of them were torn to shreds and smithereens by the gigantic +concentration of mechanical and explosive power, designed, constructed +and transported to the European battlefields for the express purpose of +carrying on this month-long and year-long collective endeavor to take as +much life as possible and destroy as much property as possible while war +declarations authorized and legalized mass murder and wholesale +destruction. + +Not all victims of the hideous 1914-18 blood bath were killed. "Wound +casualties" numbered 12.8 million among the Allies; 8.4 million among +the boys, young men and adults mobilized by the Central Powers. Some of +the wounded were crippled for life. Some were less severely injured, but +all 22.2 million were more or less severely handicapped when they stood +up to face the rigors of civilian life at war's end. All were denied the +possibility of living normal, productive, creative, satisfying lives. + +Wars are fought on battlefields. In the war of 1914-18 many of the +battlefields included villages, towns, cities. These complex +institutions, occupied by men, women and children were smashed and +burned wholesale. + +The figures which I have used in listing the 1914-18 war losses were +compiled by the United States War Department. They are more or less +accurate, but they underline the fact that for years on end the centers +of western civilization concentrated their energies and devoted every +means at their disposal to cripple or destroy fellow human beings and +their habitations. + +When we read of the destruction of the Roman Empire we console and +perhaps try to fool ourselves by saying that the immense network of +civilization which the Romans and their Greek associates spread across +Eurasia and Africa during the historical period that began about 700 +B.C. was destroyed by hordes of migrating "barbarians." When we turn to +our own civilization, however, there are no barbarian hordes to take the +blame. The wholesale destruction which took place in Europe from 1914 to +1918 and which was repeated and multiplied during the wars of 1936-1945 +was carried on officially by spokesmen for the most advanced, most +highly developed, most civilized countries of the western world. + +We have been using the word "murder" to describe the wholesale slaughter +of Europeans by Europeans that took place from 1914 to 1918 and from +1936 to 1945. The word "murder" is inaccurate. The Europeans who carried +on the wholesale destruction and mass murder during the two most general +wars of modern times were committing murder in one sense. In quite +another sense they were engaged in collective suicide. Europeans were +blotting out the life and well-being of fellow Europeans. When the +process came to a temporary halt in 1945 every European participant in +the struggle was weaker in human potential and poorer in economic means +than they were when the war began. + +Arnold Toynbee describes the entire episode as the "down grading" of +Europe. He might have added two words and reported "the down grading of +Europe by Europeans", as a glaring example of large scale, long +continued, deliberate self-destruction. + +Fundamental social changes were bound to follow the revolutionary +technical transformations that took place during the world-wide +revolution of 1750-1970. Changes may be made in various ways. Some are +slow and relatively painless, particularly when they extend over +generations; other changes are so rapid that they are agonizingly +painful. Involuntary changes, made under outside pressure are almost +always painful. World-wide revolution, under the best of conditions, +promises to be painful. When it comes from alien sources, and is under +forced pressure, the costs are almost sure to be excessively high. + +This brings us face to face with one of the most important problems +facing mankind at the present moment. Given the worldwide revolution of +the past two centuries, what changes--political, economic, sociological +and ideological--must be made to prepare the way for the new society and +shift the family from the old homestead to the new apartment with a +minimum of pain and a maximum of satisfaction? + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +TALKING PEACE AND WAGING WAR + + +Blatant contradictions disorganized human life after war's end in 1945. +In the crucial area of war and peace three groups were bidding for +attention: dedicated peace partisans (peacenicks); nationalist +enthusiasts waging wars of liberation; and massive semi-official and +official nationalistic groups busily preparing for the next big war. + +Occasionally these groups joined hands on "hot" issues. Generally they +were far apart. Often they were in active opposition. + +Dedicated peace advocates were an important factor in this post-war +period. They had been vocal and influential in July, 1914 immediately +before the outbreak of the first general war. They had continued to play +an active role between the first and second general wars. In the autumn +of 1972 the World Peace Council called together a peace assembly in +Moscow representing significant elements from 143 countries. The largest +single element in the World Peace Council was the Socialist bloc, headed +by the Soviet Union. + +Peace advocates mobilized wide public support for the "no more war" +movement that developed during the closing months of the 1914-18 war; +for the Briand-Kellogg Treaty of 1928 which renounced war as an +instrument of policy; for the effort to secure general disarmament that +resulted in the General Disarmament Conference of 1933 and for the +United Nations Charter of 1945. + +Official declarations in favor of disarmament and peace had been +paralleled by the organization of unofficial peace committees and +societies in western Europe, in the Americas and in the socialist +countries. + +Peace efforts had been strengthened by the outbreak of local +wars--between India and Pakistan, between Israel and the Arab League; by +wars of independence and liberation in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, North +Africa. + +Much of the public backing for the peacenicks came from student groups +in official and private high schools, colleges and universities. + +Nationalist liberation movements were active in settled communities such +as Ireland and Canada's Province of Quebec. There were less established +movements in newly liberated restless ex-colonies and remaining colonies +of the chief European empires, of Japan and of the United States. The +widely advertised World Peace Council turned more and more from general +advocacy of peace, such as the Stockholm Peace Petition, to the support +of liberation movements among colonials and supressed minor +nationalities. + +Preparations for another general war were expanded and intensified as +the competitive struggle for oil and other natural resources mounted. By +the end of the 1960's total arms expenditures of the chief powers were +running at $200 billion per year. In 1973 the total reached $225 +billion. + +There was much general talk about peace, but the most insistent note +sounded for a high level of spending on armaments. Britain's Prime +Minister Heath voiced a sentiment vigorously promulgated by every +representative of national security "British interests come first". + +Confusion was heightened by the presence of men who faced all three +ways: talking peace, waging small wars and preparing for the next big +one. In February, 1974 in his State of the Union message to the U.S. +Congress, President Nixon spoke of "our goal of building a structure of +lasting peace in the world." At the same moment the Washington +administration was feeding the fires of war in South East Asia and +asking the United States Congress to increase 1975 U.S.A. defense +appropriations from $80 billion to $90 billion per year. + +When war ended in 1945 there was a planet-wide sigh of relief and a +devout hope that after so many years of local and general wars, the time +had come for western man to take a long decisive step in the direction +of peace. The United Nations Charter expressed this hope to end the use +of war as an instrument of policy. + +Since the period of general social relaxation usually known as the Dark +Ages was superceded by the multiple innovations of the Reformation, the +Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the scientific-technical developments +of the 1750-1970 Revolution, man the dreamer, inventor, designer, +planner, architect and engineer has modified many aspects of nature and +transformed the social environment. + +Until the Reformation and the Renaissance, European ruling oligarchies +in territories along the Mediterranean and throughout western Europe +were able to perpetuate their privileges and preserve the life styles of +an agricultural-feudal society. Improvements in navigation and the +growth of trade, commerce and industry opened the way for the bourgeois +revolution with its rapid growth of cities and the parallel increase of +wealth, income, and living standards among the newly-enriched +businessmen and their associates and dependents. + +Social changes in feudal Europe had been gradual. The dynamism implicit +in the bourgeois revolution escalated the rate of social change with +corresponding modifications in the pattern of European political, +economic and cultural institutions and practices. + +In the early stages of the transformation the awareness of change was +limited to a minority of city dwellers. To the rural illiterate +majority, change was a closed book. A great social gulf separated the +feudal countryside from the growing centers of trade, commerce and +industry. Bourgeois life processes narrowed and gradually bridged the +gulf. Differences between city and country living persisted, but the +stark contrast between city abundance of goods and services and their +virtual absence from the common life of the countryside grew less and +less marked as the proportion of the total population living in the +countryside declined with the trek to cities and their suburbs. + +Europeans living for the most part in a pre-civilized rural environment +passed through generations of illiterate unawareness of the social +process through which European life was expanding. The rapid extension +of industry and commerce after 1750 (the bourgeois revolution) completed +the transformation of a rural, semi-feudal west and central Europe into +a continent of town and city dwellers devoting their lives to pursuits +unknown to their immediate forebears. In this new Europe the countryside +played a decreasing role, as food supplies and raw materials came +increasingly from less developed parts of eastern Europe or from the +colonies which were opened up by the planet-wide trade and commerce +promoted by the aggressive expansion of the European empires. + +Most Europeans, satisfied with the axiom "old fashions please me best" +were stand-patters in the early stages of this transformation. As the +conversion of Europe from feudal status to urban dynamism continued, +however, an ever larger part of the population became aware of the +change through which their society was passing. With the Renaissance and +the Enlightenment inert unawareness gave place to enthusiastic +propaganda in the writings of pamphleteers, essayists, poets, novelists +and social reformers who set the intellectual tone for the new society. + +In a very real sense, the bourgeois Europe which emerged after 1750 was +something new under the sun. Large elements of the population, +previously engaged in producing and consuming the bare necessaries of +food, shelter and clothing were increasingly engaged in trades and +professions and rendering services unknown to the feudal countryside. As +the expansion of western civilization continued, entire European nations +like the Low Countries, England and Germany turned to trade, commerce, +industry, leaving only a dwindling minority engaged in agricultural +pursuits. The change was speeded by the revolution in science and +technology. + +Changes in economic and social relations are paralleled by corresponding +alterations in the total way of living. Western civilization was, in its +entirety, a cultural departure from the pattern of any preceding +experiment with civilization because of the drastic changes that the +revolution in science and technology had introduced into human society. + +Throughout the life-cycle of western civilization minor and major +alterations have been made in its structure and its function. Some of +the earlier political changes were part and parcel of the bourgeois +revolution. They included: + +1. The abolition of absolute monarchies and hereditary aristocracies and +their replacement by limited monarchies and republics with various types +of representative and popular governments selected by ballot. + +2. The replacement of personal tyrannies and autocracies by written +constitutions and laws passed by elected parliaments. + +3. Replacement of war as the sport of kings and the chief instrument of +policy makers, by negotiation, diplomacy, and treaties which became the +core of existing "international law." + +4. Arbitrary national sovereignty was supplemented by more or less +permanent alliances and by the formal international organizations such +as the Universal Postal Union, the World Court and the League of +Nations. + +5. Regional Associations were organized; the North Atlantic Treaty +Organization; the Organization of American States and the Organization +for European Unity. + +6. Disarmament conferences were held. General peace treaties were signed +like the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928 and the United Nations +Charter. + +7. Two major efforts were made to establish a general confederation of +nations and empires--the League of Nations in 1919 and the United +Nations a quarter of a century later. Both the League of Nations and the +United Nations proved to be feeble and ineffectual efforts to bridge the +gulf between limited national sovereignty and planet-wide order and +peace. But they were tentative steps in the direction of a federation of +the world and they did mark a notable advance from the chaos and +conflict incident to the planet-wide expansion of the European empires +toward more stable economic and social conditions and more orderly +international relationships. + +Paralleling these changes in the political life of western civilization +there have been a number of drastic economic reforms. One was the +abolition of chattel slavery. A second was the replacement of serfdom +and peonage by free labor receiving fixed wages and salaries. A third +change was the division of large feudal estates and other concentrated +landed properties into small units owned and operated by working +farmers. A fourth change was the establishment of free trade areas +within and among sovereign states. A fifth innovation was the transfer +of individually operated and family businesses into associations and +corporations with limited liability and widespread ownership by bond and +stockholders. Sixth, trade unions and consumers' cooperatives were +recognized and legalized. Seventh, legal provisions were made for social +security against accident, sickness, unemployment, old age. Minimum +incomes were guaranteed. Eighth, many steps were taken toward public or +social ownership of the means of production, including land and other +natural resources. Ninth, repeated governmental efforts were made to +deal with the inflation that attends prolonged exhausting wars. These +efforts included the regulation of credit and debt and the substitution +of new currencies for old ones that had been hopelessly devalued. + +Political and economic changes in the life-patterns of western +civilization have been accompanied by far-reaching cultural reforms such +as the provision of free public education; the emancipation of women; +the provision of public recreation facilities; popularized culture +through information, the drama, music, literature, art; equalizing +opportunity and facilitating movement up and down the ladder of +recognition, approval, disapproval. + +Political reforms of western civilization date from the Reformation and +the Renaissance. Economic reforms were speeded by the industrial +revolution. Together they are often described as the bourgeois +revolution, which resulted in the power shift from landlords, +ecclesiastics and knights in armor to businessmen, protected and +assisted by the state, the church, channels of information and +propaganda, the police and other armed forces. Cultural reforms +accompanied the reforms in politics and economics. + +Underlying the changes and supplementing reforms were improvements in +the means of communication and transportation; the discovery and use of +new sources of energy and the changes in production and merchandizing +which have played so vital a role in the transition from a skimpy +economy of scarcity to an open-handed economy of abundance, extravagance +and conspicuous waste. + +Through all of the political, economic and social changes made in the +structure and function of western civilization its basic activities have +remained unchanged. The nuclei of civilized life have been cities +concerned primarily with trade, commerce, industry, finance--planned, +organized and administered by businessmen, their professional and +technical associates and assistants. In practice, city centers of wealth +and power have expanded, using the military as the readiest means of +implementing policy. They have occupied and garrisoned the foreign +territory brought under their control. At home and abroad they have +exploited nature, men and other animals in their interest and for their +profit. The trading cities of medieval Europe, the emerging nations of +the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the colonizing empires of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the industrial European +empires of the nineteenth century devoted their energies increasingly to +expanding into new territory, occupying and exploiting it, and fighting +the wars which pock-marked the ceaseless struggle for pelf and power. In +short, they continued to build up the institutions and to follow the +practices of civilized peoples. This has been true of the millennium +that began with the crusades and has hastened the rise of western +civilization and its extension to planet-wide proportions. + +Similar conclusions can be drawn from the life stories of the score or +more of civilizations that rose, flourished and sank into inconsequence +during the previous five thousand years. + +Each civilization has had its own habitat, its own life pattern. Each +has had its own languages, laws, traditions and customs. But despite +such local differences, all of the civilizations have had in common +those characteristics which justify their inclusion in the family of +civilizations. + +Anyone who wishes to test the accuracy of these generalizations may be +satisfied by reading and observing the events that began with the wars +between Japan, China and Russia, the Spanish American War, the Boer War, +and the revolts in Cuba, China and the Philippines, all of which took +place between 1895 and 1905. The present century opened in a period of +critical struggle between empires, within empires and between imperial +centers and colonial dependencies. These preliminary skirmishes led up +to two general wars in 1914-1918 and 1936-1945, accompanied and followed +by a score of minor wars and a planet-wide rash of civil wars and wars +of independence waged by peoples of the erstwhile colonies. + +Three johnnie-come-lately empires played star-roles in the drama: +Germany, the United States and Japan. The histories of all three +countries from 1870 to 1950 provide ample support for the contention +that the central theme of western civilization, as of its predecessors, +is a competitive struggle for wealth and power, aimed at expansion and +exploitation, using war and the threat of war as instruments of policy. + +Even under the pressures generated by the innovations and the political +and economic changes of the current world wide revolution, the principle +objectives of civilization have remained constant: geographical +expansion; military, economic and cultural occupation; exploitation of +the newly acquired territories and peoples. Each civilization has built +up and maintained a professional military apparatus and used it as the +final arbiter in the determination of domestic and foreign policy. + +The means used to achieve these objectives have varied from time to time +and from place to place. The basic pattern of civilization has +appeared, disappeared and reappeared. + +Each civilization has made heroic efforts to reform itself when +submerged in a time of troubles that made its institutions and its +practices intolerable to those in power or those groups and classes +which had grown so desperate under its exploitation and oppression that +they preferred death to continuance of the established order. + +Each civilization has made its contribution, retaining its essential +form while modifying its practices to meet the requirements of +particular situations. Western civilization is no exception to this +general rule. + +Following the all but universal principle that "action and reaction tend +to be equal and opposite," subjugated, occupied peoples revolt against +"foreign" occupation and exploitation. Again western civilization is no +exception, as the movements for independence and self-determination that +followed the 1946 post-war collapse of the European empires clearly +showed. + +Reaction against western civilization went beyond revolt to include the +rejection of the obsolete concepts, forms and practices inherent in +civilization. Rejection has been accompanied and followed by proposals +for replacing civilization by concepts, forms and practices more in +keeping with the social relations and situations resulting from the +current world revolution. + +Most reforms of civilization have been attempted during the life of +western civilization because during that era both the structure and +functioning of civilization have been called into question. In no +civilization (Egypt, Rome or the modern West) have the essential +principles of civilization been seriously modified. Again and again, +during the times of trouble that marked the breakdown of successive +civilizations, particular institutions were rejected but civilization as +a way of life has been accepted and re-established in the course of each +new cycle. + +During previous cycles the breakdown of a civilization had been followed +by a period of rest and recuperation before the beginning of the next +experiment. The breakdown of western civilization, a negative reaction, +has been accompanied by a planet-wide drive to replace the concepts, +forms and practices of civilization by the concepts, forms and practices +of socialism-communism. + + +Socialism-communism as a way of life for nations and continents is a new +experiment on the planet earth. Heretofore there have been small +groups--families, tribes and sects--that have adopted and followed +cooperation as a way of life, but widespread planned cooperation on a +national or continental scale is a novelty. + +As a result of these changes, conflict-torn and fragmenting western +civilization found itself divided into three factional groups: + +I. Corporate business organized domestically and internationally to +preserve and extend its wealth and power. Big business interests, their +dependents and backers were concentrated chiefly in West Europe and +North America. Their network of interests and controls was planet-wide. +Literally they were the backbone of western civilization. + +II. Builders of socialism-communism, an alternative and rival life +pattern, have been concentrated in East Europe and Asia. The +socialists-communists occupied a minority position in most of the +countries dominated by big business. Their program called for the +replacement of capitalist competition and conflict by a cooperating, +planned, planet-wide society operated for service rather than for +profit. + +III. A third segment, made up largely of nations and peoples located in +Africa, Asia and Latin America, who up to war's end in 1945 had been +colonies or dependencies of the big business directed empires. Since +1945 they have become increasingly independent and self-determining. + +The three-fold division of the planet was determined in part by the +age-old ideas, principles and practices of civilized peoples during the +past six thousand years. In part, it was the outcome of the planet-wide +revolution of 1750-1970. It was likewise the result of the wars, +revolutions and independence movements that have upset and realigned the +world since 1776. Under the impact of these forces human society was +being unmade, re-examined and remade. + +By comparison with its own beginnings and with its predecessors, western +civilization has made many changes in its political, economic and +sociological way of life. It has also developed national and regional +variants of its overall pattern. + +Despite these changes, and with the possible exception of its very large +and significant socialist-communist sector, the West has retained the +structural and functional features of previous civilizations: urban +nuclei supporting themselves by trade, commerce and finance; expansion +up to and beyond the point of no return; the life and death power +struggle within and between its constituent peoples, nations and +empires; the use of war as the final arbiter in these struggles; the +rise of the military to a position of supremacy in policy making and +public administration; an all-pervasive pattern of exploitation within +the urban nuclei and between rival provincial factions; speculation in +the necessaries of life; the growth of overhead costs far beyond the +increase of production and of income; the degradation of currency; +multiple taxation; the abuse of credit; inflation, unemployment and +chronic hard times. + +Western civilization differs from its predecessors in one crucial +respect: it is planet-wide. Previous civilizations known to history have +been limited by oceans, deserts and other geographical barriers. The +revolution in communication and transportation has by-passed geographic +barriers. + +The French saying "the more things change the more they remain the same" +finds ample justification in the story of western civilization and its +predecessors. In one instance after another, for at least six thousand +years, civilizations have been built up to summits of wealth and power. +Then, on the downward sweep of the cycle, they have declined, decayed +and been dumped on the scrap heap of history. No two of these cycles +were exactly alike. Each cycle was a social experiment that followed a +well marked path. There were variations, innovations, deviations from +the norm, but institutions and practices were strikingly similar. In +this broad sense, and despite minor departures, the life patterns of +civilization have appeared, disappeared and reappeared with close +similarity in structure and function. + +Western civilization has had a life cycle of approximately a thousand +years. During that millennium it has undergone many changes--political, +economic, sociological, ideological. Throughout these changes its basic +characteristics have remained; have appeared and reappeared. In the +1970's western civilization retains the essential features which justify +us in describing it as a civilization. + +The great revolution which began about 1750 and has increased in breadth +and depth throughout the past two centuries had led to vital changes in +structure and functioning, particularly of the West but generally in the +entirety of human society. So far-reaching are these changes, and so +deep running, that human society, particularly in the West, has outgrown +or is outgrowing the life pattern evolved by civilizations during the +past four or five millenia. As a consequence, geographical expansion by +the time-honored method of grab-and-keep has become more difficult, far +more expensive in manpower and material wealth and is in growing +disrepute among a sizeable minority of individuals and social groups, +even in the centers of western civilization. It is in notable disfavor +among the former colonies and dependencies of the European empires. + +At the same time, war as a means of achieving social ends has fallen +into greater and greater disrepute. War costs, measured in terms of +human well-being and welfare had soared to fantastic heights before +1945. The devastation, during that year, of two moderate sized cities, +Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was a foretaste of the increasingly bleak +chances of human survival with the stockpiling of nuclear weapons far +more destructive than the fission bombs used on the two Japanese cities. + +Under the conditions prevailing before the great revolution, competitive +struggle between nations and empires, expanding as a result of victory +in war, had ceased to be a practicable means of gaining, holding and +increasing wealth and power. If the costs of the international power +struggle exceeded the gains, there were no longer victors who won and +vanquished who lost. Instead, everybody lost as the entire social +structure was wrenched, dislocated, wracked and down-graded. Certainly +this seemed to be the plain-as-day lesson of the two general wars and +the flurry of minor wars which swept the earth after 1910. + +Expansion through armed struggle no longer paid its way. It was the +obvious lesson stressed by J.A. Hobson and Nicolai Lenin in their +respective studies of imperialism (1903 and 1916). It was the theme of +Norman Angel's _Great Illusion._ It was summarized by Arnold Toynbee's +_War and Civilization._ + +If the costs of expansion exceeded the income, the outcome of expansion +would be dismemberment for the vanquished and bankruptcy for the +victors. Indeed, this formula generalises the experience of the survival +struggles during the war years which began in 1911. I summarized the +experience in _The Twilight of Empire_(1929). + +The catastrophic economic breakdown during the Great Depression of +1929-1938, the spectacular and fateful rise of Hitlerism in Germany +after 1927, the destructive Civil War in Spain from 1936 to 1939, +followed immediately by the war devastations of 1939-45 were part and +parcel of the same picture. The same may be said for the revolt of the +colonial peoples, downgrading all European "victors" in the war of +1914-18, and the social revolutions following 1945 that shook up the +planetary power structure and opened the way for socialist-communist +forces to begin socialist construction in one country after another. + +Some European states had become super-states, armed to the teeth, +surrounded with their satellites, dependencies and colonies. They +expanded, exploited and battled as they played the absorbing and ruinous +game of "Beggar My Neighbor". Politically and economically the struggle +reached and passed its high point between 1914 and 1945. The subsequent +years have revealed the aftermath--a down-graded Europe and an ascendant +Asia. + +Empire building has been made prohibitively expensive by the revolution +in science and technology; if the human family is to survive in +anything like its present numbers, a way must be found to end the use of +war as a means of attaining social objectives. New techniques, chiefly +non-competitive, must be discovered and employed in the maintenance of +social relations. + +Not only must war be abandoned as a means of achieving social +objectives, but exploitation of nature and man must be superceded by a +planet-wide life style that conserves natural wealth and shifts the +center of economic endeavor from competition to cooperation. + +Abandonment of war as an instrument of policy and the renunciation of +exploitation of man by man and nation by nation as a means of enrichment +would put an end to the scandalous and corrosive extremes of riches and +poverty that have cursed every civilization of which we have a written +record. + +Western civilization, like its predecessors, had consisted of rival +nations and empires competing for living-space, wealth, position, +expanding territorially as they exploited nature and available labor +power for the advantage of the few. + +Civilization as a life style, built around the competitive struggle for +wealth and power, using war as an instrument of policy and multiplying +the techniques of expansion and exploitation, has had a series of +experimental tryouts already under way at the dawn of written history. +Under no circumstances has civilization proved to be wholly rewarding +and satisfying. The current revolution in science and technology has +rendered civilization unreformable as well as obsolete. + +The structure or pattern of civilization has divided western +civilization into separate parts that benefit by separateness and profit +from conflict. The result is a typical example of a self-destroying life +style struggling through an impasse from which there is no escape save +through a third fratricidal war. + +Today civilization is a bad buy, especially for young people starting +out in life. Civilization still has its advantages for those who have +lived actively, achieved many of their material objectives and retired +to spend their declining years in a well-feathered nest. For some +privileged young people, willing to settle for comfort and conformity, +civilization offers the leisure to learn, and an opportunity to test +themselves out against a big field of ardent competitors. But for +energetic, forward-looking, idealistic young people, the opportunities +offered by western civilization are deemed inconsequential, trivial and +in the long run, inadequate. For them, the game is not worth the candle. + +Today civilization is a bad buy for two reasons. The first is that +antisocial, predatory, exploitive and parasitic elements are +unfortunately and unnecessarily prominent in the lives of all civilized +peoples, including the present West. The second reason is the arrogant, +self-righteous, peremptory, bragging, bullying, dictatorial approaches +adopted by civilized people in their dealings with those who live on the +fringes or outside the pale of civilization. The first reason is an +inescapable consequence of the political, economic, ideological and +sociological assumptions of the civilizing process. The second reason is +inherent in the methods used by civilized peoples in their dealing with +the uncivilized majority of humanity. + + + + +_Part IV_ + + +Steps Beyond Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +TEN BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A NEW WORLD + + +In the previous chapter I argued that we are marking time in a fool's +paradise while western civilization slips backward and downward toward +dissolution and oblivion. Like many of its predecessors, our +civilization seems to have exhausted its capacity to create, progress, +advance. Instead it is disintegrating and breaking up in our current +time of troubles. + +In an earlier epoch of human history civilization helped to bridge the +wide gap between man the victim and plaything of nature, and man as the +user, director and, to a limited degree, the coordinator of natural +forces. Today questions of our demise or our survival and advance are +pressing and urgent. + +Civilization has played an important role in the social history of +mankind during the several thousand years when segments of the human +family have turned their backs on barbarism, regrouped their forces, +revamped their patterns of association and experimented with the more +complicated, specialized and integrated life pattern of civilization. +These experiments have paralleled or followed one another, separated by +shorter or longer ages of rest and recuperation. Each epoch of +civilization has contributed ideas, artifacts and institutions to the +sum total of human culture. This has been the case with past +civilizations. It is true of western civilization. + +Civilization, like other aspects of human culture, is never static but +always dynamic. It changes constantly, waxing and waning. It develops, +expands and contracts. It reaches out toward universality, then breaks +down and dissolves into a welter of conflicting regional and local +interest groups. These changes are the outcome of hard-nosed experience. +They are related to alterations in ideas, outlooks and purposes. They +are often associated with technical discoveries and inventions. They +come and go in more or less clearly defined cycles. They are influenced +by deep running political, economic and social forces and trends. + +Each civilization matures into forms and develops functions and +institutions that tend to consolidate and crystallize in well defined +social patterns and habit grooves in which two forces oppose each other: +one force is status--preserving that which is; the other force is +change--that which tends to become or is becoming. + +Status and change confront each other at all social levels. During +periods of rapid social change they take the center of the stage and +dominate the drama. + +The planet-wide revolution of 1750-1970 is an outstanding example of +rapid change. The current opposition of status and change has pushed +other aspects of social life into second place and has made the social +status of yesterday outmoded today and obsolete tomorrow. + +The disintegration of western civilization (indicated by its 1910-1975 +time of troubles) is having profound effects on western man. The effects +are physical, mental, energenic and moral for individuals. Socially they +find expression in vandalism, hooliganism, major crime, in the break-up +of the family; in alienation, inertia, boredom; in laxity, indiscipline; +loss of faith, weakness or absence of purpose. Most serious of all, +perhaps, western peoples are learning to ignore principle, live for the +moment, satisfy their already sated appetites and pay little or no +attention to the future. These attitudes are widespread in the western +world of the 1970's, particularly among the young. These effects, on the +whole negative, are offset by a number of positive factors. Human beings +are curious and imaginative. They are also ingenious, inventive and +intuitive. All of these attributes are assets when dealing with the +future and the unknown. + +In a previous generation, preceding the war of 1914-18, a very large +part of the West was under the influence of the Christian church, which +promised good things in the hereafter. During the ensuing years of +military conflict, planned destruction and wholesale murder, another +considerable part of the West, both socialist and liberal, was promising +security, comfort and convenience here and now. The influence of the +Christian church on life style, even among its own membership, has +declined in the past half century. Affluent monopoly capitalism, +meanwhile, has provided the rich, the middle class and important numbers +of workers and farmers with necessaries and amenities far beyond the +levels imagined by reformers and revolutionaries of a previous +generation. As an integral part of this maturing revolutionary situation +a generation of human beings born since war's end in 1945 has come on +the scene, surrounded by the concrete and glass buildings, block printed +nylons, the automobiles and domestic appliances of monopoly capitalism +and by the social security of socialism. In both segments, capitalist +and socialist, the more gifted, original, sensitive, creative members of +this comfort-pampered generation have turned their backs on affluence +and security and begun shouting a new slogan: "We want to live!" + +There is nothing surprising about this development. Many trained, +experienced observers have been predicting it. Youth, idealism, +aspiration, optimism, ambition--cannot be satisfied with status in any +form. They want to live, to achieve, to face difficulties, to overcome +dangers, to express themselves, to create. They are not content merely +to arrive at physical affluence. Affluence and social security cannot +satisfy. They merely sharpen the appetite for a continuance of the life +journey, on the best terms permitted by the current time of troubles. + +Among the members of the post-war generation, this ambitious, perceptive +elite is aware of two disturbing and compelling realities. The first is +the peril to mankind implicit in a continuance along its present +disaster course of war, with its inescapable counterpart, social +dissolution. The second is the possibility that out of the wreckage and +rubble of an outmoded cultural pattern, a mature, chastened, more +experienced, more consciously purposive generation will arise, +possessing the wit to see the necessity of creative advance, and the +wisdom to guide the pioneers of humanity along the difficult and +dangerous path that they must follow if they are to reach the land of +purpose and promise. + +Current frustrating experience with the breakdown of western +civilization, coupled with historical precedents, confront the present +generation of mankind with a compelling challenge and a unique, precious +opportunity. The challenge arises out of experiments with particular +civilizations and with civilization as a way of life. Our analysis of +this situation leads to only one possible conclusion: Repeated +experiments with civilization unmask it as a way, not of life, but as a +cycle of rise, expansion, maturity, decline and certain death. + +The challenge is emphasized by the failure of reforms and reformers of +civilization to make changes in structure and function sufficient to +meet the challenge of the birth-maturity-death cycle. Nor has it been +possible for western civilization to take advantage of the drastic +changes and challenges arising out of the current world revolution. + +Man's top negative priority at the present moment is to reject the +wiles, the temptations, the mortal conflicts and the annihilative +destruction which have disrupted and decimated civilized society during +the past six thousand years and reached their apex in the Great +Revolution of 1750-1970. These experiences prove beyond the shadow of +doubt that this pattern of human collective life is inadequate to meet +the present and future needs of the human family. + +Man's top positive priority is the present-day occupancy of the planet +Earth by 3,700 million human beings who wish to survive, to utilize and +conserve the natural habitat and to improve the social environment. +Within narrow limits, almost all members of the human family want to +live and to help other humans to do likewise. Multitudes of human +beings, particularly among the youth, want to enjoy outward looking, +satisfying, productive, creative lives. They also want those near and +dear to do the same thing. + +What steps must they take in order to realize their hope and fulfill +their aspirations? + +Broadly speaking, they must pick their way warily through the maze of +artifacts, gadgets and gimmicks produced by human ingenuity during the +current world revolution. Most of them are superficial and time +consuming. A few are fundamental. They are of the utmost importance as +implements to human advance. Taking what advantage they can of recent +innovations, avoiding dead-ends and illusion leading to rainbows, the +more sensitive and more competent segments of mankind must close ranks +and move upward and onward to a new level of culture. The chief +instrument available for such an enterprise is the twentieth century +version of the political state. The bourgeois revolution was achieved +through the developing, evolving political state. The political state is +the binding force that held scattered fragments of the human family +together during the stresses and strains of the current revolution in +science and technology. It is the political state that must be depended +upon to resist the fragmentating forces of a disintegrating western +civilization, to preserve the social structure and administer human +society through the transition from civilization into the structure and +functioning of the new social order which is presently supplanting +civilization. + +Through Europe's transition from feudalism to capitalism, the feudal +state, here and there, step by step, was replaced by the bourgeois state +as the chief structural building block of western civilization. The +bourgeois revolution, in various parts of Europe, lasted for several +centuries; the process was well under way by 1450. As lately as 1945 +feudal pockets remained in Eastern Europe. + +An even more profound transformation of European society is made in the +course of the Great Revolution of 1750-1970. The transformation is in +its early stages. During the process, the political life of +Europe-in-transition will be administered by the political institutions +of the bourgeois state, together with the closely related state patterns +of socialism-communism which have come into being during the present +century. + +During this transition the bourgeois state itself has evolved. At the +outset it was a revolutionary force devoting its energies to the +elimination of feudal institutions and practices and replacing them by +the institutions and practices needed for the advancement of bourgeois +interests. + +Today the bourgeois state is a bulwark of conservatism; devoting its +energies to the preservation of bourgeois forms and practices and doing +its utmost to fulfill its counter-revolutionary role of resisting and, +if possible, destroying the institutions and practices needed to replace +the political institutions and practices of civilization by the new +institutions required to move mankind from the outmoded lifestyle of +civilization to a lifestyle beyond and above that to which humanity has +become adapted during the now obsolete epoch of civilization. + +At the same time, the socialist-communist variant of the bourgeois state +pattern is providing the framework within which the institutions and +practices needed for the transition from civilization to a newer and +more universal social order are being matured. At the next stage in the +birth process, the institutions and practices necessary for upbuilding +the social order that will replace civilization are being worked out in +theory and embodied in experimental practice. + +In practice, an accurate distinction must be made between the +conservative bourgeois state, the temporary transitional state and the +universal socialist-communist state that will shepherd humanity along +the difficult and dangerous path of the political life pattern beyond +civilization. In theory such distinctions are needed as part of the +scaffolding within which the social pattern of beyond-civilization will +be constructed. + +Like most decisive epochs of human history, the revolution through which +we are passing has had both a negative and a positive aspect. In Chapter +11 I wrote about one of its destructive aspects--the extreme +destructivity of two periods of general war. At this point, I would like +to list ten positive contributions made by the same revolution toward +the development of a social life style that is offering itself as an +alternative to civilization. + +1. NEW SOURCES OF ENERGY. Up to 1750 human beings had the energy of +the human body plus the energy of domestic animals. They used wind to +turn mills and sail ships and water to turn crude wheels. They also +burned various things, particularly vegetable fibres, to produce heat. +During the revolution they have learned to use steam, electricity and +chemical explosives. Recently they have learned to use the energy in the +atom, to use water power extensively and, to a slight extent, the energy +of the sun and the tides. + +2. The revolution has taught people who previously feared CHANGE, +to welcome change and take full advantage of discoveries and inventions +that modified nature and profoundly altered human society. + +3. Among the INVENTIONS were the extensive use of the wheel for +movement on land, the use of steam engines and electric motors for +moving, manufacturing and transportation and the use of electricity for +communication. + +4. INCREASED HUMAN MOBILITY on land and water, and, more recently, +in the air and, still more recently, in outer space. Easy and rapid +movement, and almost instantaneous communication brought people together +in towns and cities, built up trade in goods and services, increased +speed of communications and enabled people living at a distance from one +another to keep in close touch, bringing human enterprises and human +beings into continuing contact. Human life, thought and action were +coordinated. Increased mobility UNIFIED HUMAN SOCIETY. + +5. RESEARCH is now an accepted aspect of all phases of human life +and activity. Research is a recognized occupation. Research teams solve +problems, map the paths of enterprise. We are learning first to think, +then, only after careful study, decide on courses of action and follow +them through. + +6. The field of inquiry and research covered the entire range of human +experience. Information, resulting from research, provided the subject +matter of new sciences. In the new fields new skills were developed and +new professions built up. The members of this new TECHNOLOGICAL +INTELLIGENTSIA, added to the learned professions, created a large +group who expected and enjoyed affluent living conditions. + +7. SPREADING AFFLUENCE increased the number of families that +enjoyed abundance of goods and services, comforts and luxuries mass +produced and offered in a mass market, lifting people out of scarcity by +growing abundance. Scarcity ceased to restrain. Instead, people learned +the values of RESTRAINT, ECONOMY, FRUGALITY, SIMPLICITY. + +8. Increase in size and complexity called into being a new profession. +MANAGEMENT with the necessary PLANNING, BUDGETING, COST +KEEPING. + +9. Large numbers of well-fed, housed, educated and aware human beings +created the possibility of arousing, mobilizing and utilizing +people--especially young people--to take part in voluntary group +projects, co-operate and create. Such experiences developed SOCIAL +AWARENESS and led to LARGE SCALE MASS ACTION. + +10. People growing up in affluence, living above the rigors of poverty, +asked questions about themselves, their society and the universe in +which they lived. They learned that they and their fellows had not only +the five accepted "senses," but additional senses with corresponding +experiences. This opened their eyes to the possibility of additional or +extra senses, opening the immense field of "EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION," +E.S.P. + +These ten areas, opening up largely during the years of the great +revolution are "new wine" which cannot be contained in the old wine +skins. They raise questions and open up vistas which transcend the +narrower confines of civilization. They are among the materials and +facilities out of which a new world is coming into existence. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +MOVING TOWARD WORLD FEDERATION + + +One of man's earliest collective experiences is summed up in the saying: +United we stand; divided we fall. + +United we survive and prosper. Divided we quarrel, fight and sooner or +later break up into smaller sovereign competing groups. If human beings +wish to utilize nature or to enjoy the advantages of collective action +and group life they must get together and stay together. + +This necessity for collective action has appeared and reappeared all +through written history. It is one of the most important lessons of +present-day human experience. It holds for families, neighborhoods, +villages, cities, nations, for mankind as a whole. It is joint action +for the general welfare. + +The principle of collective action has been recognized and put into +practice during the ten centuries that span the rise of western +civilization--put into practice up to a certain point--the nation or the +empire. Beyond that point, collective action has taken two forms: +competition and conflict, including war, and coordination or cooperation +under agreement, contract or treaty. + +Among the outstanding results of the great revolution, improvement in +communication and transportation have brought humans into contact with +one another on an increasingly extensive scale, reaching its high water +mark in planet-wide networks of trade, travel, migration and diplomacy, +leading up to the One World which was so much in the foreground of +public discussions between the two general wars of 1914 and 1939. + +Much has been written on the subject. I contributed by two bits in _The +Next Step_, a book published in 1922 and _United World_, published in +1945. Perhaps the most critical failure of western civilization was its +inability or unwillingness to take that next step during the decisive +years that followed the Hague Conference of 1899. + +In listing the Ten Building Blocks for a New World (Chapter 13 of this +book) I began with world federation because in terms of the public life +of the earth around 1900, the planet was divided into two alliances of +nations and empires--the Allies, headed by Great Britain and the Central +Powers, headed by Germany. + +Instead of cooperating to gain their declared objectives of peace, +prosperity and progress these two power blocs engaged in an armament +race from 1903 to 1914, leading up to general war in 1914, with a second +general war between the rivals in 1939. + +When I was organizing Part II of this study (A Social Analysis of +Civilization) I had to decide whether to begin with economics or +politics. As an economist I was inclined to put economics first, but +since the study centered on civilization, and since all known +civilizations were not groupings of economic subdivisions but aggregates +of nations, empires and their dependencies, and since the expansion of +civilization has consisted in enlarging the geographical area of the +civilization in question, I decided to begin with politics. As the study +has progressed I have seen no reason for reversing the choice. + +On the contrary, since I began collecting data for this study at the +time of the first general war, I have watched the unfolding political +struggle for economic and cultural objectives with the increasing +conviction that politics is the primary focus, with economic forces +always in play, but usually in the background, leaving the center of the +stage to politics. + +This is another way of saying that the present-day world is divided +primarily into political nation states rather than into areas of +economic function. Always, economics is important. But, at least +superficially, political considerations are in the foreground to clinch +decisions. A time may come when economists or sociologists occupy the +central offices where primary decisions are made. That time has not yet +arrived. In so far as the present generation is concerned, politics is +in the foreground. The politicians make the crucial announcements and +sign the key documents. + +Therefore our survey of the Steps Beyond Civilization begins with +politics. Our attention centers on the political aspects of World +Federation with economic considerations present and always operating, +but not dominating the crucial decisions. + +For better or worse, in 1975 and the years immediately succeeding, we +will be living on a planet divided into some 140 politically sovereign +states. In view of the widespread pressure toward self-determination, +the number of sovereign states has increased considerably, especially +since war's end in 1945. + +Presumably the principal "united we stand" applies to those 140 +sovereign states. + +Sovereignty includes the right of self determination--putting the +interests of one particular state above the interests of the entire +family of nations--the part before the whole. Here is a contradiction +and a possible conflict of interest. Britain's Prime Minister Heath, +like many another spokesman in his position, summed up the issue in the +pithy phrase: "British interests come first." + +If the French, Italian, Japanese and other prime ministers take a +similar stand, implied by the principle of sovereignty, situations are +bound to arise in which the interests of two or more nations clash, +opening the way for conflicts at many levels: differences of +interpretation, negotiations in the course of which concessions may be +made by both parties. The differences may be settled by diplomats +sitting around conference tables or by armies on the battlefield. + +With 140 sovereign states on the planet, the probability of conflict +would seem to be overwhelming. As a matter of daily experience such +confrontations and conflicts do occur. Most of them are handled by +negotiation. A few lead to armed struggle. + +Since 140 sovereign states exist on one earth, means must be found that +will enable them to co-exist, if possible, without conflict, and +certainly without military conflict. The means generally relied upon +today for dealing with such problems is negotiation between +representatives of all parties at interest. At the national level this +would mean negotiations between representatives of the involved +governments. + +Negotiations between representatives of various governments are always +going on--dealing with political, economic and cultural issues. Within +each nation such negotiations are conducted between spokesmen for +various government departments. Internationally they are conducted by +representatives of various governments working through their diplomatic +or consular services. Within each nation and between nations +confrontations may be settled by negotiation. At each level they may +result in armed conflict. + +Governments exist to deal with conflicts and, where possible, to resolve +them before they reach the shooting stage. This is notably true in +domestic affairs because there are usually public officials charged with +the duty of dealing with problems. Internationally, unless there is an +international agency such as the Universal Postal Union of the +Organization of American States, the issue must be settled by special +representatives of the parties. + +The argument for a world government begins with the assumption that +means should exist to deal with international issues before they reach +an acute stage. Such means exist within each local government. Similar +arrangements should exist at the international level to deal with issues +that arise between governments. + +The political core of a social stage beyond civilization will be a +planet-wide, international, regional and local network of institutions, +integrated, coordinated and administered on the federal principle: local +affairs controlled locally; regional affairs controlled regionally; +international affairs controlled by a planet-wide political authority. +Such a relationship would imply states rights for the local authority; +regional rights for the regional authority, and full awareness in the +central authority of the possibility, at this juncture, of establishing +order, justice and mercy on the planetary level--in our present +terminology, a "world government." + +Basic to this federal structure would be the Jeffersonian assumption: +"That government governs best which governs least", with an amendment: +"provided that the authority in question governs sufficiently to +establish and maintain physical health, social decency, order, justice +and mercy in reasonable proportions throughout the area subject to its +jurisdiction". + +At each level, local, national, regional and planetary, there will be +committees, councils or other authorities with full responsibility for +the conduct of public administration at the local, the national, the +regional and the planetary or international level. + +Currently the federal principle is widely established at local and +national levels. Attempts are being made in various regions to +effectuate stable authorities at the regional level, such as the United +States of North America or the United States of Mexico. There has been +much talk of planet-wide government established by one wealthy and +militarily powerful nation over its peers, or by a voluntary association +with its peers. Institutions established thus far: League of Nations, +The United Nations, The World Court, the Universal Postal Union, have +fallen far short of stable, planet-wide, all inclusive political +authority. + +At the moment there are 122 states which are members of the United +Nations. There are perhaps an additional score of nations which have +applied for membership or which might be accepted if they made an +application. Accept this rounded figure, and we have perhaps 140 nations +or potential nations on the planet. Some are long established and +stable. Other nations are new-born, with small populations, few +resources and minimal means of defense or offense. By and large this is +the family of nations which might be coordinated into an effective world +authority which would be responsible for order, decency and peace in a +federally coordinated world. + +World authority, to be effective and reasonably stable, must be equipped +with sufficient delegated powers to maintain orderly and decent +relations between its members, establish peace, and carry out policies +necessary to provide and promote ecological and sociological welfare. To +achieve such results it must have a built-in balance between central +authority and local-regional self-determination. It must also enjoy +sufficient elbow-room to provide for social change and for consistent +social improvement. + +The goal of world government, as of any political enterprise that +pretends to represent human needs, will be social stability, security, +efficiency of service, and enlarged opportunities for citizens to speak +and act for themselves, directly or through their representatives, at +all levels. Politics is the theory and practice of the possible in any +given situation. Executives and administrators in Los Angeles, London +and Tokyo or in the United States, Britain and Japan will deal with +public transportation, public education and public law and order in +terms of general principles such as those stated in the opening +sentences of this paragraph. They will also face specific situations +arising out of climate, access to raw materials, custom, habit and other +ecological and cultural factors which differ profoundly from continent +to continent, nation to nation, city to city and district to district in +the same nation. + +Human communities have sought and found different means of dealing with +the problems of community administration. At one extreme of social +administration are various types of arbitrary, personal dictatorships. +The Greeks called them tyrannies--arbitrary rule by individuals or small +groups subject only to their own decisions. + +At the other extreme are social groups that arrive at decisions as the +outcome of discussion in which all group members may take part. Group +decisions may require unanimity or they may be the outcome of voting, +with a majority or plurality vote carrying with it the right and duty to +put decisions into effect as part of the public life of the community. + +Various forms of government have been established locally and +regionally. At the level of a civilization, the government has been +established almost universally as the outcome of armed struggle and +military conquest, and has been exercised through the use of armed force +in the hands of armed minorities. + +A century without general war, 1815 to 1914, led to a widespread +balance-of-power assumption that planet-wide peace and prosperity could +be established and maintained by preserving a balance between the armed +forces of individual nations or alliances. Hence there need be no more +general wars fought for survival or supremacy. + +The bitter struggle for markets, raw materials and colonies that +followed the French-German War of 1870 developed into an armament race +after 1899. From the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 to the outbreak of +general war in 1914, desperate efforts were made to maintain the +power-balance and avert a general war. The failure of these efforts +proved the ineffectiveness of the balance-of-power formula. + +Today it is generally taken for granted that a balance of power between +armed nations is no guarantee of peace and order. It is also taken for +granted that frivolous talk like that of an "American Century" after +1945 has no justification in the light of present-day history. As +matters now stand neither a balance between rival armed powers, nor the +domination of the planet by any one power can be relied upon to maintain +world order and keep world peace. + +Forms of self-government and representative government developed during +the bourgeois revolution and advocated and partially applied during the +proletarian up-surge, are being continued or are reappearing during the +current struggle for power and prestige at the planetary level. As the +planet approaches one world technologically, there is an increasing +possibility of a planetary political federation, directed by a world +governmental apparatus. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +INTEGRATING A WORLD ECONOMY + + +Repeated efforts have been made to establish large-scale, widely ranging +economies. This was the case during Egyptian and Phoenician +civilizations. It was certainly true of the economy of the Roman Empire +and of Roman civilization. + +Such efforts faced drastic limitations. The most formidable was the +narrow margin of surplus produced by hand labor in the forests, on the +fields and in the workshops, operated, in the main, with hand tools, +with minor inputs of energy supplied by domestic animals and with the +small amounts derived from wind and moving water. + +Two further limitations existed. First, as each civilization matured its +leaders and policy makers ceased to labor on the land or in the +workshops, preferring to keep their hands and clothes clean, to free +themselves from irksome demanding toil and devote themselves to tasks +more befitting "gentlefolk." This was notably true of landlords as a +class. It was also true of the richer traders, merchants and +moneylenders, particularly of the third and fourth generations. + +Expansion of empires and the civilizations which they developed entailed +military operations. Military operations, in their turn, produced +war-captives, who must earn their keep and, if possible, something more. +Sold in the market to the highest bidder, war captives and their +descendants became chattel slaves. As civilizations were expanded by +conquest and matured by struggle, they developed some type of forced +labor to balance the increased parasitism of the masters and the +growing numbers who were called upon to produce "services" rather than +material goods. + +Certain areas of civilized economies were taken over by the public +authorities. Planning and building of cities and their ports, of +highways, including bridges, of viaducts, aqueducts, of drainages for +the cities, of public buildings. The construction of defenses, including +city walls, were partly or wholly public enterprises. Temples and tombs +for the mighty were often in the same category. + +Maintenance of large elaborate households by political leaders, and in +later periods of empire building, by the successful merchants and +technicians, led to the employment of many servants, including +subordinate members and relatives of the elite. + +Much necessary labor was performed by members of each household. The +resulting economy was therefore fragmented at the household level with +virtually all of the energy supplied by human beings and domestic +animals. + +As each civilization developed its pattern of forced labor, including +the labor of war captives, it launched the deadly competition between +freemen and slaves which almost inevitably ended in favor of the slaves, +who were housed and fed by the masters and who could operate at overhead +costs lower than those involved in the hiring of wage or salaried +workers. + +Land ownership tended to center in the political-military leaders, the +temples and, as each civilization matured, in the hands of its +bourgeoisie. + +Integrating such economies proved to be a difficult, arduous task, well +beyond the powers of the average political, military or hereditary +leader. In a very real sense, the problems of management were extremely +personal and correspondingly concentrated in the hands of skillful +acquisitors. Nowhere was the impact of the 1750-1970 revolution more far +reaching than in the area of management. + +Economic activities, in the course of the great revolution, had less and +less connection with the homestead, and except for a tiny minority of +the personnel, had no connection with the family of the owner-operator. +The seat of the family--the home--continued to exist, but on a far more +restricted basis. Arts and crafts moved from the household into the +workshop, where they expanded both in extent and in complexity. Domestic +tasks were associated with hand labor and simple tools. The great +revolution filled the workshop with the ancestors of present day +machinery, but with a prodigious difference. In the early step from home +workshop to factory, hand tools in plenty were being used in the +workshops. As "modernization" progressed, hand tools were replaced by +specialized machines. + +The implements of specialization--the machine building tools and the +machine tools themselves--were housed in forests of associated +workshops. The mechanics of specialization sprawled over acres and +square miles of factory floor space. Nowhere were the results of the +great revolution more in evidence than in the vast difference between +the workshop attached to the house of the early industrialist and the +forest of chimneys and stacks, and the acres and square miles of +floorspace in present-day industrial establishments, with their +personnel numbered in thousands and the capital invested in plant and +equipment running into the millions or billions of dollars. + +Two centuries of the great revolution have given present-day industrial +society a capital plant the like of which has never existed on the +planet in any historical period. After two hundred years of meteoric +development, it exists today on a planet-wide scale and at a level of +all-pervasive dominance undreamed of even up to the middle of the last +century. + +Modern industry "plants"--steel plants, cement plants, open pit mines, +textile plants, machine tool plants, auto plants, rubber factories, oil +refineries--not only occupy extensive acreage per plant, but the same +interests and corporate managements operate dozens of plants in widely +separated geographical areas and produce a great variety of goods and +services. An experienced observer feels entirely at home in any +industrial center, on any continent. In Detroit, in Dusseldorf, in +Osaka, in Shanghai, in Bombay, the architecture of the plants is +essentially the same, the machines in the widely separated plants bear +a striking resemblance to one another, and the problems of management +are similar. + +Unit plants and their coordinated managements in the aggregate compose +the present-day world economy. They are the essence of its being. They +occupy the skyline and dominate the economic life of modern industrial +society. They are the units which make up the sum-total of modern +industry which, in its turn, is the bony structure around which have +grown the sinews and muscle of present-day planetary economy. + +Modern state structure goes back through the half dozen centuries during +which it has been developing. Its ancestors may be met with in the +history of previous civilizations. + +Modern industrial structure on the other hand is something essentially +new under the sun--newly imagined, designed, constructed, productive. It +has no ancestry before 1750 because its essential building unit--the +modern machine--did not exist previous to that date. + +In the last chapter we dealt with the growth of states into empires and +the aggregation of empires into civilizations with the possibility that +the existing states could be welded into a world federation. One of the +chief obstacles to such a development is the centuries of conflict +during which modern nations have been built up and the strong bonds of +nationalism have been established as a means of holding divergent groups +of people in line by particular oligarchies operating in particular +civilizations. + +On the economic level such difficulties are minimal. The process of +coordination and consolidation was far advanced before the end of the +last century. The practice of integration--joining productive units in +functional sequences--was also accepted and followed, with little regard +for political or cultural considerations. The result has been an +economic integration which has developed inside the chief industrial +nations and across national boundaries. + +Despite political obstacles, economic integration has proceeded with +giant strides, especially during the past hundred years. Under a well +developed world political federation the world economy could be +integrated and used to provide the necessaries, conveniences and minimal +comforts for the entire human family. There are nationalistic obstacles +to political federation. Economic integration is an obvious must and a +logical outcome of the industrial integration that has gone on so +swiftly during the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +When we talk about integrating the world economy we are dealing with a +problem which no previous civilization has faced because no previous +civilization had machines or the social and cultural institutions which +have grouped themselves around the ultra-modern machine phenomena. + +World economy in 1975 includes three essential elements: the planet +earth and its resources; the institutional structure of modern society; +and human beings with their diverse concepts and skills which provide +its motive force. These three factors, land, capital equipment, and +human energy, are the three-fold apparatus upon which 3.7 billion human +beings depend for the goods and services which sustain them from day to +day and year to year. + +At an earlier period this economic apparatus centered around the land +and its cultivation (agriculture). Since the onset of the great +revolution the goods and services have come increasingly from a +factory-office centered occupational apparatus. When we consider the +integration of the world economy, it is this industrialized, modern +economy that we have chiefly in mind. No previous civilization faced +such a problem. There are no real precedents upon which we can rely. We +must go forward, if we do go forward, experimenting with problems which +face the human family for the first time. + +The integration of planetary economy in 1975 is a total, or unitary, +problem. It is not a problem of one continent, of one nation or empire, +of one racial or cultural group. It is a problem which the human family +faces as a human family, occupying our planet Earth. It is our capital +equipment. It is the success with which we apply our know-how to the +earth, using our capital equipment and our skills, producing the goods +and services upon which our physical existence depends. We rise or fall, +sink or swim in terms of our own capacities, our own abilities to adapt +ourselves to historical circumstances which will determine the +conditions of life on the earth. Indeed, our decisions and consequent +actions may determine our own extinction or survival. + +Planetary economy will aim to provide the means of livelihood for its +constituents along six lines: to conserve the human heritage of natural +resources, using them sparingly and, where possible, adding to them; to +produce and distribute those goods and services which are needed to +maintain health and provide for social decency; to produce and +distribute goods and services honestly, efficiently and economically; to +assure simple necessaries for all, including dependents, defectives and +delinquents; to give high priority to local self-sufficiency; to +maintain enough central economic authority to guarantee adequate goods +and services to successive generations of the planetary population. + +An effective world government, therefore, must adopt and administer an +economic program designed to: (a) Utilize and conserve natural +resources, making them available, on a just basis, for the use of +successive generations; (b) End involuntary poverty and insecurity and +the exploitation of man by man and of one social group by another social +group; (c) Make necessary public services generally available on equal +terms, to all mankind; and (d) Guarantee equal opportunity to +earth-dwellers based on the greatest good to the greatest number. + +Feeding, clothing, housing and educating an agricultural village was a +prime consideration at an early stage in social history. Providing the +necessaries and amenities of life in a commercial-industrial city +occupied the attention of city fathers as a consequence of the shift +from agriculture to trade and commerce as the principle source of +livelihood. Caring for the physical, physiological and cultural needs of +populations in the United States, Britain, Japan and other growing +commercial-industrial nations presented difficult challenges. The +organization, expansion, defense and improvement of the American, +British, Japanese and any other contemporary empire, posed even larger +and more complex problems which have nagged mankind during recent +generations. Recently, the planet-wide revolution of 1750-1970 has +brought the entire human family with 3,700 million members isolated in +140 different nations, face to face with political, economic and social +problems on a planet-wide scale. These problems are planet-wide in their +dimensions. Measures designed for their solution must be equally +planet-wide. + +Villages, cities, regions and nations have learned, often the hard way, +how to think, plan and act in terms of their own interests, or, more +concretely, in the interest of their owners, masters and exploiters. It +is with politics and economics of this planet-wide level that we of the +present generation are particularly concerned. + +Dwellers in western Europe and North America have to deal with the +politics and economics of monopoly capitalism. Its central offices are +generally located in particular countries--Britain, Holland, France, +Germany, where big business enterprises had their beginnings and from +which representatives of oil, steel, textile, motor and banking +enterprises spilled over into the territory of their competitors as well +as into the "third world" of erstwhile colonies and other dependencies. + +Monopoly capitalism has made no real effort to organize a functioning +world economy. On the contrary, it has established, maintained and +consolidated centers of economic interests and activities at the +national level. In theory and in practice the bourgeois-dominated planet +is divided into economic and political states and spheres of influence, +each equipped with the separatist institutions of political sovereignty. + +Politically the task of setting up a competent world government has not +been seriously taken in hand. The same may be said for the organization +of a planned, organized, supervised planetary economy. So far as we +know, such world economic institutions and practices cannot exist in the +chaos of one hundred forty sovereign states, each exercising authority +over its economy, each with its own program for growth and expansion, +and putting its claims for wealth and power above peace, order, +justice, and mercy for the entire human family. + +General economic practice throughout the 1450-1970 experiments with +nation building, empire building, competitive struggle and sporadic +efforts at world conquest, occupation and exploitation have crossed +national boundary lines as a matter of necessity. It could not be +otherwise, because no nation has been able to reach the cultural level +of civilization on a basis of economic self-containment. Primitive +agriculture can maintain a high degree of self sufficiency. City +populations abandon self-sufficiency and adopt the principles of +expansion, occupation and utilization of foreign territory and +exploitation of resources and manpower, at home and abroad. + +As western civilization has matured, power struggles at the top, +conquest, occupation and exploitation have come more and more to the +fore until, in the era of monopoly capitalism, they dominate the field. +In this period of human history nothing less than the just sharing of +available goods and services will implement the principle of "to each +according to his need". + +Monopoly capitalism, throughout its entire history, has tended to +function internationally, moving across frontiers in search of raw +materials, markets, and fields of profitable investment. Inter-group +trade has been carried on between and through "foreign" markets, cities +and states. Not only has the flag followed the investor, but the +investor has used governmental agencies, including the military, to +protect economic interests, promote them and expand them. Early in their +history, western nations subsidized private organizations like the Dutch +East India Company and the British Hudson Bay Company and authorized +them to exercise quasi-public authority. International banking and +insurance paralleled international trade. + +Western civilization, from its earliest beginnings in foreign business +relations and ideological adventures like the Crusades, has spilled +across national frontiers in its search for adventure, for experience, +for information, for pelf and power. A part of the expansionist drive +was "strictly business" in character. Another part--international +conferences, public and private; tourism; the export of artifacts and of +information, were promoted by mixed motives, from missionary zeal for +the propagation of The Faith to international business for profit, +public and private. + +One of the most spectacular aspects of European expansion during modern +times has been the growth of production and trade; the rapid increase in +"foreign" investment; and governmental efforts to tie together +geographically and ethnically remote places and peoples into neat +bundles tagged Spanish Empire, British Empire, French Empire, Russian +Empire. Nineteenth and early twentieth century history centered around +such international experiments and included inter-state build-ups like +the European Common Market and the Organization of American States. + +War losses and emergency spending incident to warfare led to large scale +financial assistance from one government to another. Such transactions +are not confined to recent times, but during the war years from 1914 to +1945 they reached fantastic proportions. The United States foreign aid +program alone, following the war of 1939-45, involved grants and loans +of $125,060 million dollars from July 1, 1945 to December 31, 1970 +(_Statistical Abstract_ 1971 p. 958). Similar grants and loans were made +by other countries to their allies and associates. These examples +illustrate the build-up of an extensive international relationship that +has been an integral aspect of the 1750-1970 world revolution. + +Throughout this experience two parallel forces have been at work. One +was the effort to establish a stable, renewable and self-renewing social +environment. The other was the effort to adapt and remake man (human +nature) to fit into the rapidly changing social environment and to +expand and deepen relations with nature. + +Sociology, the science and art of staying together in more or less +permanent social groups, thus becomes the theory and practice of +association. Politics and economics are specialized aspects of +association. Political relations, economic relations and other aspects +of association make up the overall field of the human community or +human society. + +Groups of human beings are brought together and held together by various +means, among which communication is outstanding. At every level, from +the local to the general or universal, and in every aspect of politics, +economics and other forms of association, human beings communicate. + +One function of planetary association involves the establishment and +maintenance of a network of planetary communication. Locally, +nationally, regionally, and internationally the channels or means of +communication have been extensively developed. + +Devices designed to reproduce and elaborate oral and written +communication blanket the planet so extensively that the individual and +family privacy enjoyed by human beings before the middle of the last +century has literally ceased to exist. In its place is a communications +network that operates twenty-four hours in the day and seven days in the +week. By a move of the hand and a flick of a switch everybody can be in +touch with anybody and anybody with everybody almost everywhere. + +Channels of communication, trade and travel keep members of the human +race constantly in touch with one another. Except for the solitary, +living alone in the wilderness (urban or rural) there is no hiding +place. Mechanisms supplementing man's five senses, see, feel, hear and +report everything. + +Facility in communication provides a wealth of information. Using +available means of human communication, a central planetary authority +can inform, alert and arouse the entire human family with its 3,700 +million members. Socially minded, it could announce and initiate the +measures necessary to maintain peace and order through conformity to a +common program of social action. Coordinating, integrating and +administering the channels of communication at the planetary level will +be a primary responsibility of any planet-wide economic program. + +Planetary government will be responsible for establishing, maintaining +and improving a network of communication and education designed to +ensure both uniformity and diversity in the human population. The +revolution in science and technology has been particularly noteworthy +in the field of communication, extending from the family to the entire +human race; from the home telephone, the morning newspaper, the +phonograph, radio and television to regular mail delivery, the printing +press, the camera, lithography, the typewriter, tele-communication, the +computer, public address systems and the various devices for overhearing +and recording that produce more or less permanent records of casual +vocal expressions. + +Planet-wide communication in the 1970's provides an example of the +transformation from economic localism to economic worldism during recent +times. By its very nature, communication tends to involve all four +corners of the planet. In that sense, communication tends to become +unique. It is not a real exception, however. Through communication +channels, knowledge concerning every aspect of man's economy, from +agriculture to commerce and finance, crosses frontiers almost +automatically, strengthening, deepening and integrating planet-wide +economy. + +A planet-wide economy will not be designed, planned and coordinated as a +result of either military conquest or political expansion and predation. +Rather, it will be a public enterprise of the entire human family, +operated by a world government in the public interest for the social +service and well-being of mankind. + +The worldwide revolution of 1750-1970 provides the economic basis for a +planet-wide society--for One World. The real danger--that any local or +regional war may grow into another general war in which nuclear weapons +are used--provides reason aplenty to put the whole before the part and, +in the pursuit of general human welfare, to federate the political life +of the human family, following the many steps toward worldism already +taken by various aspects of its economy. + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +CONSERVING OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT + + +Beyond civilization we will conserve, share, beautify and, if possible, +improve the earth, which is our physical base of operations. + +The earth is an irregular sphere, one of a number of planets circling +the sun, from which we get light, heat and radiation. The earth has a +shell or crust made of various minerals. Two-thirds of its surface is +water of various depths up to six miles. Above the surface is an +atmosphere, some twenty miles thick, composed of various gases, dust +particles and water vapor. Operating throughout the earth there are +vibrations of different wave lengths. + +As a whole the earth is a going concern that carries out its daily, +seasonal, yearly business of providing a home for an immense variety of +forces; for living forms, in the earth, on the earth, in the water and +in the air. The earth and its attributes are the common host or mother +of us all. + +Some of earth's inhabitants are "alive". Many of the living forms move +about--and reproduce themselves, passing through a life cycle from birth +to death. + +Some among the living forms cluster together into more or less permanent +groups which develop social relationships including communities in which +individuals are born, live and die. + +Speaking in metaphors, the sun is the common father of us all, providing +us with light and heat, the earth is the common mother of us all, +providing us with sustenance. We living beings, progeny of sun and +earth, pass through a span or cycle of earthly existence--helping one +another, ignoring one another, jostling one another, annoying and even +killing and devouring one another. + +This is a roundabout way of saying that nature, human beings and human +society are part and parcel of a total relationship which includes the +planet earth, the solar system and an immense range of celestia which +includes minute particles of celestial dust, like our earth, and +majestic assemblies of celestial notables like the Island Universe of +which we are unnumbered and barely noticed particles. + +At some point in this vast assemblage, actually before the assemblage +came into existence, there were responsible, animating forces in play. +There was also the responsibility for the use or exercise of the +operating forces. We humans are a product of those forces. We also share +in their functioning. Consequently we share in the responsibility which +is associated with their exercise. + +It is the task of philosophy to designate the responsibility; to +describe it, measure it and perhaps to assign it. At any rate, we find +ourselves in a position where certain things are expected of us, perhaps +even required of us as members of the human family and/or of the human +family as a functioning whole. + +It is entirely possible that, instead of overlooking, ignoring, +bickering, quarreling and periodically maiming and killing each other +wholesale, we humans should be devoting our energies, emotions, thoughts +and plans to furthering the larger purpose of which the earth and its +inhabitants are small segments. In a word, that we humans should be +acting as a responsible part of a functioning whole engaged in the vast +enterprise of being and becoming. + +Whatever our ultimate tasks may be, our immediate problem is three-fold: +(1) To make the earth the fittest possible living place for all of its +inhabitants; (2) to organize human society in the way best calculated to +achieve that objective; and (3) to make every reasonable effort to +prepare ourselves to play a meaningful part in this cosmic drama to +which we have been assigned. + +Item (1) is the theme of this chapter, item (2) is the theme of Chapter +17. Item (3) is the theme of Chapter 18. + +Passing beyond civilization we will attempt to conserve, share, beautify +and if possible to improve our earth. + +Our first task is to make the earth the fittest possible place for _ALL_ +of its inhabitants. In a way that is a simple assignment, but its +implementation will take us into every nook and corner of the land, +water, air, radiational field, and every other aspect of the planet, +including the weather. + +When we say _ALL_ forms and phases of life we mean all. All microscopic +life, all lichens and mosses, all vegetation on land, in the water, in +the air. All insects, all birds, all fish, all quadrupeds. All two +legged animals. All centipedes and all those in between. + +All forms of life have been assigned to our earth for a purpose, or have +made a place for themselves in the vast scheme of things or are clinging +parasitically to life after their assignments have been fulfilled or as +their usefulness is drawing to a close. + +In a broad sense, that which lives on the earth, including mankind, has +a right or an opportunity to be here, living to the utmost of its always +limited capacity. How limited? Limited by the similar rights of all +other forms and aspects of life. In a word life on the earth--each life +and all life--is a shared opportunity. + +Doubtless there are planners, regulators and arbitrators whose task it +is to decide, at any particular moment, who shall survive and who shall +perish. Actually we humans perform a part of that function every time we +thin out a forest, weed a garden, select our seed or teach a class. At +one stage of life we are the judges, at another stage we are the judged, +performing multiple tasks that must be fulfilled during each moment of +each day and each year. + +In our Island Universe this earth is small. But in each backyard, on +each acre or square mile of earth, decisions may be made or are being +made that determine survival, utility, order, beauty. The results of +those decisions appear constantly in the life all about us. + +We have all been in homes where neatness, usefulness and good taste +abound. We have been in villages and towns where the same conditions +prevailed. On the other hand, we have been in situations that can be +described only by the words littered, disorderly, chaotic. We have also +seen neat orderly homes in disorderly, slovenly neighborhoods. Much +depends upon who makes the decisions and whether the plans that are +carried into effect promote or obstruct the ultimate purpose. + +At the moment, we have the satisfaction of orderly, beautiful +neighborhoods at the same time that we are surrounded by a disorderly, +littered, chaotic international battleground. + +The earth with its oceans and its atmosphere is a storehouse containing +many if not most of the essentials for survival, growth and development, +for mankind as well as a multitude of other life forms. Perhaps its most +valuable single asset from the human viewpoint is its topsoil. Topsoil +plus light, air and moisture provide the elements necessary for +producing vegetation. Vegetation, in its turn, furnishes the nourishment +on which animals thrive. + +At the top of our priority list for the well-being of the earth stands +the injunction: conserve and build topsoil. + +Topsoil is lost through erosion--wind erosion, water erosion, erosion +through over cropping. It is held in place by stones, grasses, and the +roots of shrubs and trees. Untouched by human hands, on the prairies and +in the forests, topsoil is deepened year by year as winter frosts break +up soft rocks, as dead grasses, leaves, twigs break down into humus, to +become part of the topsoil and provide the nourishment for a new round +of vegetation. + +Topsoil is renewable, replaceable. Lost through cropping and erosion, it +may be rebuilt and deepened by natural processes. In temperate climates +with normal rain and snowfall, the topsoil of grasslands or a forest may +be deepened year by year and century by century. Topsoil may also be +deepened by dust storms that pick up particles of humus from dry lands +and carry them to moister areas. + +Through a carefully controlled sequence, semi-desert lands planted first +to grasses and then to shrubs and trees can be protected against wind +erosion. As vegetation flourishes it increases dew formation and +rainfall. Plant roots prevent runoff and retain the water in gulleys and +low places. Evaporation builds up moisture content in the atmosphere. +Water vapor forms drops and falls in rain or snow. + +Foresighted husbandry not only prevents erosion but, practiced on a +sufficiently broad scale, increases air moisture and modifies +climate--the weather. + +We are less fortunate with some of the critically important minerals +that make up the earth crust. + +During early centuries in the history of western civilization +adventurers and prospectors concentrated on the precious metals. The +voyagers and discoverers who sailed fifteenth century seas were seeking +supplies of gold, silver and precious stones that could be cut and +converted into the highly prized jewels adorning the crowns and scepters +of the mighty. + +Production at that stage meant agriculture, with side occupations such +as hunting, fishing, weaving, tanning, pottery, thatching and peat +cutting, in the all but continuous countryside. There was a very little +mining, but outside of the commercial towns and the growing capital +cities people made their living by taking care of domestic animals and +tilling the soil. Between seed time and harvest they tightened their +belts and prayed the Powers that Be for a bountiful yield. If it came +they feasted. If the crop failed they struggled to survive on the narrow +margin between hunger and starvation. + +If they saw any money it was likely to be copper, with perhaps an +occasional piece of silver. Gold was for the rich, of whom at that +period there were precious few, even among the owners of land and the +wielders of power. + +Country folk barely scratched the surface of the earth. Roads were wheel +tracks in the mud. Bridges were fords that became more or less +impassable with high water. + +These assertions sound strange and romantic to the modern beneficiaries +of asphalt and reinforced concrete. They were the lot of most Europeans +and North Americans when our great grandfathers and great grandmothers +were in their prime. + +What has made the difference between their use of the earth and ours? +Chiefly, the newly tapped sources of energy and the wide variety of +minerals--whose names were unknown except to scholars and scientists +before 1750. It is the new sources of energy and the only recently +utilized metals that have made the difference. + +Farm land can be used and abused many times before its productive +possibilities are exhausted. Even then, with foresight, technical +proficiency, the investment of labor and capital, agricultural land can +be restored to fertility. Iron ore, tin, copper and tungsten are +extracted from the earth, refined, put to some use or wasted as the case +may be, but they are gone. They may be replaced by other minerals. +Through geological ages they may redeposited in the earth's crust. But +to all intents and purposes, they are finished. + +It is a source of pride to promoters and propagandists for the status +quo that western man has removed more metals and minerals from the +earth's crust in the past two hundred years than his predecessors +removed during the previous two thousand years. It is also a source of +danger, because the possibilities of taking those particular minerals +from that particular cubic foot of the earth are ended. + +Replaceable natural resources such as soil fertility, grasses and trees +can be restored and reproduced. Irreplaceable natural resources are +exhausted by one use. In so far as they are concerned, that part of the +earth's crust has been impoverished--made poorer. + +Wasted through neglect and careless use, squandered in the senseless +destruction of war, the earth is still a rich treasure house for its +multitudinous forms of life. Its remaining treasures can be carefully +conserved. Such replaceable resources as topsoil, vegetation and water +can be husbanded. Oceans, mountains and, deserts can be dealt with as +we proceed with our programs for the most economical use of the natural +resources that remain to us. + +Western man is presently emerging from a boisterous era of invention, +discovery, of multiplying productivity and corresponding waste of +irreplaceable natural resources-temporarily justified by "national +security" and "war emergency." The temporary loss of replaceable +reserves and the permanent loss of irreplaceable resources is none the +less tragic, no matter how urgent the immediate cause for their +consumption. + +At this stage in the history of earth's conservation, when so much is +waiting to be done, if each family, each village and town, each city +state and nation will do its bit to conserve, plan, shape, utilize, +beautify, improve what remains of the natural environment, the results +will be impressive enough to justify the time and means devoted to the +enterprise. + +Wherever we go with our plea for the foresighted and economical use of +the earth and its remaining resources, we are met with the question: +"But what can I do?" The answer is simple. Find your place in the +nearest team working to utilize, conserve, and, where possible, enlarge +the natural wealth of the planet. If no such team exists, join with your +neighbors in organizing one. Take seriously your assignment to use the +part of the earth with which you are in contact intelligently, +economically, wisely. + +Whether you are a novice or a professional, a homesteader or a longtime +resident, be sure that each contact you make with the earth enlarges its +possibilities of utility, order, beauty. + +This crusade to save and utilize the earth as the common mother of so +many forms of life must be carefully planned and well organized through +successive generations. Men have spent far too much time and energy in +destroying. The time has come when they must conserve, plan, shape, +utilize, beautify, improve. + +If the energies now going into business, sport, social events, +frivolities, make-believe and the deliberate destruction of waste and +war could be directed to planning, utilizing, beautifying on the +circumferences and at the centers of population concentrations, immense +forward strides could be taken in a single generation. + +The planet still has immense, unused or little used reserves of natural +resources. The old order is slipping, floundering, wasting. Civilization +has told the best of its story and is busy writing its epitaph. The +revolution of 1750-1970 provides the opportunity for a new beginning. +The place is here. The time is now. Let us conserve, beautify, share, +utilize and, in so far as possible, improve our natural surroundings. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +REVAMPING THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PLANET + + +Beyond civilization we could develop a sociology-a cluster of +associations, institutions, outlooks, purposes and practices designed to +revamp the social life of the planet in much the same way and with the +same general outlook with which we approach the political, economic, +sociological and ideological problems arising from the presence, on the +planet Earth, of some 3,700 million different human beings. + +There are at least two approaches to the sociological aspects of our +planet-wide, coordinated society. One way is that with which nature's +cyclism has made us familiar--the "day" of manifestation (activity) and +the "night" of rest (recuperation, restoration and renewal). This might +be described as a natural, gradual evolutionary way. + +The other way is based on creative intervention which shortcuts +evolutionary gradualism in the same way that a great leap shortcuts many +ordinary steps. + +Perhaps the conception can be illustrated in a most effective way by the +alternative presented during the great revolution of 1750-1970. At the +beginning of this epoch man walked the earth literally, except when he +sailed on the water or used the horse or some other swift animal to +travel by land. In the course of the great revolution mankind has +learned to move his body at speeds which sometimes exceed the movement +of sound, on the land, on the water, through the air and into space. He +has done this short-cutting by revolutionary changes in types of energy +coming from outside his physical body. In another sphere--communication +devices--man has stepped up the movement of his emotions and thoughts +and his creative imagination beyond the speed of light. + +This analogy is not complete, nor is it wholly convincing. But the great +revolution in science and technology, applied in the field of social +science can quite conceivably provide humanity with the means of +short-cutting the normal or "natural" processes in sociology as it has +already short-cutted the normal or "natural" process in human +transportation and communication. + +As long as human beings accept the normal, traditional, "natural" +principles of association and group action, humanity will continue on +the tread-mill of civilization with its long established cycles of +beginning, expansion, exploitation, maturity, conflict, decline and +extermination. + +This aspect of planetary sociology may be illustrated by the rise and +decline of total membership in the human family. We know that Roman +civilization passed through a completed cycle of population expansion to +an optimum, followed by a catastrophic population decline. Western +civilization has been experiencing a population expansion or explosion +that can be measured with a moderate degree of statistical accuracy. +Planetary human population doubled from 500 million in 1650 to 1000 +million in 1850. Between 1850 and 1950 population more than doubled +(from 1000 million to 2,500 million). In 1975 the human population of +the earth is close to 3,700 million. + +An essential aspect of world government will be a population program +designed to adjust social structure and planning to the means of +production and to make generally available to all humans and, where +possible, all living things, the results of invention, discovery and +experience with affluence, general security and wide variations of +vocational and avocational choice. In practice such a program would +include the planned utilization and conservation of nature and the +conscious improvement of society by society. + +Social planning at the planetary level could deal chiefly with large +national or regional groupings, more or less divergent in viewpoint but +conscious of the necessity for bringing local and regional groups +together in order to secure common agreement and to take part in +directed joint actions. Such efforts must aim at sufficient cohesion to +provide for normal social function at all levels; sufficient +permissiveness to allow for a measure of self-determination at all +levels; sufficient authority to carry on production and distribution at +all levels, and sufficient libertarianism to tolerate discussion and +opposition at all levels, with a maximum degree of self sufficiency and +self-determination at all levels. + +Nowhere is the need for social planning more in evidence than in the +sphere of human population. In the early years of the present twentieth +century, the human population was doubling in about 50 years (from 1500 +million in 1900 to 2500 million in 1950, from 1,900 million in 1925 to +3,800 million in 1975). Had this rate of growth continued for another +hundred years the planet's fertile acres would have been fully occupied +by jostling crowds with _standing-room only_ signs in the more desirable +living spaces. Japan, the United States, several countries of West +Europe and China have launched campaigns to reduce net population +increase to one percent per year or less. + +A culture level, to be effective in the present predicament of a human +race (oscillating uneasily between the possibility of social advance and +the probability of recession into another Dark Age of ignorance, +superstition and social stagnation), must include certain essential +elements. First and foremost, it must be planet-wide. Given planetary +unification by communication, transportation, travel, migration, trade +and commerce, and cultural interchange, one world has become a factual +reality. World oneness is laced by contradictions, confrontations, +conflicts; by traditional, customary, habitual, ideological, legal, and +national barriers of greater or lesser rigidity. Despite these divisive +forces, our need to function in terms of planetary oneness is so great +that the term "citizens of the world" not only makes sense, but is +accepted and even flaunted in the face of tough restrictions and hard +nosed nationalism. + +Segments of humanity that are ready and willing to sign up as world +citizens already enjoy world consciousness, carrying world passports; +and are experimenting with various aspects of worldist thinking, +contact, organization. They are ready and willing to take part in a +multitude of planetary experiments in world-wide human association. + +The great revolution of 1750-1970 has made two notable contributions to +the institutions of western civilization. In the field of politics it +has contributed the nation state. In the field of economics it has +contributed industrialization with its twin sociological consequence, +mechanization and urbanization. + +Machines and cities are the Siamese twins of the modern age. They are +also the twin forces that helped to push the nation state into its +strategic position of sovereign independence. + +Nationalism today is a unifying force inside the frontiers of the 140 +nations that presently litter and clutter the earth. Beyond each +frontier, however, nationalism has become one of the most divisive +sources of misunderstanding, controversy, disruption and conflict +presently cursing mankind. In the exercise of their sovereignty the +oligarchs who make policy and direct procedure in each sovereign state +put national interests first. On a planet which currently hosts 140 +sovereign states this policy of putting the interests of the part before +the interests of the whole results in controversy, conflict, and may +result in collective self-destruction. + +It is reassuring and encouraging to compare the rise of nationalism and +Europeanism during the past thousand years with the rise of planetism +and worldism from 1450 to 1970. The development of nationalism and +Europeanism is still incomplete, but the drive in that direction has +thus far survived the fragmenting forces of self-determination and +political independence which have played so vital a role in human +society since the beginning of the present century. Europeanization is +still a dream rather than a reality. The forces of regionalism, +nationalism, and separatism still dominate European life. But the +ideology and techniques of Europeanization are widely recognized, +accepted and put into practice. The development of worldism seems to be +following a parallel course. + +Consequently, wisdom, foresight, and the acceptance of change as a major +factor in all social relationships seem to justify our assumption that +sooner or later man's survival on the planet will depend on a degree of +worldist thinking, association and institutionalism that will guarantee +the preservation of order and decency at the planetary level. + +Since conformity implies and involves a will to diversity, measures to +establish and maintain order and peace would include the widest possible +latitude and the utmost effort to encourage the greatest possible +diversity at regional, national and local levels. Thus diversity would +become a virtue in much the same sense that conformity became a virtue +in bourgeois Europe toward the end of the last century and in North +America during the Joseph MacCarthy period. Through the past dozen years +American youth has reversed the trend, adopting a permissiveness under +which the sky is the limit in language, clothing, sexual conduct and +professional choice and behavior. + +Non-conformity is all very well as protest against super-conformity, but +it fails utterly to meet the basic need of the 1970's for a mass +movement away from the institutions and practices of civilization, plus +a disciplined and purposive mass determination to assume attitudes, +adopt practices and establish institutions leading beyond civilization +to a world culture pattern which insists upon conformity up to a point +necessary for survival and social advance, and beyond that point, a +diversity--including recognized and organized opposition at the +planetary center. At the same time there must be a degree of regional +and local diversity that will provide for the utmost independence, +self-confidence, self-expression and regional and local +self-determination compatible with the basic principle: to each in +accordance with need. + +Beyond civilization, matters of general concern will take precedence at +the same time that matters of regional and local concerns will be dealt +with regionally and locally. In such a society individuals and +communities at all levels will be schooled and experienced in +self-discipline and prepared to follow conduct patterns that emphasize +the principle: live and help others to live to the fullest and the +utmost. + +Beyond civilization lies the recognition and practice of the principle +that the welfare of the whole takes precedence over the demands of any +of its parts. At the same time, each part or segment of the social whole +has specific rights that the directors of the whole are bound to +recognize, respect, defend and implement. + +Such results can be achieved under a social pattern aimed at respect for +life--all life; the preservation and improvement of the conditions under +which the good life can be lived by all members of each community as +well as by the human family as a whole. If human society is to be +preserved and progressively improved it must encourage individuals and +cherish institutions whose responsibility and duty it is to stimulate +self-criticism to a point that will make survival and social improvement +the first charge on community life--from the locality, through the +region to the whole human family. + +Should self-discipline and self-criticism falter, militant minorities +must urge and initiate those revolutionary changes which are necessary +for the health and well-being of any ailing human community. This is one +of the contradictions that faces every human enterprise, including the +human race itself. + +Cyclic renewal or regeneration is one aspect of life on our Island +Universe. The principle operates in the life cell, and from the cell on +up and out, to the more extended and extensive aspects of life and +being. The course is well marked and increasingly understood. +Alternatively, humanity can put its creative imagination to work; plan, +organize, prepare and by a carefully designed, revolutionary technique +take a great leap onto another culture level, establishing other norms +beyond those currently accepted by civilized peoples. + +"Beyond civilization" lifestyles are being planfully introduced in order +to save humankind from impending disaster. In that sense, they are +emergency measures. Developmentally, they are being designed as a +planned replacement of the life style current in the matured centers of +western civilization. + +Under such conditions the habit patterns of civilizations could be +deliberately abandoned or superceded by life styles more appropriate to +the institutions and practices of human beings prepared to live and able +to live and develop in a community which is establishing itself on a +level beyond civilization. + +Let no reader retort: Old things are best; old ways are most secure; +beware of the errors of human judgment, the lures and wiles of human +imaginings, the reckless enthusiasm of inexperience; the machinations +and subversions of the counter-revolution. + +Whether he will or no, man has already advanced far along the path that +leads beyond the culture level of civilization into a culture pattern +which includes new means of association and new social institutions. The +most obvious examples of the universal pattern which the human race has +been developing during the present epoch are to be found in the "one +world" consequences of the planet-wide revolution in science and +technology. + +Planetary fragmentation which accompanied the dissolution of Roman +civilization divided and sub-divided mankind into unnumbered +self-contained segments: families, tribes, classes, villages, cities, +kingdoms, principalities, nations, empires. They were separated from one +another by geographic, ethnic, ideological and political barriers which +were intensified by tradition, custom, migration, and the competitive +struggles among the elite for pelf and power. Ignorance and superstition +played a major role in the decentralizing process. Conflicts at various +levels led to further social segmentation and isolation of autonomous +social groups. + +In the backwardness of those Dark Ages--curiosity, fellow feeling, mass +migration, the spirit of adventure, trade, travel and the need for +common action to master nature and repel enemies--broke down barriers +and created fields of mutual interest and general well-being, reversing +the trend toward fragmentation and replacing it by a trend toward +universality which reached its high point during the closing years of +the nineteenth century. The slogan of this movement was "United we +stand, divided we fall. The bell which tolls for one, tolls for all. +When one benefits all benefit. Peace, progress and prosperity promote +general welfare." + +Two general wars in 1914-18 and 1939-45, brought pre-meditated, +deliberated suffering, hardships and death to multitudes. Each war led +to a clamor for peace and order that resulted in a World Court, The +League of Nations and the United Nations. The efforts at planet-wide +united action for peace and disarmament were paralleled and supplemented +by the growth of specialized public services for communication, travel, +scientific interchange, arms limitation. They were further augmented by +a spectacular expansion of trade, travel, capital investment and +scientific research and interchange. + +Events since war's end in 1945 have marked out the steps which the human +race might take in the immediate future to deal with the new problems +arising out of the world revolution of 1750-1970 and to stabilize human +life on the planet. + + Step 1. Revise the United Nations Charter to make all citizens + of member nations also citizens of the United Nations + and therefore under its direct jurisdiction. + + Step 2. Delegate to the United Nations authority to levy taxes + or otherwise provide its own income. + + Step 3. Call a planet-wide convention of delegates from all + nations, authorized to draft a world federal constitution + and submit it for ratification by all member + states. + + Step 4. When approved by two thirds of the states represented + at the constitutional convention the constitution + so adopted would became the basis for world + law and the administration of world affairs. + + Step 5. Inaugurate a world government that would be responsible + for maintaining and promoting peace, order, + stability, justice, equality of opportunity and general + welfare at the international level. + +Heretofore, the nearest approach to a universal state has been an +empire like that of Egypt or Rome built by conquest and maintained by +military authority exercised by the imperial nucleus over its associated +and subordinated territories. The universal state described above would +be an association of sovereign states, each delegating a sufficient +measure of its sovereignty to enable the World Federation to act as a +responsible planet-wide government. + +The probable consequences of these five forward steps have been +summarized by Barbara Ward and Rene Dubos (_Only One World_ N.Y. Nostrom +1972 pages 28-29). "In every case the needed steps take us away from +division, from single shot interventions, separatist tendencies and +driving ambitions and greeds. We have to grasp and foster more fully the +truly integrative aspects of science. We have to revise our economic +management of incomes, of environments, of cities. We have to place what +is useable in nationalism within the framework of a political world +order that is morally and socially responsible as well as physically +one." + +Up to this point in social history, critical situations have usually +been dealt with on the battlefield. Might measured right. The victors +carried the day, won the right to exploit their defeated rivals and +weaker neighbors. The result was planet-wide political chaos, and an +economic free-for-all, in which political power and economic superiority +bestowed upon their possessors the right to plunder and exploit +geographic areas limited only by existing means of communication and +transportation. At no known point in social history were conquerors and +exploiters able to unify the earth politically and exploit its total +economic resources. + +A planned, stabilized future for humanity will be assured when the earth +is governed much as cities, states, nations and empires have been +governed in the past and the present, but with one essential difference. +At no known past time have all human beings been represented in a +government authorized to make and enforce world law. In the absence of +law, chaos and armed conflicts have determined the course of human +affairs. Under a recognized world federal government, world law will +bring, for the first time, the practical possibility of a law and order +determined by and for the human population and charged with the +responsibility for establishing and maintaining planetary public policy. + +World law will be only one aspect of the new situation that will result +from the establishment of a planned, stabilized future for humanity. +Other aspects of the new society will include: + +1. Shaping the future of nature on and in the planet, with all of its +potential riches. + +2. Perhaps also taking a hand in determining the future of other +celestial bodies making up our solar system. + +3. Shaping human society, the man-made and man-remade human heritage +that plays so vital a role in determining the course of human +life--individual and social. + +4. Shaping and guiding man--the gregarious, imaginative, venturesome, +productive--destructive, creative animal. + +5. Building up in human society respect (reverence) for being, respect +for life with its multitudinous variations of opportunity for individual +and social activity. + +6. Arousing interest and dedicating time, thought and energy to the new +science and new arts grouped together under the title Futurology. + +7. Having a hand in perpetuating and shaping one segment of our +expanding universe in accord with the Cult of Excellence: good, better, +and best ever! This is an exciting, constructive, long-range project +worthy of the attention and devotion of any being, even the most +ambitious and omniscient. + +8. Aiming at the Truth--the workability, improvement and the +perfectability of our planet Earth as a recognized, accepted and +essential part of our planetary chain and of our Island Universe. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +MAN COULD CHANGE HUMAN NATURE + + +Man could conserve natural resources; he could remake human society. But +man himself? There, perhaps, is the root of the problem we are +discussing. + +Can man change himself? Can he change human nature? Could human beings +as we know them be transformed sufficiently to live and survive under +the life-style that replaces civilization? + +In our universe as we know it today, from the least to the greatest, +from the most minute to the most extensive, change is one of the basic +principles of existence. Nature changes. Human society changes. Changes +in nature and in society are paralleled by changes in man +himself--changes in outlooks and purposes, changes in ways of feeling, +thinking and acting. + +Human beings have lived under the aegis of tradition, custom, +habit--thinking and acting "normally" and "naturally" in ways accepted +by their forebears and followed by them with little or no regard for +reason, foresight, or creative imagination. Rudiments of all three +capacities were known to exist in human beings. On the whole, the status +quo has been preferred; innovation frowned upon and innovators +discouraged, denounced, reviled and sometimes even put to death. + +In the field of natural science revolutionary short-cutting through the +use of man's creative imagination has been widely used. The great +revolution is one aspect of the anticipated result. Similar +revolutionary short-cutting in the field of social science and social +technology is bound to produce a "new man" in the same way that similar +practices have remodeled, regenerated and renewed man's relations with +nature, and his theories and practices of association. + +Despite efforts of the Establishment to impose conformity, +non-conforming individuals continued to be born and to grow up as +deviants, misfits and intentional non-conformists. Some of these rebels +against the established social order left home, joined the army or went +to sea. Others stayed at home, bided their time and, when opportunity +offered, joined with like-minded fellows in organized underground +opposition or open rebellion against the status quo. + +History reports the existence of such dissident individuals and social +groups and movements in one civilization after another. + +In a very real sense any invention, discovery or innovation in any field +of human thought or action, if widely accepted or adopted automatically, +becomes a revolt against the status quo. Our experience with innovation +during two centuries of the great revolution gives us every reason to +suppose that the flow of scientific and technical invention and +discovery will continue for an indefinite period into our future. On the +whole the evidence suggests increase rather than decrease of innovation +and therefore of change. + +A time of troubles such as that through which western civilization is +now passing offers individuals and social groups unique opportunities to +play significant roles in shaping the course of events. In every human +population there are individuals who are dissatisfied with the status +quo and prefer change to status. For such individuals a time of social +troubles is a holiday. + +There is also an ever-renewing social group for whom a time of troubles +presents a challenge and an opportunity--the young people of the +on-coming generation. + +Adults are generally conditioned and shaped by the social situation into +which they were born and in which they matured. Young people are passing +through the conditioning process. They are undergoing the process of +rapid change. + +Young people in their teens and early twenties stand, usually hesitant, +on the threshold of life. They are bursting with energy, eager, hopeful, +anxious to enter the stream of adult activity. Inexperienced, they +under-estimate the difficulties, taking up any line of activity that +promises quick results. They are impressionable and generally seeking "a +good life." + +Such resources of energy and idealism exist in every generation and +reappear as the generations follow one another. Youth groups have played +active roles in one country after another where opportunities were +restricted by the establishment and revolutionary propagandists painted +a rosy future. Political nationalism in the eighteenth century and +economic and social emancipation in the nineteenth century mobilized +high school and college age youth in the Americas, Europe, Asia and +Africa. + +It is folly to assert that human nature is a given and unalterable +quantity in every social situation and that since "you cannot change +human nature" intentional social changes are out of the question. The +facts are otherwise: + + 1. There is a wide diversity in human beings ranging from + herculean physical strength to pitiable weakness; from the + mental power of genius to the nonentity of imbecility; from + outstanding and unquestionable talent in arts and letters + to illiteracy and clumsy inefficiency. This wide diversity + in human capacity is one of the outstanding features of + human nature, recorded again and again in history and + encountered in all human aggregates. + + 2. There is a period in human life when the habit patterns + of childhood are exchanged for the habit patterns of adulthood. + At this turning point, youth is likely to follow + dynamic and purposeful leadership. + + 3. There is a wide diversity in social situations, from rock-ribbed + stability, to entire communities teetering on the brink + or plunging over the brink into the maelstrom of revolution. + Such diverse situations have existed again and again + during the 1750-1970 revolutionary epoch. + + 4. When a revolutionary situation develops, a revolutionary + leader well-established in a community trembling on the + brink of a revolutionary overturn may seize the reins of + power and establish a regime founded on opposition principles, + dedicated to another set of principles and practices. + When such a revolutionary coup is successful the bells of + history have tolled for the older order and the trumpets + of victory have sounded for the new society. + + 5. The intensity and the direction of the social changes which + radiate out from the climax of a revolutionary situation + and the consequent, subsequent attempts at counter-revolution, + are the outcome of active, purposive intervention by + all of the social groups present at the center of revolutionary + activity. + +The current shift from a laissez-faire economy ("letting nature take her +course"), to a planned, managed, controlled economy is a precedent which +gives us a foretaste of what will lie ahead when a planet-wide federal +government undertakes the planning, direction and management of a +planet-wide economy and society. + +The outcome cannot be determined in advance. Unexpected situations will +arise, the resolution of which will shape the fate, present and future, +of mankind. In a very real sense, our eggs are all in one basket--the +Earth. Our future, for generations to come, may be determined by the +decisions we are making or the social policy we are initiating at the +present moment. + +Large scale research and experiment should go a long way toward +developing the skills required by competent and successful planetary +leadership. Political experiments like the United States of North +America or the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics or the League of +Nations or the United Nations, the planet-wide search for petroleum or +the joint scientific efforts that went into the splitting of the atom, +have given us opportunities to develop the science and art of +planet-wide leadership. + +Behind and beyond our training courses--our formal educational system +(which should be in the front rank of our priorities)--we could train +apprentices in every occupational field, selecting the most apt, the +most eager, the seemingly best qualified and giving them every +opportunity to try out their skills and improve their qualifications in +their chosen fields of endeavor. + +Aspirants for any occupational assignment would divide themselves into +three groups: those who feel that they have chosen wisely, find +themselves in congenial surrounds and want to spend coming years in the +occupation of their choice; those who are uncertain and still unable to +decide upon the field of their life activity; and third, those who have +chosen badly, are dissatisfied with the occupational groove in which +they find themselves and who are ready to move into another field at the +first opportunity. + +The well adjusted will constitute the elite of their chosen occupations, +learning its skills and joining with other well satisfied professionals +in passing on their enthusiasm and knowledge to the next generation of +aspirants for inclusion in the same production teams. The undecided +should be the object of special attention. They have entered an +occupational field on an experimental basis and should be advised and +helped during the experimental period when they are deciding to make a +go of it or to try for something more congenial or at least more +acceptable. + +Misfits who have made a wrong choice and who have no clear call to stay +where they are should be advised and helped to find more congenial +occupational surroundings. + +We may think and experiment with this selective process as though it was +easy and probably final. Nothing could be further from the reality. Even +the best adjusted have moments of uncertainty and indecision about their +occupational futures. The less adjusted spend a part of their lives +looking around for a more attractive field. + +In every field, some of the best adjusted go as far as their interests +and capacities carry them and then shift over into other occupations +which, in turn, offer them more chances to employ their talents to +greater advantage. + +In every field of human endeavor individuals come and go. They should +stay where they seem to be useful and go when their usefulness is +decreasing or coming to an end. + +Balance between status and change is as desirable for the individual as +it is for the group. The decision to stay or go should remain open to +the endless round of individuals who comprise any working team. The +existence of such flexibility is limited, however, by the need to +maintain a working force of interested, alert, eager individuals--skilled, +adjusted and disciplined in group endeavor and achievement. + +We are describing the unending process of selection which goes on from +hour to hour and day to day in any well ordered social group. Every +group has its fields of endeavor, its goals and its scale of priorities. +Individuals come and go. The group carries on. Excellence in group +performance depends upon its competence in selecting, training and +coordinating its endeavors. + +Every social group has its hard corps of trained and tested veterans. +Also it has its problem of aging. The apprentice of yesterday becomes +the experienced, skilled operator of today. Tomorrow brings retirement +for those who have reached the age limit of service and who as a matter +of group routine are replaced by newcomers. In the course of this cycle +the directors of the group have their opportunity to improve the level +of group efficiency by phasing out the old and incorporating the new. + +The range of capacity, from perception and facility to ineptitude and +incompetence, holds for the new generation as it did for the old. The +tone and performance level of each group is determined by the +effectiveness of this selective process. + +At some point it becomes necessary to inquire into the biologic aspects +of any social enterprise. We are doing our utmost to select and educate +and train the fit. Are we producing potential fitness? + +Long experience has taught us that we cannot produce a silk purse from a +sow's ear. Eugenics emerges as an important aspect of every long term +group endeavor. Qualities and capacities are handed on from parent to +offspring. Are we reproducing fitness or unfitness? + +As we move beyond civilization onto a more mature and more complicated +culture level, we may have a workable system of social priorities, but +does our oncoming stream of manpower have the interest, the imagination, +the competence, the sense of social responsibility and the staying power +necessary to arouse in a series of generations the will and +determination to carry out social policy? + +Are the oncoming generations able and willing to shoulder the loads of +clearing out the rubbish accumulated through ten centuries of western +civilization, make effective use of science, technology _and_ available +human capacity and move onward and forward to new levels of social +achievement? + +We could develop a corps of socially responsible technicians as we have +developed a corps of competent scientists and technicians in the field +of natural science. In each field priorities are constantly changing. +Each field is called upon to meet the changes by making corresponding +changes in its personnel, its education and its apprenticeships. + +In addition to formal schooling and apprenticeship we have a vast +network for the distribution of information and the formation of public +opinion. The printing press, the camera and other means of communication +determine the levels of information and the willingness of the public to +keep abreast of the shifting social scene. + +A social structure resembles every other human meeting place--it tends +to accumulate dead wood. There are two answers to this problem: periodic +housecleaning, without fear or favor, together with careful scrutiny of +the apprentices and other newcomers in the field. + +Every social group has its quota of defectives and +delinquents--biological and social, physical, mental, emotional. Here +the critical problem is where to draw the line. Perhaps the best general +answer is to measure productiveness, including those who make a net +contribution, including those whose presence is desirable and excluding +undesirables. Again this involves periodic housecleanings. + +Throughout the past two centuries mankind has been confronted by an +epoch-making, many sided development--the great revolution of +1750-1970. As I write, the great revolution is modifying the structure +and functioning of human society and, consequently, the forces which +condition, shape and, in large measure, determine the directions and +channels in which humanity lives, moves and has its being. + +The great revolution is changing man's relation to nature, to the +structure and function of human society and the ways in which men think, +feel, act and live. The great revolution has shifted the human living +place from rural to urban, replaced a large measure of self-employment +by wagery, lifted large segments of mankind out of scarcity into +abundance, led to widespread migrations across Europe and from continent +to continent, expanded nations and built empires. In the course of these +developments Europe became the center of world economic, political and +cultural affairs, held the position briefly and lost it in the course of +two general, suicidal wars. + +Speaking broadly, such a period in the life of any society may be +described as a revolutionary situation--one in which changes are made +frequently, rapidly and with far reaching consequences. In a word, the +existing social pattern is in process of being turned over, turned +upside down, transformed by forces which seem to operate according to +their own principles and often quite independently of human intention or +intervention. + +Our society--western civilization--is undergoing a revolution. People +born into a rapidly changing society are often tempted and sometimes +compelled to play significant roles in the revolutionary process. +Unconsciously or consciously, unwilling and unwitting or deliberately +and purposefully they are revolutionaries. + +Among the participants in the revolutionary process, the far-seeing, +imaginative, perceptive and mature develop into purposive +revolutionaries. In the course of a series of political, economic and +cultural revolutions like those which played so fateful a part in China +between 1899 and 1969, an entire generation is born, grows up and, in +larger part, retires from active life or dies off. + +Long continued cultural changes play a part in local history. They have +an equally important role in the lives of neighboring nations and +peoples. With present means of communication, transportation and travel, +the influence of revolutionary events such as those in China from 1899 +to the present day may be profound. + +The bourgeois revolution from 1750 to 1840 centered largely in West +Europe and the Americas. In scope it was economic, political, cultural. +The Chinese and other revolutions of the present period, beginning with +the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the Chinese Revolution of 1911, are +once more transforming the economic, political and cultural life of +mankind. + +UNESCO's _History of Mankind_ (Harper and Row), particularly its Volume +6 titled _The Twentieth Century_, presents voluminous comments from a +wide range of qualified scientists and commentators on the changes +associated with the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +The economic, political and cultural life of the majority of human +beings has been modified by the events comprising the great revolution. +Its influence has been, and continues to be, planet-wide. Consciously or +unconsciously, human beings have been brought into contact with +influences that are transforming them as they revolutionize human +society. + +Western man and his way of life have been primarily responsible for this +great revolution. The changes brought about in the human life pattern in +the course of the great revolution have created a new world--in +structure, in function, in outlook, in stepped-up capacity for even more +spectacular changes in the future. + +Instead of regarding human beings and human society as unchangeable and +sacred we must regard both as a part of our social problem: taking the +steps necessary to reach and occupy the highest possible levels of +social and individual health and effectiveness. We can and should make +every effort to improve human society. We should be equally concerned to +improve man and his nature. + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +MAN COULD BREAK OUT OF THE AGE-LONG PRISON HOUSE OF CIVILIZATION AND +ENTER A NEW WORLD + + +We humans have been living for ages with various lifestyles--as hunters +and fishermen, as herdsmen, as cultivators of the soil, as craftsmen, as +traders and merchants, as professionals, as exploiters, as parasites, +wreckers and plunderers. On the whole, our energies have been spent in +relatively small, self-sufficient groups, staying close to nature, as a +part of nature. + +Occasionally we have turned from this "natural" way of life, to build +towns and cities, experimenting with large scale mass enterprises and +expanded aggregates of population, wealth and centralized authority to +which we have given the name of civilizations. + +These civilizations, in their turn, have passed through a recognizable +life cycle--the cycle of growing, developing, maturing, aging, breaking +up and disappearing. One aspect of their civilized life was the keeping +of records. Another aspect was building with baked clay and stone. Baked +clay, some metals and stone, have withstood the wear and tear of time, +sheltered in the temples and tombs which we are uncovering, deciphering, +translating. + +While engaged in these scholarly pursuits, our variant of the +pattern--western civilization--has been passing through the customary +life cycle. If we read the signs correctly, western civilization reached +the high point in its cycle toward the end of the last century. Since +then, for seventy-five years, it has been on the decline. + +If we accept the cycle of civilization as one of the facts or sequences +presented to us by history, we may continue to pass submissively through +the successive stages of decline until western civilization is +liquidated by the same forces that wiped out preceding civilizations. +This would be the normal course of a cycle of civilization as it appears +in recorded history. + +Need we follow this course? Must we follow it? + +History answers "yes" and also "no." + +History answers "yes"--the record to date reads that way. + +But the record of history also shows that men have repeatedly interfered +and intervened in the historical process by discovery and invention. The +historical record is subject to change. Man is not entirely free. +Neither is he helplessly bound on the wheel of necessity, presently +known as civilization. + +In Chapter 10 we listed a number of discoveries and inventions which +have greatly increased man's control over his own destiny. As these +innovations are embodied in the life styles of planet-wide human +society, there is every likelihood that men can deal with the future +almost as comprehensibly as they now deal with the past. Those who take +this position argue that humanity has reached a point at which it may +break out of the present cycle of civilization and begin a new cycle +which will correspond with the possibilities brought to mankind during +the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +The idea is not new. It has appeared repeatedly in various forms: +individual withdrawal from the world and its troubles to live solitary, +perfected, sin-free existences; the formulation of plans for utopian or +ideal communities; the establishment of such communities--apart from the +workday world; revolutionary mass movements away from the current time +of social troubles into a more workable, more acceptable, more basically +productive and fundamentally creative life style. + +Hermits and reclusive monastic life need not concern us here. They are +to be found in many parts of the existing society. They live their lives +apart from the main currents of human life. We may make the same +comment, with slight modifications, on intentional communities +organized within the bounds of surrounding civilizations. They meet the +needs of exceptional individuals who find the existing order intolerable +and who wish to move at once into a more congenial community life. +Intentional communities founded to demonstrate particular social or +economic theories usually are short-lived, covering, at best, one or two +generations. + +Intentional communities organized around ethical or social principles +are more enduring, lasting through generations and sometimes through +centuries. During their existence they may have considerable influence +on the communities of which they are a part. At best they parallel the +life of the civilization against which they protest, while they share +its problems. Religiously oriented intentional communities may be found +today in many of the countries composing western civilization. + +What concerns us here is the split of western civilization into two +broadly divergent groups: capitalism and socialism-communism. + +Capitalism, in its present monopoly form, is the outcome of a thousand +years of development. Throughout its existence it has been politically +and economically competitive. The vehicle of political competition began +as the nation, then continued as the empire. Economically, the vehicle +of competition has become the profit-seeking business corporation, +backed politically and often subsidized economically by the nation or +empire. + +As western civilization has developed, nations and empires have tended +to form more or less permanent alliances. Business corporations likewise +have tended to establish conglomerates which include widely divergent +businesses, some limited to one nation or empire, some international. + +Historically, the present-day business community developed out of a +segmented European feudal society as a protest against political +restrictions. Its early key-note was laissez-faire--freedom of +businessmen to make economic policy and accumulate profits. The +practical outcome of laissez-faire economy has been monopoly or finance +capitalism functioning through the sovereign state or empire. + +Marxian socialism-communism, organized and developed largely since 1848, +has grown up as a rebellion against monopoly capitalism. At it matured, +after revolutions in Mexico, China, Tsarist Russia and East Europe, it +became an alternative and even a competitive life style. Marxism has +been, at least in theory, cooperative rather than competitive. Its +objective has been not private profit but a higher standard of economic +and social life for exploited masses of the business community and of +the Third World. Capitalism has had as its slogan "Every man for +himself". The slogan of Marxism is "Serve the whole people". + +Until 1917 Marxism was a body of social theory and a program of specific +political demands. In the period from 1848 to 1917 Marxism operated +through minority political parties organized in each nation, but linked +together internationally in loose federations, except during the brief +existence of the Communist International from 1919 to 1943. + +Beginning with the Russian Revolution of 1917, Marxism became a basic +state doctrine, first in the Soviet Union and subsequently in more than +a dozen other nations of East Europe and Asia. The area of Marxist +influence, as expressed in socialist construction, spread slowly from +1917 to 1943 and rapidly during and immediately after the war of +1936-1945. + +Today about a billion human beings live in countries of East Europe and +Asia calling themselves socialist-communist. A second billion human +beings live chiefly in West Europe, the Americas and Australasia calling +themselves capitalist. A third billion, the remaining segment of +mankind, living chiefly in Africa, Asia and Latin America make up the +"Third World," most of which consists of former colonies and +dependencies of the 19th century empires. + +At the beginning of the great revolution in 1750 the planet was occupied +by the European empires, their colonies and dependencies, with a segment +under the control of the crumbling Chinese and Turkish empires. The +ensuing two centuries witnessed a political, economic and social +transformation that reached across every continent. + +The revolutionary process is far from complete in 1975. Capitalism and +Marxism are still pitted against each other--ideologically, politically, +culturally. The Marxians form a revolutionary front. Capitalists retort +with counter-revolution. Nation by nation the third world is taking +sides. + +The capitalist world is suffering from the rise and fall of the business +cycle, from inflation and unemployment, from the scourge of militarism; +from the exhaustion of two general wars in one generation; from absence +of any positive common program or commonly accepted means of +administering public affairs; from its failure to provide its young +people with a satisfactory reason for existence, and from the fatal +malady of fragmentation which is the logical counterpart of every major +effort at coordination, consolidation and unification. Western +civilization, despite repeated efforts, was never able to establish the +kind of superficial unity that marked the high point in the Egyptian and +Roman civilizations. The stresses and strains of the current great +revolution have introduced into western civilization new disintegrative +forces of which the capitalist-Marxist confrontation is the most +extensive, divisive and decisive. + +The Marxist world, in its spectacular rise during less than a century, +offers the only workable alternative to declining and disintegrating +western civilization. It presents an alternative theoretical program for +dealing with the transition from the built-in competitiveness of western +civilization to the built-in cooperativeness of a planned, coordinated, +federated socialist-communist world order. + +The Soviet Union and its East European socialist neighbors have survived +the wars of 1914 and 1936; have survived the capitalist conspiracy to +strangle infant Marxism in its cradle. In a remarkably brief period the +Soviet Union has moved from a position of cultural backwardness to +become the number two nation in productivity and perhaps even number one +in fire power. + +Today Asia's active development of several variants of Marxism is +defended against any repetition of Hitler's 1941 drive to the East by +the massive land barrier of the Soviet Union and its East European +Marxist associates. + +On the west, Asia is protected by the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean +against the determined efforts of the Washington government to check the +spread of Marxism. Washington's current effort to become _The_ Pacific +power and also _The_ Asian power have been blocked and perhaps thwarted +by the defeat of General MacArthur and his international forces in the +Korean War of 1950-53, and by the unanticipated and unbelievable +resistance mounted by the peoples of South East Asia against the +repeated efforts made by Washington to replace the French imperial +presence there after its overwhelming defeat in 1954. + +The decisive political developments in South and East Asia following +war's end in 1945 were first, the expulsion of the British, French and +Dutch from their military strongholds in the area; second, the +spectacular unification of China and its rapid advance from inferiority +and political inconsequence to a place among the three major world +powers; third, the meteoric comeback of Japan after its unconditional +surrender in 1945; and fourth, the failure of the costly effort mounted +by Washington after 1954 to establish itself in a position from which it +could dominate the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. + +So much we may learn from history. Turning from the past and looking at +the trends of the immediate future, it seems likely that Marxism will +continue for at least some years to be the dominant force in Asia. +Furthermore, the Marxian presence in Asia will include both the Soviet +Union in Northern Asia and China in South Asia. Both countries are +unquestionably stabilized economically and viable politically. Both are +headed away from capitalist imperialism. Both are moving toward Marxian +forms of socialism-communism. + +The wars in South East Asia after the expulsion of the French in 1954 +were organized, financed and armed primarily by the Washington +government. They were avowedly aimed at the up-rooting of Marxism from +the area. They not only failed in their main objective but they gave +the Soviet Union and the Chinese a chance to pit their advisers, +technicians and military equipment against that of the United States as +the major capitalist contender in the area. This phase of the +counter-revolutionary drive to reestablish monopoly capitalism and +imperialism in the Far East thus far has met with decisive and +humiliating defeat. + +This defeat marks the end of the capitalist occupation of Far Asia. It +also opens the way for the Marxists to demonstrate the workability of +socialism-communism as a lifestyle for Asians and, presumably, for other +segments of the Third World. + +Success of the Marxists in maintaining and extending their presence in +Asia will make it politically and culturally possible for them to take +five essential steps: + +_First_, to extend the developing pattern of collective responsibility +and collective action around the earth as rapidly as possible. If such +an extension proves feasible, it should give Marxism a real priority in +stabilizing the economy and building up the political vigor of the Far +East. + +_Second_, organized counter-revolution could be liquidated and +revolutionaries, willing to take on the responsibility, could be +provided with necessary authority, leadership and equipment. + +_Third_, moving along with the formulation and fulfillment of carefully +developed plans for socialist construction in all of its ramifications, +to close the door gradually, step by considered step, on exploitation +and profiteering. In their places, well-laid plans could be drawn up for +developing a people's socialist-communist economy in the more backward +areas of Africa, Asia and the Americas. + +_Fourth_, the new economy could be federated as it was established and +stabilized, with special attention to the need for a maximum of local +self help to balance against pressures toward bureaucracy and the +development of overhead costs. + +_Fifth_, with one eye on its need for integration into a +socialist-communist collective planetary economy, the other eye must be +kept on the planetary chain of which the earth is an essential part. + +Life is a process operating through the linking of causes and their +effects. This is as true of social life as it is of individual life. +Reviewing history we check man's past actions and learn by so doing. +Turning to the future we plan and prepare to set in motion that +conglomerate of causes (plans) best calculated to assure a good life +individually, socially, cosmically--with a strong emphasis on the time +honored sequence: good, better, best. + +It is our opportunity, our destiny, and our responsibility to keep on +living, constructing, creating. We must live, not die. We must not stop. +We must go on. + +By such steps we humans could by-pass the restrictions and limitations +imposed on human creative genius by the structure and function of +civilization. In its place we could elaborate a substitute +inter-planetary culture in which a chastened, improved, rejuvenated +humanity could play a creative role, in accordance with our capacities +and our destiny as an integral part of the joint enterprise to which our +sun furnishes light, warmth and vibrant energy. We have latent among us +the talent and genius necessary to play such a part. Do we also have the +imagination, courage and daring to accept the challenge and take our +post of duty in the team that is directing the expansion of our +expanding universe? + + + + +SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES + +Among the books consulted in preparation of this essay on civilization +as a social institution, UNESCO _History of Mankind_ holds first place. +The authors describe the work as "the first global history, planned and +executed from an international viewpoint". The subtitle of the six +volumes is "Cultural and Scientific Development". + +The work is published under the auspices of the United Nations +Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by an International +Commission presided over by Professor Pauls E. deBerredo Carneiro of +Brazil. The Commission consists of 23 members, mostly academicians from +23 countries. The commission also has a corresponding membership of 93 +drawn chiefly from the academic personnel of 42 countries. + +Textual material for the _History of Mankind _was prepared and edited by +hundreds of experts in the widely ranging fields covered by the +_History_. Final approval of the text came from the Commission. In cases +where there were differences of opinion or of interpretation, varying +and opposing points of view are presented. + +_The History of Mankind _is in six volumes. + +I. Prehistory and The Beginnings of Civilization. + +II. The Ancient World. + +III. The World A.D. 400 to A.D. 1300. + +IV. The World A.D. 1300 to the End of the Eighteenth Century. + +V. The World in the Nineteenth Century. + +VI. The Twentieth Century. All but the first volume of the _History_ +deal with the epoch during which civilization has played a fateful role +in world affairs. + +Professor Arnold J. Toynbee's ten volume _Study of History_ is concerned +chiefly with the rise and decline of those civilizations which have left +a noteworthy historical record. His emphasis is geographical and +political rather than cultural and social. The same thing may be said of +other histories of civilization. They stress personalities, nations and +empires. + +There are few books which approach the study of civilization as a stage +or level of human culture. Among them are: + + Abbott, Wilbur C, _The Expansion of Europe_, N.Y.: Holt, 1918. + 2 vols. + + Adams, Brooks, _The Law of Civilization and Decay_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1943. + + Adams, Brooks, _The New Empire_, N.Y.: MacMillian, 1902. + + Adams, George B., _Civilization During the Middle Ages_, N.Y.: + Scribners, 1914. + + Albanes, Ricardo C, _La Civilizacion y el Communismo Marxista_, + Habana: Cultural S.A., 1937. + + Ashley, Percy W., _Europe from Waterloo to Sarajero_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1926. + + Baikie, James, _The Life of the Ancient East_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1923. + + Ballester Escalas, Rafael, _Historia de la Civilizaciones_, + Barcelona: Gasso, 1961. + + Balmes, Jaime Luciano, _La Civilizacion_, Barcelona: Lopez Lansas, + 1922. + + Barnes, Harry E., _A Social History of the Western World_, N.Y.: + Appleton, 1921. + + ----, _A Survey of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: Crowall, 1947. + + Bell, Clive, _Civilization, an Essay_, London: Chatto and Windus, + 1928. + + Blackmar, Frank W., _History of Human Society_, N.Y.: Scribners, + 1926. + + Bornet-Perrier, Paul, _L'Unité Humaine_, Paris: Alcan, 1931. + + Bose, Pramatha, _Epochs of Civilization_, Calcutta: Newman, 1913. + + Breasted, James H., _A History of Egypt_, London: Hodder and + Stoughten, 1921. + + Brier, Royce, _Western World_, Garden City: Doubleday, 1946. + + Briere, Yves de la, _Grands Imperialismes Contemporaires_, Anvers: + Association des Licencées de St. Ignace, 1925. + + Brodeur, Arthur G., _The Pageant of Civilization_, N.Y.: + McBride, 1931. + + Brown, Lawrence R., _The Might of the West_, NY.: Obolensky, + 1963. + + Bruce, Maurice, _The Shaping of the Modern World 1870-1914_, + N.Y.: Random House, 1958. + + Brugmans, Hendrik, _Les Origines de la Civilization_, Liege: + Georges Thone, 1958. + + Bryce, James, _Holy Roman Empire_, London: MacMillan, 1903. + + Burns, Edward M., _Western Civilizations, Their History and + Their Culture_, N.Y.: Norton, 1968. 2 vols. + + Burns, Emile, _Imperialism_, London: Labor Research Department, + 1927. + + Callot, Emile, _Civilization et Civilizations_, Paris: Berger-Levrault, + 1954. + + Casson, Stanley, _Progress and Catastrophe_, London: Hamilton, + 1937. + + Chapot, Victor, _The Roman World_, London: Paul, 1928. + + Childe, V. Gordon, _New Light on the Most Ancient East_, London: + Kegan Paul, 1934. + + Clough, Shepard B., _Basic Values of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: + Columbia University Press, 1960. + + Clough, Shepard B., _Rise and Fall of Civilization_, N.Y.: Columbia + University Press, 1957. + + Crozier, John B., _Civilization and Progress_, London: Longmans, + 1892. + + Cunningham, William, _Western Civilization_, Cambridge: University + Press, 1900. + + Demangeon, Albert, _Le Declin de l'Europe_, Paris: Payot, 1920. + + Dorpsch, Alfons, _Economic and Social Foundations of Western + Civilization_, N.Y.: Harcourt, 1937. + + Douglas, Sholto O.G., _A Theory of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1914. + + Elias, Norbert, _Uber den Prozess der Zivilisation_, Basel: Falken, + 1939. + + Farrington, Benjamin, _Science and Politics in the Ancient World_, + London: Allen and Unwin, 1939. + + Fischer, Eric, _Passing of the European Age_, Cambridge: Harvard + University Press, 1943. + + Fleiweiling, Ralph T., _The Survival of Western Culture_, N.Y.: + Harper, 1943. + + Forrest, J.D., _Development of Western Civilization_, Chicago: + University of Chicago Press, 1907. + + Fougeres, Gustav and others, _Les Premiers Civilisations_, Paris: + Alcan, 1926. + + Frank, Tenney, _Economic History of Rome_, Baltimore: John + Hopkins Press, 1927. 2nd ed. + + Frank, Tenney, _Roman Imperialism_, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1914. + + Freud, Sigmund, _Civilization and its Discontents_, N.Y.: Norton, + 1961. + + Friedell, Egon, _A Culture History of the Modern World_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1930. + + Friedjung, Heinrich, _Das Zeitalter des Imperialismus_, Berlin: + Neufeld und Henius, 1914. 3 vols. + + Georg, Eugen, _The Adventure of Mankind_, N.Y.: Dutton, 1931. + + Glotz, Gustav, _Aegean Civilization_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1925. + + Goddard, Edward H. and Gibbons, P.A., _Civilization or Civilizations_, + London: Constable, 1926. + + Gollwitzer, Heinz, _Europe in the Age of Imperialism_, N.Y.: + Harcourt, Brace, 1969. + + Goshal, Kumar, _People in Colonies_, N.Y.: Sheridan House, 1948. + + Grigg, Edward W.M., _The Greatest Experiment in History_, + New Haven: Yale University Press, 1924. + + Guizot, F.P., _Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe_, N.Y.: Appleton, + 1938. + + Gupta, N.K., _The March of Civilization_, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo + Ashram, 1959. + + Haas, William, _What Is Civilization_, London: Oxford University + Press, 1929. + + Hankins, Frank H., _The Racial Basis of Civilization_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1926. + + Harris, George, _Civilization Considered as a Science_, London: + Bell and Daldy, 1872. + + Heard, Gerald, _The Source of Civilization_, London: Cape, 1935. + + Hertzler, G.O., _The Social Thought of the Ancient Civilizations_, + N.Y.: McGraw Hill, 1938. + + Hubbard, Arthur J., _The Fate of Empires_, London: Longmans, + 1913. + + Innes, Harold B., _Empire and Communication_, Oxford: Clarendon, + 1950. + + Louis, Paul, _Ancient Rome at Work_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1927. + + Lowie, Robert H., _Are We Civilized?_ N.Y.: Harcourt Brace, + 1929. + + Lubbock, John, _The Origin of Civilization_, London: Longmans, + 1875. + + McCabe, Joseph, _The Evolution of Civilization_, London: Watts, + 1921. + + Majewski, Erasme de, _La Theorie de l'Homme et de la Civilisation_, + Paris: Le Soudier, 1911. + + ------, _La Science de la Civilisation_, Paris: Alcan, 1908. + + Maritain, Jacques, _Twilight of Civilization_, N.Y.: Sheed and + Ward, 1943. + + Marshak, Alexander, _The Roots of Civilization_, N.Y.: McGraw + Hill, 1972. + + Marvin, F.S. ed., _The Unity of Western Civilization_, London: + Oxford University Press, 1929. + + Means, Philip A., _Ancient Civilizations of the Andes_, N.Y.: + Scribners, 1931. + + Moraze, Charles, _Essai sur la Civilisation d'Occident_, Paris: + Colin, 1950. + + Moret, A. and Davy, G., _From Tribe to Empire_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1926. + + Morgan, L.H., _Ancient Society_, N.Y.: Holt, 1907. + + Morris, Charles, _Civilization: An Historical Review of Its Elements_, + Chicago: Griggs, 1890. + + Mumford, Lewis, _Technics and Civilization_, N.Y.: Harcourt + Brace, 1934. + + Pendell, Elmer, _The Next Civilization_, Dallas: Royal, 1970. + + Quigley, Carroll, _The Evolution of Civilizations_, N.Y.: + MacMillan, 1961. + + Randall, Henry J., _The Creative Centuries_, N.Y.: Longmans, 1944. + + Rod, Edouard, _L'Imperialisme_, Paris: Revue des Deux Mondes, 1907. + + Rostovtzeff, Mikhail I., _Economic and Social History of the + Roman Empire_, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926. + + Schneider, Hermann, _The History of World Civilization_, N.Y.: + Harcourt Brace, 1932. 2 vols. + + Schumpter, Joseph, _Zur Soziologiedes Imperialismus_, Tubingen: + Mohr, 1919. + + Schrecker, Paul, _Work and History_, Princeton: + University of Princeton Press, 1948. + + Schweitzer, Albert, _The Philosophy of Civilization_, N.Y.: + MacMillan, 1949. + + Seignobos, Charles, _The Rise of European Civilization_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1938. + + Sellery, George C., _The Founding of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: + Harper, 1929. + + Spengler, Oswald, _Decline of the West_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1928. + + Swain, Edgar S., _A History of World Civilization_, N.Y.: + McGraw Hill, 1938. + + Toynbee, Arnold J., _A Study of History_, N.Y.: Oxford, 10 vols. + + UNESCO, _Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind_, N.Y.: + Harper and Row, 6 vols. + + Walker, C.C., _The Biology of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1930. + + Walsh, Correa Moylan, _The Climax of Civilization_, N.Y.: + Sturgis, 1917. + + Wells, H.G., _The Salvaging of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1922. + + Widney, Joseph, _Civilizations, their Diseases and Rebuilding_, + Los Angeles: Pacific Publishing Co., 1937. + + Zimmern, Alfred E., _Greek Commonwealth_, Oxford, Clarendon + Press, 1911. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Civilization and Beyond, by Scott Nearing + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CIVILIZATION AND BEYOND *** + +***** This file should be named 12320-8.txt or 12320-8.zip ***** +This and all 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/12320-8.zip b/old/12320-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..072f41d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12320-8.zip diff --git a/old/12320.txt b/old/12320.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4a705e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12320.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10147 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Civilization and Beyond, by Scott Nearing + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Civilization and Beyond + Learning From History + +Author: Scott Nearing + +Release Date: May 10, 2004 [EBook #12320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CIVILIZATION AND BEYOND *** + + + + +Produced by Matthew Mello and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The typographical errors of the original are +preserved in this etext.] + + + +CIVILIZATION AND BEYOND + +Learning From History + + +By Scott Nearing + +This book is not copyrighted. It may be reproduced by anybody and +distributed in any quantity as a whole. It should not be summarized, +abbreviated, garbled or chopped into out-of-context fragments. + +Social Science Institute, Harborside, Maine + +August 1975 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Preface + INTRODUCTION: Thoughts about History and Civilization + + PART I _The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization_ + 1. Experiments in Egypt and Eurasia + 2. Rome's Outstanding Experiment + 3. The Origins of Western Civilization + 4. The Life Cycle of Western Civilization + 5. Features Common to Civilizations + + PART II _A Social Analysis of Civilization_ + 6. The Politics of Civilization + 7. The Economics of Civilization + 8. The Sociology of Civilization + 9. Ideologies of Civilization + + PART III _Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete_ + 10. World-wide Revolution Disrupts Civilization + 11. Western Civilization Attempts Suicide + 12. Talking Peace and Waging War + + PART IV _Steps Beyond Civilization_ + 13. Ten Building Blocks for a New World + 14. Moving Toward World Federation + 15. Integrating a World Economy + 16. Conserving our Natural Environment + 17. Re-vamping the Social Life of the Planet + 18. Man Could Change Human Nature + 19. Man Could Break Out of the Age-Long Prison-House + of Civilization and Enter a New World + + + +PREFACE + +LEARNING FROM HISTORY + + +Human history may be viewed from various angles. The easiest history to +write concerns the doings of a few well known people and their +involvement in some memorable events. History may also concern itself +with inventions and discoveries: the use of fire, of the wheel or +smelting metals. It may center around sources of food, means of shelter, +or the making of records. It may be concerned with the construction and +decoration of cities, kingdoms and empires. + +Social history enters the picture with travel, transportation, +communication, trade. Human beings group themselves in families, clans +and tribes, in voluntary associations; they compete, plunder, conquer, +enslave, exploit; they co-operate for construction and destruction. +Political history is but one aspect of man's group contacts and group +projects. + +There have been histories of particular civilizations and of +civilization as a field of historical research. With minor exceptions +none of the authors that I have consulted has attempted an analytical +treatment of civilization as a sociological phenemenon. + +Scientists start from hunches, examine available data, advance tentative +conclusions, test them in the light of wider observations, and round out +their research by formulating general principles or "laws." This +scientific approach has been used in many fields of observation and +study. I am applying the formula to one aspect of social history: the +appearance, development, maturity, decline and disappearance of the vast +co-ordinations of collective, experimental human effort called +civilizations. + +"Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, where are they?" asked Byron. He might +have added: "What were they? How did they come into being? What was the +nature of their experience? Why did they rise from small beginnings, +develop into wide-spread colossal complexes of wealth and power, and +then, after longer or shorter periods of existence, break up and +disappear from the stage of social history?" + +Such questions are far removed from the lives of people who are busy +with everyday affairs. In one sense they _are_ remote; in the larger +picture, however, they are of vital concern to anyone and everyone now +living in civilized communities. If Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans +and Carthaginians built extensive empires and massive civilizations that +flourished for a time, then broke up and disappeared, are we to follow +blindly and unthinkingly in their footsteps? Or do we study their +experiences, benefit from their successes and learn from their mistakes? +Can we not take lessons out of their voluminous notebooks, avoid their +blunders and direct our own feet along paths that fulfil our lives at +the same time that they meet the widespread demand for survival and +well-being? + +Civilization has been extensively experimental. Several thousand years, +during which civilizations have appeared, disappeared and reappeared, +have been too brief to establish and stabilize a hard and fast social +pattern. As the complexity of civilizations has increased, variations +and deviations have grown in number and intensity. With the advent of +western civilization a culture pattern is being put together which +differs widely from its predecessors. + +All civilized peoples seem to have developed from simple beginnings and +experimented with broader and more complicated life styles. In western +civilization the number of experiments has increased and the span of +their deviations seems to have broadened. Under the circumstances an +analysis of civilization must take for granted not only social change +but the development of, human society along lines which link up the +outstanding structural and functional ideas, institutions and practices +of successive civilizations. + +I propose in this inquiry to state certain accepted facts from the +history of civilizations and of contemporary experience. I also propose +to analyze the facts and generalize them in such a way that the results +of the study may provide an understanding of the human social past, +together with some guide-lines that will prove useful in the formulation +and implementation of the present-day policy and procedure of civilized +peoples, nations, empires and of the western civilization. + +This book is not a popular treatise, nor is it a textbook. Rather. it is +an attempt to summarize an area of critical human concern. Academia may +not use such material: nevertheless it should be available to students +and administrators who must plan and direct the social future of +humankind. + +_Civilization and Beyond_ rounds out a series of studies that I began in +1928 with _Where Is Civilization Going_? The series has extended through +_The Twilight of Empire_ (1930), _War_ (1931) and _The Tragedy of +Empire_ (1946). Up to 1914 my field of study was confined largely to the +economics of distribution. The war of 1914-18 pushed me rudely and +decisively into the broader field. I have described the process in my +political autobiography: _Making of a Radical_ (1971). + +I hope that this study will provide a useful link in the chain of +material dealing with the structure and function of man's social +environment, leading directly into an action program that will conclude +the preservation and loving economical use of nature's rich gifts and +the dedication of thousands of young aspiring men and women to the good +life here, now and indefinitely, into a bright, productive and creative +future. + +As of this date seven publishers have examined the manuscript of this +work and declined to publish it. All felt that it would not find any +considerable reading public. Nevertheless, I feel that the work should +be printed and distributed because it carries a message that may be of +first rate importance to the future of my fellow humans. + +Scott Nearing. + +Harborside, Maine May 5, 1975 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +THOUGHTS ABOUT HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION + + +We may think and talk about civilization as one pattern or level of +culture, one stage through which human life flows and ebbs. In that +sense we may regard it abstractly and historically, as we regard the +most recent ice age or the long and painful record of large-scale +chattel slavery. + +From quite another viewpoint we may think of civilization as a +technologically advanced way of life developed by various peoples +through ages of unrecorded experiment and experience, and followed by +millions during the period of written history. It is also the way of +life that the West has been trying to impose upon the entire human +family since European empires launched their crusade to westernize, +modernize and civilize the planet Earth. + +A third approach would regard civilization as an evolving life style, +conceived before the earliest days of recorded human history and matured +through the series of experiments marking the development of +civilization as we have known it during the five centuries from 1450 to +1975. + +Thinking in terms of this age-old experience, with six or more thousand +years of social history as a background, it is possible to give a fairly +exact meaning to the word "civilization" as it has been lived and is +being lived by the present-day West. It is also possible to understand +the history of previous civilizations in cycle after cycle of their +rise, their development, decline and extinction. At the same time it +will enable the reader to recognize the relationship (and difference) +between the words "culture" and "civilization". + +Human culture is the sum total of ideas, relationships, artifacts, +institutions, purposes and ideals currently functioning in any +community. Three elements are present in each human society: man, nature +and the social structure. Human culture at any point in its history is +the social structure: the aggregate of existing culture traits, the +products of man's ingenuity, inventiveness and experimentation, set in +their natural environment. + +Civilization is a level of culture built upon foundations laid down +through long periods of pre-civilized living. These foundations consist +of artifacts, implements, customs, habit patterns and institutions +produced and developed in numerous scattered localities by groups of +food-gatherers, migrating herdsmen, cultivators, hand craftsmen and +traders and eventually in urban communities built around centers of +wealth and power: the cities which are the nuclei of every civilization. + +Urban centers, housing trade, commerce, fabrication and finance, with +their hinterlands of food-gatherers, herdsmen, cultivators, craftsmen +and transporters, are the nuclei around which and upon which recurring +civilizations are built. Within and around these urban centers there +grows up a complex of associations, activities, institutions and ideas +designed to promote, develop and defend the particular life pattern. + +A civilization is a cluster of peoples, nations and empires so related +in time and space that they share certain ideas, practices, institutions +and means of procedure and survival. Among these features of a civilized +community we may list: + + (1) means of communication, record-keeping, transportation + and trade. This would include a spoken language, a method + of enumeration, writing in pictographs or symbols; an + alphabet, a written language, inscribed on stone, bone, + wood, parchment, paper; means of preserving the records + of successive generations; paths, roads, bridges; a system + for educating successive generations; meeting places and + trading points; means for barter or exchange; + + (2) an interdependent urban-oriented economy based on division + of labor and specialization; on private property in the + essential means of production and in consumer goods and + services; on a competitive survival struggle for wealth, + prestige and power between individuals and social groups; + and on the exploitation of man, society and nature for the + material benefit of the privileged few who occupy the summit + of the social pyramid; + + (3) a unified, centralized political apparatus or bureaucracy + that attempts to plan, direct and administer the political, + economic, ideological and sociological structure; + + (4) a self-selected and self-perpetuating oligarchy that owns + the wealth, holds the power and pulls the strings; + + (5) an adequate labor force for farming, transport, industry, + mining; + + (6) large middle-class elements: professionals, technicians, + craftsmen, tradesmen, lesser bureaucrats, and a semi-parasitic + fringe of camp-followers; + + (7) a highly professional, well-trained, amply-financed apparatus + for defense and offense; + + (8) a complex of institutions and social practices which will + indoctrinate, persuade and when necessary limit deviation + and maintain social conformity; + + (9) agreed religious practices and other cultural features. + +This description of civilization covers the essential features of +western civilization and the sequence of predecessor civilizations for +which adequate records exist. + +Successive civilizations have introduced new culture traits and +abandoned old ones as the pageant of history moved from one stage to the +next, or advanced and retreated through cycles. Using this description +as a working formula, it is possible to understand the development +followed in the past by western civilization, to estimate its current +status and to indicate its probable outcome. + +Long-established thought-habits cry aloud in protest against such a +description of civilization. Until quite recently the word +"civilization" has been used in academic circles to symbolize a social +idea or ideal. Professor of History Anson D. Morse of Amherst College +presents such a view in his _Civilization and the World War_ (Boston: +Ginn 1919). For him, civilization is "the sum of things in which the +heritage of the child of the twentieth century is better than that of +the child of the Stone Age. As a process it is the perfection of man and +mankind. As an end, it is the realization of the highest ideal which men +are capable of forming.... The goal of civilization ... is human society +so organized in all of its constituent groups that each shall yield the +best possible service to each one and thereby to mankind as a whole, +(producing) the perfect organization of humanity." (page 3). + +Such thoughts may be noble and inspired; they are not related to +history. We know more or less about a score of civilizations that have +occupied portions of the earth during several thousand years. We know a +great deal about the western civilization which we observe and in which +we participate. Professor Morse's florid words apply to none of the +civilizations known to history. Certainly they are poles away from an +accurate characterization of our own varient of this social pattern. + +We are writing this introduction in an effort to make our word pictures +of mankind and its doings correspond with the facts of social history. +With the nuclear sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, it is high +time for us to exchange the clouds of fancy and the flowers of rhetoric +for the solid ground of historical reality. The word "civilization" must +generalize what has been and what is, as nearly as the past and present +can be embodied in language. + +Civilization is a level or phase of culture which has been attained and +lost repeatedly in the course of social history. The epochs of +civilization have not been distributed evenly, either in time or on the +earth's surface. A combination of circumstances, political, economic, +ideological, sociological, resulted in the Egyptian, the Chinese, the +Roman civilizations. One of these was centered in North Africa, the +second in Asia, the third in eastern Europe. All three spilled over into +adjacent continents. + +No two civilizations are exactly alike at any stage of their +development. Each civilization is at least a partial experiment, a +process or sequence of causal relationships, altered sequentially in the +course of its life cycle. + +These thoughts about culture and civilization should be supplemented by +noting the relationship between civilizations and empires. An empire is +a center of wealth and power associated with its economic and political +dependencies. A civilization is a cluster or a succession of empires +and/or former empires, co-ordinated and directed by one of their number +which has established its leadership in the course of survival struggle. + +The total body of historical evidence bearing on human experiments with +civilization is extensive and impressive. It covers a large portion of +the Earth's land surface, includes parts of Asia, Africa and Europe and +extends sketchily to the Americas. In time it covers many thousands of +years. + +Experiments with civilization have been conducted in highly selective +surroundings possessing the volume and range of natural resources and +the isolation and remoteness necessary to build and maintain a high +level of culture over substantial periods of time. In these special +areas it was possible to provide for subsistence, produce an economic +surplus large enough to permit experimentation and ensure protection +against human and other predators. Egypt and the Fertile Crescent were +surrounded by deserts and high mountains. Crete was an island, extensive +but isolated. Productive river valleys like the Yang-tse, the Ganges and +the Mekong have afforded natural bases for experiments with +civilization. Similar opportunities have been provided by strategic +locations near bodies of water, mineral deposits and the intersections +of trade-routes. Others, less permanent, were located in the high Andes, +on the Mexican Plateau, in the Central American jungles. + +Histories of civilizations, some of them ancient or classical, have +been written during the past two centuries. There have been general +histories in many languages. There have been scholarly reports on +particular civilizations. Prof. A.J. Toynbee's massive ten volume _Study +of History_ is a good example. Still more extensive is the thirty volume +history of civilization under the general editorship of C.K. Ogden. +These writings have brought together many facts bearing chiefly on the +lives of spectacular individuals and episodes, with all too little data +on the life of the silent human majority. + +At the end of this volume the reader will find a list, selected from the +many books that I have consulted in preparation for writing this study. +Most of these authorities are concerned with the facts of civilization, +with far less emphasis on their political, economic and sociological +aspects. + +In this study I have tried to unite theory with practice. On the one +hand I have reviewed briefly and as accurately as possible some +outstanding experiments with civilization, including our own western +variant. (Part I. The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization.) In Part +II I have undertaken a social analysis of civilization as a past and +present life style. In Part III, Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete, I +have tried to check our thinking about civilization with the sweep of +present day historical trends. Part IV, Steps Beyond Civilization, is an +attempt to list some of the alternatives and opportunities presently +available to civilized man. + +Any reader who has the interest and persistence to read through the +entire volume and to browse through some of its references will have had +the equivalent of a university extension course dealing with one of the +most critical issues confronting the present generation of humanity. + + + + +_Part I_ + +The Pageant of Experiment With Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +EXPERIMENTS IN EGYPT AND EURASIA + + +Thousands of years before the city of Rome was ringed with its six miles +of stone wall, other peoples in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa were +building civilizations. New techniques of excavation, identification and +preservation, subsidized by an increasingly affluent human society, and +developed during the past two centuries of archeological research have +provided the needed means and manpower. The result is an imposing number +of long buried building sites with their accompanying artifacts. Still +more important are the records written in long forgotten languages on +stone, clay tablets, metal, wood and paper. These remnants and records, +left by extinguished civilizations, do not tell us all we wish to know, +but they do provide the materials which enable us to reconstruct, at +least in part, the lives of our civilized predecessors. + +Extensive in time and massive in the volume of their architecture are +the remains of Egyptian civilization. The earliest of these fragments +date back for more than six thousand years. + +The seat of Egyptian civilization was the Nile Valley and its estuary +built out into the Mediterranean Sea from the debris of disintegrating +African mountains. Annual floods left their silt deposits to deepen the +soil along the lower reaches of the river. River water, impounded for +the purpose, provided the means of irrigating an all but rainless desert +countryside. Skillful engineering drained the swamps, adding to the +cultivable area of a narrow valley cut by the river through jagged +barren hills. Deserts on both sides of the Nile protected the valley +against aggressors and migrants. Within this sanctuary the Egyptians +built a civilization that lasted, with a minor break, for some 3,000 +years. + +Egyptian temples and tombs carry records chiseled and painted on hard +stone, which throw light on the life and times of upper-class Egyptians, +including emperors, provincial governors, courtiers, generals, +merchants, provincial organizers. In a humid, temperate climate these +stone-cut and painted records would have been eroded, overgrown and +obliterated long ago. In the dry desert air of North Africa they have +preserved their identity through the centuries. + +Since the Egyptians had a few draft animals, and little if any +power-driven machinery, energy needed to build massive stone temples, +tombs and other public structures must have been supplied by the forced +labor of Egyptians, their serfs and slaves. + +Egypt's history dawns on a well-organized society: The Old Kingdom, +based on the productivity of the narrow, lush Nile Valley. The products +of the Valley were sufficient to maintain a large population of +cultivators: some slave, some forced labor, about which we have little +knowledge; a bureaucracy, headed by a supreme ruler whose declared +divinity was one of the chief stabilizing forces of the society. Between +its agricultural base and its ruling monarch, the Old Kingdom had a +substantial middle class which procured the wood, stone, metals and +other materials needed in construction; a corps of engineers, +technicians and skilled workers, and a substantial mass of humanity +which provided the energy needed to erect the temples, monuments and +other remains which testify to the political, economic, and cultural +competence of the ruling elements and the technical skills present in +the Old Kingdom. + +Foremost among the factors responsible for the success of the Old +Kingdom was the close partnership between the "lords temporal" and the +"lords spiritual"--the state and the church. The state consisted of a +highly centralized monarchy ruled by a Pharoah who personified temporal +authority. This authority was strengthened because it represented a +consensus of the many gods recognized and worshiped by the Egyptians of +the Old Kingdom. The monarch was also looked upon as an embodiment of +divinity. Some Egyptian pharoahs had been priests who became rulers. +Others had been rulers who became priests. The two aspects of public +life--political and religious--were closely interrelated. + +In theory the land of Egypt was the property of the Pharoah. Foreign +trade was a state monopoly. In practice the ownership and use of land +were shared with the temples and with those members of the nobility +closest to the ruling monarch. Hence there were state lands and state +income and temple lands and temple income. The use of state lands was +alloted to favorites. Each temple had land which it used for its own +purposes. + +Political power in the Old Kingdom was a tight monopoly held by the +ruling dynasty of the period. During preceding epochs it seems likely +that rival groups or factions had gone through a period of +power-survival struggle which eliminated one rival after another until +economic ownership and political authority were both vested in the same +ruling oligarchs. This struggle for consolidation apparently reached its +climax when Menes, a pharoah who began his rule about 3,400 B.C., in the +south of Egypt, invaded and conquered the Delta and merged the two +kingdoms, South and North, into one nation which preserved its identity +and its sovereignty until the Persian Conquest of 525 B.C. + +The unification of the northern kingdom with the South seems to have +been a slow process, interrupted by insurrections and rebellions in the +Delta and in Lybia. Inscriptions report the suppression of these +insurrections and give the number of war-captives brought to the south +as slaves. In one instance the captives numbered 120,000 in addition to +1,420 small cattle and 400,000 large cattle. + +Using these war captives to supplement the home supply of forced and +free labor, successive dynasties built temples, palaces and tombs; +constructed new cities; drained and irrigated land; sent expeditions to +the Sinai peninsula to mine copper. Such enterprises indicate a +considerable economic surplus above that required to take care of a +growing population: the high degree of organization required to plan and +assemble such enterprises, and the considerable engineering and +technological capacity necessary for their execution. + +Chief among the binding forces holding together the extensive apparatus +known as the Old Kingdom was religion, with its gods, its temples and +their generous endowments. Each locality consolidated into the Old +Kingdom had its gods and their places for worship. In addition to these +local religious centers there was an hierarchy of national deities, +their temples, temple lands and endowments. The ruling monarch, who was +official servitor of the national gods, interpreting their will and +adding to the endowments of the temples, was the embodiment of secular +and of religious authority. + +Egyptians of the period believed that death was not an end, but a +transition. They also believed that those who passed through the death +process would have many of the needs and wants associated with life on +the Earth. Furthermore they believed that in the course of their future +existence those who had died would again inhabit the bodies that they +had during their previous existences on Earth. Following out these +beliefs the Egyptians put into their tombs a full assortment of the +food, clothing, implements and instruments which they had used during +their Earth life. They also embalmed the bodies of their dead with the +utmost care and buried them in carefully hidden tombs where they would +be found by their former users and occupied for the Day of Judgment. + +Holding such views, preparation for the phase of life subsequent to +death was a chief object of the early Egyptian rulers and their +subjects. One of the preoccupations of each new occupant of the throne +was the selection of his burial place. Early in his reign he began the +construction of suitable quarters for the reception of his embalmed +body. The great pyramids were such tombs. Other monarchs constructed +rock-hewn chambers for the reception of their bodies. In these chambers +in addition to a room for a sarcophagus were associated rooms in which +every imaginable need of the dead was stored: food, clothing, furniture, +jewelry, weapons. + +Adjacent to the royal tomb favored nobles received permission to build +their own tombs, similarly equipped but on a smaller, less grandiose +scale than that of the pharaoh. By this means the courtiers who had +attended the pharaoh in his life-time would be at hand to perform +similar services in the after death existence. + +Construction and maintenance of temples and tombs absorbed a +considerable part of Egypt's economic surplus. These drains on the +economy grew more extensive as the country became more populous and more +productive. Thanks to the lack of rain in and near the Nile Valley and +despite the depleting activities of persistent vandalism these +constructs have stood for thirty centuries as monuments to one of the +most extensive and elaborate civilizations known to historians. Despite +the absence of detailed records, Egyptian achievements under the Old +Kingdom indicate an abundance of food, wood, metal and other resources +far in excess of survival requirements; a population sufficiently +extensive to produce the necessaries of existence and a surplus which +made it possible for the lords temporal and spiritual to erect such +astonishing and enduring monuments; high levels of technical skills +among woodsmen, quarrymen and building crews; the transport facilities +by land and water required to assemble the materials, equipment and man +power; the foresight, planning, timing and over-all management involved +in such constructs as the pyramids, temples and tombs which have +withstood the wear and tear of thousands of years; the willingness and +capacity of professionals, technicians, skilled workers, and the masses +of free and slave labor to co-exist and co-operate over the long periods +required for the completion of such extensive structural projects; the +utilization of an extensive economic surplus not primarily for personal +mass or middle-class consumption but to enhance the power and glory of a +tiny minority, its handymen and other dependents; and a considerable +middle class of merchants, managers and technicians. + +Speaking sociologically, the structure of Egyptian society from sometime +before 3,400 B.C., to 525 B.C., passed through four distinct phases or +stages. During the first phase, the Nile Valley, which had been +separated by tribal and/or geographical boundaries into a large number +of more or less independent units, was consolidated, integrated and +organized into a single kingdom. This working, functioning area (the +land of Egypt) could provide for most of its basic needs from within its +own borders. In a sense it was a self-sufficient, workable, liveable +area. Egypt was populous, rich, well organized, with a surplus of +wealth, productivity and man-power that could be used outside of its own +frontiers. Some of the surplus was used outside--to the south, into +Central Africa, to the west into North Africa, to the north into Eastern +Europe and Western Asia, inaugurating the second phase of Egyptian +development. During this second phase Egyptian wealth, population and +technology, spilling over its frontiers onto foreign lands, established +and maintained relations with foreign territory on a basis that yielded +a yearly "tribute," paid by foreigners into the Egyptian treasury. The +land of Egypt thus surrounded itself with a cluster of dependencies, +converting what had been an independent state or independent states into +a functioning empire. + +The land of Egypt was the nucleus of the Egyptian Empire--center of +wealth and power with its associates and its dependencies. The empire +was held together by a legal authority using armed force where necessary +to assert or preserve its identity and unity. + +Expansion, the third phase of Egyptian development, involved the export +of culture traits and artifacts beyond national frontiers, extending the +cultural influence of Egypt into non-Egyptian lands inhabited by Egypt's +neighbors. Merchants, tourists, travelers, explorers and military +adventurers carried the name and fame of Egypt into other centers of +civilization and into the hinterland of barbarism that surrounded the +civilizations of that period. + +Thus the land of Egypt expanded into the Egyptian Empire and the +culture of Egypt (its language, its ideas, its artifacts, its +institutions) expanded far beyond the boundaries of Egyptian political +authority and established Egyptian civilization in parts of Africa, Asia +and Europe. + +The era of Egyptian civilization was divided into two periods by an +invasion of the Hyksos, nomadic leaders who moved into Egypt, ruled it +for a period and later were expelled and replaced by a new Egyptian +dynasty. + +The fourth period of Egypt's experiment with civilization was that of +decline. From a position of political supremacy and cultural ascendancy +Egyptian influence weakened politically, economically, ideologically and +culturally until the year of the Persian Conquest, 525 B.C., when Egypt +became a conquered, occupied, provincial and in some ways a colonial +territory. + +Egyptian civilization can be summed up in three sentences. It covered +the greatest time span of any civilization known to history. Its +monuments are the most massive. Its records, chiefly in stone, picture +massed humans directed for at least thirty centuries toward providing a +satisfying and rewarding after-life for a tiny favored minority of its +population. To achieve this result, the natural resources of three +adjacent continents were combined and concentrated into the Nile Valley +through an effective imperial apparatus that enabled the Egyptians to +exploit the resources and peoples of adjacent Africa, Asia and Europe +for the enrichment and empowerment of the rulers of Egypt and its +dependencies. The disintegration and collapse of Egyptian civilization +occupied only a small fraction of the time devoted to its upbuilding and +supremacy. + +Before, during and after Egyptians played their long and distinguished +parts in the recorded history of civilization, the continent of Asia was +producing a series of civilization in four areas: first at the +crossroads joining Africa and Europe to Asia; then in Western Asia (Asia +Minor); in Central Asia, especially in India and Indonesia and finally +in China and the Far East. + +Experiments with civilization during the past six thousand years have +centered in the Eurasian land mass, including the North African littoral +of the Mediterranean Sea. Within this area of potential or actual +civilization, until very recent times, the centers of civilization have +been widely separated geographically and temporally. Occasionally they +have been unified and integrated by some unusual up-thrust like that of +the Egyptian, the Chinese or the Roman civilizations. In the intervals +between these up-thrusts various centers of civilization have maintained +a large degree of autonomy and isolation. Only in the past five +centuries have communication, transportation, trade and tourism created +the basis for an experiment in organizing and coordination of a +planet-wide experiment in civilization. + +Nature offered humankind two logical areas for the establishment of +civilizations. One was the cross-roads of migration, trade and travel by +land to and from Asia, Africa and Europe. The other was the +Mediterranean with its possibility of relatively safe and easy +water-migration, trade and travel between the three continents making up +its littoral. Both possibilities were brought together in the Eastern +Mediterranean with its multitude of islands, its broken coastline, and +its many safe harbors. + +The Phoenicians developed their far-flung trading activities around the +Mediterranean as a waterway, and the tri-continental crossroads as a +logical center for a civilization built around business enterprise. + +Aegean civilization occupied the eastern Mediterranean for approximately +two thousand years. Its nucleus was the island of Crete. Its influence +extended far beyond its island base into southern Europe, western Asia +and North Africa. Experiments with civilization on and near the Indian +sub-continent centered around the Indonesian archipelago and the rich, +semi-tropical and tropical valleys of the Ganges, the Indus, the Gadari, +the Irra-waddy and the Mekong. Although they were contiguous +geographically and extended over a time span of approximately two +thousand years they were aggregates rather than monolithic +civilizations, retaining their localisms and avoiding any strong central +authority. + +Beginnings of civilization have been made outside the +Asian-European-African triangle centering around the Mediterranean Sea +and the band of South Asia extending from Mesopotamia through India and +Indonesia to China. They include the high Andes, Mexico and Central +America and parts of black Africa. In no one of these cases did the +beginnings reach the stability and universality that characterized the +Eurasian-African civilizations. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +ROME'S OUTSTANDING EXPERIMENT + + +Among the many attempts to make the institutions and practices of +civilization promote human welfare, Roman civilization deserves a very +high rating. First, it was located in the eastern Mediterranean area, +the home-site of so many civilizations. Second, it was part and parcel +of a prolonged period of attempts by Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, +Babylonians, Mycaenians, Phoenicians and others in the area to set up +successful empires and to play the lead role in building a civilization +that would be more or less permanent. Third, the Romans seemed to have +the hardiness, adaptability, persistence and capacity for +self-discipline necessary to carry such a long term project to a +successful conclusion. Among the widely varied human groups occupying +the eastern Mediterranean area between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D., the +Romans seem to have been well qualified to win the laurel crown. + +Western civilization is an incomplete experiment. Its outcome remains +uncertain. Its future still hangs in the insecure balance between +construction and destruction, between life and extinction. It is "our" +civilization in a very real sense. It was developed by our forebears. We +live as part of its complex of ideas, practices, techniques, +institutions. Since we are in it and of it, it is difficult for us +humans to judge it objectively. + +Roman civilization, on the contrary, is a completed experiment, one that +came into being, developed over several centuries, attained a zenith of +wealth and power, then sank gradually from sight, until it lived only as +a part of history. A study of Roman civilization has two advantages. +First, its life cycle has been completed. Second, it is close enough to +us in history and its records are so numerous and so well preserved that +we can form a fairly accurate picture of its structure and its +functions. It was written up extensively by the Romans themselves, by +their Greek and other contemporaries and by a host of scholars and +students; since the break-up of Roman civilization as a political, +economic and cultural force in world affairs. + +Rome's experiment is sometimes called Graeco-Roman civilization because +Greece and Italy were close geographical neighbors and also because +Greek culture, which reached its zenith by 500 B.C. and was closely +paralleled by the rise of Roman culture, had a profound effect in +determining the total character of Roman civilization. In a very real +sense Graeco-Roman civilization was the parent of western civilization. +Among the many completed civilizations of which we have fairly adequate +records, those concerning Rome are most complete and most available. + +The story of Roman civilization begins in the Eastern Mediterranean +Basin in an era when Greek and Phoenician cities, together with segments +and fragments of the Egyptian-Assyrian-Babylonian civilizations were +competing for raw materials, trade and alliances. Egyptians had been +supreme in the area for centuries. The Sumerian, Aegean, Chinese, +Hittite, Assyrian and Indian civilizations had enjoyed periods of +dominance but had never reached the level of supremacy enjoyed by the +Egyptians. + +When Rome came on the scene as a first-rate power, circa 300 B.C., the +crucial land bridge joining Africa, Europe and Asia was being passed +from hand to hand, with no power strong enough to succeed Egypt as the +dominant political-economic-cultural force in the region. Historically +speaking it was an interregnum, a period of transition. Egypt had ceased +to dominate the public life of the area. The trading cities of the +Greeks and the Phoenicians were pushing their way of life into the front +ranks among the recognized powers. The kingdoms of Asia-Minor were +still warring for supremacy in a field which none of the local kingdoms +was able to dominate and hold for any considerable period of time. + +Public affairs at the African-European-Asian crossroads were being +periodically disturbed and upset by the intrusion of Asian marauders and +nomads who came in successive waves, defeated and drove the native +inhabitants off from the choicest land and settled down in their places, +only to be pushed out in their turn by fresh Asian migrants. + +The African-European-Asian triangle was a meeting place and a battle +ground. Phoenician and Greek cities brought to this scene new factors +and new forces: the rudiments of science; trade and commerce, including +a money economy, accounting and cost keeping; the elements of economic +organization; the conduct of public affairs by governments based on law +rather than on the whim and word of a deified potentate; and the +construction of cities and city states built on these foundations. + +Rome entered the picture when the forces of political absolutism based +upon an agriculture operated by serfs and slaves had fought themselves +to a standstill and exhausted their historical usefulness. The times +called for new forces capable of adapting themselves to a new culture +pattern extending over a greatly enlarged world. The Romans, with their +Greek associates, were in a position to fill the gap. + +Romans lived originally in Latium, a small land area in southern Italy +on the Tiber River far enough inland to be protected against pirates. +They built a city which finally covered seven adjacent hills and +developed a community of working farmers, merchants, craftsmen and +professionals. The farms were small, averaging perhaps eight to fifteen +acres, an area large enough to provide a family with a stable though +meagre livelihood. The farmers were hard working and frugal. + +At this period of Roman history and mythology Latium was one of many +communities occupying Italy. Each was self-governing. Each took the +steps necessary for survival and expansion. Like their neighbors, the +inhabitants of Latium were prepared to defend themselves against piracy, +brigandage and ambitious, aggressive rivals. Defense took the form of an +embankment and a water-filled moat which surrounded the early +settlements and provided shelter for herdsman and farmers in case of +emergencies. + +At some point in pre-history, presumably when Etruscan princes were in +control of Roman affairs, the protective earth embankment which +surrounded the Roman settlements was strengthened by building a moat 100 +feet wide and 30 feet deep. Behind the moat was a stone wall 10 feet +thick and 30 feet or more in height. Parts of this defense were built +and rebuilt at various times. When completed they were about six miles +in length, enclosing an area sufficient to accommodate the chief +buildings of the city and living space for a population of perhaps +200,000 people. + +The defenses were designed to prevent interference or intrusion into the +life of the Romans. Behind them the inhabitants constructed temples, a +forum, palaces and other public buildings, bringing in clean mountain +water by an aqueduct that eventually reached a length of 44 miles, +constructing an extensive system of drains and sewers that disposed of +city wastes, building a network of roads that eventually gave the Romans +access first to all parts of Italy and later to the entire Mediterranean +Basin. They also replaced the wooden bridges over the Tiber and other +rivers by stone bridges carried on stone piers and arches. + +Early in their building activities the Romans learned to make a cement +so weather-resistant that many of their constructs are still usable two +thousand years after the Romans built them. These and similar building +operations made Rome one of the show places of the Graeco-Roman world. +They also provided for the Romans a level of stability and security far +beyond that of their neighbors in that part of the unstable Italian +peninsula. + +At the time Rome was founded, presumably about 700 B.C., the Italian +peninsula was occupied by a large number of principalities, kingdoms and +tribal nomads, newly arrived from eastern Europe and Asia. The struggle +for pasturage and fertile soil, for dwelling sites and trading +opportunities, went on ceaselessly. Romans, like their neighbors and +competitors, were reaching out to provide themselves with food, building +materials, trade opportunities, strategic advantages. They expanded +peacefully if possible, using diplomacy up to a certain point and only +engaging in war as a last resort. But since the entire Italian peninsula +was occupied by more or less independent groups, each of which was +seeking a larger and safer place in the sun, the outcome was ceaseless +diplomatic maneuvering, using war as an instrument of policy in the +struggle for pelf and power. Four centuries of power struggle, in which +Romans played an increasingly prominent role, gave the Roman Republic +and its allies substantial control of the entire Italian peninsula. +Beginning as one among many small independent states in Italy, the +inhabitants of Latium emerged from four centuries of competitive +diplomatic and military struggle as the de facto masters of all Italy. + +Power struggles are carried on by contestants who occupy a particular +land area with its resources and other advantages. Latium was small in +extent (some 2,000 square miles) and had very limited natural +advantages. Operating from this restricted base, through four centuries +of diplomacy, intrigue and war, the Romans enlarged their base of +operations to include the whole of Italy. In this crucial era of its +history Rome expanded its geographic-economic base to a point from which +it could use the natural and human resources of all Italy as a nucleus +upon which to build the Roman Empire in Europe, West Asia and North +Africa. + +At the beginning of this period the Mediterranean Basin housed a number +of African, Asian and European empires. Each exercised authority over a +part of the Mediterranean littoral. Each empire was built around its +central city or cities. Each empire had its distinctive institutions and +practices. During these centuries all of the empires were defeated, +conquered, occupied and either dismembered or otherwise brought under +Roman control. + +Extension of Roman authority, first over the Italian peninsula and +subsequently over parts of Europe, Africa and Asia, was the result of a +policy of expansion that was aggressively, persistently and patiently +followed by Roman leaders and policy makers. Neighboring territories +were amalgamated into the nucleus of the Roman Empire. More remote +territories were associated by treaty as allies of Rome, as dependent or +client dependencies of Rome, and as colonies or provinces of the Roman +Empire. In all cases they were integral parts of an expanding political, +economic and military sphere of influence with Rome, and later Italy, as +the center and nucleus. In the course of this development the expanding +Roman Empire grew to be the wealthiest and most powerful political, +sociological and cultural unit in the Euro-Asian-African area. + +The Roman imperial cycle spanned some thirteen centuries. During this +period Roman life was transformed from its small, local seat of +authority in Central Italy into its new stature as the outstanding power +in the Mediterranean area. Economically it extended from peasant +proprietorship and a use economy to a market-money economy; from a +society of working peasant farmers to an economy resting upon war +captives reduced to slavery; from an economy based on production for +trade and profit to an economy based on power-grabbing, special +privilege, speculation and corruption; from an austerity economy based +on primary production to an economy based on affluence, exploitation, +and gluttony. + +These revolutionary transformations in the Roman economy were +accompanied, politically, by hardening of the division of Roman society +along class lines with the resulting contradictions, antagonisms, and +class struggles, including open class warfare. + +Domestic contradictions, confrontations, civil strife and formal civil +war were present throughout the entire history of Rome. They existed in +embryo in the earliest days of the original settlements on the seven +hills over which the city of Rome eventually spread. As Rome and its +interests became more complex socially and more extensive geographically +the number and variety of contradictions, confrontations, civil and +military conflicts increased correspondingly. + +In terms of individual human lives the changes which took place in +Roman society during the six or seven centuries that elapsed between the +early Roman settlements and the reign of their Emperor Augustus were +profound and far-reaching. Many communities of diverse and often +incompatible backgrounds and interests were herded together, +helter-skelter, into the City of Rome, Latium, the Italian nucleus and +the subsequent alliances, federations, conquests, consolidations into +colonies, occupied areas, provinces and spheres of influence. The +greater the number and diversity of these interests and relationships, +the greater the probability of conflict. This empire building process +was not gradual and directed with scrupulous care to preserve the +amenities and niceties of polite social intercourse. The job was done by +and under the direction of military leaders who are traditionally in a +hurry to get results. The subordinates who carried out military +decisions were volunteer-professional soldiers, mercenary adventurers +and conscripts drawn form the four corners of the empire. As the empire +grew in extent and as its troubles multiplied, the military was more +frequently called upon to take over and iron out difficulties. + +Domestically, in the city of Rome and its immediate environs, there were +several sharp lines of cleavage; between Roman citizens and +non-citizens; between the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the working +proletariat and the idle proletariat; between the rich and the poor; +between freeman (citizens) and the slaves who grew in numbers as the +wars of conquest and consolidation multiplied war captives; between the +civilian bureaucrats and the members of the military hierarchy. + +In the brief period of maximum territorial expansion following the +defeat and destruction of Carthage, the frontiers of the Roman Empire +were pushed out ruthlessly, North, East, West and South. In the +hurly-burly of rapid expansion individual rights were ignored, local +communities and entire regions were overrun, depopulated and resettled +with the tough disregard of individual and local interests that must +characterize any quick, general movement--economic, sociological or +military. If the expansion, expulsion and rehabilitation had produced +greater degrees of stability and security for individuals and social +groups they might have been tolerated and assimilated by the diverse +populations caught up in the maelstrom of drastic expansion. But rapid, +coercive social transformation produces neither stability nor security. +Its normal consequence is chaos, conflict and further change. In the +course of these internal conflicts the Roman Republic was gradually +phased out. In theory it persisted until the establishment of the +military dictatorship of Julius Caesar. Practically, while many of its +forms remained, the conduct of public affairs passed more and more into +the hands of political leaders who were able to command the backing of +the legions. + +When the first war against Carthage was launched in 265 B.C., Carthage +was at the height of her power. Situated on the North African Coast +almost directly across the Mediterranean from Italy, the Carthaginians +were in effective control of the western Mediterranean. Carthage was +firmly entrenched in Spain. It was trading extensively with the British +Isles. Fleets of Carthaginian war ships patrolled the Mediterranean +guarding against piracy and economic or political interference by +rivals. + +Roman political and business leaders, inexperienced in international +political dealings and the promotion of international trade, found their +further expansion to the west blocked by Carthaginian political, +economic and military installations. The result of the confrontation was +a series of three wars that began in 265 B.C., and ended in 146. During +these 119 years an established power, Carthage, struggled to preserve +its position against aggressive Roman efforts to take control of the +West Mediterranean basin. The Carthaginians, under the able generalship +of Hannibal, mobilized a military force (including elephants), marched +from Spain over the Alpine passes into Italy reaching the gates of Rome. +Romans countered with the slogan: "Carthage must be destroyed!" When the +third Punic war ended in 146 B.C., with the defeat of the Carthaginian +military forces, the city of Carthage was leveled. + +The defeat of Carthage gave the Romans control of the western +Mediterranean. During the same period Roman interests were pushing into +East Europe and Western Asia. In 214 B.C., Philip of Macedon had made an +alliance with Hannibal, directed against Rome. Consequently, three wars +between Rome and Macedonia followed, the third ending in 168 B.C., with +the defeat of the Macedonians and their subordination to Roman authority +in the form of a Roman governor. + +When opposition to Roman influence developed in Greece in 148 B.C., a +commission of ten was appointed by the Roman Senate to settle affairs in +the Greek peninsula. The city of Corinth was burned to the ground and +its lands were confiscated. Thebes and Chalcis were also destroyed. The +walls of all towns which had shared in the revolt against Rome were +pulled down. All confederations between Greek cities were dissolved. +Disarmament, isolation and Roman taxation were imposed on the Greek +cities and the oversight of affairs was assigned to the Roman governor +of neighboring Macedonia. + +Successful wars against Syria and Egypt extended Roman control over +additional territory in West Asia and North Africa. A map of Italy at +the time of the Roman Federation in 268 B.C. shows Rome as the most +powerful among two score minor associates in the federation. A map of +the Roman Empire at the death of Augustus in 14 A.D. shows a Roman +Empire extending from the Atlantic seaboard on the west to Central +Europe on the north, the Black Sea on the east and a generous strip of +Africa on the south. + +Within three centuries Rome had expanded from its position as a minor +state in Italy to the effective control of those portions of three +continents which bordered the Mediterranean. Conquests during the +following century further extended the Roman frontiers. + +Under the Caesars Rome was a society in the throes of political +transition. Roman Emperors, backed and frequently selected by the +military, were exercising despotic power. They still paid lip service to +the Constitution, an instrument that had relevance during the life of +the defunct Republic. In the era of the Caesars the law slumbered and +might ruled. The turbulent masses were fed and housed by the Roman +Oligarchy to which the Emperors were ultimately responsible. The far +flung territories conquered by military power and held by military +occupation were subject to the authority of the same Roman Oligarchy. + +Behind the shams, frauds and tyrannies of a political dictatorship +paying lip service to the corpse of a defunct Republic lay the stark +realities of a bankrupt economy. Throughout the era of the Caesars the +Roman Empire continued to expand geographically. It also came into +contact and conflict with peoples so remote from Italy that for them +Rome was only a name for tyranny, extortion and exploitation. Julius +Caesar and his immediate successors penetrated these remote territories, +subjugating them, levying tribute, appointing governors and other +officials, policing them, pretending to rule over them. To do this +soldiers were marching on foot into regions that lay thousands of miles +from the mother city. To be sure, they marched over Roman roads and +bridges so well constructed that some of them are still being used at +the present day. + +But the excellence of Roman engineering could not match up to the +implacable limitations of time and distance. Nor could they overlook the +need for building the physical structure of Roman economy as they +advanced into enemy territory. Equally decisive were the political +consequences of the property confiscation and forced labor required to +establish and maintain Roman power and enrich greedy Roman officials and +their lackeys and overseers. + +Rising overhead costs, with no corresponding growth of income, an empty +treasury in Rome, and a persistent policy of fleecing the provinces to +pay for the normal costs of bureaucracy, plus its extravagances and +excesses, could lead to only one possible outcome. Higher taxes and more +ruinous levies in the newly conquered provinces could not fill the +insatiable maw of deficit spending. + +Inflation was the immediate result, accompanied and followed by the +debasement of currency and new expropriations of private property. +Government expenses consistently exceeded income. The situation was +aggravated by the growth of parasitic elements which persistently +produced little or nothing and as persistently multiplied their luxuries +and extravagances. The parasites grew richer. The impoverished masses +suffered the normal deprivations of poverty plus the weight of steadily +rising over-head costs. As Roman authority extended farther from its +center, the chasm between its income and its out-go widened. + +Slave labor aggravated the situation. There was a time when Roman +farmers and craftsmen did their own work. That time ended with the +enslavement of war captives who swamped the labor market. Like any +parasitic growth, slavery and forced labor destroyed the fabric of a +largely self-contained economy based on peasant proprietorship. + +Roman economy was honey-combed with problems created by deficit +spending, currency devaluation and exploitation. At its base was a +foot-loose urban proletariat made up largely of refugees from a +countryside given over increasingly to the employment of military +captives as slave labor. The city masses at the outset were extensively +unemployed. Increasingly they became unemployable, parasitic, restless, +demanding. + +At the outset the slave revolts were local and occasional. As the slaves +grew more numerous unrest spread and hardened into organized resistance. +Spartacus, a slave, led a revolt which mobilized armies, defeated the +Roman legions in a series of battles and ended only with the death of +Spartacus and the dispersal of his forces. + +Local and provincial affairs under the Roman Empire were administered by +a self-seeking corrupt bureaucracy. + +Expansion by means of military conquest increased the influence of the +military at the expense of the civilian administrators. The consequent +burdens of militarism reached from the bottom to the top of Roman +society. Eventually, under the Caesars, the military selected emperors +from among the rivals for the purple of imperial authority, and used the +legions under their command to protect and promote their own political +fortunes, thus maintaining a form of latent and frequently open civil +war. + +Colonial unrest and provincial self-seeking were promoted by +conspiracies among Rome's less dependable allies. + +Wars of rivalry between Roman candidates for top preferment shifted the +power-balance out of civilian hands into the grip of the military. Step +by step and stage by stage the Roman Empire became a warfare state +maintained at home and abroad by the intervention of the military. Wars +of rivalry at home in Rome were paralleled by wars of rivalry abroad. + +During the Era of the Caesars Rome became the Eurasian-African honey +pot. Wealth centered there. Authority was enthroned there. Power was +generated there. Throughout the sphere of Roman political influence, of +trade and travel, the central position of Rome was recognized and +acknowledged. Not only knowledge and authority, but folklore mushroomed, +with Rome as its central theme. Asian nomads, searching for grass, Asian +potentates seeking new worlds to conquer and plunder, heard of Rome and +finally went there. All roads led to Rome. Thousands of miles of stone +roads were built as binding forces to hold the Empire together and +defend it against all possible enemies. It was along these roads that +the legions marched as they pushed back potential invaders and extended +the frontiers. It was these same roads and bridges that made easy and +sure the advance of the Asian hordes that would one day occupy and loot +the home city. Roads and bridges enabled Roman authority to maintain and +extend itself. The same roads and bridges provided a freeway that led +into the citadel of Roman power. + +Under the Caesars the Roman Empire achieved its greatest geographical +extent and exercised its widest cultural influence. The city of Rome was +the capital of the western world. There was one state, one law, one +economy, one official language, one military authority. + +Despite its apparent massiveness, Roman civilization was not a monolith. +Rather it was a conglomerate, consisting of many parts held together by +connecting social tissues which Rome and Italy alone supplied. In the +first instance there was a division into provinces, colonies and newly +acquired territories. The provinces, under their Roman appointed +governors, enjoyed a large measure of economic and cultural +self-determination within the Roman Empire. Beyond the Roman Empire lay +territories and peoples associated with Rome by treaties, bound to Rome +by trade and travel, in some cases paying tribute to Rome, but enjoying +sufficient autonomy as peoples, nations and empires maneuvering for +position and advantage, frequently allying themselves with non-Roman +areas and occasionally conspiring to by-pass Roman authority and even to +challenge Roman supremacy. + +This political diversity along the defense perimeter of the Roman Empire +existed in a chaos ranging from questioned authority to open defiance +and military challenges to Rome and the threat of Romanization. Along +this defense perimeter were stationed the legions that guarded the +frontiers. Across it moved trade, travel, incursions, invasions and +periodic reprisals as a result of which the more turbulent neighbors +were brought within the sphere of Rome's influence or, in cases of +extreme dissidence and resistance, were depopulated, colonized and added +to the Roman conglomerate. + +It goes without saying that the influence of Roman culture extended far +beyond the Roman defense perimeter, reaching peoples, nations and +empires to which Rome was little more than a name. The no-man's land +between what-was and what-was-not Rome not only existed in a state of +perpetual uncertainty, but provided a battle field for the smuggling, +brigandage, the periodic border clashes, the migrations, incursions, +invasions and punitive expeditions that are the characteristic features +of every ill-defined political boundary. + +Roman civilization under the Caesars was a centralized absolutism with a +large measure of peripheral deviation and autonomy. It was directed by a +central oligarchy and patrolled, defended and extended by a military +force unified in theory but in practice grouped around the outstanding +personalities and subjected to the vagaries and upsets always associated +with power politics in the hands of military backed political despots. + +Roman civilization, like all social organisms, came into being, moved +toward maturity, reached a plateau of fulfillment from which it +declined, broke up and eventually disappeared into the interregnum known +as the Dark Ages. The entire episode occupied a dozen centuries. Its +beginnings were unimpressively local. At the height of its wealth, power +and cultural influence it bestrode the Eurasian-African triangle. Its +decline and disappearance were no less spectacular than its meteoric +rise to fame and fortune. + +I would like to summarize the Roman experiment and some of its lessons +by listing and commenting briefly on the forces that built up Roman +civilization and those forces which resulted in its decline and +dissolution. + +Primary up-building forces in the Roman experiment: + + 1. Establishing the city of Rome as a stable, defensible center + of merchandising and commerce, transport, finance, population, + wealth and power with a hinterland of associates + and dependencies. As it turns out, the city of Rome has + outlived both the Roman Empire and Roman Civilization. + + 2. Steadfast dedication to Roman interests first, by all necessary + means and despite costs which at the time seemed to + be excessive. + + 3. A recognition of that which is possible, especially in political + relationships. The acceptance with good grace of a + half-loaf where no more was available. + + 4. Consistent, persistent aggression and expansion where such + policies were beneficial to Rome, with little or no regard + for their effects on Roman associates, allies, friends or + enemies. Studied ruthlessness. + + 5. Rewarding Rome's friends, allies and associates with economic, + political and cultural advantages. Implacably punishing + and where necessary exterminating Rome's persistent + enemies. + + 6. Wide tolerance of local cultural variation in matters that + did not conflict with the major principles and practices of + Rome's central authority. + + 7. Taking defeats in their stride, paying the price, and recovering + lost momentum. Again advancing along avenues + which led to Roman success and aggrandizement. + + 8. Indomitable persistence in the pursuit of major objectives. + + 9. After the reigns of Julius Caesar and Augustus, concentrating + power in a single person and his chosen brain trust, + using that power to further aggrandize the Roman Empire + and Roman Civilization. + +This category is not complete. It aims to answer the basic question: In +a situation where a thousand contestants entered the knock-down and +drag-out struggle, first for survival and then for supremacy, what +qualities or qualifications enabled Romans to win the laurel crown of +victory? + +Paralleling the up-building forces that established Roman supremacy were +counter-forces which undermined and eventually destroyed the Roman +Empire and Roman civilization: + + 1. The growth of city life at the expense of rural existence. + At the outset of its life cycle, Rome was essentially rural. + At the end of the cycle Roman culture was turning its + back upon ruralism and moving into a culture that was + to be chiefly urban during an entire millennium. In that + millennium Rome, her associates and dependencies, experimented + with a culture that was essentially urban, but + encircled, dependent and eventually replaced by a culture + that was essentially rural. + + 2. During the millennium between 600 B.C. and 500 A.D. + the Romans and their associates succeeded in bringing + large parts of Europe, Asia and Africa under their control, + but the control was so rigid and temporary that tribalism + and local nationalisms broke loose from the fetters of central + authority and coercive integration, shattering the + structure of Roman civilization and its structural core--the + Roman Empire. Instead of resulting in closer cooperation, + the strategy and tactics of the Roman builders and + organizers led to contradictions, bitter feuds, civil strife, + independence movements which combined with expansionist + diplomacy and periodic wars to discourage, frustrate + and eventually to eliminate peace, order and planned + progress. + + 2. The spread of chattel slavery had a profound effect upon + the texture of Roman life. At the outset Roman family + farms housed the bulk of the population. During the cycle + of Roman civilization unnumbered millions of captives + were seized in the course of military operations and reduced + to slavery. By the end of the Roman cycle the + work-load of agriculture, commerce, industry, mining, + transport, and the domestic life of the well-to-do was + carried by slaves. Basically, therefore, the Roman world + was divided first into Romans and non-Romans and second + into masters and slaves, with a third category which consisted + of an immense bureaucracy (including the military), + a professional and technological group and a heavy burden + of persistent parasitism. + + 4. Growth of the abyss that separated wealth and the + wealthy from mass poverty in the cities and the countryside. + The abyss was widened and deepened by the presence + of slavery. More extensive and more frequent foreign + conquests added to the volume of slave labor in a market + already glutted and reduced the price of slaves. Against + this super-abundant cheap slave labor, free labor could + compete only by reducing its standard of living and thus + deepening the abyss of poverty. At the other end of the + social arc, the rich were able to surround themselves with + multitudes of slaves who provided the energy needed to + carry on the complex life of Roman civilization. As the + Roman world expanded, the abyss widened, deepened + and became all but impassable. It was from such lower + depths that Spartacus and other leaders of rebellious slaves + drew sufficient manpower to challenge and for a time + even defeat the full military power of Rome. + + 5. Built into the structure of Roman civilization was the + potential of civil war. The contradictions of mass slavery + and poverty side by side with boundless leisure and + abundance was only one side of the picture. Each of the + more distant provinces became a possible base from which + ambitious governors or generals could wage wars of independent + conquest at the expense of Roman authority. Each + newly subjugated people, smarting under defeat and the + heavy hand which Rome laid on its dissidents and opponents, + became a potential center for disaffection, conspiracy + and rebellion against Roman authority. + + 6. Conflicts over power succession, in the provinces, and + more significantly in the mother city, added another + aspect to the many sided pressures. As there was no legal + means of determining the succession, the end of each + imperial reign offered the probability of military intervention. + + 7. Deification of emperors, during the era of the Caesars, + led to the denigration and degradation of the common + man. The fact that the common men of Rome were more + and more likely to be poor slaves furthered the process + and deepened the abyss between the haves and have-nots. + + 8. Among the forces of disintegration operating in Rome + none was more potent and more decisive than the numerical + growth of the military and the increasing probability + that any one of the growing contradictions and conflicts + would lead to intervention by the military. Roman emperors + were dictators and their retention of authority + was increasingly decided by the legions which were + willing and able to fight for the perpetuation and extension + of their authority. + + 9. The extensive, complicated, elaborate structure of Roman + civilization involved a persistent and implacable rise of + overhead costs of food and raw materials, of production, + of transportation, of the bureaucracy, including the military. + The area of Roman civilization increased arithmetically. + Overhead costs rose geometrically. They were + expressed in an empty treasury, rising taxes, inflation, + expropriation, the degradation of the currency. + + 10. Side by side with the rise in overhead costs went the + increase of parasitism among the rich and among the poor. + Something-for-nothing was the order of the day. Speculation + was rampant. Gambling was universal. Instead of + living by production of goods and services, Romans let + the slaves do their work and lived by their wits. + + 11. From top to bottom of Roman society negative forces + replaced positive forces. Self directed labor gave place to + slavery; participation in productive activity yielded to + parasitism; productivity was subordinated to destructivity; + the spirit of independence was replaced by the acceptance + of increasing arbitrary individual authority. + + 12. Roman society constantly faced and consistently failed + to solve the contradiction between centralism and local + interests and local rights. This contradiction increased + with increasing size, diversity and complexity. + + 13. Psychological forces played a part in the breakdown and + break-up of Roman civilization. People lost faith and hope. + They became disillusioned and cynical. They forgot the + common good and devoted themselves to the gratification + of body hungers. They turned from proud service of + fatherland to the pursuit of pleasure for pleasure's sake. + Romans lost freshness and vigor. Creativeness had never + been as highly regarded among the Romans as it was + among the Greeks. Life was lived closer to the surface. It + was confined more and more to the present. Growth in + the volume of Roman life sapped its vitality so that there + was less surplus for experiment and innovation as more + and more of the social income was devoted to meeting + overhead costs. + +Moralists have insisted that the decline and dissolution of Roman +civilization resulted from the abandonment of moral standards. +Undoubtedly this was true. The upstanding womanhood and manhood of early +Rome was replaced by a wealth-seeking, pleasure-loving, parasitically +inclined population. But these features of Roman life under the empire +and during the period of Roman decline were the outcome of political, +economic and social forces that have characterized one civilization +after another. Instead of insisting that Rome declined and fell because +it was immoral, it would be far more accurate to insist that Rome +declined and fell because the objectives which it sought, the means it +employed and the civilized institutions which it developed contained +within themselves oppositions and contradictions which led to decline +and dissolution. Rome declined and fell because the ideas, institutions +and practices upon which it depended--the ideas, institutions and +practices of civilization--could lead to no other outcome. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATIONS + + +An experiment with civilization presently spans the planet Earth. It is +called "modern," "contemporary" or "western civilization." Its +artifacts, institutions and practices predominate in Europe, North +America and Australasia. They play a prominent role in the lives of +Asians, South Americans and Africans. + +Two thousand years ago a long established Egyptian civilization was +passing into the shadows. Civilizations in China and India were +developing. Roman civilization was approaching the zenith of its +ascendancy. + +A thousand years ago Roman civilization, like that of Egypt, was a +memory; Chinese and Indian civilizations were holding their own, while +the followers of Islam were reaching out into Central Asia, North Africa +and Eastern Europe. + +In east central Europe and around the Mediterranean the beginnings of +western civilization had made their appearance and were expanding their +control along the Eurasian trade routes and beginning to penetrate +western and northern Europe. The Crusades had introduced Asian culture +traits into the European backwoods. Hardy European and Asian mariners +were penetrating the Americas. Dark ages of ignorance and superstition +which had held sway in Europe for centuries were coming to an end. +Western civilization was beginning to draw the breath of a new life. + +The vast structure of Roman civilization had split West from East. The +Eastern Empire retained its form and continued its culture for centuries +after its break with the West. Meanwhile the West fragmented into +smaller and smaller units, increasingly self-contained and increasingly +isolated. Cities raised and manned their own walls. The countryside +broke up into smaller and smaller divisions over which the Holy Roman +Empire exercised little more than a shadowy authority. Each landed +estate had its stronghold or castle. Each locality looked after its own +interests. The massive Roman Universal State, stretching for centuries +across parts of three continents, had broken up into a multitude of tiny +semi-sovereign, semi-independent fragments. Some of the fragments as +leagues, alliances and coalitions were reaching nationhood. + +New dawn was illuminating the Dark Ages. Western man was sorting and +re-assembling some of the scattered fragments of the defunct and +dismembered Roman civilization. The task was colossal. Rome's "one +authority, one law, one language" hegemony had been replaced by an all +pervading diversity. The closely knit Greco-Roman Empire had been +superseded in Europe by a sparsely inhabited, roadless wilderness, +largely bereft of trade, using waterways as the easiest means of +communication and transport. The economy was built around wood cutting, +charcoal burning, backward animal husbandry, hand-tool agriculture, +hand-craft industry, the rudiments of commerce and finance centered in +trading cities. The great houses of the aristocracy and the gentry, +scattered villages, towns and walled cities were preoccupied and +disrupted by endless feuding and between-seasons warfare. + +Adding to the chaos of this dismembered society were the controversies +over dynastic succession. Intermittent incursions of migrating hordes +from central Asia pushed their way into central and southern Europe. +Covert and open conflicts between ecclesiastical and secular authority +added to the general lethargy, confusion and chaos. + +Europe struggled for centuries to free itself from Asian invasion and +occupation. At the same time Europe was improving its agriculture, +restoring its trade and expanding its hand-craft industries and its +commerce. Towns grew in population and productivity. Life-standards rose +in the cities. Cities based on trade and commerce extended their +authority and became city-states. Commercial cities joined their forces +to form trading leagues. + +Lords spiritual and temporal, who had ruled Europe for centuries, were +joined by lords commercial, enriched by the growth of trade, transport +and developing industry. + +Generations passed into centuries--the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth +and seventeenth. From small local beginnings the nations of western +Europe emerged: Spain, Portugal, the Low Countries, France, Britain, +Italy, Austria and eventually Russia. Each was a consolidation of local +principalities, earldoms, dukedoms, kingdoms. Each was passing through +the rural-urban transformation. Each was outgrowing feudalism and +producing a larger and larger group of businessmen, professionals, +tradesmen, craftsmen and maturing a middle class and a proletariat. +After the fifteenth century each state was spilling over its own +frontiers, annexing or losing neighboring territory, spreading beyond +the boundaries of Europe into the teeming markets of Asia and the newly +discovered treasure-house of the Americas. + +A score of European peoples were engaged in the give-and-take of this +struggle for wealth and power--for land and its resources in Europe, +North Africa and the Near East; for booty, trade and overseas colonies. +As the struggle grew more intense smaller and weaker nations dropped out +of the contest or were partitioned and gobbled up piecemeal. + +Such was the condition of Europe's free-for-all in the closing years of +the seventeenth century and the opening decades of the eighteenth +century, while three developing forces pushed into the forefront of +European life: the enlightenment and science, representative government, +and the industrial revolution. + +Enlightenment broadened the social basis of knowledge and learning. +During the Dark Ages, knowledge and learning were a monopoly of a tiny +privileged minority composed of priests, scholars and a segment of the +aristocracy. Monasteries, great houses and trading cities sheltered this +monopoly. The countryside was a sea of ignorance, superstition, +oppression and exploitation. With the printing press came books. Books +promoted literacy and curiosity. Literacy and curiosity led to +speculation, experiment, discovery and the formulation and spread of +ideas. The product of these forces was science, which had had a long +period of gestation in North Africa and Asia. + +Dark Ages of localism, with landlords, priests and soldiers directing +public affairs led to the concentration of wealth and power in the +landed aristocracy and the church. But traders in the countryside and +merchants in the centers of commerce held a talisman that opened before +them ever increasing sources of wealth. Country dwellers harvested one +crop a year. When crops were poor they starved. At best the margin of +profit was thin. Traders and merchants made a profit every time they +found a customer. The countryside lived on a use economy supplemented by +barter. As money increased in quantity it was loaned at rates of +interest by merchants and bankers who owned it and used it for their +purposes. Accumulating wealth and money enabled the traders, merchants, +bankers and manufacturers to out-buy and out-point landlords and +churchmen. Politically, these changes reduced the authority of absolute +monarchies. In their places representative governments made their +appearance. + +The third force that surfaced in Europe after the end of the Dark Ages +was the industrial revolution, which led to fundamental changes in the +means of production at the same time that advances in natural and social +science produced their practical counterpart--an explosive expansion of +technology. + +Science, representative government and the industrial revolution led to +a rapid and extensive transformation of western society sometimes +referred to as the bourgeois revolution. As the bourgeois revolution +worked its way into the structure and function of European society, the +developing class of businessmen and professionals who had begun to +challenge the power-monopoly of the "lords spiritual and temporal" ended +by establishing a higher power monopoly under the control of business, +military, public relations oligarchy. This revolutionary transformation +of modern society took place during the thousand years that elapsed +between the crusades and the closing years of the nineteenth century. +The resulting social transformation had its geographical homeland in +Europe from which it spread around the planet. Politically, these forces +found expression through the commerce-dominated, profit-seeking, +colonizing empires, with the nation-state as nucleus. Colonizing empires +became the dominant force in Europe and in the non-European segments of +the planet which were gradually brought under European imperial control. + +In the course of voyaging, "discovery" and the establishment of trade, +Europeans set up military outposts and maintained increasingly large +naval forces. The avowed object of these military and naval build-ups +was to defend and promote Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French and British +imperial interests. Actually military and naval installations were +marking out and maintaining the defense perimeters of their respective +colonial empires. One of the widely accepted axioms of the period +equated colonies with national prosperity. The more successful +colonizing empires of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries became the +strongholds of nineteenth century monopoly capitalism. + +Industrial revolution, flowering in Europe during the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries, gave the European commercial empires a lead over +potential rivals based on Asian wealth-power centres. As a result of +this lead European empire builders were able to establish and maintain +their authority in India and Indonesia, dismember the Turkish and +Chinese empires and partition Africa among themselves. Their only +potential rivals were the lumbering, isolationist United States of North +America and the newly awakened Island Kingdom of Japan. Both of these +non-European nations began playing serious wealth-power roles in the +same period from 1895 to 1910. Up to that point Europe continued to be +the homeland of monopoly capitalism. The chief centers of heavy +industry, commerce and finance were in Europe. European merchant fleets +and European navies sailed the seas. European banks and business houses +dominated planetary financing, insuring and investing. + +Viewed from outside, the ascendancy of Europe seemed to be complete. +Europe held the strategic strong points: productivity, wealth, the means +of transportation, mobile fire-power. By the end of the nineteenth +century Europe was the monopoly-capitalist motherland. The rest of the +planet was made up of actual or potential dependents under European +authority. From these outsiders living at subsistence levels, Europeans +could get their supplies of food and raw materials at low prices and to +them Europeans could sell their surplus manufactures, their commercial +services, and their investment capital at high prices. The resulting +European prosperity was expected to continue indefinitely into the +future. + +This planetary structure, with Europe as the center of wealth, power, +art, science, free business enterprise and wage slavery, progress and +poverty, left the majority of mankind living as dependents and +colonials. The situation embodied several confrontations: + + 1. The masters of Europe might quarrel among themselves. + + 2. Non-Europeans might set up rival wealth power centers + and challenge Europe's world hegemony. + + 3. Colonials and other dependants might demand independence, + and equal status in the family of nations. + + 4. Rootless middle classes and the wretched of the earth + might join forces and pull down western civilization's house + of cards. + +Western civilization, like its predecessors, was accepting and following +one central principle: expand, grab and keep. The application of this +principle took the form of an axiom of public and private life: might +makes right; let him take who has the power; let him keep who can. + +Grab and keep, in a period of rapid economic expansion, led each of the +burgeoning European empires to the zealous defense of its frontiers as +the first principle of imperial policy. The second principle: +geographical expansion, followed as a matter of course. Expansion inside +Europe, with its tight frontier defenses, meant war with aggressive +rivals. Expansion abroad, especially in Asia and Africa, was less costly +and might prove more profitable. As a consequence, from 1870 onward, +British, French, Dutch, Russia and German colonial territory increased; +European armaments multiplied. Each expanding empire prepared for the +day which would give it additional square miles of European and foreign +real estate. + +Grab-and-keep, with its resultant chaotic free-for-all, was the rule of +thumb accepted and followed by the West during the decline of Roman +power and through the middle ages to modern times. + +The "might makes right" formula was in violent conflict with the "love +and serve your neighbor" professions of Christian ethics. Nevertheless, +it was the accepted overall principle of private enterprise economy and +the ruling ethic of Western statecraft. The principle was formulated in +five propositions or axioms: + + 1. Make money, honestly if possible, but make money. + + 2. Every businessman for himself and the devil take the laggards. + + 3. We defend and promote our national interests. + + 4. Our national interests come first. + + 5. Our country, right or wrong. + +These five propositions were the outcome of a millennium of experience +with the Crusades and extending to the present century. They are the +outcome of preoccupation with material incentives that can be stated in +two words, profit and power. + +Such propositions, applied to everyday affairs, produced an economy and +a statecraft which favored the interests of a part before those of the +entire community. Where the whole is favored before any part there is a +possibility of co-existence and even of cooperation. Placing a part +before the whole involves competition all the way from the marketplace +to the chancelleries where the fate of nations is discussed and decided. + +The above five propositions or axioms result from preoccupation with +material incentives: profit and power for managers, disciplined +co-ordination for subordinates, affluence, comfort and recognition for +the favored few. They provide the ideological background for twentieth +century western civilization. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +THE LIFE CYCLE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION + + +Like its predecessors, western civilization from its inception was +essentially competitive. As it developed, the commercially, technically +and politically supreme Spanish, Dutch, French and British Empires +battled individually, or in rival alliances, for plunder, colonies, +markets and raw materials. + +From the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, to the Victorian Jubilee in +1897, Great Britain became and remained top dog economically, +politically and to a large extent culturally. Britain was the workshop. +British shipping was omnipresent. The pound sterling was the chief +medium of foreign exchange. The British Navy patrolled the seas. English +was replacing French as the language of commerce and diplomacy. + +During this British Century, from 1815 to 1897, Great Britain was +dominant among the European great powers, but it was never supreme. +Always there were countervailing forces. For centuries France had been a +major factor in the control and direction of European affairs. Defeat at +Waterloo reduced but did not destroy French influence. After 1870 +Bismark's Germany began playing a major role. Russia, Austria, Holland, +Italy and Spain were also European powers. Overseas, the United States +of America and Japan were spreading their imperial wings. + +With the explosive advances made by science, technology, productivity, +income and wealth accumulation, other countries were moving to the fore. +Even though Britain maintained her actual levels of economic output and +potential diplomatic presence she was one among several relatively equal +European states and world empires. At the same time her natural +resources were being depleted and with the growing importance of cotton, +rubber and petroleum, all of which Britain must import, her economic +ascendancy was progressively undermined. During the wars of 1914-18 and +1936-45 Britain entered an era of decreasing relative importance. Her +empire was largely intact, but her economic and political strength was +stretched to the breaking point. + +Throughout its history, until the wars of 1914-45, western civilization +had its headquarters in central and west Europe, with branch offices +elsewhere on the planet. At no time after 1870 did any one European +power occupy a position of easy superiority over its rivals. If Great +Britain was top dog, France, the long established continental power was +snapping at her heels. Germany was an expanding power of major +consequence. To the North and East lay Russia, with its vast territories +and its persistent pressures into East Europe and Far Asia. By any +standard of political measurement Europe was in no sense a universal +state. Literally it was a potential battle field. War fortunes and +misfortunes revolutionized the Europe of 1870-1910. They also realigned +the planetary power structure. Heavy war losses down-graded all of the +erstwhile European powers. Central and West Europe ceased to be the +planetary hub. At the same time America and Asia shouldered their way +toward the center of the world stage. From London, Paris, Berlin and +other European vantage points the 1870-1945 era could be described as a +period of world revolution. + +For half a century United States money and arms were used to stabilize +capitalism. For many years Washington through its control of all Latin +American states (except Cuba after 1960) had been able to dominate +United Nations policy, exclude socialist nations, notably China, and hem +in socialism. Through this period Washington subsidized and armed +counter revolution. Its anti-socialist-communist doctrine had been +accepted and largely followed by the West. + +Washington's drive to cripple and stamp out socialism-communism was +accepted and followed particularly by the states with fascist leanings. +Since many western states had large and influential socialist minorities +and since several of them had been governed by coalitions in which +socialists-communists played a substantial role, acceptance of +Washington's anti-socialist program never won wholehearted support in +Europe. Atlantic alliance countries voted against the admission of +People's China to the United Nations during the Dulles Era. The +stalemated outcome of the Korean War (1950-3) called Washington +anti-socialist policies into serious question. The stupidities, +mendacities and wanton cruelties of the United States' undeclared +Vietnam War, even before the advent of Johnson and Nixon, had so +weakened Washington leadership that no major power would associate +itself with the adventure. The "Allies" in Vietnam were the U.S.A. and +two or three vassal Asian states. + +Half a century of cold war and co-existence punctuated by military +invasions and hot wars, fought between groups from both sides in the +class struggle, faced mankind with several undeniable facts: + + 1. Planet-wide economic, political and social changes had been + made during the previous half-century. + + 2. Capitalism was no longer supreme as it had been before + 1900. On the contrary, since 1950 the planet has been divided + along class lines--capitalism versus socialism. + + 3. Socialism-communism is one of the most obvious facts of + present-day planetary life. + + 4. Capitalism is losing ground, especially in Europe. + + 5. Socialism is gaining ground, especially in Eurasia. + +Co-existence presupposes recognition of these five propositions and a +willingness to abide by the outcome of the evolutionary-revolutionary +process, through which the western world is passing. + +During several centuries, ending in 1900, western civilization passed +through an era of consolidation and integration that brought its +sovereign segments into increasing stable relationships. The most +advanced of these relationships took political shape in the half-dozen +European empires which controlled the planet in 1900. Side by side with +the consolidation of the planet into nations and empires there was +another process, world-wide in scope, which made the facts and products +of science and technology and their duplication the common property of +mankind, creating a cultural synthesis far more universal than the +political synthesis in nations, empires, the League of Nations or the +United Nations. + +Any social synthesis includes positive and negative aspects which +function side by side. One builds up. The other wears down. For +centuries the building forces in western civilization were in the +ascendant. Since the turn of the century a shift of forces has been +under way. The wearing down forces presently are in the ascendant. Had +it been less competitive and more cooperative and co-ordinated, western +civilization might have taken another step in advance by extending +cultural unification into the political arena. The League of Nations and +the United Nations were efforts in this direction. Neither succeeded in +breaking down sovereignty far enough to permit planet-wide political +federation. + +Having failed to co-ordinate and establish a planet-wide authority +during the critical years following 1870, western civilization accepted +the antithesis of co-ordination and entered a period of fragmentation: + + 1. During the century and a half from 1815 to the present + day, as facilities for co-ordination were multiplied by discovery + and invention, Europe remained stubbornly fragmented + into more than a score of sovereign states. Minor + changes were made in boundary lines and in internal relationships + of property and privilege, but the European maps + of the period present a record of persistent fragmentation + of the continent into strongly frontiered sovereign segments. + + 2. Break-up of the European empires after two general wars + led to the fragmentation of each empire into self-determining + sovereign units. + + 3. The "third world," consisting chiefly of European empire + fragments, has not consolidated, but after the Bandung + Conference of 1955 has consisted of a fragmented Africa + and Asia torn by domestic and inter-state conflicts and + harried by the persistent intervention of the western powers. + + 4. Rivalry in the Pacific and in Asia has been heightened by + the meteoric rise of Japan as a world power, the dismemberment + of the Japanese Empire after 1945 and the fierce + subsequent economic competition between Japan and her + planetary competitors, chiefly the United States. + + 5. United States efforts to coordinate Latin America as a + source of raw materials and a market for manufactures and + investment capital have not produced a United Latin + American front against a common Yankee menace, but a + sturdy refusal even of the tiniest Latin American Republic + to surrender or limit its sovereignty has pushed a thorn + into the vulnerable side of Washington's Monroe Doctrine + control of the western hemisphere. + + 6. The high point in divisiveness was the decision of the + United States spokesmen to inaugurate the American Century + by establishing control over the Pacific Ocean, making + itself the chief power in Asia and installing U.S.A. authority + in the power vacuum left by the expulsion of Britain, + France, Holland and Japan from the territories composing + their former empires. Local wars begun in Korea (1950) + and extending across Southeast Asia have strengthened the + determination of the local peoples to defend themselves at + all costs against imperialist invaders from Europe and North + America. + + 7. The United States has been rich enough since 1945 to build + and maintain a navy that can patrol the Atlantic and Pacific + Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea and maintain large military + forces in various European and Asian waters. This + policy has been justified by the Truman-Johnson-Nixon + Doctrine of determined opposition to the extension of + socialism-communism and the consequent perpetuation of + the cold war. + + 8. In theory the socialist world is unitary. In practice it is so + fragmented by national boundary lines and ideological differences + that its members have not been able (during recent + years) to get together and discuss their major common + problems. + +United States wealth and military equipment have been sufficiently +over-whelming to support the program of an American Century during which +one nation might establish a universal state exercising planet-wide +authority along the lines of the Universal State established by the +Romans at the zenith of their power. In practice the program has not +worked out. On the contrary, opposition to the United States as _the_ +world power or even as _the_ power in Asia has grown steadily and +quickly into a widespread "Anti-Americanism" or "anti-Yankeeism." + +Conceivably a universal anti-American movement might develop a hot war +similar to the anti-Hitler coalition of the 1930's. If that precedent is +followed, however, the defeat of the United States would be followed by +a period of fragmentation similar to or even more intense than the +fragmentation of the 1950's and 1960's. + +Present efforts to shore up the insolvent U.S.A. economy and the +resulting opposition of America's leading European trading partners is +not reassuring. If western civilization has passed the zenith of its +development and entered a period of decline and fragmentation even a +figure of Napoleonic capacities would be sorely pressed to breathe new +life into its disintegrating social structure. At the moment, to the +best of our knowledge, no such genius is in sight. + +Western civilization is in some ways unique. In the main, however, the +development of its life cycle has been typical. May we take it for +granted that western civilization has turned its corner or may we assume +that it is still replete with the possibilities of further maneuver, +development and expansion? Perhaps the best way to approach the problem +would be to ask three questions: What contribution has western +civilization made to human nature, to human society and to mother +nature, and what further contribution can it make in the foreseeable +future? + +Individuals, born or reared in any form of society are adjusted, shaped +and conditioned by the social pattern of which they are a part. Each +society attempts to stamp the individuals with its own image and +likeness. The success or failure of this effort to assure individual +adjustment to the social norm and conformity to its practices varies +with the prosilitizing enthusiasm of the society and with the ration of +adaptability and self-consciousness of its individual members. + +Western civilization has produced a bourgeois human being intensively +conscious of his capacities and anxious to try himself out in the +rough-and-tumble of the market place and on the battlefield; to +initiate, undertake, direct, administer. In the main, these are +characteristics of the human male, though the female often possesses +them in a greater or lesser degree. + +Western civilization has opened the doors wide to aspirants eager to win +out in the game of grab-and-keep. It has been equally kind to their +chief executives, organizers and managers who rank second or third in +the chain of command. These individuals come from widely different +backgrounds. The social mobility of a bourgeois society gives them +opportunity to climb high on the ladder of preferment. + +Many of those who fall into line, adapt themselves to the civilizing +process, accept with alacrity the chances that come their way, but do +not reach the top of the success ladder. They have the health, energy +and assertiveness necessary to keep climbing. They accept their +assignments and carry them out with modest success. They are the lesser +executives who work themselves out by the time they are fifty and find +some sinecure or safe position near the top of the social pyramid. + +Below the high command posts there is a wide range of handymen and +specialists who fill particular positions and place their time, energy, +experience and expertise at the disposal of the high command. Among them +are scientists, engineers, technicians. Equally important are their +spokesmen, advisers and apologists: lawyers, preachers, teachers, +writers, speakers, publicists, carefully chosen for their ability to +apologize, passify, justify and reassure. On the political side are the +diplomats and politicians. Protection for their persons and property is +provided by the police and the armed forces, composed of highly paid, +well-trained, well-armed destroyers and killers. + +Social stability and mass support come from an extensive middle class +composed of public servants and body servants, small tradesmen, +self-employed craftsmen, rentiers and retired persons who are assured +body comforts, social recognition and preferment for themselves, their +relatives and dependants. Members of this middle class are recognized on +occasion, pampered, amused, diverted, bored, frustrated and eventually +corrupted by the soft living which their middle class status makes +possible. + +Close to the middle class come the white collar workers and the better +paid blue collar workers. Their lives are cluttered with gadgets and +fringe benefits. Their homes are paid for or bought on credit. + +Below these more or less regularly employed workers on salaries and +wages come the semi-employed, racial or class underlings living in +poverty at or near the subsistence level. + +Associated with this range of bourgeois occupations and often closely +identified with it are owners of family farms, tenants and hired hands. + +Outside of the employment range, but dependent upon the economy are the +defectives and delinquents, the parasites who live on cake and the +parasites who live out of garbage cans. + +Beyond these categories, in the American Empire, there are the colonial +compradors and handymen who enjoy standards of living comparable to +their opposite members in the North America nucleus. Below them are the +colonial masses who live their entire lives under conditions of +uncertainty and insecurity. + +Millions of young people across the planet, born into the complicated +and bewildering social network of western civilization after war's end +in 1945 and graduated from school after the onset of the Vietnam War in +1965, find themselves in a complex, frustrating jungle. Should they fit +in or drop out? Those who are more conventional and adaptable fit in as +best they can, although the recent high unemployment rate among the +youth indicates that the adjustment is often difficult. Millions of the +less adaptable drop out. + +Such a situation could have been foreseen by the initiated. Preparations +could have been made in advance to deal with it when it arose. In the +absence of adequate preparation the result is the chaos incident to +every downturn of the private enterprise business cycle, magnified in +this case by the regressive forces released during the disintegration of +the entire social fabric. + +Two other areas require a word of comment. Among human faculties are +ambition, imagination, ingenuity, inventiveness, creativity. Human +beings are, to a greater or lesser degree, cosmically aware. In the +physical field western civilization handsomely rewards initiative. In +the social field it has been far less generous. Imagination and cosmic +consciousness have been quite generally listed among the undesirable +endowments of mankind. + +Western civilization, in the early years of the present century, +produced a generation of insecure, unsettled, anxious, worried, harried +people. This is generally true of young, middle aged and old, of rich +and poor. Rapid social transition from expansion and advance to +contraction and retreat is a traumatic, hectic experience for any human +being. + +Western civilization in the early years of its decline has not brought +out the more generous aspects of human nature. In the best of times a +materialistically oriented society appeals to the more material and less +spiritual aspects of human beings. A period of social decline leads away +from principled conduct toward unashamed opportunism. + +The current generation, born and reared in a disintegrating civilization +has been sorely tested and tried. From such tests the strong and +purposeful are likely to emerge stronger and more determined. For the +weak and vacillating the consequences are likely to prove disastrous. +The individual born into western society during its current "time of +troubles" has not had an easy row to hoe. + +What has western civilization done to human society as such? + +Western civilization has urbanized its society. Until recently in +Europe and until very recently in North America, the majority of people +were living outside of cities, in villages or on the land. From their +flocks and herds or from their cultivated land they fed themselves and +the cities. Mechanization reduced the demand for labor power in the +countryside. At the same time the growth of industry, trade, commerce +and "services" increased the demand for labor power in the cities. +Relatively the countryside was poor while the cities were rich. The high +prizes were in the cities, bright lights, crowds and the seductive +excitements of seething mass life. Incessant human contacts were part +and parcel of city life. City landlords collected high rents, city +merchants found many customers. City manufacturers could pick and choose +their wage and salary underlings among throngs of young and not so young +jobseekers. + +Western civilization grew in and around its cities. Both in form and +function it was urban rather than rural. + +Western civilization specialized its society, mechanized it and later +computerized it, making social relationships depend less and less on +personality and more on the position of the individual in a working team +or on an assembly line. Human beings ceased to have names. Instead they +acquired numbers on the payroll, on their homes, on their identity +cards. + +Specialization and division of labor, plus power-driven machines +increase productivity, income, surplus. In the countryside goods and +services often are scarce. In the city they are likely to be +super-abundant. + +Growth of wealth and income provide support for an increase in +population. Hence the population explosions in cities and in centers of +developing industry, trade and commerce. Countries passing through the +industrial revolution expanded their populations. Recently, the +population of some countries has doubled each twenty-five years. + +Western civilization has been militarized as it was mechanized. Every +tool is a potential weapon. The truck becomes a tank, the airplane a +bomber. War making, like other aspects of western civilization, was +mechanized. Formerly war had pitted man against man. Mechanized war +pitted machines and their attendants against other machines and their +human attachments. The same mechanical forces that built cities, +factories and ships converted these agencies of production into +instruments of destruction. Each country in the civilized West fortified +its frontiers, trained officers in special schools, mobilized young men +and women for military service, stockpiled weapons, multiplied +fire-power, making western civilization an armed camp, with guns +pointing in every direction. + +Regimentation of city life, of industry and commerce, of war, of +education and public health followed one after another as the individual +human became more and more a cog in a vast social mechanism. This +regimentation dulled imagination at the same time that it deified greed, +with "gimme, gimme;" "more, more;" as its watch words. + +At certain points in its development western civilization has lifted +itself temporarily above the material forces that hemmed in the life of +primitive man. The Renaissance was one such period. The Enlightenment +was another. A third was the scientific breakthrough from Darwin and +Marx to the research and experiments which split the atom and +inaugurated the space age. These gains were offset by the growing +planet-wide chasm between wealth and poverty, the plunder and pollution +of man's natural and social environment and the terrifying growth of +destructive power revealed during two prolonged general wars in one +generation. + +Mechanized war demonstrated its destructivity, physically, socially, +psychologically. Prolonged war accustomed an entire generation of +mankind to unnecessary suffering and the deliberate twisting, maiming +and destroying which are characteristic features of the war-waging +civilized state. + +Exposure of an entire generation to wholesale destruction and mass +murder as a way of life had two quite divergent effects. It converted +sensitive introverts into pacifists. It produced millions of trained +destroyers and killers, experienced in the science and art of +mechanized warfare. Pacifists opposed, denounced and resisted the +warfare state and its progeny. Masses of trained destroyers and killers, +the "new barbarians," gained experience and improved their +qualifications by taking part in conventional warfare and in the +innumerable guerrilla adventures and operations that accompanied and +followed conventional wars. + +Previous civilizations have been harried, hectored and undermined by +migrating "barbarians" who had heard of accumulated wealth and had come +to share or perhaps to take over the "honey-pot" and lick up the honey. +Western civilization has faced the problem of migration, intensified by +population explosion. But the "barbarians" who are tearing the social +body of western civilization limb from limb are not outsiders, invading +a civilization in order to plunder and sack it, but the offspring of +well-to-do civilized affluent communities who have repudiated the +acquisition and accumulation of material goods and services, turning, +instead to the satiation of body hungers and the freedom of social +irresponsibility. + +Western man has spent ten centuries in building a civilization aimed at +economic stability and social security for the privileged. The "new +barbarian" progeny have rejected this civilization of affluence and are +busily engaged in fragmenting the social apparatus that has made +affluence possible. In a word, western civilization has organized and +coordinated, but in the process it has sowed the seeds of +disorganization and chaos. + +One last word about the effect of western civilization on human society. +The West has littered and cluttered the planet with an immense variety +and with enormous quantities of gimmicks and gadgets from tin cans to +airplanes that fly faster than sound, and rockets that carry their +occupants to the moon. Western productivity has multiplied greatly. Too +often it has by-passed utility, ignored quality and outraged beauty. +More often than not its goods, services, institutions, practices and +ideas have remained at the surface without reaching down to life's +essentials. + +If life can be fragmented into "physical," "mental," "emotional," +"energetic," "spiritual," and "creative" it must be evident that the +western way has smothered life's more significant aspects under a +blanket of trivialities, non-essentials and inconsequentials. + +Western civilization has stressed competition, aimed at the acquisition +and accumulation of material goods and services. The competitive +struggle, in its civilian and military aspects, has played fast and +loose with the contents of nature's storehouse. + +Through uncounted ages Mother Nature has set up a knife-edge balance +among the multitude of aspects and differentiated forms that have +existed and still exist on the planet. Humanity has increasingly upset +this balance of nature, ignorantly and often stupidly, without pausing +to determine the resultant changes. Nowhere is this upset more in +evidence than the changes in climate and animal life and their +possibilities of survival brought about by the erosion of topsoil. Paul +Sears, in his _Deserts on the March_, has told the story. It can be +summed up in four words: deforestation, overgrazing, erosion, drifting +sands. + +Another aspect of man's aggressions against nature is the wanton +destruction of wildlife--like the American bison and the wood pigeon. + +Still another example is the extraction from the earth's crust of +minerals and metals accumulated through ages and used to turn out +frivolous gadgets or, more disastrously, the materials and machines of +civilized warfare. Instead of conserving natural wealth, rationing it +and thus extending its use to succeeding generations, western man has +burnt it up in the firestorms deliberately kindled during the seven +disaster years from 1939 to 1945. + +In the course of its existence western civilization has replaced food +gatherers, cultivators and artisans by hucksters and professional +destroyers of mankind and ravagers of the living space afforded by the +earth's land mass. + +Western civilization has done its most far-reaching disservice to +mankind by separating and estranging man from nature. For ages man lived +with nature as one aspect of an evolving ecological balance. +Civilization's basic unit--the city--as it sprawls, cuts off man from +more and more contacts with the earth and its multitudinous life forms; +with fresh air, sunshine, starshine; with nature's sequences--day and +night, the procession of the seasons; with the birth, growth, death +animating so many of nature's aspects. The city is man-made. Well +planned, properly built and organized, it might have become an ornament +beautifying and exalting nature. Page the cities of the West one by +one--they are monotonous, ungainly, ugly slums and rookeries set off by +an occasional bit of creative architecture. + +Western civilization has differed in certain respects from the long line +of its predecessors, stretching back through the centuries. In one sense +it has matured, ripened, taking its ideas and practices from its nearest +of kin. In the course of its life cycle it has already made distinctive +contributions: + + 1. It has become more nearly planet-wide than any of its + known forerunners. + + 2. It has developed unique approaches and controls through + its science and its technology, inaugurating the power age + by making riotous use of nature's energy sources. + + 3. It has extended man's conquest of the planet and begun + his adventures into space. + + 4. It has enlarged the field of human creativity by increasing + the number and proportion of men and women trained and + experienced in productive and creative enterprises. + + 5. It has opened the door to study and experimentation in + extrasensory perception--man's "sixth" sense. + + 6. It has made possible an unprecedented increase in the + human population of the planet. + + 7. It has raised its potential for destruction far above and + beyond its potential for production and construction. + + 8. It has brought together, classified and indexed the ideas, + materials, techniques and generalizations which made possible + this study of civilization, its appearances, disappearances + and reappearances. + + 9. Europeans have carried the burdens of western civilization + and inherited its disintegrative consequences for so long a + period that the fate of western civilization and the fate + of present day Europe are closely interwoven. + Western civilization seems to have reached and passed the + zenith of its lifecycle without achieving the political integration, + the stability or the unified authority attained by the Romans and + the Egyptians at the high points in their lifecycles. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +FEATURES COMMON TO CIVILIZATIONS + + +Each civilization that has left legible records or significant +traditions during the past five or six thousand years has made +distinctive contributions that modified the culture pattern of its +predecessors and its contemporaries. At the same time all of the +civilizations have had certain common features that are the +characteristic aspects which justify the general definition of +civilization presented in the Introduction to this study. + +Civilization is the most comprehensive, extensive and inclusive life +pattern achieved by terrestrial humanity. Starting locally and following +the three basic principles of urbanization, expansion and exploitation, +each civilization has charted a course that led from tentative local +beginnings through a cycle of growth, maturity, decline, decay and +dissolution. + +The civilizing process is essentially collective, subordinating the +interests of each part to the interests of the whole, while allowing +sufficient home rule to enable each part to have the political, economic +and cultural advantages enjoyed by the other parts, always excepting the +privileged position occupied by the civilization's dominant empire and +its nucleus. + +Necessarily a civilization is composed of more or less disparate +segments, each one (before its inclusion in the collective whole) +maintaining a large measure of sovereign independence. Utilizing +advanced techniques of communication, exchange, and transportation, the +separate sovereign units are coordinated, consolidated, unified and +universalized. The result is an aggregate of parts, differing in many +local respects, but acknowledging the authority of the power center and +contributing material goods and manpower to its support and defense. The +main sociological purpose of each civilization has been to impose +central authority and universality upon political, economic and +ideological diversity. + +Every civilization has been confronted with the advantages of unity over +diversity. Every civilization has professed its devotion to unity. Every +civilization at one or another stage in its development has subordinated +unity to the increasingly insistent demands of diversity. + +For at least six thousand years one civilization after another has +sought to achieve centralization and universality. In every instance of +which history provides a legible record, centralized, universalized +institutions and practices have fragmented into diversity and stubborn +localism. + +Western civilization is part and parcel of this generalization. +Generation by generation and century by century it has professed and +proclaimed the advantages of universality while it yielded to the +persistent demands of nationalism, regionalism and localism. Throughout +the latter years of the nineteenth century the will to unify gained much +ground. The tide turned with the turn of the century. For the first half +of the present century the forces of unity and of diversity seemed +stalemated. War's end in 1945 saw the shadow of a universal state +flicker across the screen of history. With the adjournment of the +Bandung Conference in 1955 the shadow dissolved and was replaced by the +strident nationalisms that have become an outstanding feature of +planetary politics, economics and social organization. + +Despite the insistence of reason and experience that strength and +stability are the result of unity,--tradition, custom and habit have +held human society at the level of political, economic and ideological +diversity. Nowhere in history is this generalization more emphatic than +in the failure of the European standard-bearers of western civilization +to replace a millennium of diversity, discord and conflict by a unified, +coordinated, co-existing, cooperating European community. + +At its best a civilization is insecure and even unstable, disturbed and +upset by an increasing domestic struggle for preferment and power that +includes rivalry, competition, revolt, rebellion, civil war and wars of +self-determination carried on by unassimilated regional, provincial and +colonial elements. From beyond their frontiers civilizations have been +assailed by rival aspirants for power, by armed bands in search of +plunder or by migrating peoples seeking greener pastures. All of these +forces have held the ground for diversity and barred the way to +universality. + +Another factor of great consequence leading to the instability of +civilizations has been the concentration of wealth, power, privilege, +comfort and security in the hands of a minority, in sharp contrast with +poverty and insecurity among the less well-placed majority. Generally, +the privileged minority has been relatively small and the exploited +majority overwhelmingly large. + +Still another disturbing factor in each civilization is the +transformation of its military arm from a means of defense against +external enemies into a major factor in the direction of domestic +affairs. The professional military build-up has frequently usurped the +state power and became king-maker by virtue of its monopoly of weapons, +organization, and its highly trained personnel of professional +destroyers and killers. + +Upset by one or another of these disturbing and disruptive forces, +civilized populations have panicked and retreated from their +collectiveness toward more localized, more fragmented, less social and +more individual life patterns. Such a retreat rounds out the later +phases of a cycle of civilization--the phases of decline and final +dissolution. + +Civilizations perish in the first instance because of internal +contradictions and conflicts, the struggle to grab, monopolize, and keep +wealth, status, power. + +They perish because of the division of the nucleus and its associates +and dependencies between those who work for a living, those who have an +unearned income and those parasites who scrounge for a living. They +perish because of the hard class and caste lines that grow out of +economic contradictions; because of the development of a social +pyramid, layer above layer, until the summit is reached where there is +standing room for only a few. Competent, talented persons may rise from +level to level in this pyramid. A political and social bureaucracy +develops which feeds at the public trough. Then comes a bitter struggle +to get both feet in the trough and keep them there side by side with an +equally determined effort to exclude outsiders and other intruders. An +army of volunteers and novices is converted into a military +establishment which becomes a state within the state, extending its +control until it makes policy, selects top leaderships and carries on +its internal feuds and wars of succession dividing the defense forces +and using them for partisan purposes. Overhead costs rise; deficits in +the public treasury grow; so does public debt. Inflation follows, and +the debasement of the currency. Levies are made on private wealth for +public purposes. There is expropriation of the property of political +enemies. Espionage, secret agents, the growth of informers become part +of the society, along with the use of assassination as a political +weapon, the increase of violence and crime, and eventually, a flight +from the cities. + +This tragic enumeration only skims the surface of the many and various +aspects of a situation that reaches its breaking point in civil war, +famine, pestilence and eventually in depopulation. + +Social dissolution is accelerated by provincial revolts against central +authority; by survival struggle between the empires which were +coordinated and consolidated into the civilization; by revolt in the +subordinate and dependent segments of the civilization; by rivalry and +conflict between racial, cultural and political sub-groups forced into +the civilization, held there by coercion, policed by armed force and +taking the first opportunity to win political independence and self +determination. + +While the momentum for expansion lasted, the civilization grew in wealth +and power. When it waned, disintegration set in. Changelessness seems to +be impossible in a social group. A civilization either expands or +withers, builds up or falls to pieces. + +Starting from one or more local groups, each civilization has reached +out "to conquer the world", occupy it, organize it, dominate it, exploit +it, perpetuate itself. In each case expansion, occupation, domination +and exploitation are limited by human capacity (human nature); by the +relative brevity of a single human life; by the extreme variations in +the capacity of successive leaders. It is limited by geography; by the +means of transportation and communication; by overhead costs that +increase geometrically as the civilization expands arithmetically; by +the means of delegating responsibility; by accounting devices, available +raw materials and labor power; by power struggles inside the ruling +oligarchies; by the failure to maintain a balance between centerism and +localism; by growing local demands for self-determination; by the +invasion of nomads seeking to plunder the tempting honey pot at the +nucleus of the civilization. + +Such limitations are political, economic and sociological. Psychological +forces are also at work. The vigor and vitality of the early builders +gradually spends itself. The will to austerity and the sense of loyalty +and social responsibility are diffused and diluted. Bureaucracy +degenerates into a rat race. The paralysis of parasitism replaces the +will to power. Physical gratification gains priority over the service of +the gods. Consistently, through its entire written history, civilization +has been built upon what the civil law of all nations calls "robbery +with violence". In every instance when the robbers have grabbed +everything in sight, and gorged to the point of physical satiety, they +fall to quarreling among themselves or turn with boredom and disgust +from the whole sodden mess of discord, disorder and degeneration. + +Each step, from the establishment of an urban nucleus of expansion, +through the building of rival empires to the final struggle for supreme +power, involves the violent subordination of lesser interests to the +interests of one supreme authority. Violence takes precedence over +persuasion and negotiation. In each case the final appeal is to armed +combat using the most sophisticated weapons available. + +During the "time of troubles" which overtakes each civilization, war +and the threat of war become normal aspects of domestic and +international relations. A specialized war-making bureaucracy is +organized; war plans are made; war games (rehearsals) are carried on, +and wars are fought as a means of determining which nation or +combination of nations shall have access to raw materials and markets, +dominate the trade routes, control the weaker peoples, own and exploit +the colonies. + +To the victor, war is the means of extending national or imperial +frontiers and legalizing expansion at the expense of the vanquished. +Defeat in war leads to the imposition of indemnities, the payment of +tribute, the transfer of territory to the victor and in extreme cases +the extermination of the defeated nations or empires. + +Settlements imposed by violence and policed by victors lead to +resentment, antagonism, hatred and the build-up of a desire for revenge, +including the restoration to the vanquished of lost territories. The +logical outcome of such a situation is preparation for a war of +independence by the vanquished, countered by military occupation, rigid +suppression, and exploitation by the victors in the previous struggle. + +War is taken for granted as an instrument of policy. It is employed by +civilized nations and empires as a means of expansion. Wars of +independence and restitution follow conquest, dismemberment and +annexation. Civilized nations and empires prepare for war and wage war +as a normal aspect of civilized life. + +Civilization, and in particular western civilization, is a time-bomb, +built to detonate and scatter its fragments far and wide. It is a type +of booby trap in which humanity has been caught periodically and +horribly mangled. Without exception, each civilization has contained the +forces and equipment needed for its own annihilation. At no time +reported by history has this formulation been more obvious than during +the decades immediately following war's end in 1945. Destructivity was +lifted to new levels of efficiency by electronic communication, the tank +and the airplane. It was further escalated by atomic fission and +nuclear fusion. Advances in science and technology had made dramatic +increases in the tempo of production and construction. Utilization of +atomic energy had stepped up destructivity to the nth power. + +Based on assumptions that oft-repeated experience has proved to be false +and misleading, civilization in the 1970's is unstable and insecure. +Most civilizations are strangled in their cradles or plundered and +demolished in the course of the never-ending political, economic and +military conflicts which have marked and marred civilizations since the +dawn of history. The national and imperial survivors of these struggles +in every known instance have been largely or wholly led by military +adventurers and plunderers in search of booty, fame and power. With +professional plunderers, destroyers and murderers occupying the seats of +power, it is only a question of time and occasion before rising overhead +costs and the misfortunes of war result in their overthrow and +replacement by better organized, better armed invaders who slaughter and +enslave their predecessors and usurp and abuse their power. Of +necessity, civilizations are self-destructive, built as they are on the +ebb and flow of power struggle. + +Successive conflicts involve an indefinite volume of overhead costs, +which grow with the intensity and extent of the expansive survival +struggle, creating a series of crises along a path that leads to +self-destruction and the return of the experimenters to a condition of +pre-civilized self-containment. + +We in the West, looking back on our own immediate history, refer to this +pre-civilized status as the Dark Ages. Actually, such Dark Ages are the +transition stages between two periods of experiments with the building +of civilizations. In view of this oft-repeated experience, modern man +must look upon an epoch of civilization not as a way of life, but an +adventure of suicidal self-degradation and ultimate self-destruction. + +Each cycle of civilization has had its peculiarities, determined by the +geographical and historical factors surrounding its origin and +development. Yet all have had features in common. Among the common +features we would list: + +1. A revolutionary movement within the societies under +consideration. In each experiment with civilization the culture pattern +was transformed from pastoral and/or agricultural to a culture based on +trade, commerce and finance; from rural to urban; from simple to +complex; from local toward universal. + +2. In each case an independent, self-directing, expanding state was +built around an urban center. + +3. In each experiment a simple, local, social structure was extended, +expanded, specialized, sub-divided, integrated, consolidated. + +4. In each experiment a relatively static society passed into the +control of an emerging class of peddlers, merchants, traders, +speculators, business enterprisers and professionals who were not +directly involved in the conversion of nature's gifts into goods and +services ready for human use, but in political and cultural practices +which enabled the emerging bourgeois class to stabilize and extend its +wealth and power and build an economic structure that augmented unearned +income and laid the foundation for predation, exploitation and +parasitism. + +5. In each experiment an amateur apparatus for defense and/or aggression +matured into a professional military means for enlarging the +geographical area and strengthening the economic and political authority +of the new trading-ruling classes. In each empire and each civilization +there was an evolution of "defense" forces from voluntary to +professional status, from subordinate to dominant status, from +participation in public life to political supremacy over all aspects of +public life. + +6. In each experiment massed labor power (slave, serf, or wage-earner) +was assembled, organized and trained to build roads, bridges, aqueducts, +housing facilities and eventually to operate agriculture, construction, +industry, trade and commerce, public utilities and other services in the +interests of an oligarchy. + +7. In each experiment a capital city (and associated cities) became the +nucleus for accumulating wealth, constructing public buildings, +providing means of transportation and sources from which raw materials +could be secured for city maintenance and for the provision of sanitary +facilities, means of recreation and diversion. + +8. In each experiment there was a competitive struggle between rival +communities, each passing through the rural-urban transformation. The +result was an increasing conflict for survival, for expansion and for +local supremacy. + +9. Each experiment expanded along lines that led the more successful to +build traditional empires consisting of wealth-power centers and +peripheries of associates and dependents. + +10. Each experiment produced a competitive survival struggle between +rival empires that would determine eventual supremacy. + +11. In each experiment one among the local and regional contestants +defeated, conquered, dismembered, assimilated or destroyed its rivals +and emerged as victor, giving its name to a civilization: Egyptian, +Babylonian, Persian, Roman. + +12. In each experiment the victims of imperial aggression, conquest, +exploitation and assimilation, conspired, united, resisted and revolted +against the dominant power. The result was endemic civil war. + +13. Within each experiment, as the civilization matured, the same +confrontations appeared at the nuclear center and in the +provincial-colonial periphery: + + a. Extremes of riches side by side with slum-dwelling poverty. + + b. Expanding unearned income, with one class (the propertied and + privileged) owning for a living and another class (peasants, + artisans, serfs, slaves) working for a living. + + c. Intensified exploitation of mass labor side by side with the + proliferation of parasitism throughout the body social, consisting + of individuals and social sub-groups whose contribution in the form + of goods produced and services rendered was less than the cost of + maintaining the participants. + + d. Economic stagnation. Public spending in excess of public income; + higher levies and taxes to replenish the empty treasury; rising + prices due to excess of demand over supply; public borrowing with + no means for repayment; the issue of money without corresponding + reserves; degradation of currency through decrease of its metal + content; unemployment among citizens due chiefly to increase in + forced labor of war captives and other slaves; public insolvency + due to territorial over-expansion; excessive overhead costs; + nepotism, bribery, corruption in public service; an over-large + bureaucracy feeding at the public trough. + + e. Revolution in the nuclear center and fierce suppression. + Provincial revolt. Revolt in the colonies. Endemic civil war. + + f. Migration toward the central honey-pot; invasion by rivals and + adventurers seeking to control it, plunder it and guzzle its + contents. + + g. Dissolution of the society; boredom; ennui; loss of purpose and + direction; growing dissension; power struggle and avoidance of + responsibility for trends that were little understood and generally + beyond the control of existing officialdom. + +Histories of individual nations and empires and histories of +civilizations and civilization assemble and present a great body of +factual information which support and substantiate this factual summary. +The present study aims to organize the facts, to compare them and to +draw conclusions as to the benefits and detriments; the practicality or +futility; the wisdom or folly of building empires and merging them into +civilizations. + +These conclusions are based on several thousand years of experiment and +experience with the civilized life pattern. Time after time, in age +after age, human beings by the millions have poured faith, hope and +unbounded energy, devotion and dedication into the upbuilding of the +urban nuclei of successive civilizations. Details have varied. Ultimate +conclusions have been the same. One civilization after another has +passed into the limbo of history leaving, sometimes, splendid ruins as a +testimonial to its evident inadequacy to meet the survival needs of +oncoming generations. + +Such conclusions, based on history, are underlined by current experience +with the over-ballyhooed, over-priced variant of the life pattern which +signs itself western civilization. Dating from the Crusades a thousand +years ago, western civilization has been promoted, built up and carried +forward by the blood, sweat and tears of credulous, hopeful, eager human +beings. Its promises have been wonderful; its performance, especially +since 1900, has been pitifully inadequate, superficial and unsatisfying. + + + + +_Part II_ + + +A Social Analysis of Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +THE POLITICS OF CIVILIZATION + + +Several thousand years ago humankind began experimenting with the life +style which we are now calling civilization. Presumably it was not +thought out and blueprinted in advance but worked out by trial and +error, episode by episode, step by step--perhaps, also, leap by leap. + +Historical and contemporary experiments with this lifestyle supply a +fund of valuable information, some of which has been covered in the +earlier chapters of this book. Our next task is to analyze and classify +this information under four headings: the politics, the economics, the +sociology and the ideology of civilization. (When the information is +properly arranged, we can do something with it and about it.) + +Politics is the part of social science and engineering which is +concerned with the organization, direction and administration of human +communities. We use the word to cover the conduct of public affairs in +any social group more extensive than a family. Hence we refer to village +politics, town politics, national politics, international politics and, +in the present instance, to the politics of civilization as a way of +life. + +Each sample, referred to in our examination of typical civilizations, +was built around a center, nucleus or homeland consisting of one or more +cities with their adjacent hinterlands. The nucleus of the developing +civilization was also the nucleus of an empire. Each nucleus was a +center of planned production; accumulating wealth, growing population +and expanding authority. Certain locations are better suited than +others to provide the essentials of a civilization nucleus. + +The first requirement for a nucleus is a tolerable climate, primarily a +satisfactory balance between heat and cold. Before the general use of +fire as a source of warmth human populations were concentrated at or +near the tropics. With the increasing use of artificial heating and +lighting human beings were able to cluster farther and farther away from +concentrated equatorial sunlight. + +The second requirement of such a location is a strategic position in a +crossroads, in a network of transportation and communication. + +The third requirement is a readily available source of the food and +building materials necessary to feed, house, and clothe a community and +provide it with some of the niceties of daily living. + +The fourth requirement is the presence of sufficient man-power to +operate the nucleus and provide a surplus for defense and for its +extension and expansion. + +The fifth requirement is defensibility against aggression or invasion. + +The sixth essential is the availability of sufficient raw materials to +meet the requirements of the nucleus, provide the exports needed to +maintain a favorable trade balance for the nucleus and permit of its +expansion, advancement and enrichment. + +Seventh, and in some ways, the most important requirement for the +establishing of an empire or a civilization nucleus, is the presence of +a will to live, a will to grow, a will to advance, competence in +management, and a dogged persistence that will remain constant through +generations or centuries of adversity, and still more demanding, through +long periods of security, comfort and affluence. + +Eighth, and by no means least important, is the capacity to fight and +win the aggressive trade and military wars incidental to the defense and +expansion of the nucleus, of the empire, and eventually of the +civilization. + +The ninth requirement is tolerance, receptivity to new ideas and +practices, the capacity to adapt and to assimilate the outside elements +which are constantly incorporated into the growing, expanding empire or +the civilization. + +Finally, as we read the history and observe the development of nuclei, +empires and civilizations, we are impressed by the role of outstanding +individuals who occupy positions of responsibility over sufficiently +long periods or with sufficient intensity to leave a lasting impression +on the ideas, practices and institutions of their times. This +requirement covers the practice of effective leadership. + +Our concern, at this point, lies primarily with the first eight of these +requirements for survival and success in building up empires and +civilizations. + +Empires and civilizations are established during periods of social +expansion when the up-building and out-going urges are widely felt. The +surge produces not a single center of growth and expansion but dozens or +scores of competitors, each aiming to win and keep a position well in +advance of its rivals. The resulting up-surge and free-for-all, which +usually lasts for centuries, is a characteristic and recurring feature +in the political life of every civilization. + +This statement is less a requirement for success in organizing the +nucleus of a civilization, than a generalization about the natural and +social milieu out of which competing nuclei arise. Success of one among +the many competitors is a characteristic feature of the struggle for +nuclear survival, development and perhaps for eventual supremacy. + +From earliest times waterways have provided the readiest means of +getting about. All that was needed was a hollow log, a raft, a primitive +canoe. Movement by land was impeded by mountains, deserts, forests, +swamps, water courses. Movement by water was a natural. + +More and bigger boats required shelter against storms and protection +against destruction by enemies. A good harbor with an adjacent walled +town or city was the answer to this need. + +Good harbors and navigable waterways are notably absent along the west +coast of South America and notably present in the Eastern Mediterranean. +Consequently, the South American West Coast line is sparsely settled to +this day, while the Eastern Mediterranean has been crowded with peoples, +teemed with trade and commerce, carried largely by sea, between cities +that occupied the best access to waterways. + +Safe harbors and navigable waterways made trade and transport easy and +cheap. As each wave of human advance turned from animal husbandry and +agriculture to bourgeois practices of industry, commerce and finance, +locations at strategic points along trade routes were first occupied by +occasional markets and fairs and eventually by trading towns and cities. +Geography was a decisive factor. + +Fertility was equally important. In the early stages of social +development transportation was difficult, dangerous and expensive. +Sources of food and building materials were found within a short +distance of the growing trade center. Again geography played a decisive +role. A deep, sheltered harbor backed by a desert could not attract and +support a thriving trade center. Food and raw materials are +indispensable to concentrations of human beings. + +The Nile Valley, like that of the Ganges and the Yellow River, provided +the fertility and transport, the food and raw materials that have +sustained concentrated human populations for many thousands of years, +forming part of the base for Egyptian, Indian and Chinese civilizations. +Animal husbandry and grain farming, coupled with fishing and forestry, +made possible the growth of cities and laid the foundations for the +nuclei of these civilizations. + +Temples, tombs and other public constructs provided the centers around +which Egyptian civilization was built. The stone, wood and other raw +materials used in the building of these unique examples of human +handiwork were floated up and down the Nile from their sources of +origin. Annual Nile floods provided silt deposits necessary to fertilize +farms and gardens. Nile water, impounded during floods, irrigated the +land during the long dry seasons. Banked by deserts, the Nile was a +ribbon of fertility running through a largely uninhabited wilderness. +The upper reaches of the Nile lay in the mountains of Central Africa. +The Nile delta, built up through ages by silt deposits, provided a +meeting place where African, European and Asian traders could exchange +their wares and lay the foundations for the civilization of lower Egypt. +The Nile also provided the means of communication which connected Lower +Egypt with Upper Egypt and led, finally, to the unification of the two +areas in a long enduring and prestigious Egyptian civilization. Once +again geography was laying down the guide lines within which +civilizations have been built up and liquidated. + +Thus far we have noted the role of physiographic factors that have led +to building the nuclei of empires and civilizations. They have been +parallelled by social factors as men took advantage of natural +opportunities to concentrate, feed and house ever larger human +aggregates. + +Empires and civilizations have been built up by comparatively large +numbers of human beings concentrated in relatively small spaces. +Wandering food gatherers and herdsmen ranged widely in search of game +and grass. Cultivators settled in villages from which they could work +the land. If crops were scanty, population was sparse. Only abundant +crops, dependable, season after season, provided the basis for large +settled populations. + +Large, settled populations, adequately supplied with the essentials of +life, enabled human beings to organize social centers in which a +comparatively few people, tending their animals and working the land, +could release a comparatively large part of the population to devote its +time and energy to trade and commerce, to industry and transport, to the +arts and sciences and to the organization, direction and administration +of large scale enterprises such as government, the military, +construction and the mobilization of sufficient labor power to carry on +and enlarge their enterprises. In its simplest essence this was +politics. + +Egyptian government, in its broad sense, rested on a class structured +society: the aristocracy, the priesthood, officialdom, businessmen, +highly trained scientists and engineers, skilled craftsmen and an +immense proletariat consisting of tenant farmers, peons, slaves and war +captives. + +At the top of the political structure was an absolute monarch who +wielded power that was limited only by the ambition, tolerance and +loyalty of his associates--nobles, priests, soldiers, businessmen and +political advisers, and by the willingness of the rural and urban masses +to work and fight for their overlords. A number of the monarchs +(Pharaohs) ruled for long periods--up to sixty years. It was during +these long reigns that the Egyptian Kingdom was organized, strengthened +and unified, the rule of the monarch was safeguarded; ambitious nobles +were placated or destroyed; and the leadership succession was determined +and assured. + +The nucleus of the Egyptian Empire was a dictatorship by a +self-perpetuated elite, headed by lords spiritual and temporal. Both +groups held land, accumulated wealth and exercised authority. It was a +government combining the theory of absolutism with the practice of +public responsibility. It was sufficiently arbitrary to get things done. +It was sufficiently inclusive to recognize and utilize special ability. +It was sufficiently structured to carry on from dynasty to dynasty. It +was sufficiently flexible to consolidate scattered communities into the +Old Kingdom, to unite Lower and Upper Egypt, to extend its authority +into Central Africa, the Near and Middle East and parts of Eastern +Europe, thus laying the foundations for history's most extensive and +long-lasting civilization during the period 3500 to 500 B.C. + +I have used the Egyptian example of nucleus organization because of the +phenomenal successes achieved by the Egyptians in maintaining an empire +for at least 3,000 years. For a considerable part of those thirty +centuries Egypt was top dog in the strategic area where Africa joins +Eurasia. + +The nucleus is the hub from which the spokes of empire and of +civilization radiate. The radius of authority and the vast stretches of +occupied, exploited territory constitute the circumference of the wheel. +The nucleus is the center of wealth and power surrounded by a cluster +of associates and dependencies. The control, direction and +administration of the nucleus is parallelled by the control, direction +and administration of the total complex--the empire and/or the +civilization. + +The development from nucleus to empire and from empire to civilization +creates three sets of political problems: those arising from the +administration of the nucleus; those arising out of contacts between the +nucleus and the circumference, between the associates and dependencies +and the nucleus, and those arising out of the determination of the +associates and dependencies to sever their connections with the nucleus, +win their independence, and take part in the unceasing efforts to +establish new nuclei, win the unending power struggle and shift the +power center. + +Relationship between nucleus and periphery are the normal outcome of the +expansion of a nucleus into an empire. Each growing urban center reaches +out for an extension of its territory; for the food and raw materials +required by a growing population; for markets that can absorb the goods +and services exported by the urban center to pay for its necessary +imports of food and raw materials. + +Politically speaking, the essential problem is to maintain a +relationship that will keep the imports coming in and keep the exports +going out. Imports may take the form of plunder seized by the strong in +contacts and conflicts with weaker neighbors; tribute paid by the weak +to the strong at the insistence of the strong, or trade in which each +side gains something. Empire building involves all three methods. + +In virtually all instances the nucleus is richer and stronger; the +periphery is poorer and weaker. In virtually all instances these +relative positions have been the outcome of military operations in which +each party has tried to impose its will upon its rivals. In each case +the spoils went to the victor, who forced defeated rivals to cede +territory, to pay tribute, to give hostages or in some other fashion to +agree upon a settlement that left the victor richer and stronger and the +vanquished poorer and weaker. + +Politically speaking, the relation of nucleus to periphery was that of +superior to inferior. Where the discrepancy was very great it resulted +in a relation of master and vassal or even master and slave. + +An empire or a civilization, consisting of a wealth-power center and a +periphery of associated and dependent territories and peoples, led to a +living-standard differential in favor of the center. It also involved +the establishment of a political apparatus strong enough to perpetuate +the relationship by collecting tribute and taxes from the weak and +depositing them in the treasure chests of the strong. The outcome was a +civil bureaucracy backed by a military or police strong enough to defend +and perpetuate an unpalatable superior-inferior position. + +Once established, both the civilian bureaucracy and the military +apparatus tended to maintain themselves, to extend their privileges and +strengthen their positions. Since controversial issues, domestic and +foreign, are generally decided by force or the threat of force, the +military became the strong right arm of authority. + +These confrontations and contradictions created three sets of political +problems: centralism versus localism; established central authority +versus provincial rights and self-determination; the concentration or +centralization of authority in the hands of a select few civilian and/or +military leaders, responsible to the central authority, who made on the +spot decisions and took action. + +Under the institutions and practices of civilized society, the select +few were in a position to call in the military which was organized for +emergency action and was constantly standing-by. The military was +trained, disciplined and held a monopoly of weapons. + +Civilizations frequently begin as commonwealths or federations forged in +the course of survival struggle. In any such struggle the military will +of necessity play a major role. As the competitive survival struggle +develops, one of the contending parties establishes its superiority by +winning military victory. In the course of this struggle the +commonwealth, a cluster of equals, yields place to the pattern of +empire--a center of wealth and authority with its associates, +subordinates and dependencies. + +The strong right arm of politics includes man-power, money and weapons. +The politics of civilization faces a simple mandate: establish, +stabilize and perpetuate a nucleus of wealth and authority; build around +the nucleus a periphery of associates and dependencies. + +Historically, the process was a long one extending through generations +and probably centuries. Throughout the struggle individuals must have +the necessities of daily life. Community activities must be housed, +equipped, staffed, supported. + +Pastoral and village life were based on a use economy. People produced +what they needed and consumed their own products. Each tribe, family, +village was a more or less self-sufficient unit. When they were +threatened or invaded people defended themselves as best they could. At +worst they abandoned their homes to the invaders and fled into the +forests, mountains or deserts. + +Towns and cities, with their industries, trade, commerce, their +permanent housing and capital equipment faced a radically different +situation. Since they could not carry their wealth on their backs they +must stay put and defend themselves or face irreparable losses. Defense +required careful, extensive, expensive preparations: walls, equipment, +stored food, personnel. Unless the city was sacked and burned during +survival struggles it remained as a vantage point to be held at all +costs. If surrendered and occupied by assailants, it was equally +valuable to invaders who were prepared to settle down, take advantage of +the site, the capital equipment and exploit the available manpower. + +Whether occupied by friend or enemy, towns and cities were centers of +actual or potential wealth and power. They were also consumers of goods +and services many of which could not be home-produced. Food must come +from herdsmen or farmers. Building materials must come from forests or +mines. Such raw materials, the essentials of daily life, must be brought +into urban centers when and as wanted. + +Food and raw materials could be secured occasionally by plunder. A +regular supply depended on trade and commerce, or on tribute levied and +collected periodically from associated or dependent peoples. In the long +run trade and commerce proved to be more reliable and more productive +than plunder. + +As urban centers grew and developed, they established regular channels +of trade and communication, by land and water. Along these channels +needed imports moved into the urban centers and exports in exchange +moved from the urban centers into the back country or the provinces. At +every stage in the process care must be taken to prevent intervention by +thieves, robbers or envious rivals. Two devices were used to meet this +situation: money to facilitate exchange and a defense organization to +deal with intruders. + +Money and its uses developed money changers, money lenders and banks. +Bankers and banks exchanged currency at a profit and extended credit. + +Weapons in the hands of trained personnel evolved into locally employed +police and centrally organized armed services, performing police +functions and fighting wars, domestic and foreign. + +Politics, local, regional or national, developed with the growth of +population, the profits of expanding urban life, production, technology. +As its scope broadened geographically city survival depended +increasingly on wealth and power (money and weapons). + +During periods of peace and stability the civil authorities controlled +public affairs. In emergencies, such as natural disasters, invasion, +civil or international wars, the military authorities took command. + +Military authority is an institutional feature of every civilization. In +periods of public danger it enjoys complete ascendancy. Like civil +authority, the military is a permanent and frequently the dominant +feature of each civilization. It is assured of ample income and +entrusted with the installations and implements of war making. Both in +income and in prestige the military holds a preferred position. + +Since military functions center about destroying the person and +property of the "enemy"--domestic or foreign--public funds are made +available or are pre-empted by the military during periods of martial +law. As a civilization becomes more complex and extensive, the funds at +the disposal of the military tend to increase. The same factors of +extent and complexity lead to larger and larger numbers of +confrontations and conflicts in which the military is called upon to +play the leading role. Increasingly, therefore, the military is at the +center of policy making. Finally a point is reached at which war, civil, +colonial or international is always in progress somewhere within the +territories occupied by the civilization. At such periods civil law +slumbers and military authority is more or less dominant and permanent. + +Under the slogan "defense of civilization," military necessity and +military adventurism shape public policy, empty the public treasury, +bankrupt and eventually destroy the superstructure of a civilization. + +The nucleus which lies at the heart of an empire or a civilization has a +political life cycle that runs from the unstructured or little +structured aggregation of confederation or self-determining local groups +to a highly centralized political absolutism holding and exercising its +authority by the use of the military. The steps in this process have +been clearly marked in earlier civilizations. They are playing a +decisive role in the day-to-day life of western civilization. They +extend from early forms of government under leaders selected or elected +by popular acclaim or at least by popular consent, to more or less +permanent leadership enjoying many political privileges, including the +selection of its successors. + +Under the pressure of social emergency, engendered within the social +group or imposed from outside the group by migration, intrusion or +invasion, leadership takes the measures which it considers necessary to +preserve and/or extend its authority. Each emergency offers leadership +an opportunity or an excuse to by-pass custom and/or law, overlook +whatever public opinion may exist and proceed to the measures needed to +meet the emergency. In each organized social group the exercise of +authority has provided the leadership with a near-monopoly of money and +weapons in the hands of a permanent military elite. The use of this +elite to deal with the emergency is accepted by civil authority as a +matter of course. + +When social division of function has produced and armed a military +elite, leadership turns to this elite in any emergency arising from +natural disaster or social crisis. The outcome is a community directed +by a military arm seeking to perpetuate and enlarge its own role in the +determination and exercise of public authority, using any means which +seems likely to produce the desired results. + +Politically, therefore, any expanding empire or civilization reaches a +point at which absolute monarchy, exercising unquestioned authority, +makes and enforces public policy by the use of the military or with its +help. + +Many commentators write as though the essence of civilization was its +art galleries, concert halls, its universities and its libraries. Such +agencies are the trappings, decorations and fringes of a civilization. +There is no justification for such a selective approach. The strong +right-arm of every civilization has been its wealth (money) and its +martial equipment (its guns). + +Success in politics has been described as the art of selecting the +possible and bringing it to fruition. Every community is more or less +fragmented by deviations, contradictions, confrontations and conflicts. +These fragmentations begin in the personality and extend through the +entire social structure--from the individual, through the family, such +voluntary associations as the sports club, the trade union, the +merchants' association, the educational system, the political party, the +municipal or the national government. + +Unrestrained and undirected social fragmentation leads to conflict, +destruction, perhaps to chaos. Success in politics rests on an +understanding of the chaos and its causes and an integration of +conflicting forces behind specific programs and around charismatic +personalities. + +One aspect of the problem is especially disturbing and baffling to the +uninitiated. Compared with the brief adulthood of an individual the life +span of communities is immensely long. The individual is at his or her +best for a few years or decades. Communities and their institutions +endure for hundreds and in some cases for thousands of years. Under the +most favorable conditions an individual can hope to play a part in +community affairs for a decade or two. Before he comes on the stage of +public affairs and after he leaves it, social life stretches +indefinitely. + +Politics is one aspect of that more or less extensive social experience. +Its immediate objective is to bring order out of chaos and replace +randomness by purpose and if possible by plan. + +In the wake of the bourgeois revolution, which was directed particularly +against monarchy and generally against absolutism, the most obvious and +attractive social pattern was a republic, ruled by the citizens in a +manner which in their opinion was best calculated to promote their +safety and happiness. + +Under a republican government public affairs would be openly and freely +discussed by the citizens at a time or place of their choice by word of +mouth, through a free press or in public gatherings. At stated intervals +elections would be held at which all citizens of proper age would select +representatives and a legislature or parliament where questions of +public concern could be debated and appropriate measures adopted. +Implementation or execution of these measures would be placed in the +hands of executive officers responsible to the parliament. As a +safeguard against any miscarriage of the public will, the right of +petition was guaranteed. In some instances the right of referendum and +recall was provided. To obviate any miscarriage of justice, provision +was made for courts, responsible to the citizenry, as an independent arm +of government competent to protect and assert popular rights. + +Overall, citizens of the republic, through duly elected representatives, +would draw up and proclaim a constitution containing a general plan of +the governmental machinery. When adopted by the legislature or +parliament this constitution became the law of the land. Governmental +activities were carried out and laws were enacted in conformity with +constitutional provisions. In practice the citizens of the freest +republic were face to face with one of the oldest political dilemmas +confronting mankind: the question of leadership and followership. + +In almost any social situation, from trivial to grave and critical, some +one woman or man volunteers advice and often initiates action. If no one +approves, the initiative falls flat. If there is a chorus of approval, +the crowd follows the lead of its spokesman. If some approve while +others disapprove or remain silent, a show of hands is in order. If +there are real differences in the group, some taking one side, some +another side with no chance of common action, the group may divide into +several factions, some remaining in the assemblage, others departing, +with their spokesmen leading the way. + +In such confrontations there are many determining factors, the +experience and wisdom of the leadership; the urgency of the subject +under discussion; the depth of the separation between opposing factions; +the experience of the citizenry and their willingness to compromise on +divisive issues; the willingness of the factionalists to abide by a +majority decision. + +Experienced leadership, which has enjoyed a period of public approval +long enough to build up not only a group of devoted followers, but a +group of place-men and office-holders who owe their positions to the +leader, can assemble a bureaucratic or political machine, adopt measures +and take the steps necessary to keep its chosen leader in a life job, +with the possibility of naming a successor. + +Republics have adopted various measures to prevent the establishment of +a self-perpetuating dynasty, by limiting public office-holding to a +stated number of years; by providing that the office holder may not +succeed himself. Political leaders may avoid such provisions by staying +in the background, having their closest associates elected to office, +and when their term is ended, secure the selection of other associates +upon whose personal fidelity they can rely. + +All such measures require that the leader keep the favor of a +considerable number of his constituents. To avoid this often difficult +or disagreeable task the leader and his close associates may persuade +their constituency to by-pass both constitution and parliament, enlist +the support of the military, seize power and establish an arbitrary +dictatorship of admirals and generals or establish a committee of +military leaders who will pick out civilian office holders willing to +follow the political line laid down by the military leaders. + +As republics gain in wealth, increase their power and broaden their +geographical base by bringing outside peoples under their sway, their +dependence upon military means of resolving public controversies becomes +greater. This is particularly true where outsiders brought under the +republic's authority have mature political institutions including their +own leaders and their own ways of dealing with public relations. + +Given such a situation, the control by the republic over the +policy-making apparatus of dependencies is likely to have been +established by force of arms. In such a case it is only a matter of time +and occasion when the dependency will demand the right of +self-determination and be prepared to fight for independence of "foreign +tyrants, oppressors and exploiters." + +Minor inexpensive military operations for the suppression of colonial +revolt which are quickly and successfully ended may add to the stature +of empire-building leaders. But major operations, long continued, +expensive and inconclusive, will undermine the prestige and weaken the +position of the most firmly seated imperialist. The Boer War against the +British and the wars waged by the Koreans and the Vietnamese against a +series of occupiers and exploiters are excellent examples of the +operation of this principle. + +As empire building proceeds under its inescapable expansionist drive, a +point will be reached at which the overhead costs of maintaining the +empire will exceed the income. As that point is approached in one after +another of the empires comprising the civilization, the central +authority will be successfully challenged by the dependent, colonial +periphery. Ordinarily, such challenges will coincide with the +inter-imperial wars which have periodically disrupted every civilization +known to history. When such a coincidence does occur, as it did in +western civilization from 1914 to 1945, the bell is likely to toll +loudly for the civilization in question. + +Measures usually adopted to prevent such a catastrophe--martial law, +military dictatorship, self-perpetuating monarchy, divine authority, are +more than likely to heap fuel on the flames of rebellion and lead into a +social revolution. + +An unstructured social group operating under the competitive principle +"Let him take who has the power" tends to develop into absolutism. At +any stage in the history of a civilization this development can take +place. + +Civilization, therefore, comes into being with this built-in +contradiction: the strong and predatory exploit the weak, but at a +certain point protect the weak and nurture the defenseless. Exploitation +by the rich and powerful is recognized and accepted as a prerogative +enjoyed by the rich and powerful. At the same time limitations are +placed on the character and intensity of the exploitation. + +This dichotomy is perpetuated by agreements, laws and constitutions +which guarantee the property rights and social privileges by which the +rich and powerful safeguard and increase their wealth and power. Under +the same agreements, laws and constitutions, the privileges and rights +of the defenseless and weak, are specified. + +Political institutions in every civilization, including that of the +West, have accepted and adopted a regulatory structure under which +limits are imposed on profiteering. The domestic life of a civilization +consists of an establishment within which exploitation can continue in a +manner which the constitution makers and legislators consider to be as +efficient as possible and as fair as possible to all of the parties +concerned. + +As a civilization matures, wealth and power (the means of exploitation) +are increased in volume and concentrated in fewer hands. The resulting +absolutism with its immense structure of wealth production and its +well-organized military arm, imposes conformity to its decrees, +servility, peonage and even slavery on the working masses. The masses, +in their turn, organize, agitate, demonstrate, strike, sabotage, and +periodically take up, arms in defense of their lives and their +livelihood. + +We are describing certain political aspects of a process of social +selection which has dominated one civilization after another. At the +present moment it has reached a critical stage in the West. We apply the +term "social selection" to the result of this process because there is a +parallel between the natural selection of the biologists and the social +selection which sociologists observe in the rapid and extensive changes +presently taking place in the centers of western civilization. + +Natural selection is a process in the course of which many compete and +contend while only a few survive and mature. + +Social selection is a similar knock-down and drag-out struggle in which +peoples, nations, empires and civilizations take part. Many enter the +contest but only a few live to write their story in the long and complex +history of civilizations. + +At the outset of such a contest, the European-Asian-African cradle of +the coming western culture contained numerous political +fragments--kingdoms, principalities, cities, city states, inert peasant +masses, migrating tribes--struggling locally and regionally for a place +in the sun, or for additional territory and extended authority. These +struggles reached the military level in local wars, regional wars, +general wars. In the course of this survival struggle, the weakest and +least effective contestants were defeated, dismembered and gobbled up by +their stronger and more efficient opponents. + +Local struggles--in the Near and Middle East, in North Africa, in +eastern, central and western Europe--were trial heats in the course of +which many contestants were eliminated, while the survivors continued +the process of city, nation and empire building at higher and broader +levels. It was only after five hundred years of such conflicts that the +outlines of western civilization took definite political form:--a group +of battle-hardened contestants, centered in Europe, heavily armed and +equipped, intent on protecting and enlarging their home territory and +extending their authority over dependencies and colonies in various +parts of the planet. + +This survival struggle continued for another three hundred years, down +to the beginning of the present century, reaching its highest level of +intensity between 1914 and 1945, with contestants from all of the +continents taking an active part. In this present round the contestants +are nations and empires, organized in ever-changing alliances. Some of +the contestants are old, scarred and battle weary. Others are young and +vigorous, recent entrants in the planet-wide contest for pelf, +possessions and power. + +During the later years of the struggle, after war's end in 1945, +erstwhile dependencies and colonies of the disintegrating European +empires declared their independence, joined the United Nations as +sovereign states and played active parts in the battle for survival. + +African development typifies the process during the later phases of +western civilization. When voyaging and discovery became a leading +activity of European nations around 1450 A.D. northern Africa was +directly involved, but the bulk of the continent--Equatorial +Africa--remained almost entirely untouched. After 1870 the pattern was +dramatically altered as British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and +Italian forces moved inland, staking out their claims. + +Division of Africa among the great powers reached its culmination when +this process was completed, about 1910, when the whole vast continent of +Africa excepting Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa had been parcelled out +among the rival European empires. In terms of geography and population, +Africa was still African. Politically it was pre-empted, occupied, +dominated and exploited by European empire builders, who used the over, +all trade name of western civilization. + +Excessive costs of empire building, including the disastrous losses of +military struggle from 1914 to 1945, impoverished and weakened the +European overlords to such an extent that they could no longer maintain +their footholds in Africa. At the same time African minorities in +various parts of the continent launched independence movements under the +slogan of self-determination, drove out the European occupiers, +organized political states and declared that Africa must be governed by +and for Africans. + +Much of Africa, at the time, was organized along tribal lines, which cut +across the boundaries drawn by the European imperialists between their +colonial territories. The resulting chaos temporarily removed Africa +from any meaningful role in the planet-wide contest for pelf and power. +Africans are politically sovereign. Economically and culturally they +remain dependent on their former European masters. + +Politically, western civilization is in a state of flux. Its European +homeland is basically divided by potent fears, ambitions, feuds and +conflicts, and separated geographically from North America and Asia. +Despite several attempts to unify the continent politically, Europe was +disrupted, fragmented and weakened by two general wars in a single +generation. The European empires were politically and economically upset +by widespread colonial revolt in Asia and Africa. Spectacular +achievements of socialism-communism, particularly in East Europe and +Asia, added to the previous fragmentation a new line of division between +capitalist West Europe and socialist East Europe. This process of +fragmentation is giving separatist forces ascendancy over the forces of +integration and unification. + +In Roman and Egyptian civilizations, the period of survival conflict led +to the centralization of wealth and authority. After five centuries of +suicidal competitive struggle, the European homeland of western +civilization is criss-crossed by sharp lines of division. Furthermore, +the shift of production and military power from Europe to North America +and Asia reduces the probability of speedy European integration. + +In the more important centers of western civilization the chief item of +public expenditure is preparation for a war of air, water and land +machines that may extend technologically into a nuclear war. While we +have no precedent that would enable us to gauge the consequences of an +extensive nuclear war it seems reasonable to assume that it would +further fragment an already fragmented European continent. + +The heavy burdens of militarism which western civilization is presently +carrying, have unbalanced budgets, which lead to inflation and to +onerous burdens of debt and taxes. It seems unlikely that a group of +warfare states like the top western European powers can escape the +economic contraction which presently threatens them and regain solvency +and stability through fiscal reforms or readjustments in tariffs and +trade. + +Our analysis of the politics of civilization may be summarized in four +general statements: + + 1. Each civilization has consisted of a cluster of empires, + nations and peoples which at some previous period have + enjoyed independence and sovereignty. + + 2. Relations between these erstwhile sovereign units have + been determined by a shifting mixture of diplomacy and + armed force, with war playing a determining role in the + process. + + 3. In the course of survival struggle, political leadership within + the civilization has shifted back and forth as one group + has succeeded in establishing and maintaining its authority + over the entire civilization. + + 4. A general axiom of the politics of civilization might read: + + At the conclusion of each war among civilized peoples + the victors are entitled to make the following declaration: + We operate under the Law of the Jungle: "Let him take + who has the power and let him keep who can." We have + the power. We have grabbed the real and personal property + of our neighbors and we propose to keep it. Our + friends are welcome to attend our Feast of Victory. Let + our enemies beware. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +THE ECONOMICS OF CIVILIZATION + + +Politics involves the exercise of authority--the policy making, +planning, control, direction and administration of a community. Economic +forces provide the wealth, income and livelihood--the wherewithal upon +which a community depends for its physical existence, its survival, its +geographical extension, the continuance of its life cycle. + +There is no sharp line separating economics from politics. While the two +fields are different in character and scope, they are so interrelated +and interwoven that any successful attempt to separate them would leave +the inquirer with two segments of a lifeless social cadaver. In the +course of this exposition it will become increasingly evident, as the +political and economic lines cross and re-cross, that the two fields are +inseparable parts of a total body social. + +One civilization after another has begun with a predominantly rural +economy that has become increasingly urban as it matured. Food +gathering, pastoral life and small scale agriculture were rural. Trade, +commerce, manufacturing and finance, concentrated populations, increased +division of labor, specialization, inter-communication and +interdependence produced the trade center, the commercial metropolis and +the general purpose city. + +Herdsmen and land workers, dependent on grass and rainfall, lived close +to the subsistence margin and were at the mercy of forces they could not +control. Traders and money changers, with an eye for business in a +growing marketplace made a more ample living. At the same time the more +successful among them accumulated capital which they loaned or invested +in stocks of goods, shops, warehouses, caravans, ships. By hiring +labor-power they multiplied their own limited physical capacities. By +investing in varied enterprises they assured themselves against possible +loss in any one of them. They also multiplied the possibilities of +profit. + +Trade, finance and commerce, by producing a regular flow of abundant +income, brought into existence a new field of occupations and a new +class--business and the businessmen. Herdsmen and farmers depended for +their livelihood on nature, her niggardliness or generosity. The +businessmen required only the presence of a group large enough to +purchase goods and services, pay rent and interest, work for wages and +leave the profits to the enterpriser. Each profit beyond the subsistence +level enabled the businessmen to expand, buying more goods, hiring more +labor, making still greater profits. + +Communities of businessmen pooled their profits, extended their markets, +built fleets, enlarged cities. Through joint action they engaged in +plundering expeditions and collected tribute from their victims. +Organized fabrication turned out the goods and services which were +marketed for profits. The resulting wealth enabled the successful +businessmen to build houses, stock them with consumer goods and art +treasures, hire servants, live sumptuously. Productivity, wealth, +prosperity filled their honey pot to overflowing. + +Honey pots provide the "good things" of life for their owners. They also +tempt outsiders. Honey-pot owners fear pilfering by their servants; fear +sponging by their relatives, friends, neighbors; fear robbers and +kidnappers; fear migrating hordes on the lookout for plunder. Defense is +a necessary aspect of each rich household, neighborhood, city, nation, +empire, civilization. + +The sequence from productivity, through prosperity, wealth accumulation, +abundance and the measures needed to defend and safeguard the +accumulations, leads to an affluent community or society. It also calls +into being new and distinctive class forces. + + I. The business class (hucksters and profiteers), a self-seeking, + aggressive group of adventurers, promoters and + organizers of bourgeois society to whom _profit_ comes + first. At one or another stage in the life cycle of every + civilization aggressive bourgeois greed for wealth and + power makes itself felt. Their role in western civilization + has been outstanding. The business class through + its control of the productive apparatus and the sources + of credit has been able to surround itself with subordinates, + scientists and other experts, apologists, strong-arm + squads (police and military), spies and assassins. + + II. A middle class, made up of business class subordinates + plus self employed tradesmen, professionals, independent + farmers and craftsmen. + + III. A class of blue collared and white collared producers of + goods and services who hold their jobs during good + behavior. When not needed or wanted they are pushed + into the ranks of the partially or wholly unemployed. + Most civilizations have added to the working force serfs, + peons and/or chattel slaves. + + IV. A class of hangers on--economic parasites--who consume + more than they produce. The payment of unearned income + to property holders and the creation of monopolies + enables this class to live on rent, interest and profit in + proportion to their ownership. As parasitism increases + and multiplies it proves to be a dead weight which + eventually drags down any economy that tolerates it. + + V. A class of dependents, defectives and delinquents, supported + by society but contributing little or nothing to + its maintenance or its advancement. + +Every civilization has maintained a greater or lesser degree of mobility +between the classes. Mobility makes it possible for those with greater +ability and energy to leave the countryside, settle near the +market-place and climb the ladder of success. It has also made it +possible for policy makers to dump those whose services are no longer +needed or wanted by the ruling oligarchy. + +Among the driving economic forces in a civilization are hunger, fear, +greed, ambition. In practice these forces have proved far more effective +than whips and clubs in the hand of slave drivers. They animate the +rat-race for pelf, power, "success", which attracts idealism, energy, +ability and throws out the carcases of those no longer able to make a +contribution to the wealth and power of the oligarchy and its +establishment. + +Hunters, herdsmen, cultivators, craftsmen, mariners, miners perform +services that maintain the solvency of any economy in which they play a +leading role. Fast talkers, adventurers, promoters, manipulators, +gamblers add little or nothing to the income of the communities in which +they operate. Often, however, as gargantuan consumers, they play an +important role in building up the deficits which finally wreck an +economy. + +Accumulations of wealth in market centers tempts the ambitious and the +adventurous to enter the rat-race and grab more than their pro-rata +share of the honey. The most obvious way to do this is to secure +possession of the honey pot. + +Far away, in the tribal past of a civilization, lay a period of scarcity +in which the members of the community shared the scarce income or +starved. As the tribal wealth increased, the leaders, their families and +retainers got more than a fair share of the available goods, services, +preferment, privileges. At a very early stage the "ants" stored away +what they could spare, while the "grasshoppers" had a "good time". +Investing their stored wealth in land or productive enterprises the +"ants" added unearned income to their normal earnings from productive +labor. + +Because the "ants" held the wealth of the community they were able to +exercise authority and determine community policy. One result of their +decisions was the creation of titles to land and stored wealth. A second +result was the institution of property-custom and later of property-law +under which those who owned property enjoyed special privileges which +gave them still larger shares of the community wealth and income. + +Wealth ownership and the exercise of authority, concentrated in one +person or family, created a basic division in the community between +those whose livelihood depended on their labor and those whose income +was determined by their ownership of property and their exercise of +authority. In the course of time this development divided the community +into a property-owning, governing minority which was wealthy, and a +property-poor majority whose livelihood depended upon the willingness of +the property holding minority to use their land and productive +implements in operations that turned out goods and services. + +Property ownership and income were protected by law. Labor income +depended on the bargaining power of the property-less majority. Property +income yielded wealth to the property owners. Labor income, under the +pressure of competition in the labor market, yielded only subsistence. +Thus the community was divided into owners and workers. The owners +controlled and spent or invested the income. The workers were provided +with the necessaries and a few crumbs of comfort. + +Private property and property law supported by state power +institutionalized a basic division in every civilization. One segment of +a civilized community enjoyed wealth and power; other segments produced +goods and performed services. The owners were rich; the producers were +poor. Riches side by side with poverty are characteristic features of a +civilized society. + +Exploitation has been the economic backbone of every civilization from +earliest times to the present day. Each civilization has exploited and +used up its natural resources. In every civilization individuals, +groups, classes and sometimes castes have exploited or used up fellow +humans and fellow creatures to suit their own purposes and advance their +own interests. + +Abraham Lincoln gave a classical definition of human exploitation in a +simple sentence: "It is the principal that says you work and toil and +earn bread and I will eat it." + +Exploitation of nature and of fellow beings by man began long before +written history. During periods of civilization, and notably in +present-day civilization, exploitation has determined social +relationships. It has also become one of the pillars of every civilized +community. + +Civilized peoples use up natural resources as a matter of course. The +more advanced technically have stripped their environments of +replaceable and irreplaceable resources. They have also perfected +techniques for using the productive power of their fellow creatures. One +way to do this is by owning the body. Another way is ownership of land, +capital and consumer goods which enable the owner to live without labor +on the products resulting from the labor of others. + +Owners of property and wealth receive an income because they are owners. +They may be very young or very old, able-bodied or helpless. Their +livelihood comes to them not because of anything they do, but because of +the property titles which they own. + +The owner of land may collect rent. The owner of capital may collect +interest. The owner of an enterprise may collect profits. Each lives by +owning. + +Workers produce goods and services. They are paid an income proportioned +to their production. + +Owners of land, capital and consumer goods are paid incomes proportioned +to their ownership. + +Workers work for a living. Owners live by ownership, chiefly of land and +the implements of production. + +Owners of property frequently are rich. Workers, by comparison, are +poor. The line separating owners from workers also separates riches from +poverty. + +Income from services rendered, from work, is earned income. Income from +property ownership, by contrast, is unearned income. + +The relation between earned and unearned income is not confined to one +generation. Under laws passed by the owners and their retainers the +owners of private property may give or bequeath this property to their +descendants. In the course of time a community is divided between +workers who are poor and owners who are rich. Since the rich need not +work in order to live, they and those associated with them may live on +the unearned income derived from property ownership. In a word, they may +become parasitic. + +Parasitism may lead to social decay. Generation after generation, the +owners and their dependants may live in comfort or even in luxury while +those who work and their dependents may lack simple necessities. This is +the confrontation of riches and poverty which has played so large a role +in every civilization. + +Through the ages, in one civilization after another, the glaring +contrast between riches and poverty has appeared, dividing the community +and laying the foundation for class struggle and class war, both of +which decrease social efficiency, intensify class antagonism. + +In the early stages of any culture cycle, barter is replaced by a money +economy. Money is a medium of exchange, usually issued by a public +authority and used in daily transactions, to pay tribute or taxes and to +meet other general expenses. In its earlier forms it is made of +relatively scarce materials that are in general demand, limited in +supply and easily divisible into smaller units. Gold, silver and other +metals meet these requirements and have been used as money through the +ages. + +Cash money and promises to pay speed up wholesale and retail exchanges +in the market place. They fill the bill in normal times. But there are +emergencies and other exceptions. One of the commonest of the +emergencies is war. + +In a previous chapter we pointed out that war is a characteristic +feature of a civilization that has passed the top-point of its expansion +and begun to decline. Then the chickens come home to roost. Civil war, +colonial wars and wars between imperial rivals follow each other, +creating emergencies in which demand for certain strategic goods and +services rises steeply, with no corresponding increase in supply. Prices +increase. The common defense requires immediate purchase of supplies. +The public treasury is exhausted. The government borrows from money +lenders (bankers). It also prints paper money and puts it in +circulation. + +If the credit of the government is good, if the emergency is of short +duration, matters right themselves and the economy survives without +serious derangements. But war-emergency disrupts and sometimes destroys +an economy. This outcome often results from military defeat. + +Another exception to normal economic transactions is buying on +credit--buying today and paying tomorrow. The temporary gap between +purchase and payment is filled by credit--a promise of the purchaser to +pay later and the confidence of the seller that the bill will be paid. +Such credit transactions are covered by notes, bonds and mortgages made +out by the buyer and accepted by the seller. Until the debt is settled, +the borrower pays the seller interest at an agreed rate. Bankers enter +the picture, providing capital and collecting interest on their loans. + +Where credit is abundant and relatively cheap, borrowers spend beyond +their incomes, hoping to pay later when the loan falls due. Borrowing +and over-spending are among human frailties. They are also forms of +risk-taking or gambling. Who knows whether the banker who promises to +pay on demand will be alive and doing business next week when his +promise to pay is presented for settlement? When the promise to pay is +issued by a government which decides the value of currency, and accepted +by that government as payment for taxes and other obligations, it is +more readily acceptable than paper issued and guaranteed by an +individual money lender or banker. + +Each civilization has had a background of simple use economy--food +gathering, animal husbandry, agriculture--in which most of the people +produced what they needed and consumed what they produced. Such an +economy employs money rarely. + +In a money economy those who have cash use it to pay their bills or +settle their accounts. + +Those who buy on credit pay interest to money lenders. The money +lenders, later the bankers, make their profits by helping others to +spend beyond their own means. The money-lender also accepted loans from +others, promising to pay them back at a later date, and giving the +lender a piece of paper, specifying the amount of the loan. The paper +promise to pay became a bank-note, passed from hand to hand. It had no +intrinsic value, but as the money lender promised to pay cash for the +note on demand, it was accepted in payment of debts or for the purchase +of commodities. + +When a shirt-maker turns out a product and exchanges it for a pair of +shoes made by a shoemaker there are no overhead costs. Each producer +adds to his wardrobe an item that makes his life more satisfactory. + +Examples of simple barter are seldom found in market economies. +Civilized society assembles quantities and varieties of goods and +services in the market place, invites consumers to choose among the +wares and provides money to make transactions quick and easy. Civilized +society supplements money with credit on the principle: buy and use +today; pay tomorrow. Civilization goes beyond these bare essentials of +merchandizing by furnishing transportation and communication, making +long term loans at interest, writing insurance, developing the +techniques of accounting and management. Customers who visit the market +have basic human needs--the necessities of life. Beyond these +necessaries, there are conveniences, comforts, luxuries. The markets of +civilization cover the entire range of human needs and human wants from +necessaries to luxuries. + +Civilized merchandizers take two other steps aimed to activate +consumption. They develop new lines of merchandise that will have more +customer appeal, leading to new wants. They also advertise new wares +that will create new wants, bring back old customers and attract new +ones. + +For the foot-weary customer who has shopped away his energy and +enthusiasm for buying more and more, a civilized marketplace furnishes +food and shelter, recreation, entertainment and culture--beer, +libraries, concert halls and circuses as well as food, clothing and +shelter. + +These multiple functions of a civilized economy are part and parcel of +the changes which have converted the simple barter deal of exchanging a +pair of shoes for a shirt into a specialized, civilized market place. +They also cause civilized economies to devote far more time and money to +marketing goods and services than they spend in their manufacture. In a +broad sense, these supplementary costs are "overhead." + +Shirt makers and shoemakers convert raw materials and partly finished +goods into shirts and shoes. Operating costs of manufacture are minimal +in a civilized economy. The major items that go into the final price of +the product are overhead costs. + +Current accounting practices include in overhead: taxes, interest, +insurance and general items. Actually the price of goods and services in +a civilized economy includes minimal charges for raw materials and labor +and maximum charges for overhead. + +There is another phase of overhead which pyramids with each advance in +the extent and complexity of a civilization--taxes to cover the costs of +government. As the civilization expands and specializes, governmental +services multiply. The number of government workers grows in proportion +and often out of proportion to the total production costs. Expenses of +government rise and with them the corresponding need to increase taxes. + +Overhead costs in the village or small town are low. Much of the "public +service" is done by citizens who volunteer their time and energy. In the +centers of civilization public service is a profession, often well paid +and usually quite permanent. + +Expansion is a basic feature in the life of every civilization. +Expansion increases overhead costs. When American Indians made their +silent way through the forests or roamed the plains there was no +overhead. Each provided his own means of locomotion. With roads came +bridges. With roads and bridges came capital costs. As dirt roads gave +way to macadam and macadam to asphalt and concrete, as country roads, +winding over hill and through dale were replaced by graded superhighways +cut straight through or built over all obstacles, the cost per mile rose +fantastically. All of these added costs appeared somewhere in the tax +bills which citizens were required to pay. + +In any enterprise overhead costs rise in direct proportion to the extent +and complexity of the social order. As they rise, they increase the +prices of the goods and services which citizens (or consumers) must pay +for their livelihood. A good illustration of this principle is the price +of an identical acre of land: in the remote countryside; on an improved +highway; in the suburbs of a growing city and at the city center. + +Increasing wealth brings greater risks. Wealthy cities like wealthy +individuals and families must pay for their protection against robbery +and piracy; against extortion and expropriation. Among important +business enterprises insurance ranks high. The costs and profits of +insurance are suggested by elaborate insurance company buildings and the +high salaries paid to their officials. + +Insurance, usually a private overhead, comes high. Public insurance: +maintenance of law and order, crime and punishment, the secret and open +police, the armed forces, (land and sea and air) are vastly more +expensive. If, to these limited costs of overhead are added the costs of +militarism as a public enterprise and the ruinous costs of military +adventurism and its inevitable wars, the mounting costs lead to +insolvency and eventual economic and social ruin. + +Another overhead cost which plays havoc with civilized nations and +peoples is the support of a bureaucracy. Increased extent and complexity +exhaust the community capacity for voluntary service and lead into an +era where the volunteers who carried on the limited public activities of +a village are supplemented and eventually replaced by a constantly +growing body of public servants. Growing extent and complexity plus the +need for finding safe places for those who are useful to the rich and +powerful, widens and deepens the public crib. In large enterprises, +private as well as public, paper work employs a small army, which must +be fed and housed at a level worthy of "a great nation." Business +machines reduce the personnel necessary for a given social enterprise, +but their high capital and operational costs increase overhead. + +Another aspect of overhead costs is the multiplication of parasitic +professions. In simple villages, there are few body servants, no +able-bodied individuals who fetch and carry at the word of command, or +who only stand and wait for the moment when some whim, fancy or real +need may call for their services. + +Village life, with its limited area and still more limited resources, +has little economic surplus upon which parasitism can feed. There is +landlordism, of course, but the margin of surplus is small. The city, +the province, the nation, the empire present a different picture. +Parasitic professions abound and proliferate: money changers, money +lenders, realtors, confidence men, gamblers, fortune tellers, priests, +entertainers, artists, thieves, robbers, and prostitutes abound, consume +more than their share of the community income, without making an +equivalent return in production or service. Their support adds to the +social overhead. + +Another source of social overhead are the numerous followers of the +"something for nothing" cult who receive unearned income--an income +derived from civilization in its mature and its final stages. + +Broadly there are two types of income--earned income and unearned +income. Earned income is something for something--or return for goods +provided or service rendered. Unearned income is something for +nothing--an income derived from some monopoly, privilege, sinecure or +form of property ownership. + +Property in persons or things has been a characteristic feature of all +civilizations. Property owners, receiving rents, interest, dividends, in +proportion to the amount of property which they own are not called upon +to make equivalent return in exchange for their property--based income. +This personal parasitism of property owners is aggravated by provisions +of property law under which the owners of property can give, sell or +bequeath these sources of unearned income to family members, friends, +associates. + +Eventually, unearned income, handed on through generations, creates a +class or even a caste of citizens who live without rendering an +equivalent of services, on the labor of their fellows, adding a +significant amount to the total of overhead costs. + +Wealth ownership, the exercise of power, living in luxury on unearned +income, add to overhead costs, but are accepted as respectable in +civilized communities. Another and far less respectable form of social +parasitism is the manipulation of social forces in a way that will bring +the operator more than a fair share of social income with no equivalent +in service. Such is "politics" or "politicising." "Politics" as a +source of livelihood takes many forms, some less legitimate than others. + +The most usual source of office-holding is the humble work of the clerk, +handyman or messenger, responsible for carrying out the nagging routine +of government. Beyond this common labor of public service are public +servants skilled in their several professions. Beyond and above them are +department heads and still higher are the appointed or elected officials +responsible for the success or failure of a given public policy. + +Who are the occupants of town, city, state, and national positions of +authority and responsibility? Preferably they are elected or appointed +because of their popularity or are the successful product of civil +service examinations. At worst they are appointed as a return for favors +or else because they are relatives or friends of successful politicians +or their backers. + +Whatever its source and however efficient or inefficient its +performance, the body of paid public servants increases with the +expanding life of locality, region, province, state, nation and empire. +With its growth goes corresponding accommodations in wages and salaries, +office space and equipment and other routine outlays. Frequently the +increase of the emoluments of bureaucrats, especially at the higher +levels of authority and responsibility, creates sinecures which are +filled by parasites or by individuals who are engaged in shoring up the +bureaucracy rather than rendering a public service. The outlays +necessary to finance such a top-heavy bureaucratic fabric grow in direct +proportion to the age and rigidity of the bureaucracy, draining off +public funds into private coffers and adding uncompensated elements to +overhead costs. If inflation is a problem, at or beyond the apex of an +imperial epoch or cycle of civilization, financial costs rise +correspondingly. + +The chief overhead cost in every civilization is and has been war. +Examine the budget of the United States or any other leading civilized +power. From two-thirds to three-quarters of central government outlays +are for war in the past and preparation for war in the future. + +The net result of rising overhead costs appears in the history of all +previous civilizations. They are eating out the vitals of western +civilization while we write and read these words. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +THE SOCIOLOGY OF CIVILIZATION + + +Sociology is the science and art of association. + +Human associations range from kinship groups like the family, tribe and +clan to larger more complex groups like villages, towns, cities, +nations, empires, to still more inclusive leagues, federations and +civilizations. + +In a broad view, sociology includes politics, economics and ideology. +For the purposes of our social analysis, we have divided the field into +four separate categories, beginning with politics, continuing through +economics and drawing our study together under the general headings of +sociology and ideology. + +No civilization that we have studied can be regarded as an intentional +or projected or planned enterprise. On the contrary, civilizations have +developed and matured in true pragmatic fashion, taking one step after +another because their predecessors had followed this course or because, +given the human urges and the available natural and social +opportunities, the next step seemed to be determined by previous steps +plus the momentum of the enterprise. In the course of this development +an ideology was built up and modified in such a way as to justify and +strengthen the entire project. + +When William Penn received a grant of land from the English Crown, he +was already committed, ideologically, by the Quaker faith to Quaker +methods. Without ever seeing his proposed home across the Atlantic he +drew up a plan for his City of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia), and for +the organization and conduct of his enterprise. The entire project was +formulated in Penn's mind and put on paper. This is a good example of an +intentional community. + +No civilization so far as I know, has followed such a sequence. +Certainly in the civilizations with which we are most familiar, +political and economic forces, the principles of necessity and +availability have led to the formulation of an ideology that would +justify and promote the interests of the social group which was +controlling and directing the community or communities in which the +civilization was maturing. + +Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that each of the component +elements making up the expanding civilization--each people, city, state, +nation, empire--developed its own total culture pattern, subject to the +pressures mutually exerted by neighboring communities. The aggregate of +these culture patterns, separately and often antagonistically matured, +comprised a lesser totality called an empire and a larger totality +called a civilization. It is with this larger totality that we are +concerned. + +We propose to analyse the sociology of civilization under the following +headings: (1) the structure or anatomy; (2) the function, physiology, or +process; (3) motive forces in civilization; (4) contradictions and +conflicts, with a final section on the life cycle of civilization. + +The structure of human society consists of specialized economic, +political, administrative and cultural groupings assembled and +maintained in relationships that supply necessities, conveniences, +comforts, luxuries for the individuals, together with capital goods and +services for the social groups composing the civilization. + +In terms of social history the growth of structure has proceeded from +the horde, tribe and clan to the family, village, city, city-state, +nation, empire, civilization. These steps are not necessarily +sequential. Under varying social conditions they have been determined +and modified by particular historical situations. The smallest and most +intimate building block of human society has been the family. The +largest and most inclusive has been the civilization. The family as a +social group has existed for long periods, over wide areas, in immense +numbers. Civilizations have been few and often far between. They have +arisen out of particular historical situations, played distinctive +roles, written their own histories and made varying contributions to the +sum total of human culture. In the long time intervals and the wide +geographical distances that have separated civilizations human beings +have lived within more local and less complex social structures. + +Civilized human society is distinctive in structure. While it varies in +detail from one civilization to another, its broad outline is +unmistakable. Each civilization has been built, defended and perpetuated +in and around cities. + +Between civilizations, in time and space, most human communities have +been self-sufficient. Whether as food gatherers, pastoral people or +cultivators of the soil they have produced and consumed the food, +shelter, clothing, implements and weaponry required for their survival. + +The city, whether a political capital or a center of trade and commerce, +was sharply separated from the self-sufficient countryside. The city, by +its very nature, could not be self-sufficient. Food, building supplies +and raw materials were not produced inside the city limits, but must be +produced in the hinterland from which they were transported to the +cities. City dwellers devised means of paying for the production, +transportation and marketing of these necessary imports. The countryside +can and does exist independently of the city because it can provide the +goods and services on which its existence depends. The city, on the +contrary, cannot exist without the supplies produced in the hinterland +and transported to the city. + +Urban centers of civilization have for their background a pastoral and +agricultural source of food supplemented by fabrication, merchandising +and financing. Instead of the occupational uniformity of the +countryside, the city offers a wide range of occupations, increased +productivity, quick and substantial profits resulting in a build-up of +capital on one side and enlarged consumer spending on the other. +Consequently the successful competitor in the race for supremacy +develops productivity, accumulates wealth, expands capital spending, +enlarges the scope of the arts, thereby augmenting the city's +attractiveness to business enterprise and migrants from the hinterland. + +As the capital city grows in wealth and opportunity it requires larger +imports of food, raw materials, building supplies, manpower. Growing +internal need leads to greater external expansion. Economic, political, +administrative and cultural needs not only increase the demands of the +city on its existing hinterland, but they lead to a demand for a more +widely extended hinterland. + +The countryside is the goose that lays the golden eggs. The city +gathers, guards and eventually consumes the eggs or converts them into +capital forms and lives in part on this unearned income. + +The city is the mecca which attracts by its wide ranging opportunities. +It is also the center in which policies are made and offered to the +countryside as normal facts of life. The countryside accepts city +leadership including a higher wealth-power per capita ratio for the +city. + +Cities, with their accumulations of population and wealth, are walled or +otherwise defended. When danger threatens, countrymen often move inside +the walls until the danger abates. + +Cities and city life increase and expand with the growth and expansion +of civilization. Cities are the centers from which civilization grows +and expands. Historically, a number of cities or city-states have +competed for survival and supremacy. One by one they have dropped out of +the race or have been out-classed, defeated and/or absorbed by the +victors in the competitive struggle. One location proved to be more +advantageous than others. The inhabitants of one locality were more +skillful, more far sighted than those of rival localities. Many +competed. Eventually one survived the final round of struggle, emerging +as the nucleus of an expanding empire and a maturing civilization. A +protracted conflict raging first in Italy and later in the entire +Mediterranean basin, resulted in the Roman Empire and eventually in +Roman civilization. A similar series of struggles, this time +planet-wide, gave the British a taste of planetary supremacy in the +nineteenth century and opened the door wide enough to give the United +States oligarchy a glimpse of an American Twentieth century, which never +eventuated. + +Occupational differences within the city led to a differentiated class +structure. As the trading city developed, businessmen eventually played +a dominant role because they were able to command larger incomes, +accumulate more wealth and offer more aggressive leadership. + +Nuclei of both empire and civilization were associated with a cluster of +allies, client states, dependencies and colonies related to the center +by economic interests and by diplomatic bargains or political controls. +They paid tribute or taxes as the price of living within the defense +perimeter of the ruling elite, conforming to the chief aspects of its +culture and in emergencies taking refuge inside the city defenses. + +The city center made and implemented policy and provided local +leadership in emergencies. Inhabitants of the city enjoyed a superior +status and had a higher standard of consumer-living than most of those +who inhabited the countryside and the hinterland. + +A structured society based on division of labor and/or function enjoys a +competitive superiority over a classless community. The structured city +was not only richer than the countryside, but it was in a position to +provide leadership, to plan and implement policy and act more +effectively. + +A civilization consists of a cluster of associated allies, clients, +dependencies, and colonies bound together by economic, political and +cultural ties. Since armed force has been the chief instrument for +bringing these elements together, the agency responsible for exercising +armed force enjoys priority in a listing of the structural institutions +of civilization. + +Land owners, often acting as military chieftains, dominated the +hinterland of a civilization. The city was dominated by businessmen. The +unification of city and hinterland and the complex of cities and +hinterlands composing a civilization established a governmental +apparatus in which all ruling elements were represented. In the earlier +stages of a civilization there may have been assemblies or parliaments +composed of representatives of various interests. As the civilization +was unified by war, representation was replaced by some form of monarchy +in which one supreme commander, emperor or pharoah was the final judge +and arbiter. The monarch set up a network of public authority, regional +as well as universal, provincial as well as central, and garrisoned it +with professional soldiers and sailors paid by the monarch and +responsible to him. + +Corresponding with this political structure was an economic structure +consisting of a central treasury, a uniform system of weights, measures +and values, a system of spending priorities, decided by the central +authority, a source of income: taxes, tribute, booty, sufficient to +cover expenditures. + +A civilization which ran a chronic deficit--over-spending its +income--moved year by year, through debt, inflation, currency +degradation, and repudiation toward its own disintegration and ultimate +bankruptcy. The historical record is very clear on this point, +especially in Roman civilization and in western civilization after 1870. + +Most civilizations have had a body of religious institutions staffed by +a priestcraft, which has shared power with the economic overlords. +During certain periods in the long history of Egyptian civilization the +priestcraft held the balance of power. So great was its ascendancy that +the spoils of war and the gains of peace were shared by the temple +treasury and the royal treasury. In some cases the temple treasuries had +priority. + +All civilizations for at least five thousand years have had a +professional military of sufficient consequence to play a leading role +in policy making and to claim a lion's share of the spoils of military +victory. In some cases civil and military authority were merged in one +supreme commander--emperor, pharoah. At other times, notably in Rome, +after the fall of the Republic, the Pretorian Guard nominated and +appointed its emperors. + +Well up toward the summit of each known civilization, four groups have +shared authority and competed for supremacy: land-lords, wealth-lords, +war-lords and priests. Where these four major shapers of public policy +and directors of public administration were of like mind, they shared +wealth and power. When they differed, one or another enjoyed priority +and exercised some measure of control over the other three. + +Less personal, but of major concern among the institutions of +civilization were the channels of communication and transportation that +have played so decisive a role in the life of every civilization. Top +ranking among the means of communication were common language, spoken +and written on metal, papyrus, paper; a unified system of accounting and +cost keeping; permanent records. Among the means of transport were +waterways, including canals, viaducts, roads, bridges skillfully built +and kept in good repair. + +Another significant institution of civilization is the idea of +ownership, the division of property into public property and private +property and the right of the private property owner to do what he will +with his property, subject always to the over-riding principle of +eminent domain: the right of the community to expropriate private +property for public uses, with or without compensation. + +Another institution of civilization is the provision of public services +in addition to means of communication and transportation. These public +services include a water supply; the disposal of waste; public defense +of life and property; food and diversion (bread and circuses) for the +needy; fire prevention and fire fighting apparatus; educational +facilities, including libraries and reading rooms; outside recreational +facilities such as parks and play-grounds. All of these facilities could +be provided by the rich and powerful for themselves and members of their +families. They could be supplied more effectively and apportioned more +justly when they were public services open to all. + +The countryside lacks the financial and the administrative means of +providing a wide range of public services. Indeed, countryside dwellers +pride themselves on being able to provide necessary services on a +family, household or village basis. City dwellers learn to regard such +public services as a matter of public right. Their existence is a magnet +which draws a steady stream of migrants from the countryside into the +cities. + +Civilizations are dominated by business interests. It is for them to +provide facilities for the transaction of business, cash money, credit +instruments, installment buying, means for changing money, insurance, +discounting facilities. As a civilization grows in wealth and population +the political apparatus becomes a major employer, a major producer of +goods and services, a major purchaser of producer and consumer goods, a +major agency for borrowing, lending, insuring, in short a major factor +in the multitudinous activities of a commercial, industrial community. + +Classes, class interests and class lines are a part and parcel of all +civilizations. They are less rigid and more flexible than similar lines +existing in an agrarian community where land ownership plays so large a +role in determining social forms and social functions. In a static +agrarian community dominated by landlords, war-lords and the clergy, +rigid class lines help to hold the community together. In a community +dominated by business interests, both labor power and purchasing power +must be free to respond to demand and supply. This is as true in a +planned public economy as it is in a private enterprise economy. In +accordance with the same principle, facilities are provided for the +movement of individuals back and forth across class lines. + +The specialized, interdependent structure of civilization with its city +control of the hinterland, its products and inhabitants, enabled the +city-centered oligarchy to accumulate and concentrate wealth and +monopolize power, to skim the cream from the available milk, monopolize +the cream, distribute the skimmed milk judiciously and thus perpetuate +its ascendancy through generations and centuries. During periods of +expansion civilized communities develop a dynamism which maintains their +ascendancy. In subsequent periods of contraction form takes over, +imposing conformity on the status quo. + +During their periods of expansion civilizations are dynamic. Their +history records growth at home, expansion abroad, exploitation, +domestic and foreign under the pressure of effective motivating forces. +The resulting dynamism leads to the contradictions, confrontations and +conflicts which have studded the internal and external life story of +every civilization. + +Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of the dynamic functioning of +civilization is its growth in magnitude. It might be more accurate to +describe the process as an explosive expansion--explosive because rapid +and spectacular. + +Form limits function. At the same time function modifies and ultimately +determines form. The two factors are omnipresent and complementary. +Except for purposes of analysis they are two inseparable aspects of +every human society. Where form predominates, social status results. +Where function predominates fluidity, flexibility and dynamism are the +outcome. Rapid change occurs on the home front at the same time that it +is taking place abroad. + +Growth at home takes place in two fields. The first is the extension of +the homeland frontiers, broadening the geographical area of the nucleus +around which the civilization is being built. The second aspect of +growth involves an increase in multiplicity, variety and complexity and +perhaps also a higher level of quality. Increase in quality is an +optional feature of growth and expansion. Toward the end of a cycle of +civilization quality declines. + +For the record we list fourteen aspects of the domestic growth of +civilization: (1) population; (2) production of goods and services; (3) +trade, commerce, finance; (4)wealth, capital, income, capital +construction; (5) the defense establishment; (6) growth in numbers and +in variety of consumer goods and services; (7) specialization; (8) +formal education, literacy, learning; (9) advances in science and +technology; (10) growth in the arts; (11) rising standards of luxury for +the oligarchy and growth in the volume of the professional and technical +middle class and their living standards; (12) growth of the state +bureaucratic apparatus in its complexity and in the number of its +personnel; (13) growth of the sources of unearned income and especially +in the number of persons living on unearned income; (14) growth of +dependents, delinquents, criminals and other outlaws. This list is not +exhaustive, but it is indicative of the wide area in which domestic +growth takes place. + +Paralleling their domestic expansion, civilizations expand +geographically up to the point of diminishing returns, determined by the +growth of overhead costs. This process has taken the civilization, its +personnel, its institutions and practices into territory not heretofore +occupied, sometimes with the consent of the "foreigners", but more often +in the teeth of their determined and long-continued opposition. + +Expansion of a civilization is of necessity a movement from an urban +center and beyond the urban center. Each civilization has been built +around one or more urban nuclei which accepted and practiced expansion +as the primary law of their beings. + +Expansion takes many forms. It may be peaceful, as travel is peaceful. +It may be competitive, as trade is competitive. It may be economically +aggressive; the search for markets, for raw materials, for investment +opportunities carried on simultaneously by representatives of long time +rival cities, states, empires. It may be a movement for a place in the +sun; mass migration, colonization. It may take the form of planned +military invasion having as its purpose the conquest and occupation of +foreign territory; the subjugation of the citizenry of the conquered +lands; the establishment of an alien government in the conquered +territory; the reduction of the "natives" to the status of second class +citizens in their own homelands; exploitation of the natural resources; +the levying of tribute; the imposition of taxes and the expropriation of +moveable articles such as bullion, works of art and other treasure by +the invaders, conquerors and occupiers. + +Policies of expansion, conquest and occupation rely upon weaponry and +war-making as essential instruments. Historically their role has been +frankly recognized by builders of every empire and the leaders of every +civilization. All civilizations known to history prepared for war and +utilized war as the final arbiter in their pursuit of expansionist +policy. Empire builders and civilizers have taken it for granted that +might made right. The mighty, in terms of military striking power and +killing power, have fought over and inherited the earth. + +The practices of every civilization have centered about exploitation--of +natural resources, of labor power, of rivals in the race for supremacy, +of weaker and less aggressive peoples. Expansion gives the ruling +oligarchy of the expanding nation, empire or civilization command of the +strategic vantage points from which the principle of exploitation can be +made continuously operative. + +We have dealt with exploitation in connection with the economics of +civilization (Chapter 7). Its central concept is the "you work--I eat" +formula. In sociological terms it extends far beyond livelihood, into +the relations of man with the natural environment (ecology); the +management and direction of labor power and policy making; social +administration and policy implementation, including policing of the +territories lying within the frontiers of the nation, empire or +civilization, plus contacts and relationships with territories lying +outside the frontiers: in short, with the success or failure, the +domination or subordination of the territory under consideration. + +Structurally and functionally a civilization cannot remain static. It +must expand or contract. If it expands, crossing frontiers and +penetrating areas heretofore considered foreign or alien, and proposes +to remain in those alien territories, it must have sufficient means at +its disposal to continue the administration of its home territory and at +the same time to take on the administration of the newly acquired +foreign territory. + +Home territory administration has as its broad purpose the utilization +of available means to attain its ends and serve its interests. +Administration of areas into which the home forces are penetrating must +attain the same ends and serve the same interests on the "you work--I +eat" axiom. Unless the newly acquired territory can attain those ends +and serve those interests it is a liability, not an asset, and its +continued existence will pose a threat to the expansionist venture. + +Natural resources, plus labor power, plus effective management and +direction must be integrated in the interests of the entire enterprise. +Self determination is of secondary consequence, coming into play only +after the interests of the whole have been assured and safeguarded. + +There is of course the collective principle under which the interests of +the whole can be best served through the cooperation of its component +elements. But this is a horse of quite another color. It presupposes the +willingness of the respective parts to enter voluntarily into a +cooperative relationship. Sociologically speaking this is the antithesis +of the situation we have been considering: expansion and exploitation in +the interests and for the purposes of the expanding forces. So long as +expansion and exploitation are accepted and practiced as the basic +principles of any community, so long independence and self-determination +will be irrelevant and inimical to the dominant elements in the nation, +empire or civilization under consideration. + +Under the "you work--I eat" formula natural resources will be utilized +in the manner best calculated to advance the interests of the ruling +oligarchy. Who will be the judge, jury and executioner in the case? Who +else but the concerned ruling oligarchy? + +In the history of civilization this principle has been followed +systematically. The forests have been cleared away, the land has been +overgrazed, cultivated and exposed to the erosive attacks of sunlight, +air, water and frost. Wood from the forests has been hauled to the +cities and burned, has been used to construct palaces and temples, +houses and ships, with no recognition of the principles of priority or +renewal. If wood was available where must it go? The oligarchy decided +the issue in terms of ostentation and expediency. Rarely during recorded +human history have there been oligarchs who said: "Irreplaceable +resources like minerals must be used with extreme economy. Replaceable +resources like forests or top-soil must be used and at the same time +replaced and if possible augmented." + +Decision making in the civilizations reported by history has been +chiefly in the hands of specially privileged minorities. The purpose of +these minorities has revolved around the provision of comforts and +luxuries for the decision makers and their dependents and the increase +of their wealth and power. Rarely has any ruling oligarchy said: "The +continuance of our privileges and our barest existence is the result of +labor power applied to natures gifts. We must safeguard nature and +improve the health and vitality of those who do the world's work. If, +due to unforeseen circumstances, over which we have failed to exercise +adequate control, there is some shortage, let the idler and the wastrel +suffer. Under all circumstances the producers must have all those goods +and services needed to preserve their productive efficiency." + +Through the entire course of written history the shrewdest, the +strongest, the best fed and most comfortably housed have gained wealth +and power, kept them and added to them. This has been the central +sociological principle followed by the wealth-owning, power-wielding +oligarchs of one civilization after another. Nature has been polluted, +despoiled, pillaged. Society has been exploited and plundered. Most +civilizations, during most of their history, have been led and ruled by +the rich and powerful, who have used their wealth and power to advance +their own interests, with scant respect for the hewers of wood, the +drawers of water and the tillers of the soil. Those at the imperial +center have milked the periphery. Cooperation has been occasional and +confined largely to pre-civilized communities. In all civilizations +exploitation has been the rule; the exploitation of nature, of labor +power and of the social fabric. + +The record of natural resources exploitation is well known. Paul Sears' +_Deserts on the March_; Fairfield Osborn's _Our Plundered Planet_; +William Vogt's _Road to Survival_, and Rachel Carson's _Silent Spring_ +tell the story of the misuse and the extravagant abuse of nature. The +record of labor power exploitation is less publicized. + +Food gatherers like the North American Indians had no machinery and a +minimum of implements or weapons. They migrated with the weather and the +available game, traveling with their possessions. Herdsmen also moved +about in search of pasture. Land workers faced four new problems. They +must stay with their land and make a weather-proof habitat in dwellings +and villages. They must make the implements needed for farming, building +and defense against marauders. They must accumulate and preserve enough +food to carry them from one harvest to the next. They must improve and +beautify their artifacts and constructs. Traders added a fifth +must--they must produce and accumulate stocks to meet the needs of +various customers as well as their own greed for profits. + +Successive stages, from food gathering to trading and manufacturing, +required more energy--human energy, animal energy, and eventually +mechanical energy. Part of this energy enabled humans to survive, +another part enabled them to multiply. Still another part made it +possible for one portion of the population to live without productive +work on the work output of their fellow creatures. This exploiting +minority was headed by land owners, soldiers and priests. + +Landowners built themselves and their dependents strong houses and +castles. Much of the labor power that went into this construction was +"forced." The laborer gave the landlord labor time in exchange for the +privilege of working part of the land for his own support. Soldiers +defended the landlord and joined plundering forays on the territory of +neighbors. The priests, in exchange for sustenance, mollified "higher +powers" and built temples in which the people could gather, worship and +be admonished. + +Farsighted, energetic, resourceful men (and women), using mass +productive energy, built themselves castles, built their priests temples +and mobilized serfs, war captives and slaves who worked in gangs for +generations and centuries to assemble the raw materials, construct and +decorate the buildings, and perform the services needed to operate the +enterprises and to provide their owners and masters with the +necessaries, comforts, luxuries. + +As centers of civilization grew richer and more powerful they defeated +neighboring peoples, brought some of them home as war captives and +exacted from their defeated rivals promises to pay yearly tribute in the +form of timber, metals, food and often of slaves. + +Mobilization of energy resources had been proceeding on a small scale +for ages. Successful civilizers made this one of their chief tasks, +mobilizing energy forces and materials and using them to build palaces, +temples, mausoleums and whole city complexes with appropriate defenses +against marauders and other enemies. + +Administrative networks, adequate to produce such results, planned and +directed the construction and administered and policed the operations. +Using elaborate techniques of communication, transportation, +fabrication, beautification, accounting, planning, initiative, +leadership, mobilization, maintenance and replacement of labor power, +imposition and sharing of authority, discipline, adjustment to deviation +and opposition, means for dealing with revolt and rebellion, the +builders of civilization performed their necessary tasks. + +As civilizations have matured they have grown at the nucleus, expanded +abroad and experimented more or less successfully with various means of +exploiting nature, man and human society. Most of the competitors for +survival and supremacy dropped out or were forced out in the course of +continuous survival struggles. + +Survivors of the obstacle race dealt successively with personal +rivalries; class conflicts; civil wars; dictatorships; tyrannies; with +overhead costs that grew more rapidly than income; with empty +treasuries, inflation, depression, economic stagnation; with increases +in top-heavy bureaucracies; with parasitism; with hooliganism; with the +growing role of the military in decision making and administration; +sharing the honey-pot with migrants and invaders; with rivalry and power +struggle at home and abroad; with division, fragmentation and eventual +dissolution. + +Any student of the sociology of civilization must turn from this +analysis of function with the conviction that whatever the advantages of +civilization as opposed to earlier phases of human association, the +pattern of civilization in action is workable only to a very limited +extent. Civilization is not an example of perpetual motion. Rather it is +a social life cycle, with a beginning and an end, and a peck of +troublesome contradictions and conflicts in between. + +Civilization is an integrative process. During the course of its +competitive survival struggle, potential building units of an expanding +civilization are tested out and included or rejected in much the same +way that a stone-mason checks and tests the individual stones of which +his wall is being built. The analogy is not entirely accurate. A wall +becomes a completed part of a total structure. A civilization is a +process of existence from conception and birth to dissolution and death. +At any point in the process there is a delicate balance between +integration and disintegration. As a matter of fact, both integration +and disintegration exist and act, constantly, side by side. If the +integrative forces are in the ascendant, form is built and function is +accelerated. If the disintegrative forces are dominant, form breaks down +and function stagnates. + +This shifting balance and/or imbalance with its resulting build-up +and/or break-down exists geographically, biologically, sociologically. +It can perhaps be best described as successive change. It cannot be +referred to as evolution except in its integrative aspect. +Disintegratively it becomes devolution. + +Civilization is a result of sociological build-up at a certain cultural +level. It has not been universal in all human societies, but +exceptional, both in time and in geographical space. + +What has caused the pattern of civilization to appear, disappear and +reappear again and again during the period of written history? + +There have been many answers. The most general answer is divine +intervention by beings above and beyond mankind. Whether such +intervention has taken place or is taking place, human beings are unable +to say with finality, but several thousand years of recorded history, +plus our own daily experience provides convincing proof that the +political, economic, ideological and sociological constructs which have +appeared and disappeared in the course of social history are, at least +in large part, the products of human brains and human hands. They are +man-made. + +The social pattern of civilization, like other social patterns which +preceded civilization and which continue to exist side by side with +civilized communities, is the result of human ingenuity and human +energy, of human inertia, ineptitude, and the human urges to build, +decorate and destroy. + +Variety in human culture is caused by the variety in the human natural +environment, the human social environment and in man himself. + +Natural advantages exist and vary from place to place. There are fertile +valleys; there are also mountains and deserts. There are a few fine +harbors, but for the most part landings are difficult and dangerous. +Certain islands have become the bases of civilizations, but this is true +of only a very small number of many existing islands. + +Civilizations have flourished in certain climatic zones and not +elsewhere. At one historical period civilizations were established in +the tropics and semi-tropics. In the present period they are located +chiefly in temperate climatic belts. + +Another source of differences between civilizations is the variation and +the adaptability of certain peoples to the peculiar conditions out of +which civilization grows. + +Still another explanation of the presence or absence of civilization in +particular times and places is the "great man" theory of history. All +human communities, pre-civilized and civilized, have had gifted leaders +whose thoughts and actions have brought about social changes. These +"greats" were the divinely, ideologically or sociologically inspired. +Divine inspiration or revelation led to the founding of religious +faiths. Ideological and sociological inspiration resulted in domestic +cultural changes and the extension of economic, cultural and ideological +activities into foreign lands, thus pushing the frontiers of nations, +empires, and civilizations farther from the chief wealth-power centers. + +Thomas Carlyle wrote that history is the lengthened shadows of a few +great men. Arnold Toynbee concluded from his _Study of History_ that +religion has been a prime motive force in the building and preservation +of civilizations. + +Technology has been a motive force of hard-to-define importance in +revitalizing, changing, expanding and perpetuating civilizations. +Increased productivity, expressing itself as increases in income, +accumulated wealth and various forms of capital investment, have +provided the economic basis for population growth and the more effective +exploitation of natural resources and labor power, advances in the means +for transportation and communication, accounting, planning management +and "defense." + +Among the social motive forces responsible for the development of +civilization is the accumulation of wealth in an impoverished world. The +most important single factor in this connection was the development of a +class of businessmen in a society dominated by landlords, churchmen and +soldiers. Landlords, churchmen and soldiers lived during periods of +animal husbandry and primitive agriculture on the very narrow margins +produced during bountiful harvests. When harvests were bad, husbandmen +and farmers were reduced to starvation levels. Lacking means of storage +and refrigeration as well as facilities for transporting heavy materials +such as food, fuel and building materials, pre-civilized society +accumulated wealth slowly in mobile forms (precious metals and jewels) +and made few productive investments. + +The advent of trade (business) and the trading class created a small but +potentially powerful class whose income and wealth were not derived from +direct contact with nature but came from trade, money changing, lending, +insuring and other activities associated with the accumulation and +investment of wealth in profit-yielding enterprises. Only in a secondary +sense did business depend on animal husbandry or agriculture. As their +primary task businessmen devoted themselves to the exploitation of labor +power and the storage and merchandising of the products turned out by +herdsmen, farmers, craftsmen. Part of their profits went into more +elaborate standards of feeding, clothing and housing themselves and +their dependents. Another, and a more crucial part of their profits went +into ships, warehouses, and the implements used in converting raw +materials into consumer goods and services, transporting them to the +markets, displaying them and persuading consumers to diversify their +needs, purchase a greater variety of goods and services and thus +increase the number and profitability of business transactions. + +As this process mushroomed with the expansion of civilization, consumers +demanded a greater number of more expensive artifacts and consumer +capital goods, from housing and house furnishings such as bathrooms and +well-stocked kitchens to refrigerators, washing machines, air +conditioners, telephones, television sets, bicycles, automobiles and +elaborate recreation facilities and equipment. The expansion of mass +production and the mass market paced one another, constantly raising the +ante. + +Mass production, mass marketing and pyramiding profits resulted, first +and foremost in the enrichment of businessmen. Their riches +automatically pushed them into a position of pre-eminent importance from +which they were able to make public policy and utilize public authority +for the protection and advancement of their own class interests. It also +called into being a vast array of new professionals; teachers, +engineers, scientists, technicians, social workers and propagandists, +converting the "middle class" from a shadowy remnant of feudal society +into the largest class numerically and the most influential class +politically in the entire modern community. + +At the same time, economic enrichment and expansion increased the +importance of the war-making apparatus. The expansion of civilization +has involved a competitive struggle carried on constantly along several +fronts, economic, political, cultural, ideological. The means of +struggle in every civilization has included the military as a political +force and as a final arbiter in deciding who should win and who should +lose civil and inter-group wars. Victory and defeat determined the fate +of land and natural resources, populations, capital installations, +taxing facilities, domestic policing. This deterministic role of the war +machine has never been more dramatically in the foreground than during +the crucial years from 1910 to the present day, when war apparatus costs +have topped the list of government expenditures. + +Growth of state functions with the expansion of the economy has +resulted in the creation of a vast state bureaucratic apparatus. Heading +this bureaucracy are the ministers of state, each with a separate +department. Under the department heads are sub-departments, sub-divided +in their turn into bureaus or separate offices. At each level, functions +are assigned and salaries are fixed. Entrance into this anthill is +sometimes by personal favor, sometimes by examination. Once in, however, +barring misbehavior, or some catastrophe like the abolition of a +particular bureau, the office holder is in for life with a pension when +he is retired for age. + +Inside the bureaucracy there is a slow movement determined by seniority. +There is also some skipping, as when new bureaus are formed or when +death or retirement offer opportunities for the favored few to move +forward or skip upward. As we read the record, the bureaucracy existed +in the days of Egypt's Amenhotep, or in those of Rome's Augustus Caesar, +as it exists today--locally in every municipality, province, nation and +empire and generally throughout western civilization. + +Every civilization known to history has had its priestcraft as well as +its statecraft. Statecraft spawned its bureaucracy. Priestcraft spawned +its theocracy. Both patterns have inter-penetrated entire civilizations. +Each locality, region and district has had its representatives of state +and of church. In some instances the church took precedence. In others +the state was supreme. As the civilization matured, using war as the +chief instrument of policy, the state in the person of military +dictators has tended to predominate. In every civilization the state has +collected its taxes and the church has collected its tithes. + +The net result, in every civilization, has been a ruling oligarchy, +self-appointed and self-perpetuating, which has shaped policy, planned +and directed administration, exercised authority and lived comfortably +and at least semi-parasitically on the backs of the underlying urban and +rural masses, sharing its sinecure with its middle class handymen. In +some times and in certain localities the oligarchy has maintained a +representative front. Elsewhere it has functioned arbitrarily. In +extreme cases one man has ruled for a brief period. Generally the +oligarchy has held the reins of authority. + +Each phase of human society has had its oppositions, its confrontations, +its conflicts, proportioned to its magnitude, its specialization and the +interdependence of its component parts, its ratio of change to stability +and its foresight, plans and preparations for dealing with changes when +they occur. Since civilization, of all known forms of human association, +is the largest, most specialized and most interdependent, it is in +civilization that we should expect to find the most intensive and +extensive contradictions, confrontations and conflicts. + +Among the many oppositions of civilized association five are +outstanding: the we-they relationship; rural versus urban life; +subsistence versus acquisition and accumulation; hard work versus ease, +luxury and parasitism; poverty versus wealth. + +Civilization is not only complex and interdependent in form, it is +avowedly competitive in its functioning. Politically, nation building, +empire building and the establishment and maintenance of each +civilization is a competitive struggle between declared rivals to gain +and keep place and power. Economically, the efforts to get and keep +natural resources and labor power and to use them to _Our_ advantage and +_Their_ disadvantage dominates the field of livelihood. Ideologically +_We_ are right, while _They_ are wrong. Culturally _We_ are superior. +_They_ are inferior. + +The _We-They_ relationship developed very early in the history of the +human family. Individuals and small, more advanced groups have reached a +level of understanding and living based on the cooperative inclusive +formula of _"We, Ours, Us",_ but every civilization known to history has +accepted and adopted the competitive, divisive formula and poured energy +and wealth into the political, economic, ideological and cultural +struggle to take and keep for individual, local or class advantage. + +Resulting oppositions fragmented civilization: (1) urban vs. rural life, +city vs. hinterland; (2) cooperation vs. competition; (3) acquisition +and accumulation vs. sharing; (4) riches vs. poverty; (5) the individual +vs. the group; (6) status vs. change. + +These fragmenting forces have been accepted, adopted and given priority +by civilizations as they developed predominance. As they grew in +magnitude they limited or subordinated the forces of integration and +unification. + +Opposites and oppositions lead to confrontations along class lines, +geographic lines, cultural lines, color lines, racial lines. The +traditional confrontation of rural vs. urban life is doubly underlined +by two factors: first, the countryside operates generally on a use +economy with pay for services largely in kind or by barter. The city +operates under a market economy with payment for services usually in +money. Second, the standards of life and work are more primitive in the +countryside than in the city. Third, as the civilization advances toward +maturity, city population increases while it declines in the +countryside. Consequently vigorous, energetic, adventurous people leave +the deteriorating countryside. + +Increasingly the owners of land and capital live in the cities, visiting +the countryside for holidays and recreation, leaving rural areas to +servants, peons, serfs and slaves. Small owning farmers are bought out +or expropriated. Unable to make a living in the countryside they move to +the city. Lacking city skills they work as casual labor or are +unemployed. The city is divided between enterprisers, their +subordinates, owners of country estates and members of the state +bureaucracy on one side and vassals, servants, serfs, and slaves and the +unemployed on the other. The rich and powerful become richer and more +powerful. The poor and dependent grow in numbers--protest, demonstrate, +riot, revolt. + +This class struggle dominates public life in the urban centers of every +civilization. The rich offer petty reforms and minor benefits to the +impoverished, semi-employed city masses. At the same time the urban +oligarchy breaks up into rival factions: the Ins and the Outs. The Ins +hold public jobs, spend public money, award contracts and pass around +favors. The Outs wait and maneuver for their turn at the public +pie-counter. Both Ins and Outs appeal for mass support. + +Oppositions and confrontations lead to conflicts which have studded the +life of every civilization. Conflicts include wars which may be divided +into six groups: (1) Wars of expansion, conquest, colonization directed +toward the enlargement of the territories included in the civilization. +(2) Wars of survival among adjacent nations and empires. (3) Wars fought +to suppress unrest and revolt in the colonies and dependencies of an +empire or civilization. (4) Wars fought to repel the invasion of +migrating peoples attempting to occupy territory over which an empire or +a civilization claims jurisdiction. (5) Peasant, serf and slave revolts +and rebellions against the authority of empires or civilizations. (6) +Civil wars to determine the leadership of particular empires; wars of +leadership succession; conflicts and power seizures within particular +oligarchies. + +In every civilization final decisions regarding domestic and foreign +issues have been made by an appeal to arms. There were laws and legal +institutions in many civilizations under which confrontations might have +been prevented and armed conflict avoided. Where these legal means +failed to provide solutions, contestants turned to armed force as the +final arbiter. + +Competitive survival struggle has played a prominent role in the life of +every civilization known to history. Competition at its highest level +employs armed force as its instrument of policy. War, domestic and +foreign has, therefore, dominated the history of every civilization. +Walter Bagehot called war a state maker. In the same context, war may be +referred to as a civilization maker. + +Conflict, including war, has played a major role, often a determining +role in building and maintaining civilizations. It has also been a major +and perhaps _the_ major factor in undermining and destroying +civilizations. Arnold Toynbee contends that war has been a "proximate +cause" of the overthrow of one civilization after another. No observer +of current western civilization can fail to note the determining part +played by war during the first half of the present century. + +Every completed civilization known to historians has passed through a +sociological life cycle: origin, growth, expansion, maturity, violent +premature dismemberment and death in the competitive survival struggle +or gradual decline and eventual dissolution. + +Every completed civilization has had small, local beginnings, on an +island like Crete, or a group of islands like the Japanese Archipelago, +or a tiny spot like Latium on the Tiber River, or an isolated area like +the desert-surrounded Nile River Valley in Africa. The seed ground or +nucleus of each civilization has been a small, well-knit group of +vigorous, energetic people, well-led, living in an easily defended, +limited area, enjoying relative isolation, but also having ready access +to the outside world. + +At the beginning the growth cycle has moved slowly, from victory to +victory, as competing neighboring peoples have been brought under the +authority of the victor in local wars. After generations or centuries of +struggle a point is reached at which the nucleus of the growing empire +begins to expand, through trade, colonization, diplomatic alliances, +conquest, into an era of survival struggle in which rival cities reach +out for the same piece of fertile land, the same markets, the same +mineral deposits. Again the life and death survival struggle tests out +the people, their leaders, their ambitions, determination, tenacity. + +Earlier struggles were local. Now the struggle area has become regional. +At the outset the peoples were amateurs in the science and art of +expansion, occupation, consolidation, exploitation. Through the hard +school of struggle they became professionals. From victory to victory +they gained in territory, in wealth, in administrative skill. One by +one, rivals were eliminated, annexed or associated with the nascent +empire which was by way of becoming the central empire of a maturing +civilization. + +Generations of effort and centuries of time have gone into the empire +building process. The farther the civilization has expanded, the greater +the necessary input of manpower, wealth, enterprise and administrative +talent needed to keep the enterprise strong, solvent, masterful. + +Eventually the expanding civilization reaches a point at which the costs +of further expansion are greater than the income derived from further +extension of its authority. Up to this point expansion had paid its own +way. Beyond this point it is a losing proposition--politically, +economically, sociologically. At this point begin times of troubles; bad +harvests; colonial or provincial revolts; power struggles between +individuals or classes in the homeland; new rivals moving in to share in +the prospective plunder of the mother-city. + +From this time of troubles the civilization enters a new phase of its +lifecycle. Up to this point victory has brought plunder and prosperity +which have financed new foreign adventures and led to new victories. +Beyond this point lies stalemate, economic stagnation, military defeat. +Building an empire and establishing it as the central force in a +civilization is a long and arduous process. Once the process is +reversed, the decline may move quickly or slowly, but as it proceeds the +civilization is fragmented and eventually dissolved or taken over by a +more vigorous rival. + +At all stages of this cycle there have been life and death survival +struggles. Peoples, nations and empires entered the contest, played +their parts, made their contribution to the up-building process. There +were ups and downs, advances and withdrawals, victories and defeats. +There were many contenders for survival and supremacy. Usually there was +one survivor which gave its name to the civilization. + +The period of ascendancy of any civilization has been historically +brief. The struggle to the summit was long and exhausting; the descent +from the summit more rapid than the ascent. Literally, like the bear +that went over the mountain to see what he could find, and who found the +other side of the mountain, the civilizations that have reached the +summit of wealth and power have found on the other side of the summit a +steep downward sloping time of troubles that ended in dissolution and +liquidation. + +Civilization, as a sociological life pattern, has proved to be seductive +and alluring in prospect, but in retrospect unsatisfactory and +frustrating. Civilization has proved to be not an opportunity for the +ambitious, but a trap for the ignorant, inexperienced and unwary. For +the many contestants who set out to conquer the world the experience +has been disappointing and on the whole disastrous. For the few who have +reached the summit the experience has been frustrating. + +Civilization as a way of life is like any other contest. The struggle is +good for those who are able to benefit from it by learning its lessons. +Whether they win or lose is a matter of no great consequence. For the +losers the experience often is heart breaking and death-dealing. + +Students of social history have been tempted to draw a parallel between +the biological life cycle of an individual and the sociological +lifecycle of a civilization. There are elements of likeness between +biological birth, growth, maturity, old age and death of human +individuals and of human civilizations. All of the individuals and +civilizations that we know have passed or are passing through such a +lifecycle. The same thing may be true of the larger universe of which we +are a minute fragment. However exact or inexact it may prove to be, the +parallel certainly is unmistakable, alluring. It may also be seductive +and mortal. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +IDEOLOGIES OF CIVILIZATION + + +This study was laid out along inductive lines: an examination of the +facts with such generalizations as the facts suggest or justify. We +began our social analysis of civilization by presenting noteworthy facts +concerning the politics, economics, and sociology of various +civilizations. In the present chapter we deal with their ideologies. + +We are accepting and following the fourth variant definition of +"ideology" presented by Webster's New World Dictionary: "The doctrines, +opinions or way of thinking of an individual, class, etc." In this case +we are reporting on the doctrines, opinions, thought forms and action +patterns of entire civilizations. + +Our concern is not with the doctrines, opinions and ways of thinking and +acting advanced by elite minorities. Such an approach would involve a +study of comparative ideologies. Rather we are asking what civilized +peoples were trying to do, as measured by their political, economic and +sociological activities, programs and purposes. + +It may be presumptuous for an individual to generalize about +civilizations of which he knows so little. On the other hand, if we +recognize the limitations under which all assumptions and +generalizations operate it is possible and often helpful to assume and +generalize, although the generalizations may be no more than interim +reports, subject to later amendment, correction or rejection. + +What were the prevailing ideas of civilizations and what ideas were put +into practice? What purposes dominated and directed the lives of +civilized peoples? How successful have civilized peoples been in +achieving their objectives? + +At the outset we must realize that in any complex society there are wide +ranges of ideology, from the body of ideas held by small uninfluential +sects to the purposes, ideas, policy declarations and actions of +governing oligarchies. We do not wish to defend or attack the ideas, but +to summarize them and understand them in a way that will give a group +picture of the purposes, ideas, policies and day-to-day activities of +the civilizations in question. For convenience in our discussion we will +take up, first, civilized societies as collectives, and then the +operation of civilized ideology as expressed in the lives of +individuals. + +Presumably the most immediate purpose of all civilized peoples has been +survival, getting on as a collective or group from day to day, through +summer and winter, under normal conditions, and/or in periods of stress +and emergency. If the group cannot survive it loses its identity, +breaking up into the self-determining parts of which it is composed. + +Survival means continued existence as a group--in the face of disruption +from within or attack and invasion from without. The group which +survives continues to exist and to act as a group that maintains the +common defense and promotes the general welfare. + +Each social group competing for survival has a sense of its own identity +and a belief in its capacity to survive. This ideology is strengthened +by the belief that the group has special qualities and is protected by +powerful entities that will guarantee its success in the survival +struggle. The group considers itself better qualified to survive than +neighbor groups. Such ideas, carried to their logical conclusion, make +the group in question superior to its neighbors in survival qualities +and a people chosen by its gods. + +A superior people, chosen by its gods, is in a class by itself. Other +people, by comparison, are inferior. It is the destiny of the superior +people to take the lands of their inferior neighbors, and, whenever +opportunity offers, to defeat the neighbors in battle, capture them and +force them to do the bidding of the captors. + +Cults of ideological superiority are widespread. Put into successful +practice by a victorious tribe, nation or empire, they develop into +cults of superiority which assert: "We, the victors, are stronger, +better people than our weaker neighbors." As one victory follows another +the belief in superiority grows. People in an expanding empire or +burgeoning civilization are obviously better survivors than their less +successful competitors. + +Competitive survival struggle modifies the cultures of both victors and +vanquished. The dispersal and adoption of culture traits, supplemented +by negotiation and accommodation, broaden the geographical area of the +victors, increasing the population and adding to the material resources, +the wealth and income of the enlarged group. It may also involve the +corresponding decrease of the geographical area, population, wealth and +income of the vanquished. + +In order to protect itself, preserve itself, to enlarge itself and, +where possible, to improve itself, each competing groups aims to set up +standards of ideas and conduct to which all living members of the group +are presumed to agree and to which they must adhere. When new members +enter the group, by birth or adoption, they are duly indoctrinated with +the group ideology. Early in their history the individuals and +sub-groups composing every civilization adopted such standards and +promulgated them by the decree of a leader or by the common consent of +associated groups, as the outcome of negotiation, discussion, give and +take. During the history of every civilization such agreements were +reached and recorded in compacts, treaties, laws, constitutions, +specifying the nature and limits of the collective cultural uniformity +at which the community aimed. + +The struggle for collective uniformity was long and often bitter. +Individuals and factions resented and resisted the imposition of group +authority. Internal conflict led to civil wars in the course of which +the group was divided or the solidarity of the group was reaffirmed +despite hardships imposed on disagreeing, divergent minorities. + +Closely paralleling the group need for survival and uniformity +(solidarity) was the need for group expansion, or extension. In the +competitive struggle for survival which played such an important role in +the life of pre-civilized communities, strategic geographic location was +often decisive. Soil fertility, mineral deposits, timber reserves, +access to waterways, location on trade routes all played a part in +community survival, stability and growth. + +Such geographical advantages are few and far between. Often they are +already occupied and defended by stable communities. Their control and +utilization are basic in determining the survival or elimination of +rivals in the competitive struggle. + +Above and beyond the need to occupy the "corner lots" of the planetary +land mass was the urge of civilized peoples to advance from littleness +to bigness as a goal in itself. Confined by limitations on communication +and transportation, pre-civilized man was circumscribed and localized. +With the advent of cultivation, land workers were tied to a particular +piece of real estate on which they lived and worked. When asked whether +the village across the valley was Sunrise Mountain the local peasant +could reply: "How should I know? I live here." + +Reacting against restricted living and pressed by curiosity and the +spirit of adventure, the imaginative and adventurous members of each +generation pressed outward from the homeland toward wider horizons. Many +traveled. Some migrated. Others pursued the will o' the wisp of +expansion by adding field to field. The grass always looked greener on +the other side of the mountain. The ambitious expansionist therefore +tried to control both sides. + +"Move on! Move on!" became the watchword, without any particular +emphasis on quality. In one civilization after another bigness +(magnitude) was accepted as a symbol of success, because "the more you +get and keep, the happier you will be." + +Mastery of strategic advantages, plus the illusion of mere bigness, +without any specification to quality, became keys to survival and +success. + +Civilized man exploited natural advantages and augmented his power over +nature and society by increasing his wealth and multiplying the +population. At the outset of the struggle strategic geographical +advantages were occupied and utilized by local groups. Through survival +struggle, one of the groups, better organized, better led, more +determined and productive, succeeded in securing possession of one +strong point after another, until an entire region, like the Nile Valley +or the Mediterranean Basin had been conquered and occupied by a single +great power. The measure of success in the power struggle is the +occupation of strategic strong points. Natural resources, including land +and labor power, are among the chief spoils of victory. + +Seven basic goals or principles were involved in the building of +civilizations: group survival; propitiating the gods; recognizing and +following aesthetic principles; achieving and stabilizing property and +class relations; expansion (bigness); individual conformity to the +collective pattern; and collective uniformity in a united world of human +brotherhood. At times and in places the basic propositions were +accepted, rejected, fought over. Each civilization which followed them +successfully was able to establish itself, maintain itself, and up to a +certain point add to its prestige, wealth and power. + +The first goal was success in the struggle for survival. Collective +uniformity and expansion opened the path to wealth and power, in the +city, state, the empire, the civilization. From a multitude of local +beginnings the struggle for expansion and consolidation led to ever +larger aggregations of land, population, capital and wealth concentrated +in the hands of an increasingly rich, powerful oligarchy, protected and +defended by a military elite pushing itself ceaselessly toward a +position from which it could make and enforce domestic policy and order. + +A second collective goal has been propitiating and wooing the unseen +forces of the universe: holding their attention; keeping them on "our" +side; relying on their influence for defense against enemies, mortal and +immortal, and help in providing water in case of drought, fertility, +assistance in healing the sick, comfort for the dying, consolation for +the bereaved and success in business deals. These multiple aspects of +ideology are summed up under the term "religion". + +Each civilization has had its religious ideas and ideals, its religious +practices and institutions. Many civilizations have divided their +attention between civil ideology and religious ideology. In some cases +religious ideology took precedence, resulting in a theocratic society +under the leadership of religious devotees. In other cases, notably +Roman civilization and western civilization, religious ideology was +subordinated to secular interests. + +In the early stages of western civilization, religious ideology took +precedence over secular ideology. With the rise of the bourgeoisie, +secular ideology moved into the foreground, making loud religious +professions, but also making sure that business-for-profit had the last +word in the determination of public policy. + +A third collective ideological goal of civilization has been aesthetic; +the yen for symmetry and balance; the love of beauty; the desire for +harmony; the quest for excellence; the lure of magnificence; the search +for truth. Out of these urges have arisen the pictorial and plastic +arts, architecture, music, the dance, science, and philosophy, providing +outlets, occupations and professions that have colored and shaped many +aspects of civilized living. + +A fourth collective goal of civilization has been the establishment and +maintenance of social structure, including classes and/or caste lines +based partly upon tradition, partly on function and partly upon +proximity to the honey-pot, the wellspring of wealth, income, prestige +and power. + +Since the principle of private property has been implicit in every known +civilization, the ownership of land, capital and consumer goods and +services has been a prerogative of the ruling oligarchies, shared by +them with their associates and dependents and used as their chief means +of establishing and maintaining the "you work, I eat" principal of +economic relationships. + +Private property, and its derivative, unearned or property income, has +enabled the ruling oligarchies of civilized communities to receive the +first fruits of every enterprise. They have also enabled the oligarchs +to establish a priority scale of income distribution under which those +who held property and its derivatives could have first choice among +available consumer goods and services. Second choice went to the +associates, retainers and defenders of the oligarchs. Third choice went +to the preferred, professional experts who spoke for and represented the +oligarchy. Fourth choice went to the artisans--skilled designers, +builders, fabricators. What remained went to hewers of wood and drawers +of water, the workers, women and men, who provided the necessaries, +comforts, luxuries upon which physical survival and social status +depended. Generally this proletarian mass, including chattel slaves, +serfs, tenant farmers and war captives, were outside the pale of +respectability. In a caste-divided community they were scavengers and +untouchables, living a life close to that of domestic animals. + +Most civilizations have permitted gifted individuals to move vertically, +from the bottom toward the top levels of the social pyramid. Vertical +movement was severely restricted, however. Generally people lived, +served and died on the class or caste level into which they were born. + +Members of classes and castes are not free agents. They have privileges +and rights. They also have obligations and duties. Classes and castes +are functioning parts of an interdependent social whole which can +maintain balanced order only so long as each segment recognizes its +obligations and performs its duties. + +Social balance therefore depended on class collaboration. Successful +collaboration, in its turn, is the outcome of a general acceptance of +class and caste and general willingness to go on living and functioning +in a class divided society. + +A fifth collective goal of civilization has been expansion from the +nucleus outward, with final authority exercised by and from the nucleus. +At the outset of the survival struggle which led to the establishment of +one language, one religion, one law, one authority, one loyalty, each +among the many contestants had its own language, its own religion, its +own law, its own authority. + +These rival forces were temporarily confederated against internal +disruption or foreign invasion. ("Liberty and union, now and forever, +one and inseparable.") In the course of the survival struggle, the +separate parts of which the civilization was composed began with the +local autonomy permitted by confederation, and ended up with one among +the many contestants donning the imperial purple and establishing itself +as the master and supreme dictator--the Caesar or Pharoah of the +conquered, unified world. + +Foreign territories conquered and brought by force of arms within this +imperium were subjects of a central authority which they never really +accepted. Authority continued to be exercised from the imperial nucleus. +The newly conquered territories were policed by professional soldiers +whose primary loyalty was national but whose responsibility was to the +aggregate composing the Roman or the Egyptian civilization. + +The acid test of the expanding civilization was embodied in the degree +of acceptance of wholeness as opposed to self-determination. Were the +individual members--the provinces and colonies composing the +whole--willing and able to sink their differences in an unquestioned +wholeness, or were they prepared at the first opportunity to exercise +their right to self-determination and declare their independence of the +whole? + +The resolution of this question constituted the sixth collective goal of +civilization: to establish a whole in which the component members were +able and willing to recognize the axiom that the interests of the whole +come before the interests of any of its component parts. + +The issue of central authority versus local self determination has been +one of the basic issues of the present century because during the +preceding period, the British, French, Dutch and Spanish Empires had +been built up by the conquest and occupation of foreign lands. If the +nineteenth century was an epoch of expanding imperial authority, the +twentieth century has been an epoch of the dismemberment of empires by +movements for independence and self-determination. + +Seventh, and finally, among the collective goals of civilization, each +has developed an ideology that justified empire building by conquest, +exploitation, chattel slavery, peonage, wagery, the supremacy of the +empire nucleus, the subordination of the periphery to the nucleus and +other aspects of ascendancy and mastery including "divine" rights in +politics and "natural" rights in economics. + +Civilizations expect the individuals and groups of which they are +composed to preserve the status quo, work as disciplined members of an +effective team and be satisfied with the outcome. This brings us back to +the goal with which we began this discussion of the collective goals of +civilizations: The primary task of any civilization is to survive. + +Each individual human being, living and working in a civilized community +occupies a sphere of action, enjoys the advantages and disadvantages and +accepts the responsibilities and duties which pertain to his sphere. +Within his sphere the individual succeeds or fails in so far as he leads +a rewarding personal life and contributes his share toward the +collective life of the group to which she or he belongs. + +If the individual in a civilized community is to live a good life, the +first task is to maintain normal health, good spirits and a +determination to get the most out of life and to contribute at least the +equivalent of what he receives in service to his group. + +As a civilization expands and extends its influence, the individual must +contribute his mite to the entire enterprise while adding to his own +store of goods and services. Acquisition and accumulation satisfy a +human desire to have and to keep. They also add to the wealth and well +being of the community on the widely accepted utilitarian formula: +happiness comes in direct proportion to the extent and variety of ones +possessions. + +In most civilized communities the building unit is a family. It is this +family unit, usually directed by a male or father figure, who acts for +the family and represents it in the community. + +In passing, the reader should note that the breakdown in family life now +so prevalent in many parts of western civilization is a departure from +the civilized norm. It is really a measure of the extent to which +western civilization itself is disintegrating. + +The revolution in science and technology, mass production and the +distribution of goods and services through a mass market have put +acquisition and accumulation of goods and services as a life-goal to a +severe test. Until the early years of the present century no +civilization had provided affluence for more than a small fraction of +its population. The vast majority consisted of slaves, serfs, war +captives, and tenant farmers. Only an exceptional few were in a position +to live in comfort or luxury on unearned income. As each civilization +matured, ownership of land and capital diverted the flow of consumer +goods and services into the coffers of a diminishing proportion of the +total population. The vast majority lived at or below the subsistence +level. General affluence was a goal that was talked about and dreamed +about, but there was no way to test its practical effects on the +population as a whole. + +Under conditions presently existing in many parts of the West, millions +of individuals and families following the utilitarian principles of +acquisition and accumulation have secured and kept an abundance of goods +and services in strict accordance with utilitarian principles. Yet they +have not been and are not happy. + +Quite the contrary, in many cases they are unhappy, particularly in the +second and third generations of affluent family life. This is notably +true in the United States, Scandinavia, Switzerland and other parts of +western Europe. It is true to a lesser degree in New Zealand and +Australia. + +Millions of families in these countries, with all their possessions, +fail to enjoy peace and happiness. On the contrary, they are so acutely +unhappy that many of them have come to regard acquisition and +accumulation as a sterile rat-race. Consequently multitudes of people, +young and old, have turned their backs on civilization, separating +themselves from their affluent homes with their glut of consumer goods +to live at non-civilized or pre-civilized levels. These individuals are +avowedly anti-civilization in so far as its material incentives are +concerned. + +Similar attitudes were expressed in previous civilizations. Socrates +went barefoot through the streets of Athens. Diogenes lived in a tub. +Uncounted numbers of Indian holy men and early Christians rejected all +affluence, embraced poverty, lived simply and austerely. Religious +asceticism is no novelty. But the wholesale rejection of acquisition and +accumulation as a way of life certainly marks a turning point in the +popular attitude toward the utilitarian axiom that human happiness is +directly proportioned to the quantity and variety of material +possessions. + +Civilization presupposes getting, keeping and exercising power over +nature, society and man. Each civilization has added to man's +utilization of nature. This has been a notorious aspect of western +civilization since the inauguration of the scientific-technological +revolution. After a century of intensified exploitation of the natural +environment, entire communities are reacting with dismay and disgust +against the resulting pollution of air, water and land, the wanton waste +of soil fertility, forests and minerals, and extermination of various +forms of "wilderness." Freedom to exploit nature's storehouse has not +brought happiness. On the contrary, it threatens the existence of other +life forms and even the continuance of human life on the planet. + +Private enterprise and other forms of permissiveness have led to +practices that circumscribe and hamper life. Their declared objective is +the liberation and enlargement of human life and well being. Where they +have been tested out they have proved themselves to be obstructive and +destructive rather than creative and constructive. + +Notable advances in science and technology have greatly increased the +human capacity to transform nature and remake society. Designed and +executed as a means of enhancing the general welfare, science and +technology might have promoted human well-being. But employed as a means +of exploiting nature and society for the benefit of a favored few, +science and technology, whether directed by European and American +promoters of the African slave trade, Spanish conquerors in Latin +America, by Belgians in the African Congo, by European whites in their +dealings with the North American Indians, by the Nazis in Europe, or by +Americans in South East Asia, have involved merciless exploitation +accompanied by revolting atrocities. + +Never in recorded history was the capacity of man to modify nature and +exploit society more publicly tested out than in the atom bombing of +Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the purposeful devastation of jungle life and +village life in large parts of Vietnam and Cambodia. Reported in the +public press and pictured, live, over radio and television, these latest +developments in the ugly record of man's exploitation of nature have +become part of the record of the decline and dissolution of western +civilization. + +Exploitation of human society for the benefit of the few at the expense +of the many is an old story that extends through the entire record of +written history. Every civilization has produced a cluster of +institutions and practices that enabled a few rich and privileged to +live in affluence at the expense of the impoverished many. This +juxtaposition of riches and poverty is the logical outcome of a system +of social relations designed to provide the few with comfort and luxury +while the many are forced to accept penury and hardship. Exploitation, +carried to its logical conclusion, permits and requires a parasitic +minority to live in abundance while the majority must content itself +with scarcity, extending to death from malnutrition. + +Another goal presented to individuals by the promoters and fashioners of +civilization is individual perfection, physical, mental, emotional, +moral. Every generation of human beings contains individuals who are +beyond the average--bigger, stronger, more talented, seeing farther, +searching more deeply, endowed with greater sensitivity, working more +conscientiously, imbued with a love of their fellows and determination +to serve them. Such individuals have genius in one or another form and +offer themselves and their products as a gift to the general welfare of +their generation. Scientists, poets, musicians, inventors, artists, +teachers, healers, philosophers, statesmen have appeared in each +civilization adding their mite to the sum-total of community culture. + +Innovators, moralists and counselors of perfection have played a +noteworthy part by advocating and often by living noteworthy lives. +Reports of their sayings and doings are part of the folklore and the +history of each civilization. If they did not set the tone of their +generation, they provided it with a model toward which their less +talented, less creative fellows might aspire. If they were creative +artists their works provided models which were admired, copied and +emulated by their successors. If they were moralists or philosophers +their sayings were recorded, respected and repeated by successive +generations. + +Each civilization has adopted lines of thinking and codes of action +which embody the best and most advantageous in theory and in practice. +These codes of thought, feeling and action are attributed to some +outstanding individual and passed on from generation to generation as +codes of conduct to which all right-thinking individuals may or should +aspire. + +Human beings know everything about themselves except whence they came, +what they should do and whither they will go. To compensate for this +lack of knowledge and wisdom each civilization has established and +maintained religious organizations and institutions whose duty it was to +search out the truth, record it and teach it to successive generations. + +In some civilizations the religious institutions have dominated the +secular. At other times and in other places the secular has maintained +its ascendancy over the religious. In still other cases the religious +and the secular forces have maintained an uneasy balance leading to +acrimonious bickering and sometimes to civil war. + +Central to their discussions is the nature of life. Is it continuous, as +it appears in vegetation and the animal kingdom, or is it discontinuous +like the rocks on the mountainside or the grains of sand on the +seashore? Those who live for the moment prefer discontinuity. Those who +observe their natural environment are forced to the conclusion that life +today is part of a sequence or progression which relates the life of +yesterday to that of tomorrow. + +Recorded history, from fossil and geological remains, to the books on +library shelves assures us that man has had a past. Projecting this +experience, it seems quite reasonable that barring accident or a +purposed intervention, man will have at least some future. To prepare +for that future, using the knowledge and wisdom at our disposal, seems +to be a must for any reasoning creature. + +Even for the short planetary life-span of the average human, the logic +of this position seems inescapable, whether it applies to the next hour, +day, year, or century. In terms of our children and grandchildren it is +even more impressive. Today we find it desirable to live as well as +possible. If there is any future, the same principle should apply to its +implementation and utilization. + +If the "hereafter" begins tomorrow and if those whose well-being +concerns us will probably be "alive" tomorrow, the science and art of +the future (futurology) takes its place beside other fields of theory +and practice as a must for all responsible members of the human race. + +If the conditions presently existing in human society affordment, skills +and technical experience necessary to make significant changes, why +wait? Why not proceed forthwith to live a better life? + +This dilemma has confronted individuals and sub-groups in various +civilizations. It has been particularly in evidence during periods of +decline and social disintegration. It has led people of both sexes and +all ages to uproot themselves from the old social order and reestablish +themselves in a social order "nearer to the heart's desire." + +Such efforts have been described as "intentional communities" to +distinguish them from a traditional, currently existing social order +which emerged from the past encumbered with vestigial remains and +obsolete institutions and practices having little or no relation to the +needs and wants of a changing world. + +Pilgrim Fathers in New England, William Penn in Pennsylvania, Lord +Baltimore in Maryland aimed to organize local intentional communities. +Similar efforts were made by the Mennonites, the Dukhobors, the +Hutterites, the Mormons in North America. The Christians during the +decline of Roman civilization led a movement to convert a large +geographical area to a new and better way of life. Followers of +Mohammed, several centuries later, made a similar effort to convert the +Eurasian-African world to their ways of thinking and acting. + +Young people by the thousands, in the United States and other western +countries, are turning their backs on western civilization and are +organizing enlarged families and communes that provide their members +with a modified social order which aims at improvements here and now. + +Necessarily such social experiments are looked upon with suspicion by +the Establishment. They are "new", "different", "subversive", "godless", +"wicked." Hence, they are criticized, denounced, raided and often broken +up as threats to existing law and order. + +Intentional communities may grow out of consumers' cooperation. They may +begin as farm collectives. Generally, however, they consist of the +followers of outstanding leaders of religious or ethical sects. Many +intentional communes spring up, mushroom-fashion, and disappear with +equal rapidity. Others endure for generations and centuries. + +In a very real sense they are pilot plants designed to correct +individual or social maladjustments and substitute new ways for old +ones. As pilot plants they experiment with deviations from existing +social norms, acting as a social laboratory in which new ideas and +practices are tested, modified, accepted, rejected. + +Change is one of the essential aspects of every society. There are +changes in personnel. In each generation individuals grow old and +retire. Others grow up and take over the tasks of organizing the +communities in which they live. Profound social changes result from +discoveries and inventions: the wheel, the arch, steam and gas engines, +electricity, atomic power. Cyclic changes occur in the economy. Social +changes follow alterations in the weather. Nations, empires, +civilizations are produced by the changing life forms. + +During long periods, social changes are so gradual that they are +unnoticed save by the more sensitive and perceptive. At other times, +social changes tumble over one another in an overwhelming revolutionary +flood which sweeps away the old, yielding place to new, "lest one good +custom should corrupt the world". + +Changes in society beget changes in ideology. Reciprocally, changes in +ideology lead to changes in social structure and function. The more +rigid the social order, the more stubborn its resistance to change. By +the same token, more fluid societies lend themselves more readily to +changes in practice and in theory. + +It is not possible to discuss ideology without some reference to the +closely related problems of means and ends. As we consider our existing +social establishment, in the light of unceasing social change, we must +deal with goals or objectives, with practicable modifications of social +form and function and with the way in which changes can be, might be, +will be brought about. + +One fact is obvious. Whether social change is major or minor, local or +general, it shifts the social balance. Any shift in the social balance +involves reactionaries, conservatives, liberals, radicals, some of whom +will gain, while others will lose in the course of each social +transformation. All will be concerned and involved. + +Since political change involves some alteration in the balance of social +forces, it behooves those who advocate and those who oppose social +change to maximize acceptance and minimize opposition in order to take +advantage of the gains and cut down the losses incident to all change. + +For present purposes we wish to make seven notes about means and ends. + + 1. _Opportunists_ propose to act now and win what they can + today. Never mind about tomorrow with its sequences and + consequences of today's action. Sufficient for the day is the + evil thereof. + + 2. _Pragmatists_ believe in serving their own interests, on the + theory that whatever serves personal interests must have + first priority. "What is good for me/us is good for the + universe". + + 3. _Experimentalists_ are prepared to try out any suggestion + which promises to achieve the desired goals. Singly and in + working teams they test and try out, seeking the most + effective means of reaching desired ends. + + 4. _Innovators_ formulate projects and test out results, checking + and rechecking as they search for more effective means + of achieving results. + + 5. _Radicals_ seek out the roots, digging, sifting, classifying, + assembling their findings, announcing their conclusions and + working to apply them in theory and practice to the structure + and function of their communities. + + 6. _Revolutionists_ are in a hurry. Disillusioned with the past and + the present they seek by "direct action" to create a new + social order, out of whole cloth, quickly, here and now. + Never mind the means, get results! + + 7. _Totalists_ have the whole truth, attained through reasoning, + experimentation, revelation. Having learned the truth, they + dedicate their energies to the propagation of the faith. + Where they encounter opposition they counter it and, if + necessary, annihilate it with its originators and advocates. + +As a matter of practical experience, proponents of all seven approaches +to social problems and social change employ a wide range of techniques +from persuasion to coercion. To support their projects they advance +logical arguments, elaborate half-truths, make emotional appeal; employ +trickery, deceit, preferment, privilege, flattery, soft living, bribery, +coercion, physical and social violence--individual and collective +extermination. + +Civilization as reported in history and in its current practice is based +on five faulty ideological assumptions: + + 1. _Competitive survival struggle results in social improvement._ + Survival struggle has certainly played a role in stimulating + discovery, invention and the diffusion of culture traits. Its + end results have always included civil and inter-group war + with its unavoidable costs in destruction, dissolution and + death. + + 2. _The effort to grab and keep, with its accompanying competition, + is a chief source of social progress._ The game of + grab and keep is play for children. Mature human beings + should strive to create, produce, share. + + 3. _The accumulation of goods and services brings happiness._ + At the out-set of life this may be true. But accumulation + for its own sake produces the miser. Misers are not happy + people. Riches yield happiness only as they are distributed. + Accumulation brings many headaches, and few abiding + satisfactions. + + 4. _Successful accumulators "have fun."_ Perhaps they do, for + a time, at the expense of others on whose backs they ride + and whose life blood they suck. But mature men and + women do not "have fun"; they shoulder and carry their + share of social responsibility. + + 5. _Progress can be measured by the multitude of personal + possessions._ Not so. True progress for humanity consists + in movement from having to doing; from the possessive to + the creative; from the material toward the spiritual. + +Ideologies have played a role in determining the structure and function +of every civilization. As civilization grows up, matures, and declines, +ideologies change with the changing times. In its early history each +civilization seeks acceptance for its picture of reality and its +techniques for reaching individual and social goals. As each +civilization declines and disintegrates, a multitude of counselors +clamors for attention to a particular formula that will prove acceptable +and workable in the existing emergent circumstances. + + + + +_Part III_ + + +Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +WORLDWIDE REVOLUTION DISRUPTS CIVILIZATION + + +Every organism, mechanism or social construct reaches a point in its +life cycle at which its existing apparatus must be repaired, renovated +and updated or scrapped, redesigned and replaced. Today western +civilization in its totality faces that dilemma. + +The culture pattern variously known as European, western or modern +civilization, dating from the Crusades, has existed for about a thousand +years, and spread across the planet. During that millennium western +civilization has passed through a life cycle similar to that of its +predecessors. According to Oswald Spengler's historical perspective, a +civilization passes through its life cycle in about a thousand years. If +the Spenglerian assumption is in line with the course of history, +western civilization should be in an advanced stage of decline and +should eventually disappear as a decisive factor in world affairs. + +Spengler's argument is fully and floridly presented in _The Decline of +the West_. The author offers a theory of history based on the existence +of an arbitrary and rather mechanical life cycle. It includes a period +of gestation, rise and expansion, a period of maturity and stability and +a final period of decline and dissolution. Spengler believed that +western civilization is in the grip of an irreversable decline. + +The Spenglerian perspective is based on the assumption of a normal +pattern in the growth and decline of civilizations. The normalcy on +which Spengler based his assumption was disrupted around 1750 when a +series of new dynamic factors entered the stream of modern social +history: + +I. Mankind gained access to immense stores of energy which supplemented +human energy, the energies of domesticated animals and a miniscule use +of water power and air power. To these traditional energy sources the +revolution in science and technology has added steam, electricity, and +the energy stored in the atom. + +II. These new sources of energy were harnessed and directed through +mechanical and chemical agencies that greatly extended human capacity to +convert nature's stored wealth into goods and services available for +human consumption, and to develop a surplus of wealth and a release of +manpower sufficient to build up a backlog of capital which, in its turn, +produced goods and services with economic surpluses convertible into +additional capital. + +III. This revolution in the tempo of production and capital accumulation +was parallelled by a like revolution in transportation and communication +by land, water, and eventually by air and in space. Electricity played +an essential part in the process by speeding communication and helping +to put transportation on wheels. + +IV. Building construction was also revolutionized--metals, concrete, +glass and synthetics replaced wood and stone as the basic construction +materials. + +V. New energy sources and the new capital expanded the volume and +variety of production far more rapidly than the increase in population +and turned the resulting surplus into a technical apparatus that made +possible mass production for a mass market. + +VI. Mass production, transportation, construction and marketing ushered +in an era of surplus that replaced the age of comparative scarcity with +an age of rapidly increasing abundance. + +Changes in the means of production play havoc with any established +social pattern. The economic alteration that accompanied and followed +the eighteenth and early nineteenth century transformation of western +economy overturned various aspects of the western social structure: + + 1. Representative government made its appearance and spread + widely; + + 2. Social services and social security, previously reserved for + the elite, were provided for wider and wider circles of the + population; + + 3. Changes in technology, advances in science, the replacement + of landlords, clergymen and soldiers by businessmen + and professionals, including the military, as the recognized + leaders of the modern society, put social control in the hands + of a new ruling bourgeois class; + + 4. The bourgeois revolution brought into existence two other + classes: the industrial proletariat as an ally and/or an + acceptable leader of the peasant masses of Europe. At the + same time it enlarged the middle class to a point at which + it was able to play a decisive role in the formulation and + direction of social policy in industrialized communities. + + 5. Fragments of the industrial proletariat and the greatly + enlarged middle class came together in an avowedly revolutionary + movement: socialism-communism, which reached + the power summit between 1910 and 1917. + + 6. The bourgeoisie countered with a cold war aimed to exterminate + socialism-communism, using propaganda, petty + reform and armed intervention as its chief agencies. + + 7. The high birth rate, the prolongation of life and mass education + provided society with a substantial body of skilled, + experienced, socially conscious, alert citizens, increasingly + aware of the historical changes through which they were + living and determined to intervene whenever their well-being + was threatened. + + 8. Extension and equalization of opportunity opened the way + for an informed citizenry to express itself and defend its + interests. + + 9. Emerging planet-wide social consciousness spread an awareness + that the concerns, plans and programs of any part of + the human family are of vital importance to the whole of + mankind. + +Change is a universal force which operates in nature, in society, in man +himself. At times it takes place so gradually that one day seems like +another. At other times it operates with furious energy, turning things +upside-down overnight. Such change, whether it takes place in nature or +in society is revolutionary. + +Rome's demise as a world power was followed by centuries of +quietude--The Dark Ages. These in turn yielded to a period of +revolutionary change that found its early expression in the voyages and +discoveries that spanned the earth after 1450. Three centuries later the +rebirth of western humanity expressed itself in the industrial +revolution that flooded across the planet and became an early stage of +the planet-wide sweep that has played havoc with nature, turned the old +society upside down and presently promises to produce a new society for +a reborn human race. + +World-wide revolution is the predominant force in the twentieth century. +Its existence and some of its consequences have become an all-embracing +theme for thought and discussion. They have put into the hands of +present-day humanity the ideas, experiments and experiences needed for +transforming nature, rebuilding social institutions and practices and +opening the way for mankind to move confidently into a future replete +with intriguing and exciting possibilities. + +An excellent summary of this entire field is appearing in a six volume +_History of Mankind_, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, +Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Volume six of the history +is titled _The Twentieth Century_. Particularly noteworthy is an +Introduction of more than a hundred printed pages, Part I, _The +Development and Application of Scientific Knowledge_, and Part II on +_The Transformation of Societies_. Events surrounding the war of 1914-18 +are correctly described as "a turning point in world history." (Vol. VI +p. 11) + +World revolution is one aspect of present-day society. From our present +vantage point we cannot tell how far it will go or what it will do to +humanity and its present habitat. + +Advances in science and technology have provided mankind with a new +stage on which to go through a new act and speak a new piece. What +effect will they have on the institutions and practices of western +civilization? Have they rendered the forms and functions of civilization +obsolete? Or can western civilization adapt itself or be adapted to the +very difficult situation created by the revolution through which human +society is presently passing? Can western civilization be reformed to +meet the new historical situation created by the great revolution or +must it be rejected and replaced? + +If the institutions and practices of western civilization can be +adjusted to meet the demands of the new situation created by the +scientific, technological, political and cultural revolution, the +reformed social apparatus may function in a new day that is dawning for +the human family. If reform proves to be impossible, the apparatus of +western civilization must be replaced by a social structure in keeping +with the requirements of the new age inaugurated by the innovations +introduced into the human culture pattern by the revolution of our time. + +There is widespread recognition of the need to keep the structure of a +society in harmony with necessary functions and updated to the +consequences of probable or possible discovery and invention. This is no +mean task as western experience during recent centuries has so clearly +demonstrated. Power elites of feudal Europe neither anticipated nor +prepared for the consequences of the industrial revolution. The result +was the smash and clatter of the American and French Revolutions (1776 +and 1789) and minor revolutionary shocks through the nineteenth century. +Power elites in western Europe dealt with mass production and its +consequent abundance of goods and services with mass marketing, social +security and other crumbs of affluence scattered among the restless +masses. But when the trade winds of the scientific and technological +revolution blew in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the Chinese +Revolution of 1911 and the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Romanoff +dictatorship was still ordering back the tide of social change and the +dominant United States oligarchy cold-shouldered the Mexican Revolution, +took sixteen years to recognize officially the Russian Soviets and +waited twenty-three years after 1949 before they were even on speaking +terms with the Chinese Communists. + +For two centuries, new ideas, institutions and practices have followed +discoveries and inventions as regularly as day follows night. The +consequent flood of innovations that has swept through the West and +across the planet in the past two generations has made drastic social +change a matter of the utmost urgency. The only open questions concern +the direction of the changes, their rapidity, and the success of the +social system in adapting itself to the shattering effects of newly +released social forces. + +Social change can come with the rush and turmoil of revolution or the +studied step-by-considered-step constancy of the conscious improvement +of society by society. Two powerful social forces limit gradualness. One +is human impatience. The other is the rapidity with which masses of +people all over the planet are being informed of the good-life potential +implicit in present-day western affluence. + +Impatience is emotional rather than rational. It is a compound of human +urges on one hand and on the other hand of the frustrations built up in +individuals and populations attracted by new wants and frustrated by +barriers of custom-habit; the carefully constructed apparatus of +direction, division and restriction (the State, the Church, the +communication media), and the potent class forces of the +counter-revolution. + +In every modern community the media of mass communication are +broadcasting information regarding the widening consumer prospects +created by the current revolution in science and technology. In every +modern community there are eager, ambitious, hopeful individuals urging +their fellow workers and fellow citizens to get moving toward the +promised land of peace and plenty. In every community the bureaucracy, +representing the more comfortable and secure elements of the population, +is asking the less well placed class groups to "take it easy," take "one +step at a time," and remember that "Rome was not built in a day." + +Conservatives, urging law and order under the status quo, have reason +on their side. The movement of a technologically oriented community from +monopoly capitalism into socialism-communism is without historical +precedent and therefore largely experimental. Plans are tentative; there +are shortages of materials and particularly of skills based on +experience. Costly mistakes are made leading to delay until they can be +corrected. The counter-revolution, abundantly financed by the forces of +reaction, operates constantly, in critical situations almost always +through the military, to preserve the "law and order" which are the +prime forces behind its wealth and its power. In an untrod, untested +area ignorance is a blank wall until it is pierced by ingenuity and +innovation. There are many ways to miss a defined objective and only a +few ways to reach it. + +Cautious, experienced people, living comfortably, are inclined to let +well enough alone. Restless, hopeful idealists are eager to reject, +modify, improvise and replace. + +Conservatives try to preserve both the structure and the traditional +activities of a community on the plea that a bird in the hand is worth +two in the bush. Liberals (moderates) would preserve the structure but +bring its activities up to date. Radicals would scrap the old and +replace it with a new structure and new activities geared to the new +possibilities and the new requirements. + +Survival wars from 1914 to 1945 marked not only the end of Britain's +planetary domination but the termination of Europe's planetary regency. +The events of the period also loosened the bonds that had held western +civilization together. + +A social structure which includes imperial nuclei and colonial +dependencies is constantly threatened by colonial unrest and revolt. +Colonial revolt, endemic in every civilization, became epidemic after +1943. The path to independence had been blazed by North and South +American colonials. It was followed after 1943 by the inhabitants of +British, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Asia and +Africa. The slogan of the independence movement was "self-determination." + +Before self-determination can operate there must be a "self" capable of +making decisions and carrying them into practice. Identification of the +"self," or "nationhood" as it was called in this era, involved bitter +domestic struggle, internal reorganization and consolidation. The +process was typified in the British Colonies of North America between +1770 and 1789 which produced the United States of North America. Asians +and Africans who gained their independence after 1945 faced a double +problem: the establishment of nationhood, and regional consolidation. + +The British colonies in North America won their independence as a loose +confederation of sovereign states. After war's-end in 1783, they were +able to form a regional federation: the United States of North America. +Despite their efforts, they were unable to include Canada, which was +under strong French influence. British colonials in Asia and Africa +after 1943 were less fortunate. After winning their independence as +Indians or Burmese, they were unable to take the next step and organize +a United States of Southern Asia. + +The Bandung Conference (in 1955) of representatives from Asia and +African countries failed to realize the hopes of its conveners. After +prolonged deliberations it was able to go no further than the "five +principles" of self-determination and co-existence, under which the +independence of each participating nation was reaffirmed and each agreed +not to interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbors. The +conference adjourned without establishing any form of organization or +making provision for further meetings. + +After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, hopes ran high for the establishment +of a bloc of Latin American States, led by the elected president of +Brazil, Joao Goulart, that might act as a bulwark against further +"yankee aggression" in Latin America. In 1962 a military coup overthrew +Goulart, drove him into exile, jailed and disenfranchised his supporters +and lined up Brazil, largest and most populous nation of Latin America, +solidly behind the Monroe Doctrine of United States supremacy in the +Americas, implemented by Washington's burgeoning "Pentagon diplomacy." + +African developments were even less fruitful than those in Asia and +Latin America. Asians and Latin Americans generally had reached the +level of self-identification necessary for statehood and national +self-determination. Large parts of Africa living at pre-national levels +of tribal identification, devoted their energies to the realization of +nationhood. Their constitutions announced their frontiers and proclaimed +their sovereignty, but inter-tribal rivalries and personal ambitions +turned each new nation into a battle field for prestige and authority, +with the military often making the final decisions. + +Asians and Africans had won telling victories in their struggle to drive +out their former imperial masters. When it came to the affirmative task +of organizing responsible regional federations, their failure was +dismal. Asia and Africa were regionally disunited. Former colonial +people, still monitored by alien representatives of monopoly capitalism, +were fragmented by the self-determination struggle into theoretically +sovereign nations many of which lacked the experience and the local +expertise which are the indispensible prerequisites of self-determination +and of fruitful regional federation. + +Another aspect of the world revolution produced more tangible results. +The latter half of the nineteenth century brought into being a +grass-roots movement of peoples demanding everything from petty reforms +of administrative machinery to planned revolutionary transformations of +the established monopoly capitalist structure. This movement +crystallized as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, pro-socialist +national and international struggle. From the publication of the +Communist Manifesto in 1848 until the beginnings of socialist +construction in 1917, it was a movement of protest against poverty, +unemployment, war, waste, inequality, exploitation. After 1917 it became +a movement to end imperialism, war and exploitation and substitute a +planet-wide social system that would give every human being a chance to +play a meaningful part in utilizing nature, improving society and +creating socialist women and men, capable of cooperating for the general +welfare of mankind. + +The Enlightenment had diminished ignorance, spread information and +brought elementary education to the masses. Self-government had given +people confidence in their ability to make the phrase "we, the people" a +working formula for social improvement. The Industrial Revolution had +converted millions of superstitious, frustrated peasants into craftsmen +and professionals confident in their ability to use nature effectively, +to advance their own interests and to improve society. These and +secondary social forces laid the foundation for the social revolution +that mushroomed across the planet during the opening years of the +present century. The occasion for the revolution was four years of +destructive war (1914-18) during which two rival gangs of imperialists +led their dupes and victims to shed blood and destroy property in a +struggle to decide which band of plunderers should exploit natural +resources and labor power for its own advantage. + +General war presented twentieth century man with a dilemma, an +opportunity and a choice. Should he continue the grab-and-keep society +that had flowered in Europe and elsewhere during the previous century, +with its consequent poverty for the many, unemployment, exploitation and +the power-struggle of the empires, or make a revolutionary change? As +the stalemated war of 1914-18 with its frightful destruction of life and +property continued year after year, the determination in favor of +revolutionary change grew and crystalized. + +David Lloyd George, Britain's Prime Minister, put the situation into +words presented to the Versailles Peace Conference on March 25, 1919: +"The whole of Europe is filled with the spirit of revolution.... The +whole existing order in its political, social and economic aspects is +questioned by the masses of the population from one end of Europe to the +other." (Memorandum of Lloyd George to the Peace Conference, 1922 Cmd. +1614.) + +Lloyd George proved a true prophet. Mass discontent and the spirit of +revolt spread rapidly. Soldiers at the front mutinied. The armies of +Tsarist Russia dissolved as the privates and officers alike returned to +their homes, determined to stop war, end Romanoff tyranny and build a +better life for the Russian people. To gain these results they replaced +the Tsarist absolutism by local, regional and nationally elected +people's Soviets. + +Before the War began in July, 1914, the socialist parties of Europe were +divided between moderates who were willing to accept welfare-state +reforms and allow the grab-and-keep structure of monopoly capitalism to +continue in authority, and revolutionaries who demanded the abolition of +capitalist imperialism and its replacement by socialism. European +reformist socialists shouldered arms in July, 1914, and shot down their +comrades across the frontiers. European revolutionary socialists, led by +Lenin in Russia, Liebknecht in Germany and Jaures in France gained in +strength as the war proceeded. Liebknecht and Jaures were assassinated. +Lenin lived in exile until he went back to Russia and led the +revolutionary forces that liquidated Tsarism in the closing months of +1917. + +For the first time in the history of western civilization, a proletarian +revolutionary force had established its authority over one of the most +extensive and populous nations on the planet. For the first time a +responsible government threatened to abandon the fundamental assumptions +and principles of western civilization. Could this new "subversive" +government survive in the merciless free-for-all in which western man +was engaged? Could it not only survive but build up a social system +which contradicted and condemned the underlying precepts of the West? In +a word, could socialism be built in one country, surrounded by civilized +monopoly capitalist powers? + +Historical events have answered these questions in the affirmative. At +this writing the Soviet Government has survived continuously for more +than half a century. During that period it has transformed economically, +politically and culturally backward portions of Europe and Asia into one +of the most advanced areas on the planet. + +Monopoly capitalist society assumes that productivity, wealth and +fire-power, effectively co-ordinated under competent authority, will +guarantee survival and perhaps win supremacy. Beginning its life in one +of the backward areas of the planet, the Soviet Union has met all of +these tests by converting itself into a first class world power. Its +productivity is second only to that of the United States. In wealth it +stands second among the nations. Its fire power has carried the Soviet +Union to victory in civil and international war. Its ruling +oligarchy--the Soviet Communist Party--has maintained its authority +through the stresses of domestic strife and major international +conflict. In terms accepted by the existing free-for-all West, the +Soviet Union is an established world power. + +Through the first three decades of its existence the Soviet Union was +the only government avowedly engaged in building a socialist rival to +monopoly capitalism and determined to replace capitalism as the dominant +planet-wide social system. After 1943 it was joined by a dozen other +European, Asian and American countries, dedicated like the Soviet Union +to the task of building socialism. In addition to these dozen countries, +several others such as India, Burma, Indonesia, Ceylon, Ghana and Libya, +declared their intention of building socialism by legal, and gradual +stages. Almost all of the countries busied with socialist construction +were in East Europe and Asia. The countries building toward socialism +were more widely scattered, but by and large they were Eurasian. + +From 1919 to 1943 socialist construction was directed, at least in +theory, by the Communist International with headquarters in Moscow--the +"general staff of the World Revolution". Under war pressure the +Communist International was dissolved in 1943. No equally inclusive +international socialist authority has since been established. + +World revolution is not confined to the Old World of +Africa--Asia--Europe. It is widely prevalent in the Americas where it +can claim a certain priority. Outstanding among colonial uprisings of +modern times was the rebellion of the British colonies of North America, +from 1776 to 1783. Even more widespread was the rebellion of the +Spanish, Portuguese and French colonies of Central and South America +which spanned most of the nineteenth century and extended on into the +twentieth. Russian Bolsheviks held the headlines on revolutionary +activity from 1917 to 1943 but it should not be forgotten that one of +the most prolonged and thorough-going revolutions of the present century +gripped Mexico from 1910 to 1917. At the beginning of this period Mexico +was a political semi-dependency of the United States. It was +semi-feudal, with a large population of Amerindians and a pre-industrial +economy. Foreign capitalists and entrepreneurs, including those from the +United States, played a leading role in the country. + +Mexico's 1910-1917 revolution was prolonged. It was also radical, +up-rooting many aspects of its old social pattern, speeding up the +bourgeois revolution, and preparing the way for a Mexican form of +populism and a Mexican foretaste of a proletarian revolution, initiated, +led and manned by Mexicans. + +Mexico's revolution resulted in two important developments that have +played a major role in socialist construction. Both contributions +appeared in the Mexican Constitution of 1917, adopted eight months +before the Russian Bolsheviks seized power in November. + +The first contribution was a chapter on the rights of labor. Bourgeois +constitutions had emphasized "civil" rights: the right to vote, trial by +jury; freedom of speech, press, assembly; the right to go and come; the +right to compensation when private property is taken for public +purposes; the right to modify or replace the existing constitution. The +Mexican Constitution of 1917 contained a detailed specification of the +rights of labor, including proper working conditions, adequate +compensation, education, health, social security. The Constitution also +contained a crucial property provision: the natural resources of Mexico +are the property of the Mexican people and cannot be alienated. + +This second provision was inserted in the Mexican Constitution at a time +when extensive concessions to develop Mexican resources had been handed +out to North American and European capitalists. It was inserted in part +because the social ownership and sharing of land and other +natural resources has been one of the basic demands of the +Socialist--Communist--Anarchist movements from their inception. + +Monopoly capitalism depends primarily on the private ownership of the +means of production, including natural resources. Capitalist opposition +to socialism is not only a matter of theory. In practice the private +ownership of natural resources enables the owner to charge rent to any +and all users. Natural resources are sharply limited and usually +localized. As population grows, demand for living space is intensified +and rents rise. It is not an accident that the stretches of "black +earth", of copper, iron, petroleum, the precious metals, and the land +occupied by Mexico City, London, New York and other population centers, +poured a stream of wealth into the treasuries and augmented the power of +their owners. + +Effects of the insertion into the Mexican Constitution of the provision +making natural resources "the property of the Mexican people" have been +far-reaching. One socialist country after another has written into its +constitution a provision that its natural wealth is the inalienable +heritage of its people. This provision has two important results: it +establishes natural resources as part of the public sector of the +national economy; it also limits the possibility of handing out +concessions to foreign exploiters, private or public. + +During the opening years of the present century socialist parties and +other forward looking organizations were demanding social ownership of +natural resources, public utilities and other social means of production +as the next logical step toward a more equitable distribution of wealth +and income. There was a possibility that such revolutionary changes +could be made under bourgeois law by exercising the right of eminent +domain, upon the payment of reasonable compensation to former owners. At +least in theory, the democratic majority in any bourgeois country could +put an end to private enterprise capitalism and establish socialism by a +constitutional amendment, legislative enactment, and a caretaker +political apparatus to administer and supervise the transition. + +Socialist parties were making "reformist" demands for better working +and living conditions and "revolutionary" demands for changes in +property and class relationships. Increased productivity and growing +affluence made it possible for a progressive bourgeois state to meet the +reformist demands, establishing a welfare state legally and +constitutionally. + +Under the bourgeois constitutions generally existing at the beginning of +the present century, a popular majority could adopt necessary +constitutional amendments, pass the necessary enabling laws and launch a +program of socialist construction. + +Such a program was part of the thinking of European and other socialist +leaders during the opening years of the present century. Inspired and +encouraged by the successes of socialist construction in the Soviet +Union and other socialist countries, middle of the road socialists +proposed to move gradually and legally from capitalism to socialism. + +Conservative socialists who were members of coalition governments in +parts of Eurasia, described such welfare states as victories for +socialism, despite the fact that they left the essentials of state power +in bourgeois hands. + +Between 1920 and 1950 the western world found itself in this essentially +revolutionary situation: the world-wide revolution in science and +technology had opened the way for the human race to turn its back on the +limitations and inadequacies of civilization and advance to a new level +of culture and human opportunity. + +The impact of this revolutionary situation expressed itself at several +levels: + + 1. Much of west and central Europe, important parts of North + America, much of Australasia, important parts of East Asia + and fringes of Africa had at least two generations of experience + with some degree of affluence. + + 2. Scientifically and technologically maturing societies that + had opted for socialism constitutionally and legally were + engaged officially in socialist construction. These countries + and peoples were located chiefly in Eurasia. + + 3. Former colonial and client dependencies of the nineteenth + century empires struggling for self-determination and statehood + were entering a stage of affluence. These countries + and peoples were mainly Afro-Asian. Some of them were + located in Latin America. + + 4. Countries and peoples still under the political, economic + and cultural umbrella of the formerly dominant empires + were at different stages in the completion of the bourgeois + revolution. Their ruling oligarchies--fascist or neo-fascist--were + stubborn defenders of remnants and fragments of the + nineteenth century bourgeois culture. Their stronghold was + the Atlantic Community. + +During the cold war years following 1945 each of these groups was +undergoing the drastic social changes incident to the worldwide +revolution of the period. Meanwhile mini-wars, civil and international, +were fought in the Americas, Africa and Asia. By common consent +conventional weapons were used and atomic weapons were kept in +mothballs. + +These experiences were highlighted in British Guyana and Cuba. British +Guyana was a Crown Colony, with a London-appointed Governor and a small +occupying force of British troops with an elected legislative assembly +and a considerable measure of home rule. + +Democratic socialists Cheddi and Janet Jagan helped to organize the +Peoples Progressive Party of British Guyana. Twice Jagan won a popular +electoral majority and was established as Prime Minister of the British +Colony. His two periods of administrative responsibility were badgered +and hectored by every reactionary force that could be mobilized inside +and outside British Guyana, from the British appointed governor to the +domestic and foreign business interests and the urban trade unions. +Before a third election British and American governments, business and +labor interests got together. Money was funnelled into the country +through trade union connections. Protests were staged. Riots were +organized. The electoral system under which the Peoples Progressive +Party had won its victories was altered in London and Jagan was replaced +by a system of proportional representation under which the P.P.P. was +defeated and a new regime inaugurated. + +Throughout the struggle the Peoples Progressive Party had insisted upon +winning popular majorities as a basis for establishing socialism in the +colony by democratic methods and legal means. Imperialist reactionaries +from Britain's Prime Minister and the President of the United States to +the A.F. of L.-C.I.O. retorted: "No you don't", and backed up their veto +with money, riots and guns. As a consequence of this counter-revolutionary +conspiracy, the Peoples Progressive Party was forced out of office and +an administration favorable to British, United States and native Guyanese +capital was substituted. + +A revolt was led by Fidel Castro and his associates against the +Washington-backed Batista regime in Havana, Cuba. When Cuba was seized +by United States armed forces during the Spanish-American War of 1898 +much of the island was in the hands of anti-Spanish rebels who were +demanding independence of Spain's imperialist rule. Between 1898 and +1959 seven million Cubans enjoyed technical independence. Actually the +island, located only 90 miles from Florida, was economically a United +States colony and politically a Washington dependency, with United +States armed forces stationed in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. After +seizing power in 1959, Castro went to the United States seeking a market +for Cuba's chief export, sugar; a source of food supplies not produced +in Cuba, and the manufactures necessary for the economic and social life +of an essentially agricultural island. + +Batista had emptied the Cuban treasury before he fled the island in +1959. Castro therefore needed loans to meet the immediate needs of the +Cuban economy. He also sought to continue arrangements under which the +chief market of Cuban sugar was in the United States. Castro was turned +down cold. All doors, political and economic, were closed to him. As a +revolutionary with left leanings he got the cold shoulder in New York as +well as in Washington. + +Faced by economic bankruptcy and political hostility in the West, Castro +turned to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. They bought +his sugar on long term contracts; provided him with manufactures; +extended loans. Under these economic and political conditions Castro's +Cuba had no choice. Of necessity it became a part of the socialist bloc, +took over the property of Americans and other foreign investors, planned +its economy and announced socialist goals, thus making the island of +Cuba the only outpost of socialist construction in the Americas. + +Socialists exercised authority in one country from 1917 until 1943. +Thereafter the land area devoted to building socialism steadily +increased. By the time China threw off imperialist leading strings and +opted for socialist construction in 1949, a third of mankind was living +on territory under nominally socialist control. Most of this territory +was Asian. An important part lay in eastern Europe. Until 1917, +effective control of the planet was held by a half-dozen empires headed +by the British, who exercised authority over a quarter of the human race +living on a quarter of the earth's land area. After 1917 socialism +mushroomed as a potential competing social system, challenging monopoly +capitalism in Europe, replacing it in large sections of Asia and even +threatening to destroy the foundations of western civilization. + +"Action and reaction are equal and opposite" is an axiom of physical +science which is also applicable in the social field. The sweep of world +revolution and the growth of socialism-communism after 1945 called into +being an opposing force of counter-revolution. The greater the successes +of socialism, the more ardent and assiduous was the counter drive, aimed +to modify, negate and, if possible, to destroy the revolution and +restore the social system of imperialism-colonialism built by monopoly +capitalism to its prerevolutionary status of planet-wide ascendancy. + +Winston Churchill personified this counter revolutionary drive. It was +he who proposed to "strangle the Bolshevik infant in its cradle". The +Peace Conferees, meeting in Versailles, heeded Lloyd George's warning of +March, 1919, and turned their attention to the urgent task of +strangling socialism. Revolutionary beginnings in central Europe were +stamped out. Funds were raised and arms were supplied to the +anti-Bolshevik forces in European Russia and Siberia. At the height of +the counter-Bolshevik crusade there were sixteen armies in Soviet Russia +with the common aim of destroying Bolshevism and restoring the country +to its previous status as one of the pillars of western civilization. +This military phase of the counter-revolution lasted for four years. It +failed. By 1922 the Soviet leaders were able to turn their energies to +the task of rebuilding a devastated country while they planned and +organized a socialist society. + +Counter revolutionary forces failed to overthrow the Bolsheviks during +the civil war of 1918-1921. They failed again when the Nazi armies +swarmed into the Soviet Union in June, 1941. The years from 1941 to 1945 +cost the Russians perhaps twenty million dead, six million dwelling +units and immense damage to their economy and their social organization. +When the war ended, responsible observers in the West predicted that if +the Soviet power survived, decades must elapse before the country was +back on its feet. + +War destruction had played havoc with much of Europe. The Soviet Union +was especially hard hit. Under the Marshall Plan billions of dollars of +United States aid were poured into Britain, France, Belgium and West +Germany. At the same time, the Soviet request for United States loans +was refused categorically by President Truman. Alone and unaided the +Soviet People repaired the extensive damage inflicted by the 1914-18 +war, the Russian Civil War and the 1941 military invasion from the West, +and went on with the task of socialist construction which the war had +interrupted. Within five years--by 1950--the Bolsheviks were again on +their feet, going strong, extending substantial aid to China and other +professedly socialist countries and playing a crucial part in the +struggle for disarmament and peace. + +At war's end in 1918 the Soviet Union was struggling to draw the first +breath of socialist life. Three decades later, after expelling the +Nazis, the Soviet Union was a sturdy giant of a nation standing head +and shoulders above its nearest European competitors. During the +interval, Soviet Russia was attacked, denounced, boycotted, encircled, +invaded, ostracized as the leading figure in "an international communist +conspiracy". When the policy of intervention and invasion failed, the +counter-revolutionaries turned to cold war. + +Whether or not there was a "communist conspiracy" to overthrow +capitalism, there was certainly an organized capitalist conspiracy to +overthrow socialism-communism. Representatives of the chief capitalist +empires made repeated attempts to subsidize anti-Bolshevik forces in the +Soviet Union. From 1918 to 1921 and from 1941 to 1945 they used every +available means, including military invasion, to overthrow the Soviet +Union and stamp out the beginnings of socialist construction in Central +and East Europe. + +From the military invasions of the Soviet Union immediately following +war's end in 1918, western spokesmen, led by President Wilson, did their +utmost to subsidize counter-revolution inside the Soviet Union, to send +American and other armed forces into the country, to villify, denounce, +boycott and handicap the Soviet Government. Sixteen years passed +(1917-1933) before Washington extended diplomatic recognition to the +Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. President Wilson did his best to +keep the Soviet Union and Mexico, both under the control of +revolutionary governments, out of the League of Nations. + +After the 1936-1945 war Washington played the same role with regard to +China, refusing for twenty-two years to recognize Socialist China +diplomatically, leading the drive in the United Nations to exclude China +from membership, although the United Nations Charter specified that +China should be one of the permanent members of the Security Council. +Secretary of State John Foster Dulles justified the policy of +blacklisting and boycotting China by declaring that there was no such +nation as China on the Asian mainland, only 650 million slaves, and that +Chiang Kai Shek's rump government on the island of Formosa was the +"China" specified in the U.N. Charter. + +Under the Truman Doctrine announced immediately after war's end in +1945, the United States refused to tolerate any extension of socialism, +whether by revolution from within or by invasion from without any +country. This doctrine was applied to Greece, to Iran, to Guatemala, to +Santo Domingo, to Chile. During the Korean War, which began in June, +1950, one of President Truman's first directives ordered the United +States Seventh (Pacific) Fleet to occupy the waters about Taiwan +(Formosa), which was historically part of China. + +In order to implement this anti-communist policy, Washington used a +newly created international secret service, the Central Intelligence +Agency or C.I.A., gave it an initial appropriation of $100,000,000 and +turned it loose to spy, corrupt, undermine and overthrow governments +that refused to accept or follow Washington's leadership. + +Between 1815 and 1914 the planet enjoyed a measure of peace and order. +In the three decades between 1914 and 1945, two general wars, a plague +of lesser wars, a general economic depression and a hurricane of +revolutions scourged the planet. Meanwhile, the revolution in science +and technology and its products penetrated almost every crack and cranny +of human society. + +Had the changes incidental to these rapid transformations been carefully +planned and supervised, the disturbances in the ecology and the shocks +to human society would have been less disturbing and upsetting. In the +absence of any planet-wide authority, there could be neither general +planning nor general supervision. There were warnings aplenty from +liberals and radicals who were attempting to keep the situation in +perspective, but such utterances failed to reach the great bulk of +mankind. + +Disturbing and upsetting products of the revolution in science and +technology--the harnessing of steam, the internal combustion engine, the +air plane, electronics, plastics, and the release of atomic energy--were +used to mutilate, destroy and kill. During the half century that began +in 1910, tens of millions were mobilized, fed, taught, armed, and led to +the slaughter fields by the masters of western civilization in two long +orgies of wholesale destruction and mass murder--1914-18 and 1936-1945. +Energies and techniques that might have brought peace and plenty to the +human family were used to set fire storms that incinerated property +while it degraded humanity to the horrors of mass suicide. + +In a very real sense these ghoulish results were the logical outcome of +competitive nationalism armed and equipped with the technology produced +during the two centuries of the great revolution. War is the most +carefully planned, most elaborate and most intensive form of +competition--the decisive climax of a life and death struggle for +survival. + +The great revolution had put into human hands almost infinite +possibilities for utilizing nature and improving the social environment. +With foresight, careful planning and skillful manipulation of forces and +trends the cultivatable portions of the planetary land mass might have +been turned into a garden of unending plenty dotted with marvelous city +centers of light and learning. + +In order to achieve such results it would have been necessary for the +human family to coordinate its efforts around an agreed division of +labor, share the goods and services produced and move from one level of +affluence to a level of abundance. + +Instead of joint efforts to achieve abundance and security, the most +prosperous and most highly developed centers of western civilization +consolidated their authority in sovereign states, surrounded by +forbidding frontiers, armed them with the most destructive agencies that +human imagination and ingenuity could devise, schooled the citizens of +each nation in the suicidal formula: "might makes right; every nation +for itself and woe betide the laggard and the loser." + +The logical ideology of such a formula was egomania, suspicion, fear and +hatred. Its outcome was a competitive life and death struggle for wealth +and power, with the nation or a bloc of nations as the units of +competition. The struggle at its highest level involved occasional local +wars and periodical general wars like those of 1914-18 and 1936-45. + +Before the great revolution such struggles were waged chiefly with +weapons wielded by human muscle power, supplemented with whatever animal +power was available. Equipped with the products of the technological +revolution, the struggle became a war of machines, powered by the +energies of nature. Retail killing and destruction was replaced by mass +murder and wholesale annihilation. + +Given the assumptions, the practices and the institutions of +civilization, the catastrophic losses of the present century could have +been foretold and, with competent leadership and disciplined +followership, could have been averted. But leadership was self-serving, +shortsighted and for the most part untrained, while followership was +split up into national and local segments, each following the suicidal +doctrine of every nation for itself and the devil take the laggards. + +Socialists-communists around the earth have spent a wealth of time and +energy during several generations predicting the present revolutionary +upset and preparing for it. They have been derided, denounced and +persecuted for their efforts. Despite bitter opposition they have +prepared for change, they accept change, they welcome it, because in +change they see the only path to improvement and betterment. + +They are learning to live with change and even to welcome it because the +time of troubles through which their society is passing is warning them +of the dangers they face. At the same time they are learning, bit by +bit, of the spectacular achievements of the billion human beings in +socialist-communist countries. + +The majority of mankind has been unprepared for revolutionary change. +When change came they resented it, maybe resisted it at the outset. + +Those who have a vested interest in capitalist imperialism--the real +backbone of the counter-revolution--join and support counter-revolutionary +organizations and take part in counter-revolutionary activities. + +Planners and organizers of the counter-revolution have the bourgeois +state generally on their side and enjoy the backing of the bourgeois +establishment, its organizations and its facilities. Since their object +is defense, they have no constructive program. Instead they stumble, +fumble and bungle as their system flounders into one disastrous crisis +after another. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +WESTERN CIVILIZATION ATTEMPTS SUICIDE (1914-1945) + + +Each bit of handiwork, each artifact, tool and machine is an expression +of man's wish and will. Each transcends nature and is an affirmation +that takes its place in the vast storehouse of human culture. + +Cities, the building blocks of civilization, not only transcend nature; +they replace her. Up to a certain point man lived more or less +consciously as a part of nature. Bit by bit and step by step man shifted +from the stream, the glade, the tree and the cave to the hut, the +village, the city, the nation, the empire, the civilization. + +Early in this study I wrote of civilization as an experiment: an +aspiration, a creative urge, a concept, a purpose, a unity of thought +and act, a conscious sequence of related actions, a construct of +multiplying complexity. + +These terms, by and large, are constructive and, to a degree, creative. +I might have written a parallel series of words associated with +destructiviness. In every social situation construction and destruction +are Siamese twins. One does not appear without the other. The same +forces, the same implements, the same institutions and practices that +construct can be used to destroy. + +Through ages, men learned how to establish, maintain and perpetuate +community and organize society. At every stage of the building process +it was necessary to check, to question, to evaluate, unlearn, tear down, +make a new start. Pushing up and tearing or wearing down is implicit in +nature. It is an essential aspect of human society. + +Each human being is a living example of production and destruction. Each +generation repeats the affirmation, modifying it little or much in +accord with circumstances. + +Modification means purposeful change--partially or wholly abandoning the +old and replacing it with something new. In the course of these changes +the conservative elements in man and in society, voluntarily or under +coercion, give up the old and learn how to use the new. The learning +process is always more or less painful, especially to people past middle +age. + +The world-wide revolution resulted from a long-continued related series +of affirmations, punctuated and interrupted by contradictions and +conflicts. + +Trends inherent in the world-wide revolution of 1750-1970 suggest a +cycle that reached its high point at the turn of the century and began +its downward course around 1900. The chief European empires were jointly +and severally involved in the bitter struggle for survival and supremacy +from 1870 onward. Until the outbreak of war in 1914, events followed an +irregular course marked by the shifting relationships of Italy and the +increased pressure from Germany for a showdown. The showdown was the war +of 1914-18, continued in a second phase from 1936 to 1945. + +Immediate political results of the showdown were victory for one side +and defeat for the other side. Economic, sociological and ideological +consequences were profound and far reaching. We noted some of them in +the previous chapter. + +UNESCO's _History of Mankind_ devotes its final volume six to the +twentieth century. The authors note that the chief European powers +emerged from the general war of 1914-18 "weakened in every way: in men +and wealth, in the balance of their economies and the stability of their +political structure and above all in their relation to other powers +rising or beginning to rise in other parts of the world". (Vol. VI p. +10.) + +Aside from the victory-defeat relationship which led to political +realignments during the post-war years, the essence of the experience +is to be found in the UNESCO phrase "weakened in every way". Another way +of describing the experience is to state that the participants in this +four year blood bath were "bled white." + +It is easy to be specific. In the course of the war sixty million people +were mobilized. Most of these people stopped what they had been doing +until mid-summer of 1914 and began an entirely new line of activity. Up +to that point most of them had been living with their families, in their +neighborhoods, going through a daily routine that included household +cares, production or service work, the conduct of neighborhood affairs, +the maintenance of normal livelihood activities, the upbringing of the +new generation and perhaps most important of all, adaptation to a +rapidly changing social situation. + +The changes that took place in the summer of 1914 involved an almost +complete reversal of purpose and direction. Up to that point Europeans +were devoting a considerable proportion of their time to production and +the maintenance of the normal life routine. At that point they left +their homes, exchanged ordinary clothes for uniforms, laid down the +implements of peace, picked up the weapons of war and prepared, under +very expert leadership and direction, a series of mass movements +designed to disrupt the ordinary life routine of other human beings on +the other side of lines drawn on a map, but having little relation to +customary life activity and even less to geography. + +Execution of this purpose involved a mass movement from the home +territory into that occupied by the "enemy". If the enemy resisted he +must be forced to do the will of the invaders. Instead of cooperating in +a joint effort to maintain and improve the general welfare, uniformed, +armed, expertly-led masses began beating up each other, until one side +gave in and cried "enough." + +Plans for war had been drawn and redrawn for years, for decades. +Elaborate preparations had been made. Destructive weapons had been +designed and built. Transport had been provided, food stored. Defensive +preparations had also been made in the form of fortifications so placed +as to obstruct or prevent "the enemy" from crossing the "frontier". + +When sport-lovers go from home for a day to play a competition in +another city or province, they go, play the game and then go back home +to continue the ordinary life routine. In the case of the project we are +now considering they left home in July, 1914 and returned months or +years later. Many never got back home because they were killed in battle +or died of wounds; many were "missing"; they disappeared. + +If casualties in the 1914-18 war had been numbered in dozens, or scores +or even in hundreds, the communities from which they came could have +gone on without them--handicapped perhaps but not seriously disrupted. +But when they were numbered in thousands and tens of thousands it was a +quite different story. Actually, they were numbered in millions. + +Mobilized to carry on the war were 42.2 million on the Allied side. On +the side of the Central Powers, 22.8 millions. The total: 65 million. 12 +million of those mobilized were Russian, 11 million were Germans, 8.4 +million were French, 8 million were from the British Empire. From +Austro-Hungary came 7.8 million, from Italy, 5.6 million. Turkey +furnished 2.9 million, Bulgaria 1.2 million; 4.4 million came from the +United States; 0.8 million from Japan. Lesser numbers came from other +countries. + +Except for Spain, the largest contributions of war conscripts came from +the countries with the largest populations. With the exception of Spain, +all of the great powers of Europe provided the "cannon fodder"; the +human beings which Europe's "great powers" assembled to take part in +this profligate orgy of mass murder which went on for more than four +years, from July 1914 until November 1918. + +Body count reports and "estimates" give the total number of human beings +murdered in the four year period as 8,538,315. (The legal definition of +"murder" is killing, not accidentally but with the intention of taking +life.) + +This figure of 8.5 million murdered human adults, most of them in the +prime of life, refers to the murdered bodies that were recovered and +disposed of. In addition there were "prisoners" and "missing." + +As the 1914-18 war proceeded it became less a series of combats between +human beings; more and more it was a war of machines such as +battleships, tanks, big guns and by war's end, of airplanes. Human +beings drew up the plans, made the blueprints, shifted the gears, pushed +the buttons. Their efforts were supplemented and multiplied by the +killing power of physics, chemistry and mechanics brought to the task of +wholesale murder, which produced 8.5 million dead human bodies. + +"Prisoners and missing" accounted for 7,750,000 additional human beings. +Many of them were torn to shreds and smithereens by the gigantic +concentration of mechanical and explosive power, designed, constructed +and transported to the European battlefields for the express purpose of +carrying on this month-long and year-long collective endeavor to take as +much life as possible and destroy as much property as possible while war +declarations authorized and legalized mass murder and wholesale +destruction. + +Not all victims of the hideous 1914-18 blood bath were killed. "Wound +casualties" numbered 12.8 million among the Allies; 8.4 million among +the boys, young men and adults mobilized by the Central Powers. Some of +the wounded were crippled for life. Some were less severely injured, but +all 22.2 million were more or less severely handicapped when they stood +up to face the rigors of civilian life at war's end. All were denied the +possibility of living normal, productive, creative, satisfying lives. + +Wars are fought on battlefields. In the war of 1914-18 many of the +battlefields included villages, towns, cities. These complex +institutions, occupied by men, women and children were smashed and +burned wholesale. + +The figures which I have used in listing the 1914-18 war losses were +compiled by the United States War Department. They are more or less +accurate, but they underline the fact that for years on end the centers +of western civilization concentrated their energies and devoted every +means at their disposal to cripple or destroy fellow human beings and +their habitations. + +When we read of the destruction of the Roman Empire we console and +perhaps try to fool ourselves by saying that the immense network of +civilization which the Romans and their Greek associates spread across +Eurasia and Africa during the historical period that began about 700 +B.C. was destroyed by hordes of migrating "barbarians." When we turn to +our own civilization, however, there are no barbarian hordes to take the +blame. The wholesale destruction which took place in Europe from 1914 to +1918 and which was repeated and multiplied during the wars of 1936-1945 +was carried on officially by spokesmen for the most advanced, most +highly developed, most civilized countries of the western world. + +We have been using the word "murder" to describe the wholesale slaughter +of Europeans by Europeans that took place from 1914 to 1918 and from +1936 to 1945. The word "murder" is inaccurate. The Europeans who carried +on the wholesale destruction and mass murder during the two most general +wars of modern times were committing murder in one sense. In quite +another sense they were engaged in collective suicide. Europeans were +blotting out the life and well-being of fellow Europeans. When the +process came to a temporary halt in 1945 every European participant in +the struggle was weaker in human potential and poorer in economic means +than they were when the war began. + +Arnold Toynbee describes the entire episode as the "down grading" of +Europe. He might have added two words and reported "the down grading of +Europe by Europeans", as a glaring example of large scale, long +continued, deliberate self-destruction. + +Fundamental social changes were bound to follow the revolutionary +technical transformations that took place during the world-wide +revolution of 1750-1970. Changes may be made in various ways. Some are +slow and relatively painless, particularly when they extend over +generations; other changes are so rapid that they are agonizingly +painful. Involuntary changes, made under outside pressure are almost +always painful. World-wide revolution, under the best of conditions, +promises to be painful. When it comes from alien sources, and is under +forced pressure, the costs are almost sure to be excessively high. + +This brings us face to face with one of the most important problems +facing mankind at the present moment. Given the worldwide revolution of +the past two centuries, what changes--political, economic, sociological +and ideological--must be made to prepare the way for the new society and +shift the family from the old homestead to the new apartment with a +minimum of pain and a maximum of satisfaction? + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +TALKING PEACE AND WAGING WAR + + +Blatant contradictions disorganized human life after war's end in 1945. +In the crucial area of war and peace three groups were bidding for +attention: dedicated peace partisans (peacenicks); nationalist +enthusiasts waging wars of liberation; and massive semi-official and +official nationalistic groups busily preparing for the next big war. + +Occasionally these groups joined hands on "hot" issues. Generally they +were far apart. Often they were in active opposition. + +Dedicated peace advocates were an important factor in this post-war +period. They had been vocal and influential in July, 1914 immediately +before the outbreak of the first general war. They had continued to play +an active role between the first and second general wars. In the autumn +of 1972 the World Peace Council called together a peace assembly in +Moscow representing significant elements from 143 countries. The largest +single element in the World Peace Council was the Socialist bloc, headed +by the Soviet Union. + +Peace advocates mobilized wide public support for the "no more war" +movement that developed during the closing months of the 1914-18 war; +for the Briand-Kellogg Treaty of 1928 which renounced war as an +instrument of policy; for the effort to secure general disarmament that +resulted in the General Disarmament Conference of 1933 and for the +United Nations Charter of 1945. + +Official declarations in favor of disarmament and peace had been +paralleled by the organization of unofficial peace committees and +societies in western Europe, in the Americas and in the socialist +countries. + +Peace efforts had been strengthened by the outbreak of local +wars--between India and Pakistan, between Israel and the Arab League; by +wars of independence and liberation in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, North +Africa. + +Much of the public backing for the peacenicks came from student groups +in official and private high schools, colleges and universities. + +Nationalist liberation movements were active in settled communities such +as Ireland and Canada's Province of Quebec. There were less established +movements in newly liberated restless ex-colonies and remaining colonies +of the chief European empires, of Japan and of the United States. The +widely advertised World Peace Council turned more and more from general +advocacy of peace, such as the Stockholm Peace Petition, to the support +of liberation movements among colonials and supressed minor +nationalities. + +Preparations for another general war were expanded and intensified as +the competitive struggle for oil and other natural resources mounted. By +the end of the 1960's total arms expenditures of the chief powers were +running at $200 billion per year. In 1973 the total reached $225 +billion. + +There was much general talk about peace, but the most insistent note +sounded for a high level of spending on armaments. Britain's Prime +Minister Heath voiced a sentiment vigorously promulgated by every +representative of national security "British interests come first". + +Confusion was heightened by the presence of men who faced all three +ways: talking peace, waging small wars and preparing for the next big +one. In February, 1974 in his State of the Union message to the U.S. +Congress, President Nixon spoke of "our goal of building a structure of +lasting peace in the world." At the same moment the Washington +administration was feeding the fires of war in South East Asia and +asking the United States Congress to increase 1975 U.S.A. defense +appropriations from $80 billion to $90 billion per year. + +When war ended in 1945 there was a planet-wide sigh of relief and a +devout hope that after so many years of local and general wars, the time +had come for western man to take a long decisive step in the direction +of peace. The United Nations Charter expressed this hope to end the use +of war as an instrument of policy. + +Since the period of general social relaxation usually known as the Dark +Ages was superceded by the multiple innovations of the Reformation, the +Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the scientific-technical developments +of the 1750-1970 Revolution, man the dreamer, inventor, designer, +planner, architect and engineer has modified many aspects of nature and +transformed the social environment. + +Until the Reformation and the Renaissance, European ruling oligarchies +in territories along the Mediterranean and throughout western Europe +were able to perpetuate their privileges and preserve the life styles of +an agricultural-feudal society. Improvements in navigation and the +growth of trade, commerce and industry opened the way for the bourgeois +revolution with its rapid growth of cities and the parallel increase of +wealth, income, and living standards among the newly-enriched +businessmen and their associates and dependents. + +Social changes in feudal Europe had been gradual. The dynamism implicit +in the bourgeois revolution escalated the rate of social change with +corresponding modifications in the pattern of European political, +economic and cultural institutions and practices. + +In the early stages of the transformation the awareness of change was +limited to a minority of city dwellers. To the rural illiterate +majority, change was a closed book. A great social gulf separated the +feudal countryside from the growing centers of trade, commerce and +industry. Bourgeois life processes narrowed and gradually bridged the +gulf. Differences between city and country living persisted, but the +stark contrast between city abundance of goods and services and their +virtual absence from the common life of the countryside grew less and +less marked as the proportion of the total population living in the +countryside declined with the trek to cities and their suburbs. + +Europeans living for the most part in a pre-civilized rural environment +passed through generations of illiterate unawareness of the social +process through which European life was expanding. The rapid extension +of industry and commerce after 1750 (the bourgeois revolution) completed +the transformation of a rural, semi-feudal west and central Europe into +a continent of town and city dwellers devoting their lives to pursuits +unknown to their immediate forebears. In this new Europe the countryside +played a decreasing role, as food supplies and raw materials came +increasingly from less developed parts of eastern Europe or from the +colonies which were opened up by the planet-wide trade and commerce +promoted by the aggressive expansion of the European empires. + +Most Europeans, satisfied with the axiom "old fashions please me best" +were stand-patters in the early stages of this transformation. As the +conversion of Europe from feudal status to urban dynamism continued, +however, an ever larger part of the population became aware of the +change through which their society was passing. With the Renaissance and +the Enlightenment inert unawareness gave place to enthusiastic +propaganda in the writings of pamphleteers, essayists, poets, novelists +and social reformers who set the intellectual tone for the new society. + +In a very real sense, the bourgeois Europe which emerged after 1750 was +something new under the sun. Large elements of the population, +previously engaged in producing and consuming the bare necessaries of +food, shelter and clothing were increasingly engaged in trades and +professions and rendering services unknown to the feudal countryside. As +the expansion of western civilization continued, entire European nations +like the Low Countries, England and Germany turned to trade, commerce, +industry, leaving only a dwindling minority engaged in agricultural +pursuits. The change was speeded by the revolution in science and +technology. + +Changes in economic and social relations are paralleled by corresponding +alterations in the total way of living. Western civilization was, in its +entirety, a cultural departure from the pattern of any preceding +experiment with civilization because of the drastic changes that the +revolution in science and technology had introduced into human society. + +Throughout the life-cycle of western civilization minor and major +alterations have been made in its structure and its function. Some of +the earlier political changes were part and parcel of the bourgeois +revolution. They included: + +1. The abolition of absolute monarchies and hereditary aristocracies and +their replacement by limited monarchies and republics with various types +of representative and popular governments selected by ballot. + +2. The replacement of personal tyrannies and autocracies by written +constitutions and laws passed by elected parliaments. + +3. Replacement of war as the sport of kings and the chief instrument of +policy makers, by negotiation, diplomacy, and treaties which became the +core of existing "international law." + +4. Arbitrary national sovereignty was supplemented by more or less +permanent alliances and by the formal international organizations such +as the Universal Postal Union, the World Court and the League of +Nations. + +5. Regional Associations were organized; the North Atlantic Treaty +Organization; the Organization of American States and the Organization +for European Unity. + +6. Disarmament conferences were held. General peace treaties were signed +like the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928 and the United Nations +Charter. + +7. Two major efforts were made to establish a general confederation of +nations and empires--the League of Nations in 1919 and the United +Nations a quarter of a century later. Both the League of Nations and the +United Nations proved to be feeble and ineffectual efforts to bridge the +gulf between limited national sovereignty and planet-wide order and +peace. But they were tentative steps in the direction of a federation of +the world and they did mark a notable advance from the chaos and +conflict incident to the planet-wide expansion of the European empires +toward more stable economic and social conditions and more orderly +international relationships. + +Paralleling these changes in the political life of western civilization +there have been a number of drastic economic reforms. One was the +abolition of chattel slavery. A second was the replacement of serfdom +and peonage by free labor receiving fixed wages and salaries. A third +change was the division of large feudal estates and other concentrated +landed properties into small units owned and operated by working +farmers. A fourth change was the establishment of free trade areas +within and among sovereign states. A fifth innovation was the transfer +of individually operated and family businesses into associations and +corporations with limited liability and widespread ownership by bond and +stockholders. Sixth, trade unions and consumers' cooperatives were +recognized and legalized. Seventh, legal provisions were made for social +security against accident, sickness, unemployment, old age. Minimum +incomes were guaranteed. Eighth, many steps were taken toward public or +social ownership of the means of production, including land and other +natural resources. Ninth, repeated governmental efforts were made to +deal with the inflation that attends prolonged exhausting wars. These +efforts included the regulation of credit and debt and the substitution +of new currencies for old ones that had been hopelessly devalued. + +Political and economic changes in the life-patterns of western +civilization have been accompanied by far-reaching cultural reforms such +as the provision of free public education; the emancipation of women; +the provision of public recreation facilities; popularized culture +through information, the drama, music, literature, art; equalizing +opportunity and facilitating movement up and down the ladder of +recognition, approval, disapproval. + +Political reforms of western civilization date from the Reformation and +the Renaissance. Economic reforms were speeded by the industrial +revolution. Together they are often described as the bourgeois +revolution, which resulted in the power shift from landlords, +ecclesiastics and knights in armor to businessmen, protected and +assisted by the state, the church, channels of information and +propaganda, the police and other armed forces. Cultural reforms +accompanied the reforms in politics and economics. + +Underlying the changes and supplementing reforms were improvements in +the means of communication and transportation; the discovery and use of +new sources of energy and the changes in production and merchandizing +which have played so vital a role in the transition from a skimpy +economy of scarcity to an open-handed economy of abundance, extravagance +and conspicuous waste. + +Through all of the political, economic and social changes made in the +structure and function of western civilization its basic activities have +remained unchanged. The nuclei of civilized life have been cities +concerned primarily with trade, commerce, industry, finance--planned, +organized and administered by businessmen, their professional and +technical associates and assistants. In practice, city centers of wealth +and power have expanded, using the military as the readiest means of +implementing policy. They have occupied and garrisoned the foreign +territory brought under their control. At home and abroad they have +exploited nature, men and other animals in their interest and for their +profit. The trading cities of medieval Europe, the emerging nations of +the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the colonizing empires of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the industrial European +empires of the nineteenth century devoted their energies increasingly to +expanding into new territory, occupying and exploiting it, and fighting +the wars which pock-marked the ceaseless struggle for pelf and power. In +short, they continued to build up the institutions and to follow the +practices of civilized peoples. This has been true of the millennium +that began with the crusades and has hastened the rise of western +civilization and its extension to planet-wide proportions. + +Similar conclusions can be drawn from the life stories of the score or +more of civilizations that rose, flourished and sank into inconsequence +during the previous five thousand years. + +Each civilization has had its own habitat, its own life pattern. Each +has had its own languages, laws, traditions and customs. But despite +such local differences, all of the civilizations have had in common +those characteristics which justify their inclusion in the family of +civilizations. + +Anyone who wishes to test the accuracy of these generalizations may be +satisfied by reading and observing the events that began with the wars +between Japan, China and Russia, the Spanish American War, the Boer War, +and the revolts in Cuba, China and the Philippines, all of which took +place between 1895 and 1905. The present century opened in a period of +critical struggle between empires, within empires and between imperial +centers and colonial dependencies. These preliminary skirmishes led up +to two general wars in 1914-1918 and 1936-1945, accompanied and followed +by a score of minor wars and a planet-wide rash of civil wars and wars +of independence waged by peoples of the erstwhile colonies. + +Three johnnie-come-lately empires played star-roles in the drama: +Germany, the United States and Japan. The histories of all three +countries from 1870 to 1950 provide ample support for the contention +that the central theme of western civilization, as of its predecessors, +is a competitive struggle for wealth and power, aimed at expansion and +exploitation, using war and the threat of war as instruments of policy. + +Even under the pressures generated by the innovations and the political +and economic changes of the current world wide revolution, the principle +objectives of civilization have remained constant: geographical +expansion; military, economic and cultural occupation; exploitation of +the newly acquired territories and peoples. Each civilization has built +up and maintained a professional military apparatus and used it as the +final arbiter in the determination of domestic and foreign policy. + +The means used to achieve these objectives have varied from time to time +and from place to place. The basic pattern of civilization has +appeared, disappeared and reappeared. + +Each civilization has made heroic efforts to reform itself when +submerged in a time of troubles that made its institutions and its +practices intolerable to those in power or those groups and classes +which had grown so desperate under its exploitation and oppression that +they preferred death to continuance of the established order. + +Each civilization has made its contribution, retaining its essential +form while modifying its practices to meet the requirements of +particular situations. Western civilization is no exception to this +general rule. + +Following the all but universal principle that "action and reaction tend +to be equal and opposite," subjugated, occupied peoples revolt against +"foreign" occupation and exploitation. Again western civilization is no +exception, as the movements for independence and self-determination that +followed the 1946 post-war collapse of the European empires clearly +showed. + +Reaction against western civilization went beyond revolt to include the +rejection of the obsolete concepts, forms and practices inherent in +civilization. Rejection has been accompanied and followed by proposals +for replacing civilization by concepts, forms and practices more in +keeping with the social relations and situations resulting from the +current world revolution. + +Most reforms of civilization have been attempted during the life of +western civilization because during that era both the structure and +functioning of civilization have been called into question. In no +civilization (Egypt, Rome or the modern West) have the essential +principles of civilization been seriously modified. Again and again, +during the times of trouble that marked the breakdown of successive +civilizations, particular institutions were rejected but civilization as +a way of life has been accepted and re-established in the course of each +new cycle. + +During previous cycles the breakdown of a civilization had been followed +by a period of rest and recuperation before the beginning of the next +experiment. The breakdown of western civilization, a negative reaction, +has been accompanied by a planet-wide drive to replace the concepts, +forms and practices of civilization by the concepts, forms and practices +of socialism-communism. + + +Socialism-communism as a way of life for nations and continents is a new +experiment on the planet earth. Heretofore there have been small +groups--families, tribes and sects--that have adopted and followed +cooperation as a way of life, but widespread planned cooperation on a +national or continental scale is a novelty. + +As a result of these changes, conflict-torn and fragmenting western +civilization found itself divided into three factional groups: + +I. Corporate business organized domestically and internationally to +preserve and extend its wealth and power. Big business interests, their +dependents and backers were concentrated chiefly in West Europe and +North America. Their network of interests and controls was planet-wide. +Literally they were the backbone of western civilization. + +II. Builders of socialism-communism, an alternative and rival life +pattern, have been concentrated in East Europe and Asia. The +socialists-communists occupied a minority position in most of the +countries dominated by big business. Their program called for the +replacement of capitalist competition and conflict by a cooperating, +planned, planet-wide society operated for service rather than for +profit. + +III. A third segment, made up largely of nations and peoples located in +Africa, Asia and Latin America, who up to war's end in 1945 had been +colonies or dependencies of the big business directed empires. Since +1945 they have become increasingly independent and self-determining. + +The three-fold division of the planet was determined in part by the +age-old ideas, principles and practices of civilized peoples during the +past six thousand years. In part, it was the outcome of the planet-wide +revolution of 1750-1970. It was likewise the result of the wars, +revolutions and independence movements that have upset and realigned the +world since 1776. Under the impact of these forces human society was +being unmade, re-examined and remade. + +By comparison with its own beginnings and with its predecessors, western +civilization has made many changes in its political, economic and +sociological way of life. It has also developed national and regional +variants of its overall pattern. + +Despite these changes, and with the possible exception of its very large +and significant socialist-communist sector, the West has retained the +structural and functional features of previous civilizations: urban +nuclei supporting themselves by trade, commerce and finance; expansion +up to and beyond the point of no return; the life and death power +struggle within and between its constituent peoples, nations and +empires; the use of war as the final arbiter in these struggles; the +rise of the military to a position of supremacy in policy making and +public administration; an all-pervasive pattern of exploitation within +the urban nuclei and between rival provincial factions; speculation in +the necessaries of life; the growth of overhead costs far beyond the +increase of production and of income; the degradation of currency; +multiple taxation; the abuse of credit; inflation, unemployment and +chronic hard times. + +Western civilization differs from its predecessors in one crucial +respect: it is planet-wide. Previous civilizations known to history have +been limited by oceans, deserts and other geographical barriers. The +revolution in communication and transportation has by-passed geographic +barriers. + +The French saying "the more things change the more they remain the same" +finds ample justification in the story of western civilization and its +predecessors. In one instance after another, for at least six thousand +years, civilizations have been built up to summits of wealth and power. +Then, on the downward sweep of the cycle, they have declined, decayed +and been dumped on the scrap heap of history. No two of these cycles +were exactly alike. Each cycle was a social experiment that followed a +well marked path. There were variations, innovations, deviations from +the norm, but institutions and practices were strikingly similar. In +this broad sense, and despite minor departures, the life patterns of +civilization have appeared, disappeared and reappeared with close +similarity in structure and function. + +Western civilization has had a life cycle of approximately a thousand +years. During that millennium it has undergone many changes--political, +economic, sociological, ideological. Throughout these changes its basic +characteristics have remained; have appeared and reappeared. In the +1970's western civilization retains the essential features which justify +us in describing it as a civilization. + +The great revolution which began about 1750 and has increased in breadth +and depth throughout the past two centuries had led to vital changes in +structure and functioning, particularly of the West but generally in the +entirety of human society. So far-reaching are these changes, and so +deep running, that human society, particularly in the West, has outgrown +or is outgrowing the life pattern evolved by civilizations during the +past four or five millenia. As a consequence, geographical expansion by +the time-honored method of grab-and-keep has become more difficult, far +more expensive in manpower and material wealth and is in growing +disrepute among a sizeable minority of individuals and social groups, +even in the centers of western civilization. It is in notable disfavor +among the former colonies and dependencies of the European empires. + +At the same time, war as a means of achieving social ends has fallen +into greater and greater disrepute. War costs, measured in terms of +human well-being and welfare had soared to fantastic heights before +1945. The devastation, during that year, of two moderate sized cities, +Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was a foretaste of the increasingly bleak +chances of human survival with the stockpiling of nuclear weapons far +more destructive than the fission bombs used on the two Japanese cities. + +Under the conditions prevailing before the great revolution, competitive +struggle between nations and empires, expanding as a result of victory +in war, had ceased to be a practicable means of gaining, holding and +increasing wealth and power. If the costs of the international power +struggle exceeded the gains, there were no longer victors who won and +vanquished who lost. Instead, everybody lost as the entire social +structure was wrenched, dislocated, wracked and down-graded. Certainly +this seemed to be the plain-as-day lesson of the two general wars and +the flurry of minor wars which swept the earth after 1910. + +Expansion through armed struggle no longer paid its way. It was the +obvious lesson stressed by J.A. Hobson and Nicolai Lenin in their +respective studies of imperialism (1903 and 1916). It was the theme of +Norman Angel's _Great Illusion._ It was summarized by Arnold Toynbee's +_War and Civilization._ + +If the costs of expansion exceeded the income, the outcome of expansion +would be dismemberment for the vanquished and bankruptcy for the +victors. Indeed, this formula generalises the experience of the survival +struggles during the war years which began in 1911. I summarized the +experience in _The Twilight of Empire_(1929). + +The catastrophic economic breakdown during the Great Depression of +1929-1938, the spectacular and fateful rise of Hitlerism in Germany +after 1927, the destructive Civil War in Spain from 1936 to 1939, +followed immediately by the war devastations of 1939-45 were part and +parcel of the same picture. The same may be said for the revolt of the +colonial peoples, downgrading all European "victors" in the war of +1914-18, and the social revolutions following 1945 that shook up the +planetary power structure and opened the way for socialist-communist +forces to begin socialist construction in one country after another. + +Some European states had become super-states, armed to the teeth, +surrounded with their satellites, dependencies and colonies. They +expanded, exploited and battled as they played the absorbing and ruinous +game of "Beggar My Neighbor". Politically and economically the struggle +reached and passed its high point between 1914 and 1945. The subsequent +years have revealed the aftermath--a down-graded Europe and an ascendant +Asia. + +Empire building has been made prohibitively expensive by the revolution +in science and technology; if the human family is to survive in +anything like its present numbers, a way must be found to end the use of +war as a means of attaining social objectives. New techniques, chiefly +non-competitive, must be discovered and employed in the maintenance of +social relations. + +Not only must war be abandoned as a means of achieving social +objectives, but exploitation of nature and man must be superceded by a +planet-wide life style that conserves natural wealth and shifts the +center of economic endeavor from competition to cooperation. + +Abandonment of war as an instrument of policy and the renunciation of +exploitation of man by man and nation by nation as a means of enrichment +would put an end to the scandalous and corrosive extremes of riches and +poverty that have cursed every civilization of which we have a written +record. + +Western civilization, like its predecessors, had consisted of rival +nations and empires competing for living-space, wealth, position, +expanding territorially as they exploited nature and available labor +power for the advantage of the few. + +Civilization as a life style, built around the competitive struggle for +wealth and power, using war as an instrument of policy and multiplying +the techniques of expansion and exploitation, has had a series of +experimental tryouts already under way at the dawn of written history. +Under no circumstances has civilization proved to be wholly rewarding +and satisfying. The current revolution in science and technology has +rendered civilization unreformable as well as obsolete. + +The structure or pattern of civilization has divided western +civilization into separate parts that benefit by separateness and profit +from conflict. The result is a typical example of a self-destroying life +style struggling through an impasse from which there is no escape save +through a third fratricidal war. + +Today civilization is a bad buy, especially for young people starting +out in life. Civilization still has its advantages for those who have +lived actively, achieved many of their material objectives and retired +to spend their declining years in a well-feathered nest. For some +privileged young people, willing to settle for comfort and conformity, +civilization offers the leisure to learn, and an opportunity to test +themselves out against a big field of ardent competitors. But for +energetic, forward-looking, idealistic young people, the opportunities +offered by western civilization are deemed inconsequential, trivial and +in the long run, inadequate. For them, the game is not worth the candle. + +Today civilization is a bad buy for two reasons. The first is that +antisocial, predatory, exploitive and parasitic elements are +unfortunately and unnecessarily prominent in the lives of all civilized +peoples, including the present West. The second reason is the arrogant, +self-righteous, peremptory, bragging, bullying, dictatorial approaches +adopted by civilized people in their dealings with those who live on the +fringes or outside the pale of civilization. The first reason is an +inescapable consequence of the political, economic, ideological and +sociological assumptions of the civilizing process. The second reason is +inherent in the methods used by civilized peoples in their dealing with +the uncivilized majority of humanity. + + + + +_Part IV_ + + +Steps Beyond Civilization + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +TEN BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A NEW WORLD + + +In the previous chapter I argued that we are marking time in a fool's +paradise while western civilization slips backward and downward toward +dissolution and oblivion. Like many of its predecessors, our +civilization seems to have exhausted its capacity to create, progress, +advance. Instead it is disintegrating and breaking up in our current +time of troubles. + +In an earlier epoch of human history civilization helped to bridge the +wide gap between man the victim and plaything of nature, and man as the +user, director and, to a limited degree, the coordinator of natural +forces. Today questions of our demise or our survival and advance are +pressing and urgent. + +Civilization has played an important role in the social history of +mankind during the several thousand years when segments of the human +family have turned their backs on barbarism, regrouped their forces, +revamped their patterns of association and experimented with the more +complicated, specialized and integrated life pattern of civilization. +These experiments have paralleled or followed one another, separated by +shorter or longer ages of rest and recuperation. Each epoch of +civilization has contributed ideas, artifacts and institutions to the +sum total of human culture. This has been the case with past +civilizations. It is true of western civilization. + +Civilization, like other aspects of human culture, is never static but +always dynamic. It changes constantly, waxing and waning. It develops, +expands and contracts. It reaches out toward universality, then breaks +down and dissolves into a welter of conflicting regional and local +interest groups. These changes are the outcome of hard-nosed experience. +They are related to alterations in ideas, outlooks and purposes. They +are often associated with technical discoveries and inventions. They +come and go in more or less clearly defined cycles. They are influenced +by deep running political, economic and social forces and trends. + +Each civilization matures into forms and develops functions and +institutions that tend to consolidate and crystallize in well defined +social patterns and habit grooves in which two forces oppose each other: +one force is status--preserving that which is; the other force is +change--that which tends to become or is becoming. + +Status and change confront each other at all social levels. During +periods of rapid social change they take the center of the stage and +dominate the drama. + +The planet-wide revolution of 1750-1970 is an outstanding example of +rapid change. The current opposition of status and change has pushed +other aspects of social life into second place and has made the social +status of yesterday outmoded today and obsolete tomorrow. + +The disintegration of western civilization (indicated by its 1910-1975 +time of troubles) is having profound effects on western man. The effects +are physical, mental, energenic and moral for individuals. Socially they +find expression in vandalism, hooliganism, major crime, in the break-up +of the family; in alienation, inertia, boredom; in laxity, indiscipline; +loss of faith, weakness or absence of purpose. Most serious of all, +perhaps, western peoples are learning to ignore principle, live for the +moment, satisfy their already sated appetites and pay little or no +attention to the future. These attitudes are widespread in the western +world of the 1970's, particularly among the young. These effects, on the +whole negative, are offset by a number of positive factors. Human beings +are curious and imaginative. They are also ingenious, inventive and +intuitive. All of these attributes are assets when dealing with the +future and the unknown. + +In a previous generation, preceding the war of 1914-18, a very large +part of the West was under the influence of the Christian church, which +promised good things in the hereafter. During the ensuing years of +military conflict, planned destruction and wholesale murder, another +considerable part of the West, both socialist and liberal, was promising +security, comfort and convenience here and now. The influence of the +Christian church on life style, even among its own membership, has +declined in the past half century. Affluent monopoly capitalism, +meanwhile, has provided the rich, the middle class and important numbers +of workers and farmers with necessaries and amenities far beyond the +levels imagined by reformers and revolutionaries of a previous +generation. As an integral part of this maturing revolutionary situation +a generation of human beings born since war's end in 1945 has come on +the scene, surrounded by the concrete and glass buildings, block printed +nylons, the automobiles and domestic appliances of monopoly capitalism +and by the social security of socialism. In both segments, capitalist +and socialist, the more gifted, original, sensitive, creative members of +this comfort-pampered generation have turned their backs on affluence +and security and begun shouting a new slogan: "We want to live!" + +There is nothing surprising about this development. Many trained, +experienced observers have been predicting it. Youth, idealism, +aspiration, optimism, ambition--cannot be satisfied with status in any +form. They want to live, to achieve, to face difficulties, to overcome +dangers, to express themselves, to create. They are not content merely +to arrive at physical affluence. Affluence and social security cannot +satisfy. They merely sharpen the appetite for a continuance of the life +journey, on the best terms permitted by the current time of troubles. + +Among the members of the post-war generation, this ambitious, perceptive +elite is aware of two disturbing and compelling realities. The first is +the peril to mankind implicit in a continuance along its present +disaster course of war, with its inescapable counterpart, social +dissolution. The second is the possibility that out of the wreckage and +rubble of an outmoded cultural pattern, a mature, chastened, more +experienced, more consciously purposive generation will arise, +possessing the wit to see the necessity of creative advance, and the +wisdom to guide the pioneers of humanity along the difficult and +dangerous path that they must follow if they are to reach the land of +purpose and promise. + +Current frustrating experience with the breakdown of western +civilization, coupled with historical precedents, confront the present +generation of mankind with a compelling challenge and a unique, precious +opportunity. The challenge arises out of experiments with particular +civilizations and with civilization as a way of life. Our analysis of +this situation leads to only one possible conclusion: Repeated +experiments with civilization unmask it as a way, not of life, but as a +cycle of rise, expansion, maturity, decline and certain death. + +The challenge is emphasized by the failure of reforms and reformers of +civilization to make changes in structure and function sufficient to +meet the challenge of the birth-maturity-death cycle. Nor has it been +possible for western civilization to take advantage of the drastic +changes and challenges arising out of the current world revolution. + +Man's top negative priority at the present moment is to reject the +wiles, the temptations, the mortal conflicts and the annihilative +destruction which have disrupted and decimated civilized society during +the past six thousand years and reached their apex in the Great +Revolution of 1750-1970. These experiences prove beyond the shadow of +doubt that this pattern of human collective life is inadequate to meet +the present and future needs of the human family. + +Man's top positive priority is the present-day occupancy of the planet +Earth by 3,700 million human beings who wish to survive, to utilize and +conserve the natural habitat and to improve the social environment. +Within narrow limits, almost all members of the human family want to +live and to help other humans to do likewise. Multitudes of human +beings, particularly among the youth, want to enjoy outward looking, +satisfying, productive, creative lives. They also want those near and +dear to do the same thing. + +What steps must they take in order to realize their hope and fulfill +their aspirations? + +Broadly speaking, they must pick their way warily through the maze of +artifacts, gadgets and gimmicks produced by human ingenuity during the +current world revolution. Most of them are superficial and time +consuming. A few are fundamental. They are of the utmost importance as +implements to human advance. Taking what advantage they can of recent +innovations, avoiding dead-ends and illusion leading to rainbows, the +more sensitive and more competent segments of mankind must close ranks +and move upward and onward to a new level of culture. The chief +instrument available for such an enterprise is the twentieth century +version of the political state. The bourgeois revolution was achieved +through the developing, evolving political state. The political state is +the binding force that held scattered fragments of the human family +together during the stresses and strains of the current revolution in +science and technology. It is the political state that must be depended +upon to resist the fragmentating forces of a disintegrating western +civilization, to preserve the social structure and administer human +society through the transition from civilization into the structure and +functioning of the new social order which is presently supplanting +civilization. + +Through Europe's transition from feudalism to capitalism, the feudal +state, here and there, step by step, was replaced by the bourgeois state +as the chief structural building block of western civilization. The +bourgeois revolution, in various parts of Europe, lasted for several +centuries; the process was well under way by 1450. As lately as 1945 +feudal pockets remained in Eastern Europe. + +An even more profound transformation of European society is made in the +course of the Great Revolution of 1750-1970. The transformation is in +its early stages. During the process, the political life of +Europe-in-transition will be administered by the political institutions +of the bourgeois state, together with the closely related state patterns +of socialism-communism which have come into being during the present +century. + +During this transition the bourgeois state itself has evolved. At the +outset it was a revolutionary force devoting its energies to the +elimination of feudal institutions and practices and replacing them by +the institutions and practices needed for the advancement of bourgeois +interests. + +Today the bourgeois state is a bulwark of conservatism; devoting its +energies to the preservation of bourgeois forms and practices and doing +its utmost to fulfill its counter-revolutionary role of resisting and, +if possible, destroying the institutions and practices needed to replace +the political institutions and practices of civilization by the new +institutions required to move mankind from the outmoded lifestyle of +civilization to a lifestyle beyond and above that to which humanity has +become adapted during the now obsolete epoch of civilization. + +At the same time, the socialist-communist variant of the bourgeois state +pattern is providing the framework within which the institutions and +practices needed for the transition from civilization to a newer and +more universal social order are being matured. At the next stage in the +birth process, the institutions and practices necessary for upbuilding +the social order that will replace civilization are being worked out in +theory and embodied in experimental practice. + +In practice, an accurate distinction must be made between the +conservative bourgeois state, the temporary transitional state and the +universal socialist-communist state that will shepherd humanity along +the difficult and dangerous path of the political life pattern beyond +civilization. In theory such distinctions are needed as part of the +scaffolding within which the social pattern of beyond-civilization will +be constructed. + +Like most decisive epochs of human history, the revolution through which +we are passing has had both a negative and a positive aspect. In Chapter +11 I wrote about one of its destructive aspects--the extreme +destructivity of two periods of general war. At this point, I would like +to list ten positive contributions made by the same revolution toward +the development of a social life style that is offering itself as an +alternative to civilization. + +1. NEW SOURCES OF ENERGY. Up to 1750 human beings had the energy of +the human body plus the energy of domestic animals. They used wind to +turn mills and sail ships and water to turn crude wheels. They also +burned various things, particularly vegetable fibres, to produce heat. +During the revolution they have learned to use steam, electricity and +chemical explosives. Recently they have learned to use the energy in the +atom, to use water power extensively and, to a slight extent, the energy +of the sun and the tides. + +2. The revolution has taught people who previously feared CHANGE, +to welcome change and take full advantage of discoveries and inventions +that modified nature and profoundly altered human society. + +3. Among the INVENTIONS were the extensive use of the wheel for +movement on land, the use of steam engines and electric motors for +moving, manufacturing and transportation and the use of electricity for +communication. + +4. INCREASED HUMAN MOBILITY on land and water, and, more recently, +in the air and, still more recently, in outer space. Easy and rapid +movement, and almost instantaneous communication brought people together +in towns and cities, built up trade in goods and services, increased +speed of communications and enabled people living at a distance from one +another to keep in close touch, bringing human enterprises and human +beings into continuing contact. Human life, thought and action were +coordinated. Increased mobility UNIFIED HUMAN SOCIETY. + +5. RESEARCH is now an accepted aspect of all phases of human life +and activity. Research is a recognized occupation. Research teams solve +problems, map the paths of enterprise. We are learning first to think, +then, only after careful study, decide on courses of action and follow +them through. + +6. The field of inquiry and research covered the entire range of human +experience. Information, resulting from research, provided the subject +matter of new sciences. In the new fields new skills were developed and +new professions built up. The members of this new TECHNOLOGICAL +INTELLIGENTSIA, added to the learned professions, created a large +group who expected and enjoyed affluent living conditions. + +7. SPREADING AFFLUENCE increased the number of families that +enjoyed abundance of goods and services, comforts and luxuries mass +produced and offered in a mass market, lifting people out of scarcity by +growing abundance. Scarcity ceased to restrain. Instead, people learned +the values of RESTRAINT, ECONOMY, FRUGALITY, SIMPLICITY. + +8. Increase in size and complexity called into being a new profession. +MANAGEMENT with the necessary PLANNING, BUDGETING, COST +KEEPING. + +9. Large numbers of well-fed, housed, educated and aware human beings +created the possibility of arousing, mobilizing and utilizing +people--especially young people--to take part in voluntary group +projects, co-operate and create. Such experiences developed SOCIAL +AWARENESS and led to LARGE SCALE MASS ACTION. + +10. People growing up in affluence, living above the rigors of poverty, +asked questions about themselves, their society and the universe in +which they lived. They learned that they and their fellows had not only +the five accepted "senses," but additional senses with corresponding +experiences. This opened their eyes to the possibility of additional or +extra senses, opening the immense field of "EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION," +E.S.P. + +These ten areas, opening up largely during the years of the great +revolution are "new wine" which cannot be contained in the old wine +skins. They raise questions and open up vistas which transcend the +narrower confines of civilization. They are among the materials and +facilities out of which a new world is coming into existence. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +MOVING TOWARD WORLD FEDERATION + + +One of man's earliest collective experiences is summed up in the saying: +United we stand; divided we fall. + +United we survive and prosper. Divided we quarrel, fight and sooner or +later break up into smaller sovereign competing groups. If human beings +wish to utilize nature or to enjoy the advantages of collective action +and group life they must get together and stay together. + +This necessity for collective action has appeared and reappeared all +through written history. It is one of the most important lessons of +present-day human experience. It holds for families, neighborhoods, +villages, cities, nations, for mankind as a whole. It is joint action +for the general welfare. + +The principle of collective action has been recognized and put into +practice during the ten centuries that span the rise of western +civilization--put into practice up to a certain point--the nation or the +empire. Beyond that point, collective action has taken two forms: +competition and conflict, including war, and coordination or cooperation +under agreement, contract or treaty. + +Among the outstanding results of the great revolution, improvement in +communication and transportation have brought humans into contact with +one another on an increasingly extensive scale, reaching its high water +mark in planet-wide networks of trade, travel, migration and diplomacy, +leading up to the One World which was so much in the foreground of +public discussions between the two general wars of 1914 and 1939. + +Much has been written on the subject. I contributed by two bits in _The +Next Step_, a book published in 1922 and _United World_, published in +1945. Perhaps the most critical failure of western civilization was its +inability or unwillingness to take that next step during the decisive +years that followed the Hague Conference of 1899. + +In listing the Ten Building Blocks for a New World (Chapter 13 of this +book) I began with world federation because in terms of the public life +of the earth around 1900, the planet was divided into two alliances of +nations and empires--the Allies, headed by Great Britain and the Central +Powers, headed by Germany. + +Instead of cooperating to gain their declared objectives of peace, +prosperity and progress these two power blocs engaged in an armament +race from 1903 to 1914, leading up to general war in 1914, with a second +general war between the rivals in 1939. + +When I was organizing Part II of this study (A Social Analysis of +Civilization) I had to decide whether to begin with economics or +politics. As an economist I was inclined to put economics first, but +since the study centered on civilization, and since all known +civilizations were not groupings of economic subdivisions but aggregates +of nations, empires and their dependencies, and since the expansion of +civilization has consisted in enlarging the geographical area of the +civilization in question, I decided to begin with politics. As the study +has progressed I have seen no reason for reversing the choice. + +On the contrary, since I began collecting data for this study at the +time of the first general war, I have watched the unfolding political +struggle for economic and cultural objectives with the increasing +conviction that politics is the primary focus, with economic forces +always in play, but usually in the background, leaving the center of the +stage to politics. + +This is another way of saying that the present-day world is divided +primarily into political nation states rather than into areas of +economic function. Always, economics is important. But, at least +superficially, political considerations are in the foreground to clinch +decisions. A time may come when economists or sociologists occupy the +central offices where primary decisions are made. That time has not yet +arrived. In so far as the present generation is concerned, politics is +in the foreground. The politicians make the crucial announcements and +sign the key documents. + +Therefore our survey of the Steps Beyond Civilization begins with +politics. Our attention centers on the political aspects of World +Federation with economic considerations present and always operating, +but not dominating the crucial decisions. + +For better or worse, in 1975 and the years immediately succeeding, we +will be living on a planet divided into some 140 politically sovereign +states. In view of the widespread pressure toward self-determination, +the number of sovereign states has increased considerably, especially +since war's end in 1945. + +Presumably the principal "united we stand" applies to those 140 +sovereign states. + +Sovereignty includes the right of self determination--putting the +interests of one particular state above the interests of the entire +family of nations--the part before the whole. Here is a contradiction +and a possible conflict of interest. Britain's Prime Minister Heath, +like many another spokesman in his position, summed up the issue in the +pithy phrase: "British interests come first." + +If the French, Italian, Japanese and other prime ministers take a +similar stand, implied by the principle of sovereignty, situations are +bound to arise in which the interests of two or more nations clash, +opening the way for conflicts at many levels: differences of +interpretation, negotiations in the course of which concessions may be +made by both parties. The differences may be settled by diplomats +sitting around conference tables or by armies on the battlefield. + +With 140 sovereign states on the planet, the probability of conflict +would seem to be overwhelming. As a matter of daily experience such +confrontations and conflicts do occur. Most of them are handled by +negotiation. A few lead to armed struggle. + +Since 140 sovereign states exist on one earth, means must be found that +will enable them to co-exist, if possible, without conflict, and +certainly without military conflict. The means generally relied upon +today for dealing with such problems is negotiation between +representatives of all parties at interest. At the national level this +would mean negotiations between representatives of the involved +governments. + +Negotiations between representatives of various governments are always +going on--dealing with political, economic and cultural issues. Within +each nation such negotiations are conducted between spokesmen for +various government departments. Internationally they are conducted by +representatives of various governments working through their diplomatic +or consular services. Within each nation and between nations +confrontations may be settled by negotiation. At each level they may +result in armed conflict. + +Governments exist to deal with conflicts and, where possible, to resolve +them before they reach the shooting stage. This is notably true in +domestic affairs because there are usually public officials charged with +the duty of dealing with problems. Internationally, unless there is an +international agency such as the Universal Postal Union of the +Organization of American States, the issue must be settled by special +representatives of the parties. + +The argument for a world government begins with the assumption that +means should exist to deal with international issues before they reach +an acute stage. Such means exist within each local government. Similar +arrangements should exist at the international level to deal with issues +that arise between governments. + +The political core of a social stage beyond civilization will be a +planet-wide, international, regional and local network of institutions, +integrated, coordinated and administered on the federal principle: local +affairs controlled locally; regional affairs controlled regionally; +international affairs controlled by a planet-wide political authority. +Such a relationship would imply states rights for the local authority; +regional rights for the regional authority, and full awareness in the +central authority of the possibility, at this juncture, of establishing +order, justice and mercy on the planetary level--in our present +terminology, a "world government." + +Basic to this federal structure would be the Jeffersonian assumption: +"That government governs best which governs least", with an amendment: +"provided that the authority in question governs sufficiently to +establish and maintain physical health, social decency, order, justice +and mercy in reasonable proportions throughout the area subject to its +jurisdiction". + +At each level, local, national, regional and planetary, there will be +committees, councils or other authorities with full responsibility for +the conduct of public administration at the local, the national, the +regional and the planetary or international level. + +Currently the federal principle is widely established at local and +national levels. Attempts are being made in various regions to +effectuate stable authorities at the regional level, such as the United +States of North America or the United States of Mexico. There has been +much talk of planet-wide government established by one wealthy and +militarily powerful nation over its peers, or by a voluntary association +with its peers. Institutions established thus far: League of Nations, +The United Nations, The World Court, the Universal Postal Union, have +fallen far short of stable, planet-wide, all inclusive political +authority. + +At the moment there are 122 states which are members of the United +Nations. There are perhaps an additional score of nations which have +applied for membership or which might be accepted if they made an +application. Accept this rounded figure, and we have perhaps 140 nations +or potential nations on the planet. Some are long established and +stable. Other nations are new-born, with small populations, few +resources and minimal means of defense or offense. By and large this is +the family of nations which might be coordinated into an effective world +authority which would be responsible for order, decency and peace in a +federally coordinated world. + +World authority, to be effective and reasonably stable, must be equipped +with sufficient delegated powers to maintain orderly and decent +relations between its members, establish peace, and carry out policies +necessary to provide and promote ecological and sociological welfare. To +achieve such results it must have a built-in balance between central +authority and local-regional self-determination. It must also enjoy +sufficient elbow-room to provide for social change and for consistent +social improvement. + +The goal of world government, as of any political enterprise that +pretends to represent human needs, will be social stability, security, +efficiency of service, and enlarged opportunities for citizens to speak +and act for themselves, directly or through their representatives, at +all levels. Politics is the theory and practice of the possible in any +given situation. Executives and administrators in Los Angeles, London +and Tokyo or in the United States, Britain and Japan will deal with +public transportation, public education and public law and order in +terms of general principles such as those stated in the opening +sentences of this paragraph. They will also face specific situations +arising out of climate, access to raw materials, custom, habit and other +ecological and cultural factors which differ profoundly from continent +to continent, nation to nation, city to city and district to district in +the same nation. + +Human communities have sought and found different means of dealing with +the problems of community administration. At one extreme of social +administration are various types of arbitrary, personal dictatorships. +The Greeks called them tyrannies--arbitrary rule by individuals or small +groups subject only to their own decisions. + +At the other extreme are social groups that arrive at decisions as the +outcome of discussion in which all group members may take part. Group +decisions may require unanimity or they may be the outcome of voting, +with a majority or plurality vote carrying with it the right and duty to +put decisions into effect as part of the public life of the community. + +Various forms of government have been established locally and +regionally. At the level of a civilization, the government has been +established almost universally as the outcome of armed struggle and +military conquest, and has been exercised through the use of armed force +in the hands of armed minorities. + +A century without general war, 1815 to 1914, led to a widespread +balance-of-power assumption that planet-wide peace and prosperity could +be established and maintained by preserving a balance between the armed +forces of individual nations or alliances. Hence there need be no more +general wars fought for survival or supremacy. + +The bitter struggle for markets, raw materials and colonies that +followed the French-German War of 1870 developed into an armament race +after 1899. From the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 to the outbreak of +general war in 1914, desperate efforts were made to maintain the +power-balance and avert a general war. The failure of these efforts +proved the ineffectiveness of the balance-of-power formula. + +Today it is generally taken for granted that a balance of power between +armed nations is no guarantee of peace and order. It is also taken for +granted that frivolous talk like that of an "American Century" after +1945 has no justification in the light of present-day history. As +matters now stand neither a balance between rival armed powers, nor the +domination of the planet by any one power can be relied upon to maintain +world order and keep world peace. + +Forms of self-government and representative government developed during +the bourgeois revolution and advocated and partially applied during the +proletarian up-surge, are being continued or are reappearing during the +current struggle for power and prestige at the planetary level. As the +planet approaches one world technologically, there is an increasing +possibility of a planetary political federation, directed by a world +governmental apparatus. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +INTEGRATING A WORLD ECONOMY + + +Repeated efforts have been made to establish large-scale, widely ranging +economies. This was the case during Egyptian and Phoenician +civilizations. It was certainly true of the economy of the Roman Empire +and of Roman civilization. + +Such efforts faced drastic limitations. The most formidable was the +narrow margin of surplus produced by hand labor in the forests, on the +fields and in the workshops, operated, in the main, with hand tools, +with minor inputs of energy supplied by domestic animals and with the +small amounts derived from wind and moving water. + +Two further limitations existed. First, as each civilization matured its +leaders and policy makers ceased to labor on the land or in the +workshops, preferring to keep their hands and clothes clean, to free +themselves from irksome demanding toil and devote themselves to tasks +more befitting "gentlefolk." This was notably true of landlords as a +class. It was also true of the richer traders, merchants and +moneylenders, particularly of the third and fourth generations. + +Expansion of empires and the civilizations which they developed entailed +military operations. Military operations, in their turn, produced +war-captives, who must earn their keep and, if possible, something more. +Sold in the market to the highest bidder, war captives and their +descendants became chattel slaves. As civilizations were expanded by +conquest and matured by struggle, they developed some type of forced +labor to balance the increased parasitism of the masters and the +growing numbers who were called upon to produce "services" rather than +material goods. + +Certain areas of civilized economies were taken over by the public +authorities. Planning and building of cities and their ports, of +highways, including bridges, of viaducts, aqueducts, of drainages for +the cities, of public buildings. The construction of defenses, including +city walls, were partly or wholly public enterprises. Temples and tombs +for the mighty were often in the same category. + +Maintenance of large elaborate households by political leaders, and in +later periods of empire building, by the successful merchants and +technicians, led to the employment of many servants, including +subordinate members and relatives of the elite. + +Much necessary labor was performed by members of each household. The +resulting economy was therefore fragmented at the household level with +virtually all of the energy supplied by human beings and domestic +animals. + +As each civilization developed its pattern of forced labor, including +the labor of war captives, it launched the deadly competition between +freemen and slaves which almost inevitably ended in favor of the slaves, +who were housed and fed by the masters and who could operate at overhead +costs lower than those involved in the hiring of wage or salaried +workers. + +Land ownership tended to center in the political-military leaders, the +temples and, as each civilization matured, in the hands of its +bourgeoisie. + +Integrating such economies proved to be a difficult, arduous task, well +beyond the powers of the average political, military or hereditary +leader. In a very real sense, the problems of management were extremely +personal and correspondingly concentrated in the hands of skillful +acquisitors. Nowhere was the impact of the 1750-1970 revolution more far +reaching than in the area of management. + +Economic activities, in the course of the great revolution, had less and +less connection with the homestead, and except for a tiny minority of +the personnel, had no connection with the family of the owner-operator. +The seat of the family--the home--continued to exist, but on a far more +restricted basis. Arts and crafts moved from the household into the +workshop, where they expanded both in extent and in complexity. Domestic +tasks were associated with hand labor and simple tools. The great +revolution filled the workshop with the ancestors of present day +machinery, but with a prodigious difference. In the early step from home +workshop to factory, hand tools in plenty were being used in the +workshops. As "modernization" progressed, hand tools were replaced by +specialized machines. + +The implements of specialization--the machine building tools and the +machine tools themselves--were housed in forests of associated +workshops. The mechanics of specialization sprawled over acres and +square miles of factory floor space. Nowhere were the results of the +great revolution more in evidence than in the vast difference between +the workshop attached to the house of the early industrialist and the +forest of chimneys and stacks, and the acres and square miles of +floorspace in present-day industrial establishments, with their +personnel numbered in thousands and the capital invested in plant and +equipment running into the millions or billions of dollars. + +Two centuries of the great revolution have given present-day industrial +society a capital plant the like of which has never existed on the +planet in any historical period. After two hundred years of meteoric +development, it exists today on a planet-wide scale and at a level of +all-pervasive dominance undreamed of even up to the middle of the last +century. + +Modern industry "plants"--steel plants, cement plants, open pit mines, +textile plants, machine tool plants, auto plants, rubber factories, oil +refineries--not only occupy extensive acreage per plant, but the same +interests and corporate managements operate dozens of plants in widely +separated geographical areas and produce a great variety of goods and +services. An experienced observer feels entirely at home in any +industrial center, on any continent. In Detroit, in Dusseldorf, in +Osaka, in Shanghai, in Bombay, the architecture of the plants is +essentially the same, the machines in the widely separated plants bear +a striking resemblance to one another, and the problems of management +are similar. + +Unit plants and their coordinated managements in the aggregate compose +the present-day world economy. They are the essence of its being. They +occupy the skyline and dominate the economic life of modern industrial +society. They are the units which make up the sum-total of modern +industry which, in its turn, is the bony structure around which have +grown the sinews and muscle of present-day planetary economy. + +Modern state structure goes back through the half dozen centuries during +which it has been developing. Its ancestors may be met with in the +history of previous civilizations. + +Modern industrial structure on the other hand is something essentially +new under the sun--newly imagined, designed, constructed, productive. It +has no ancestry before 1750 because its essential building unit--the +modern machine--did not exist previous to that date. + +In the last chapter we dealt with the growth of states into empires and +the aggregation of empires into civilizations with the possibility that +the existing states could be welded into a world federation. One of the +chief obstacles to such a development is the centuries of conflict +during which modern nations have been built up and the strong bonds of +nationalism have been established as a means of holding divergent groups +of people in line by particular oligarchies operating in particular +civilizations. + +On the economic level such difficulties are minimal. The process of +coordination and consolidation was far advanced before the end of the +last century. The practice of integration--joining productive units in +functional sequences--was also accepted and followed, with little regard +for political or cultural considerations. The result has been an +economic integration which has developed inside the chief industrial +nations and across national boundaries. + +Despite political obstacles, economic integration has proceeded with +giant strides, especially during the past hundred years. Under a well +developed world political federation the world economy could be +integrated and used to provide the necessaries, conveniences and minimal +comforts for the entire human family. There are nationalistic obstacles +to political federation. Economic integration is an obvious must and a +logical outcome of the industrial integration that has gone on so +swiftly during the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +When we talk about integrating the world economy we are dealing with a +problem which no previous civilization has faced because no previous +civilization had machines or the social and cultural institutions which +have grouped themselves around the ultra-modern machine phenomena. + +World economy in 1975 includes three essential elements: the planet +earth and its resources; the institutional structure of modern society; +and human beings with their diverse concepts and skills which provide +its motive force. These three factors, land, capital equipment, and +human energy, are the three-fold apparatus upon which 3.7 billion human +beings depend for the goods and services which sustain them from day to +day and year to year. + +At an earlier period this economic apparatus centered around the land +and its cultivation (agriculture). Since the onset of the great +revolution the goods and services have come increasingly from a +factory-office centered occupational apparatus. When we consider the +integration of the world economy, it is this industrialized, modern +economy that we have chiefly in mind. No previous civilization faced +such a problem. There are no real precedents upon which we can rely. We +must go forward, if we do go forward, experimenting with problems which +face the human family for the first time. + +The integration of planetary economy in 1975 is a total, or unitary, +problem. It is not a problem of one continent, of one nation or empire, +of one racial or cultural group. It is a problem which the human family +faces as a human family, occupying our planet Earth. It is our capital +equipment. It is the success with which we apply our know-how to the +earth, using our capital equipment and our skills, producing the goods +and services upon which our physical existence depends. We rise or fall, +sink or swim in terms of our own capacities, our own abilities to adapt +ourselves to historical circumstances which will determine the +conditions of life on the earth. Indeed, our decisions and consequent +actions may determine our own extinction or survival. + +Planetary economy will aim to provide the means of livelihood for its +constituents along six lines: to conserve the human heritage of natural +resources, using them sparingly and, where possible, adding to them; to +produce and distribute those goods and services which are needed to +maintain health and provide for social decency; to produce and +distribute goods and services honestly, efficiently and economically; to +assure simple necessaries for all, including dependents, defectives and +delinquents; to give high priority to local self-sufficiency; to +maintain enough central economic authority to guarantee adequate goods +and services to successive generations of the planetary population. + +An effective world government, therefore, must adopt and administer an +economic program designed to: (a) Utilize and conserve natural +resources, making them available, on a just basis, for the use of +successive generations; (b) End involuntary poverty and insecurity and +the exploitation of man by man and of one social group by another social +group; (c) Make necessary public services generally available on equal +terms, to all mankind; and (d) Guarantee equal opportunity to +earth-dwellers based on the greatest good to the greatest number. + +Feeding, clothing, housing and educating an agricultural village was a +prime consideration at an early stage in social history. Providing the +necessaries and amenities of life in a commercial-industrial city +occupied the attention of city fathers as a consequence of the shift +from agriculture to trade and commerce as the principle source of +livelihood. Caring for the physical, physiological and cultural needs of +populations in the United States, Britain, Japan and other growing +commercial-industrial nations presented difficult challenges. The +organization, expansion, defense and improvement of the American, +British, Japanese and any other contemporary empire, posed even larger +and more complex problems which have nagged mankind during recent +generations. Recently, the planet-wide revolution of 1750-1970 has +brought the entire human family with 3,700 million members isolated in +140 different nations, face to face with political, economic and social +problems on a planet-wide scale. These problems are planet-wide in their +dimensions. Measures designed for their solution must be equally +planet-wide. + +Villages, cities, regions and nations have learned, often the hard way, +how to think, plan and act in terms of their own interests, or, more +concretely, in the interest of their owners, masters and exploiters. It +is with politics and economics of this planet-wide level that we of the +present generation are particularly concerned. + +Dwellers in western Europe and North America have to deal with the +politics and economics of monopoly capitalism. Its central offices are +generally located in particular countries--Britain, Holland, France, +Germany, where big business enterprises had their beginnings and from +which representatives of oil, steel, textile, motor and banking +enterprises spilled over into the territory of their competitors as well +as into the "third world" of erstwhile colonies and other dependencies. + +Monopoly capitalism has made no real effort to organize a functioning +world economy. On the contrary, it has established, maintained and +consolidated centers of economic interests and activities at the +national level. In theory and in practice the bourgeois-dominated planet +is divided into economic and political states and spheres of influence, +each equipped with the separatist institutions of political sovereignty. + +Politically the task of setting up a competent world government has not +been seriously taken in hand. The same may be said for the organization +of a planned, organized, supervised planetary economy. So far as we +know, such world economic institutions and practices cannot exist in the +chaos of one hundred forty sovereign states, each exercising authority +over its economy, each with its own program for growth and expansion, +and putting its claims for wealth and power above peace, order, +justice, and mercy for the entire human family. + +General economic practice throughout the 1450-1970 experiments with +nation building, empire building, competitive struggle and sporadic +efforts at world conquest, occupation and exploitation have crossed +national boundary lines as a matter of necessity. It could not be +otherwise, because no nation has been able to reach the cultural level +of civilization on a basis of economic self-containment. Primitive +agriculture can maintain a high degree of self sufficiency. City +populations abandon self-sufficiency and adopt the principles of +expansion, occupation and utilization of foreign territory and +exploitation of resources and manpower, at home and abroad. + +As western civilization has matured, power struggles at the top, +conquest, occupation and exploitation have come more and more to the +fore until, in the era of monopoly capitalism, they dominate the field. +In this period of human history nothing less than the just sharing of +available goods and services will implement the principle of "to each +according to his need". + +Monopoly capitalism, throughout its entire history, has tended to +function internationally, moving across frontiers in search of raw +materials, markets, and fields of profitable investment. Inter-group +trade has been carried on between and through "foreign" markets, cities +and states. Not only has the flag followed the investor, but the +investor has used governmental agencies, including the military, to +protect economic interests, promote them and expand them. Early in their +history, western nations subsidized private organizations like the Dutch +East India Company and the British Hudson Bay Company and authorized +them to exercise quasi-public authority. International banking and +insurance paralleled international trade. + +Western civilization, from its earliest beginnings in foreign business +relations and ideological adventures like the Crusades, has spilled +across national frontiers in its search for adventure, for experience, +for information, for pelf and power. A part of the expansionist drive +was "strictly business" in character. Another part--international +conferences, public and private; tourism; the export of artifacts and of +information, were promoted by mixed motives, from missionary zeal for +the propagation of The Faith to international business for profit, +public and private. + +One of the most spectacular aspects of European expansion during modern +times has been the growth of production and trade; the rapid increase in +"foreign" investment; and governmental efforts to tie together +geographically and ethnically remote places and peoples into neat +bundles tagged Spanish Empire, British Empire, French Empire, Russian +Empire. Nineteenth and early twentieth century history centered around +such international experiments and included inter-state build-ups like +the European Common Market and the Organization of American States. + +War losses and emergency spending incident to warfare led to large scale +financial assistance from one government to another. Such transactions +are not confined to recent times, but during the war years from 1914 to +1945 they reached fantastic proportions. The United States foreign aid +program alone, following the war of 1939-45, involved grants and loans +of $125,060 million dollars from July 1, 1945 to December 31, 1970 +(_Statistical Abstract_ 1971 p. 958). Similar grants and loans were made +by other countries to their allies and associates. These examples +illustrate the build-up of an extensive international relationship that +has been an integral aspect of the 1750-1970 world revolution. + +Throughout this experience two parallel forces have been at work. One +was the effort to establish a stable, renewable and self-renewing social +environment. The other was the effort to adapt and remake man (human +nature) to fit into the rapidly changing social environment and to +expand and deepen relations with nature. + +Sociology, the science and art of staying together in more or less +permanent social groups, thus becomes the theory and practice of +association. Politics and economics are specialized aspects of +association. Political relations, economic relations and other aspects +of association make up the overall field of the human community or +human society. + +Groups of human beings are brought together and held together by various +means, among which communication is outstanding. At every level, from +the local to the general or universal, and in every aspect of politics, +economics and other forms of association, human beings communicate. + +One function of planetary association involves the establishment and +maintenance of a network of planetary communication. Locally, +nationally, regionally, and internationally the channels or means of +communication have been extensively developed. + +Devices designed to reproduce and elaborate oral and written +communication blanket the planet so extensively that the individual and +family privacy enjoyed by human beings before the middle of the last +century has literally ceased to exist. In its place is a communications +network that operates twenty-four hours in the day and seven days in the +week. By a move of the hand and a flick of a switch everybody can be in +touch with anybody and anybody with everybody almost everywhere. + +Channels of communication, trade and travel keep members of the human +race constantly in touch with one another. Except for the solitary, +living alone in the wilderness (urban or rural) there is no hiding +place. Mechanisms supplementing man's five senses, see, feel, hear and +report everything. + +Facility in communication provides a wealth of information. Using +available means of human communication, a central planetary authority +can inform, alert and arouse the entire human family with its 3,700 +million members. Socially minded, it could announce and initiate the +measures necessary to maintain peace and order through conformity to a +common program of social action. Coordinating, integrating and +administering the channels of communication at the planetary level will +be a primary responsibility of any planet-wide economic program. + +Planetary government will be responsible for establishing, maintaining +and improving a network of communication and education designed to +ensure both uniformity and diversity in the human population. The +revolution in science and technology has been particularly noteworthy +in the field of communication, extending from the family to the entire +human race; from the home telephone, the morning newspaper, the +phonograph, radio and television to regular mail delivery, the printing +press, the camera, lithography, the typewriter, tele-communication, the +computer, public address systems and the various devices for overhearing +and recording that produce more or less permanent records of casual +vocal expressions. + +Planet-wide communication in the 1970's provides an example of the +transformation from economic localism to economic worldism during recent +times. By its very nature, communication tends to involve all four +corners of the planet. In that sense, communication tends to become +unique. It is not a real exception, however. Through communication +channels, knowledge concerning every aspect of man's economy, from +agriculture to commerce and finance, crosses frontiers almost +automatically, strengthening, deepening and integrating planet-wide +economy. + +A planet-wide economy will not be designed, planned and coordinated as a +result of either military conquest or political expansion and predation. +Rather, it will be a public enterprise of the entire human family, +operated by a world government in the public interest for the social +service and well-being of mankind. + +The worldwide revolution of 1750-1970 provides the economic basis for a +planet-wide society--for One World. The real danger--that any local or +regional war may grow into another general war in which nuclear weapons +are used--provides reason aplenty to put the whole before the part and, +in the pursuit of general human welfare, to federate the political life +of the human family, following the many steps toward worldism already +taken by various aspects of its economy. + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +CONSERVING OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT + + +Beyond civilization we will conserve, share, beautify and, if possible, +improve the earth, which is our physical base of operations. + +The earth is an irregular sphere, one of a number of planets circling +the sun, from which we get light, heat and radiation. The earth has a +shell or crust made of various minerals. Two-thirds of its surface is +water of various depths up to six miles. Above the surface is an +atmosphere, some twenty miles thick, composed of various gases, dust +particles and water vapor. Operating throughout the earth there are +vibrations of different wave lengths. + +As a whole the earth is a going concern that carries out its daily, +seasonal, yearly business of providing a home for an immense variety of +forces; for living forms, in the earth, on the earth, in the water and +in the air. The earth and its attributes are the common host or mother +of us all. + +Some of earth's inhabitants are "alive". Many of the living forms move +about--and reproduce themselves, passing through a life cycle from birth +to death. + +Some among the living forms cluster together into more or less permanent +groups which develop social relationships including communities in which +individuals are born, live and die. + +Speaking in metaphors, the sun is the common father of us all, providing +us with light and heat, the earth is the common mother of us all, +providing us with sustenance. We living beings, progeny of sun and +earth, pass through a span or cycle of earthly existence--helping one +another, ignoring one another, jostling one another, annoying and even +killing and devouring one another. + +This is a roundabout way of saying that nature, human beings and human +society are part and parcel of a total relationship which includes the +planet earth, the solar system and an immense range of celestia which +includes minute particles of celestial dust, like our earth, and +majestic assemblies of celestial notables like the Island Universe of +which we are unnumbered and barely noticed particles. + +At some point in this vast assemblage, actually before the assemblage +came into existence, there were responsible, animating forces in play. +There was also the responsibility for the use or exercise of the +operating forces. We humans are a product of those forces. We also share +in their functioning. Consequently we share in the responsibility which +is associated with their exercise. + +It is the task of philosophy to designate the responsibility; to +describe it, measure it and perhaps to assign it. At any rate, we find +ourselves in a position where certain things are expected of us, perhaps +even required of us as members of the human family and/or of the human +family as a functioning whole. + +It is entirely possible that, instead of overlooking, ignoring, +bickering, quarreling and periodically maiming and killing each other +wholesale, we humans should be devoting our energies, emotions, thoughts +and plans to furthering the larger purpose of which the earth and its +inhabitants are small segments. In a word, that we humans should be +acting as a responsible part of a functioning whole engaged in the vast +enterprise of being and becoming. + +Whatever our ultimate tasks may be, our immediate problem is three-fold: +(1) To make the earth the fittest possible living place for all of its +inhabitants; (2) to organize human society in the way best calculated to +achieve that objective; and (3) to make every reasonable effort to +prepare ourselves to play a meaningful part in this cosmic drama to +which we have been assigned. + +Item (1) is the theme of this chapter, item (2) is the theme of Chapter +17. Item (3) is the theme of Chapter 18. + +Passing beyond civilization we will attempt to conserve, share, beautify +and if possible to improve our earth. + +Our first task is to make the earth the fittest possible place for _ALL_ +of its inhabitants. In a way that is a simple assignment, but its +implementation will take us into every nook and corner of the land, +water, air, radiational field, and every other aspect of the planet, +including the weather. + +When we say _ALL_ forms and phases of life we mean all. All microscopic +life, all lichens and mosses, all vegetation on land, in the water, in +the air. All insects, all birds, all fish, all quadrupeds. All two +legged animals. All centipedes and all those in between. + +All forms of life have been assigned to our earth for a purpose, or have +made a place for themselves in the vast scheme of things or are clinging +parasitically to life after their assignments have been fulfilled or as +their usefulness is drawing to a close. + +In a broad sense, that which lives on the earth, including mankind, has +a right or an opportunity to be here, living to the utmost of its always +limited capacity. How limited? Limited by the similar rights of all +other forms and aspects of life. In a word life on the earth--each life +and all life--is a shared opportunity. + +Doubtless there are planners, regulators and arbitrators whose task it +is to decide, at any particular moment, who shall survive and who shall +perish. Actually we humans perform a part of that function every time we +thin out a forest, weed a garden, select our seed or teach a class. At +one stage of life we are the judges, at another stage we are the judged, +performing multiple tasks that must be fulfilled during each moment of +each day and each year. + +In our Island Universe this earth is small. But in each backyard, on +each acre or square mile of earth, decisions may be made or are being +made that determine survival, utility, order, beauty. The results of +those decisions appear constantly in the life all about us. + +We have all been in homes where neatness, usefulness and good taste +abound. We have been in villages and towns where the same conditions +prevailed. On the other hand, we have been in situations that can be +described only by the words littered, disorderly, chaotic. We have also +seen neat orderly homes in disorderly, slovenly neighborhoods. Much +depends upon who makes the decisions and whether the plans that are +carried into effect promote or obstruct the ultimate purpose. + +At the moment, we have the satisfaction of orderly, beautiful +neighborhoods at the same time that we are surrounded by a disorderly, +littered, chaotic international battleground. + +The earth with its oceans and its atmosphere is a storehouse containing +many if not most of the essentials for survival, growth and development, +for mankind as well as a multitude of other life forms. Perhaps its most +valuable single asset from the human viewpoint is its topsoil. Topsoil +plus light, air and moisture provide the elements necessary for +producing vegetation. Vegetation, in its turn, furnishes the nourishment +on which animals thrive. + +At the top of our priority list for the well-being of the earth stands +the injunction: conserve and build topsoil. + +Topsoil is lost through erosion--wind erosion, water erosion, erosion +through over cropping. It is held in place by stones, grasses, and the +roots of shrubs and trees. Untouched by human hands, on the prairies and +in the forests, topsoil is deepened year by year as winter frosts break +up soft rocks, as dead grasses, leaves, twigs break down into humus, to +become part of the topsoil and provide the nourishment for a new round +of vegetation. + +Topsoil is renewable, replaceable. Lost through cropping and erosion, it +may be rebuilt and deepened by natural processes. In temperate climates +with normal rain and snowfall, the topsoil of grasslands or a forest may +be deepened year by year and century by century. Topsoil may also be +deepened by dust storms that pick up particles of humus from dry lands +and carry them to moister areas. + +Through a carefully controlled sequence, semi-desert lands planted first +to grasses and then to shrubs and trees can be protected against wind +erosion. As vegetation flourishes it increases dew formation and +rainfall. Plant roots prevent runoff and retain the water in gulleys and +low places. Evaporation builds up moisture content in the atmosphere. +Water vapor forms drops and falls in rain or snow. + +Foresighted husbandry not only prevents erosion but, practiced on a +sufficiently broad scale, increases air moisture and modifies +climate--the weather. + +We are less fortunate with some of the critically important minerals +that make up the earth crust. + +During early centuries in the history of western civilization +adventurers and prospectors concentrated on the precious metals. The +voyagers and discoverers who sailed fifteenth century seas were seeking +supplies of gold, silver and precious stones that could be cut and +converted into the highly prized jewels adorning the crowns and scepters +of the mighty. + +Production at that stage meant agriculture, with side occupations such +as hunting, fishing, weaving, tanning, pottery, thatching and peat +cutting, in the all but continuous countryside. There was a very little +mining, but outside of the commercial towns and the growing capital +cities people made their living by taking care of domestic animals and +tilling the soil. Between seed time and harvest they tightened their +belts and prayed the Powers that Be for a bountiful yield. If it came +they feasted. If the crop failed they struggled to survive on the narrow +margin between hunger and starvation. + +If they saw any money it was likely to be copper, with perhaps an +occasional piece of silver. Gold was for the rich, of whom at that +period there were precious few, even among the owners of land and the +wielders of power. + +Country folk barely scratched the surface of the earth. Roads were wheel +tracks in the mud. Bridges were fords that became more or less +impassable with high water. + +These assertions sound strange and romantic to the modern beneficiaries +of asphalt and reinforced concrete. They were the lot of most Europeans +and North Americans when our great grandfathers and great grandmothers +were in their prime. + +What has made the difference between their use of the earth and ours? +Chiefly, the newly tapped sources of energy and the wide variety of +minerals--whose names were unknown except to scholars and scientists +before 1750. It is the new sources of energy and the only recently +utilized metals that have made the difference. + +Farm land can be used and abused many times before its productive +possibilities are exhausted. Even then, with foresight, technical +proficiency, the investment of labor and capital, agricultural land can +be restored to fertility. Iron ore, tin, copper and tungsten are +extracted from the earth, refined, put to some use or wasted as the case +may be, but they are gone. They may be replaced by other minerals. +Through geological ages they may redeposited in the earth's crust. But +to all intents and purposes, they are finished. + +It is a source of pride to promoters and propagandists for the status +quo that western man has removed more metals and minerals from the +earth's crust in the past two hundred years than his predecessors +removed during the previous two thousand years. It is also a source of +danger, because the possibilities of taking those particular minerals +from that particular cubic foot of the earth are ended. + +Replaceable natural resources such as soil fertility, grasses and trees +can be restored and reproduced. Irreplaceable natural resources are +exhausted by one use. In so far as they are concerned, that part of the +earth's crust has been impoverished--made poorer. + +Wasted through neglect and careless use, squandered in the senseless +destruction of war, the earth is still a rich treasure house for its +multitudinous forms of life. Its remaining treasures can be carefully +conserved. Such replaceable resources as topsoil, vegetation and water +can be husbanded. Oceans, mountains and, deserts can be dealt with as +we proceed with our programs for the most economical use of the natural +resources that remain to us. + +Western man is presently emerging from a boisterous era of invention, +discovery, of multiplying productivity and corresponding waste of +irreplaceable natural resources-temporarily justified by "national +security" and "war emergency." The temporary loss of replaceable +reserves and the permanent loss of irreplaceable resources is none the +less tragic, no matter how urgent the immediate cause for their +consumption. + +At this stage in the history of earth's conservation, when so much is +waiting to be done, if each family, each village and town, each city +state and nation will do its bit to conserve, plan, shape, utilize, +beautify, improve what remains of the natural environment, the results +will be impressive enough to justify the time and means devoted to the +enterprise. + +Wherever we go with our plea for the foresighted and economical use of +the earth and its remaining resources, we are met with the question: +"But what can I do?" The answer is simple. Find your place in the +nearest team working to utilize, conserve, and, where possible, enlarge +the natural wealth of the planet. If no such team exists, join with your +neighbors in organizing one. Take seriously your assignment to use the +part of the earth with which you are in contact intelligently, +economically, wisely. + +Whether you are a novice or a professional, a homesteader or a longtime +resident, be sure that each contact you make with the earth enlarges its +possibilities of utility, order, beauty. + +This crusade to save and utilize the earth as the common mother of so +many forms of life must be carefully planned and well organized through +successive generations. Men have spent far too much time and energy in +destroying. The time has come when they must conserve, plan, shape, +utilize, beautify, improve. + +If the energies now going into business, sport, social events, +frivolities, make-believe and the deliberate destruction of waste and +war could be directed to planning, utilizing, beautifying on the +circumferences and at the centers of population concentrations, immense +forward strides could be taken in a single generation. + +The planet still has immense, unused or little used reserves of natural +resources. The old order is slipping, floundering, wasting. Civilization +has told the best of its story and is busy writing its epitaph. The +revolution of 1750-1970 provides the opportunity for a new beginning. +The place is here. The time is now. Let us conserve, beautify, share, +utilize and, in so far as possible, improve our natural surroundings. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +REVAMPING THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PLANET + + +Beyond civilization we could develop a sociology-a cluster of +associations, institutions, outlooks, purposes and practices designed to +revamp the social life of the planet in much the same way and with the +same general outlook with which we approach the political, economic, +sociological and ideological problems arising from the presence, on the +planet Earth, of some 3,700 million different human beings. + +There are at least two approaches to the sociological aspects of our +planet-wide, coordinated society. One way is that with which nature's +cyclism has made us familiar--the "day" of manifestation (activity) and +the "night" of rest (recuperation, restoration and renewal). This might +be described as a natural, gradual evolutionary way. + +The other way is based on creative intervention which shortcuts +evolutionary gradualism in the same way that a great leap shortcuts many +ordinary steps. + +Perhaps the conception can be illustrated in a most effective way by the +alternative presented during the great revolution of 1750-1970. At the +beginning of this epoch man walked the earth literally, except when he +sailed on the water or used the horse or some other swift animal to +travel by land. In the course of the great revolution mankind has +learned to move his body at speeds which sometimes exceed the movement +of sound, on the land, on the water, through the air and into space. He +has done this short-cutting by revolutionary changes in types of energy +coming from outside his physical body. In another sphere--communication +devices--man has stepped up the movement of his emotions and thoughts +and his creative imagination beyond the speed of light. + +This analogy is not complete, nor is it wholly convincing. But the great +revolution in science and technology, applied in the field of social +science can quite conceivably provide humanity with the means of +short-cutting the normal or "natural" processes in sociology as it has +already short-cutted the normal or "natural" process in human +transportation and communication. + +As long as human beings accept the normal, traditional, "natural" +principles of association and group action, humanity will continue on +the tread-mill of civilization with its long established cycles of +beginning, expansion, exploitation, maturity, conflict, decline and +extermination. + +This aspect of planetary sociology may be illustrated by the rise and +decline of total membership in the human family. We know that Roman +civilization passed through a completed cycle of population expansion to +an optimum, followed by a catastrophic population decline. Western +civilization has been experiencing a population expansion or explosion +that can be measured with a moderate degree of statistical accuracy. +Planetary human population doubled from 500 million in 1650 to 1000 +million in 1850. Between 1850 and 1950 population more than doubled +(from 1000 million to 2,500 million). In 1975 the human population of +the earth is close to 3,700 million. + +An essential aspect of world government will be a population program +designed to adjust social structure and planning to the means of +production and to make generally available to all humans and, where +possible, all living things, the results of invention, discovery and +experience with affluence, general security and wide variations of +vocational and avocational choice. In practice such a program would +include the planned utilization and conservation of nature and the +conscious improvement of society by society. + +Social planning at the planetary level could deal chiefly with large +national or regional groupings, more or less divergent in viewpoint but +conscious of the necessity for bringing local and regional groups +together in order to secure common agreement and to take part in +directed joint actions. Such efforts must aim at sufficient cohesion to +provide for normal social function at all levels; sufficient +permissiveness to allow for a measure of self-determination at all +levels; sufficient authority to carry on production and distribution at +all levels, and sufficient libertarianism to tolerate discussion and +opposition at all levels, with a maximum degree of self sufficiency and +self-determination at all levels. + +Nowhere is the need for social planning more in evidence than in the +sphere of human population. In the early years of the present twentieth +century, the human population was doubling in about 50 years (from 1500 +million in 1900 to 2500 million in 1950, from 1,900 million in 1925 to +3,800 million in 1975). Had this rate of growth continued for another +hundred years the planet's fertile acres would have been fully occupied +by jostling crowds with _standing-room only_ signs in the more desirable +living spaces. Japan, the United States, several countries of West +Europe and China have launched campaigns to reduce net population +increase to one percent per year or less. + +A culture level, to be effective in the present predicament of a human +race (oscillating uneasily between the possibility of social advance and +the probability of recession into another Dark Age of ignorance, +superstition and social stagnation), must include certain essential +elements. First and foremost, it must be planet-wide. Given planetary +unification by communication, transportation, travel, migration, trade +and commerce, and cultural interchange, one world has become a factual +reality. World oneness is laced by contradictions, confrontations, +conflicts; by traditional, customary, habitual, ideological, legal, and +national barriers of greater or lesser rigidity. Despite these divisive +forces, our need to function in terms of planetary oneness is so great +that the term "citizens of the world" not only makes sense, but is +accepted and even flaunted in the face of tough restrictions and hard +nosed nationalism. + +Segments of humanity that are ready and willing to sign up as world +citizens already enjoy world consciousness, carrying world passports; +and are experimenting with various aspects of worldist thinking, +contact, organization. They are ready and willing to take part in a +multitude of planetary experiments in world-wide human association. + +The great revolution of 1750-1970 has made two notable contributions to +the institutions of western civilization. In the field of politics it +has contributed the nation state. In the field of economics it has +contributed industrialization with its twin sociological consequence, +mechanization and urbanization. + +Machines and cities are the Siamese twins of the modern age. They are +also the twin forces that helped to push the nation state into its +strategic position of sovereign independence. + +Nationalism today is a unifying force inside the frontiers of the 140 +nations that presently litter and clutter the earth. Beyond each +frontier, however, nationalism has become one of the most divisive +sources of misunderstanding, controversy, disruption and conflict +presently cursing mankind. In the exercise of their sovereignty the +oligarchs who make policy and direct procedure in each sovereign state +put national interests first. On a planet which currently hosts 140 +sovereign states this policy of putting the interests of the part before +the interests of the whole results in controversy, conflict, and may +result in collective self-destruction. + +It is reassuring and encouraging to compare the rise of nationalism and +Europeanism during the past thousand years with the rise of planetism +and worldism from 1450 to 1970. The development of nationalism and +Europeanism is still incomplete, but the drive in that direction has +thus far survived the fragmenting forces of self-determination and +political independence which have played so vital a role in human +society since the beginning of the present century. Europeanization is +still a dream rather than a reality. The forces of regionalism, +nationalism, and separatism still dominate European life. But the +ideology and techniques of Europeanization are widely recognized, +accepted and put into practice. The development of worldism seems to be +following a parallel course. + +Consequently, wisdom, foresight, and the acceptance of change as a major +factor in all social relationships seem to justify our assumption that +sooner or later man's survival on the planet will depend on a degree of +worldist thinking, association and institutionalism that will guarantee +the preservation of order and decency at the planetary level. + +Since conformity implies and involves a will to diversity, measures to +establish and maintain order and peace would include the widest possible +latitude and the utmost effort to encourage the greatest possible +diversity at regional, national and local levels. Thus diversity would +become a virtue in much the same sense that conformity became a virtue +in bourgeois Europe toward the end of the last century and in North +America during the Joseph MacCarthy period. Through the past dozen years +American youth has reversed the trend, adopting a permissiveness under +which the sky is the limit in language, clothing, sexual conduct and +professional choice and behavior. + +Non-conformity is all very well as protest against super-conformity, but +it fails utterly to meet the basic need of the 1970's for a mass +movement away from the institutions and practices of civilization, plus +a disciplined and purposive mass determination to assume attitudes, +adopt practices and establish institutions leading beyond civilization +to a world culture pattern which insists upon conformity up to a point +necessary for survival and social advance, and beyond that point, a +diversity--including recognized and organized opposition at the +planetary center. At the same time there must be a degree of regional +and local diversity that will provide for the utmost independence, +self-confidence, self-expression and regional and local +self-determination compatible with the basic principle: to each in +accordance with need. + +Beyond civilization, matters of general concern will take precedence at +the same time that matters of regional and local concerns will be dealt +with regionally and locally. In such a society individuals and +communities at all levels will be schooled and experienced in +self-discipline and prepared to follow conduct patterns that emphasize +the principle: live and help others to live to the fullest and the +utmost. + +Beyond civilization lies the recognition and practice of the principle +that the welfare of the whole takes precedence over the demands of any +of its parts. At the same time, each part or segment of the social whole +has specific rights that the directors of the whole are bound to +recognize, respect, defend and implement. + +Such results can be achieved under a social pattern aimed at respect for +life--all life; the preservation and improvement of the conditions under +which the good life can be lived by all members of each community as +well as by the human family as a whole. If human society is to be +preserved and progressively improved it must encourage individuals and +cherish institutions whose responsibility and duty it is to stimulate +self-criticism to a point that will make survival and social improvement +the first charge on community life--from the locality, through the +region to the whole human family. + +Should self-discipline and self-criticism falter, militant minorities +must urge and initiate those revolutionary changes which are necessary +for the health and well-being of any ailing human community. This is one +of the contradictions that faces every human enterprise, including the +human race itself. + +Cyclic renewal or regeneration is one aspect of life on our Island +Universe. The principle operates in the life cell, and from the cell on +up and out, to the more extended and extensive aspects of life and +being. The course is well marked and increasingly understood. +Alternatively, humanity can put its creative imagination to work; plan, +organize, prepare and by a carefully designed, revolutionary technique +take a great leap onto another culture level, establishing other norms +beyond those currently accepted by civilized peoples. + +"Beyond civilization" lifestyles are being planfully introduced in order +to save humankind from impending disaster. In that sense, they are +emergency measures. Developmentally, they are being designed as a +planned replacement of the life style current in the matured centers of +western civilization. + +Under such conditions the habit patterns of civilizations could be +deliberately abandoned or superceded by life styles more appropriate to +the institutions and practices of human beings prepared to live and able +to live and develop in a community which is establishing itself on a +level beyond civilization. + +Let no reader retort: Old things are best; old ways are most secure; +beware of the errors of human judgment, the lures and wiles of human +imaginings, the reckless enthusiasm of inexperience; the machinations +and subversions of the counter-revolution. + +Whether he will or no, man has already advanced far along the path that +leads beyond the culture level of civilization into a culture pattern +which includes new means of association and new social institutions. The +most obvious examples of the universal pattern which the human race has +been developing during the present epoch are to be found in the "one +world" consequences of the planet-wide revolution in science and +technology. + +Planetary fragmentation which accompanied the dissolution of Roman +civilization divided and sub-divided mankind into unnumbered +self-contained segments: families, tribes, classes, villages, cities, +kingdoms, principalities, nations, empires. They were separated from one +another by geographic, ethnic, ideological and political barriers which +were intensified by tradition, custom, migration, and the competitive +struggles among the elite for pelf and power. Ignorance and superstition +played a major role in the decentralizing process. Conflicts at various +levels led to further social segmentation and isolation of autonomous +social groups. + +In the backwardness of those Dark Ages--curiosity, fellow feeling, mass +migration, the spirit of adventure, trade, travel and the need for +common action to master nature and repel enemies--broke down barriers +and created fields of mutual interest and general well-being, reversing +the trend toward fragmentation and replacing it by a trend toward +universality which reached its high point during the closing years of +the nineteenth century. The slogan of this movement was "United we +stand, divided we fall. The bell which tolls for one, tolls for all. +When one benefits all benefit. Peace, progress and prosperity promote +general welfare." + +Two general wars in 1914-18 and 1939-45, brought pre-meditated, +deliberated suffering, hardships and death to multitudes. Each war led +to a clamor for peace and order that resulted in a World Court, The +League of Nations and the United Nations. The efforts at planet-wide +united action for peace and disarmament were paralleled and supplemented +by the growth of specialized public services for communication, travel, +scientific interchange, arms limitation. They were further augmented by +a spectacular expansion of trade, travel, capital investment and +scientific research and interchange. + +Events since war's end in 1945 have marked out the steps which the human +race might take in the immediate future to deal with the new problems +arising out of the world revolution of 1750-1970 and to stabilize human +life on the planet. + + Step 1. Revise the United Nations Charter to make all citizens + of member nations also citizens of the United Nations + and therefore under its direct jurisdiction. + + Step 2. Delegate to the United Nations authority to levy taxes + or otherwise provide its own income. + + Step 3. Call a planet-wide convention of delegates from all + nations, authorized to draft a world federal constitution + and submit it for ratification by all member + states. + + Step 4. When approved by two thirds of the states represented + at the constitutional convention the constitution + so adopted would became the basis for world + law and the administration of world affairs. + + Step 5. Inaugurate a world government that would be responsible + for maintaining and promoting peace, order, + stability, justice, equality of opportunity and general + welfare at the international level. + +Heretofore, the nearest approach to a universal state has been an +empire like that of Egypt or Rome built by conquest and maintained by +military authority exercised by the imperial nucleus over its associated +and subordinated territories. The universal state described above would +be an association of sovereign states, each delegating a sufficient +measure of its sovereignty to enable the World Federation to act as a +responsible planet-wide government. + +The probable consequences of these five forward steps have been +summarized by Barbara Ward and Rene Dubos (_Only One World_ N.Y. Nostrom +1972 pages 28-29). "In every case the needed steps take us away from +division, from single shot interventions, separatist tendencies and +driving ambitions and greeds. We have to grasp and foster more fully the +truly integrative aspects of science. We have to revise our economic +management of incomes, of environments, of cities. We have to place what +is useable in nationalism within the framework of a political world +order that is morally and socially responsible as well as physically +one." + +Up to this point in social history, critical situations have usually +been dealt with on the battlefield. Might measured right. The victors +carried the day, won the right to exploit their defeated rivals and +weaker neighbors. The result was planet-wide political chaos, and an +economic free-for-all, in which political power and economic superiority +bestowed upon their possessors the right to plunder and exploit +geographic areas limited only by existing means of communication and +transportation. At no known point in social history were conquerors and +exploiters able to unify the earth politically and exploit its total +economic resources. + +A planned, stabilized future for humanity will be assured when the earth +is governed much as cities, states, nations and empires have been +governed in the past and the present, but with one essential difference. +At no known past time have all human beings been represented in a +government authorized to make and enforce world law. In the absence of +law, chaos and armed conflicts have determined the course of human +affairs. Under a recognized world federal government, world law will +bring, for the first time, the practical possibility of a law and order +determined by and for the human population and charged with the +responsibility for establishing and maintaining planetary public policy. + +World law will be only one aspect of the new situation that will result +from the establishment of a planned, stabilized future for humanity. +Other aspects of the new society will include: + +1. Shaping the future of nature on and in the planet, with all of its +potential riches. + +2. Perhaps also taking a hand in determining the future of other +celestial bodies making up our solar system. + +3. Shaping human society, the man-made and man-remade human heritage +that plays so vital a role in determining the course of human +life--individual and social. + +4. Shaping and guiding man--the gregarious, imaginative, venturesome, +productive--destructive, creative animal. + +5. Building up in human society respect (reverence) for being, respect +for life with its multitudinous variations of opportunity for individual +and social activity. + +6. Arousing interest and dedicating time, thought and energy to the new +science and new arts grouped together under the title Futurology. + +7. Having a hand in perpetuating and shaping one segment of our +expanding universe in accord with the Cult of Excellence: good, better, +and best ever! This is an exciting, constructive, long-range project +worthy of the attention and devotion of any being, even the most +ambitious and omniscient. + +8. Aiming at the Truth--the workability, improvement and the +perfectability of our planet Earth as a recognized, accepted and +essential part of our planetary chain and of our Island Universe. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +MAN COULD CHANGE HUMAN NATURE + + +Man could conserve natural resources; he could remake human society. But +man himself? There, perhaps, is the root of the problem we are +discussing. + +Can man change himself? Can he change human nature? Could human beings +as we know them be transformed sufficiently to live and survive under +the life-style that replaces civilization? + +In our universe as we know it today, from the least to the greatest, +from the most minute to the most extensive, change is one of the basic +principles of existence. Nature changes. Human society changes. Changes +in nature and in society are paralleled by changes in man +himself--changes in outlooks and purposes, changes in ways of feeling, +thinking and acting. + +Human beings have lived under the aegis of tradition, custom, +habit--thinking and acting "normally" and "naturally" in ways accepted +by their forebears and followed by them with little or no regard for +reason, foresight, or creative imagination. Rudiments of all three +capacities were known to exist in human beings. On the whole, the status +quo has been preferred; innovation frowned upon and innovators +discouraged, denounced, reviled and sometimes even put to death. + +In the field of natural science revolutionary short-cutting through the +use of man's creative imagination has been widely used. The great +revolution is one aspect of the anticipated result. Similar +revolutionary short-cutting in the field of social science and social +technology is bound to produce a "new man" in the same way that similar +practices have remodeled, regenerated and renewed man's relations with +nature, and his theories and practices of association. + +Despite efforts of the Establishment to impose conformity, +non-conforming individuals continued to be born and to grow up as +deviants, misfits and intentional non-conformists. Some of these rebels +against the established social order left home, joined the army or went +to sea. Others stayed at home, bided their time and, when opportunity +offered, joined with like-minded fellows in organized underground +opposition or open rebellion against the status quo. + +History reports the existence of such dissident individuals and social +groups and movements in one civilization after another. + +In a very real sense any invention, discovery or innovation in any field +of human thought or action, if widely accepted or adopted automatically, +becomes a revolt against the status quo. Our experience with innovation +during two centuries of the great revolution gives us every reason to +suppose that the flow of scientific and technical invention and +discovery will continue for an indefinite period into our future. On the +whole the evidence suggests increase rather than decrease of innovation +and therefore of change. + +A time of troubles such as that through which western civilization is +now passing offers individuals and social groups unique opportunities to +play significant roles in shaping the course of events. In every human +population there are individuals who are dissatisfied with the status +quo and prefer change to status. For such individuals a time of social +troubles is a holiday. + +There is also an ever-renewing social group for whom a time of troubles +presents a challenge and an opportunity--the young people of the +on-coming generation. + +Adults are generally conditioned and shaped by the social situation into +which they were born and in which they matured. Young people are passing +through the conditioning process. They are undergoing the process of +rapid change. + +Young people in their teens and early twenties stand, usually hesitant, +on the threshold of life. They are bursting with energy, eager, hopeful, +anxious to enter the stream of adult activity. Inexperienced, they +under-estimate the difficulties, taking up any line of activity that +promises quick results. They are impressionable and generally seeking "a +good life." + +Such resources of energy and idealism exist in every generation and +reappear as the generations follow one another. Youth groups have played +active roles in one country after another where opportunities were +restricted by the establishment and revolutionary propagandists painted +a rosy future. Political nationalism in the eighteenth century and +economic and social emancipation in the nineteenth century mobilized +high school and college age youth in the Americas, Europe, Asia and +Africa. + +It is folly to assert that human nature is a given and unalterable +quantity in every social situation and that since "you cannot change +human nature" intentional social changes are out of the question. The +facts are otherwise: + + 1. There is a wide diversity in human beings ranging from + herculean physical strength to pitiable weakness; from the + mental power of genius to the nonentity of imbecility; from + outstanding and unquestionable talent in arts and letters + to illiteracy and clumsy inefficiency. This wide diversity + in human capacity is one of the outstanding features of + human nature, recorded again and again in history and + encountered in all human aggregates. + + 2. There is a period in human life when the habit patterns + of childhood are exchanged for the habit patterns of adulthood. + At this turning point, youth is likely to follow + dynamic and purposeful leadership. + + 3. There is a wide diversity in social situations, from rock-ribbed + stability, to entire communities teetering on the brink + or plunging over the brink into the maelstrom of revolution. + Such diverse situations have existed again and again + during the 1750-1970 revolutionary epoch. + + 4. When a revolutionary situation develops, a revolutionary + leader well-established in a community trembling on the + brink of a revolutionary overturn may seize the reins of + power and establish a regime founded on opposition principles, + dedicated to another set of principles and practices. + When such a revolutionary coup is successful the bells of + history have tolled for the older order and the trumpets + of victory have sounded for the new society. + + 5. The intensity and the direction of the social changes which + radiate out from the climax of a revolutionary situation + and the consequent, subsequent attempts at counter-revolution, + are the outcome of active, purposive intervention by + all of the social groups present at the center of revolutionary + activity. + +The current shift from a laissez-faire economy ("letting nature take her +course"), to a planned, managed, controlled economy is a precedent which +gives us a foretaste of what will lie ahead when a planet-wide federal +government undertakes the planning, direction and management of a +planet-wide economy and society. + +The outcome cannot be determined in advance. Unexpected situations will +arise, the resolution of which will shape the fate, present and future, +of mankind. In a very real sense, our eggs are all in one basket--the +Earth. Our future, for generations to come, may be determined by the +decisions we are making or the social policy we are initiating at the +present moment. + +Large scale research and experiment should go a long way toward +developing the skills required by competent and successful planetary +leadership. Political experiments like the United States of North +America or the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics or the League of +Nations or the United Nations, the planet-wide search for petroleum or +the joint scientific efforts that went into the splitting of the atom, +have given us opportunities to develop the science and art of +planet-wide leadership. + +Behind and beyond our training courses--our formal educational system +(which should be in the front rank of our priorities)--we could train +apprentices in every occupational field, selecting the most apt, the +most eager, the seemingly best qualified and giving them every +opportunity to try out their skills and improve their qualifications in +their chosen fields of endeavor. + +Aspirants for any occupational assignment would divide themselves into +three groups: those who feel that they have chosen wisely, find +themselves in congenial surrounds and want to spend coming years in the +occupation of their choice; those who are uncertain and still unable to +decide upon the field of their life activity; and third, those who have +chosen badly, are dissatisfied with the occupational groove in which +they find themselves and who are ready to move into another field at the +first opportunity. + +The well adjusted will constitute the elite of their chosen occupations, +learning its skills and joining with other well satisfied professionals +in passing on their enthusiasm and knowledge to the next generation of +aspirants for inclusion in the same production teams. The undecided +should be the object of special attention. They have entered an +occupational field on an experimental basis and should be advised and +helped during the experimental period when they are deciding to make a +go of it or to try for something more congenial or at least more +acceptable. + +Misfits who have made a wrong choice and who have no clear call to stay +where they are should be advised and helped to find more congenial +occupational surroundings. + +We may think and experiment with this selective process as though it was +easy and probably final. Nothing could be further from the reality. Even +the best adjusted have moments of uncertainty and indecision about their +occupational futures. The less adjusted spend a part of their lives +looking around for a more attractive field. + +In every field, some of the best adjusted go as far as their interests +and capacities carry them and then shift over into other occupations +which, in turn, offer them more chances to employ their talents to +greater advantage. + +In every field of human endeavor individuals come and go. They should +stay where they seem to be useful and go when their usefulness is +decreasing or coming to an end. + +Balance between status and change is as desirable for the individual as +it is for the group. The decision to stay or go should remain open to +the endless round of individuals who comprise any working team. The +existence of such flexibility is limited, however, by the need to +maintain a working force of interested, alert, eager individuals--skilled, +adjusted and disciplined in group endeavor and achievement. + +We are describing the unending process of selection which goes on from +hour to hour and day to day in any well ordered social group. Every +group has its fields of endeavor, its goals and its scale of priorities. +Individuals come and go. The group carries on. Excellence in group +performance depends upon its competence in selecting, training and +coordinating its endeavors. + +Every social group has its hard corps of trained and tested veterans. +Also it has its problem of aging. The apprentice of yesterday becomes +the experienced, skilled operator of today. Tomorrow brings retirement +for those who have reached the age limit of service and who as a matter +of group routine are replaced by newcomers. In the course of this cycle +the directors of the group have their opportunity to improve the level +of group efficiency by phasing out the old and incorporating the new. + +The range of capacity, from perception and facility to ineptitude and +incompetence, holds for the new generation as it did for the old. The +tone and performance level of each group is determined by the +effectiveness of this selective process. + +At some point it becomes necessary to inquire into the biologic aspects +of any social enterprise. We are doing our utmost to select and educate +and train the fit. Are we producing potential fitness? + +Long experience has taught us that we cannot produce a silk purse from a +sow's ear. Eugenics emerges as an important aspect of every long term +group endeavor. Qualities and capacities are handed on from parent to +offspring. Are we reproducing fitness or unfitness? + +As we move beyond civilization onto a more mature and more complicated +culture level, we may have a workable system of social priorities, but +does our oncoming stream of manpower have the interest, the imagination, +the competence, the sense of social responsibility and the staying power +necessary to arouse in a series of generations the will and +determination to carry out social policy? + +Are the oncoming generations able and willing to shoulder the loads of +clearing out the rubbish accumulated through ten centuries of western +civilization, make effective use of science, technology _and_ available +human capacity and move onward and forward to new levels of social +achievement? + +We could develop a corps of socially responsible technicians as we have +developed a corps of competent scientists and technicians in the field +of natural science. In each field priorities are constantly changing. +Each field is called upon to meet the changes by making corresponding +changes in its personnel, its education and its apprenticeships. + +In addition to formal schooling and apprenticeship we have a vast +network for the distribution of information and the formation of public +opinion. The printing press, the camera and other means of communication +determine the levels of information and the willingness of the public to +keep abreast of the shifting social scene. + +A social structure resembles every other human meeting place--it tends +to accumulate dead wood. There are two answers to this problem: periodic +housecleaning, without fear or favor, together with careful scrutiny of +the apprentices and other newcomers in the field. + +Every social group has its quota of defectives and +delinquents--biological and social, physical, mental, emotional. Here +the critical problem is where to draw the line. Perhaps the best general +answer is to measure productiveness, including those who make a net +contribution, including those whose presence is desirable and excluding +undesirables. Again this involves periodic housecleanings. + +Throughout the past two centuries mankind has been confronted by an +epoch-making, many sided development--the great revolution of +1750-1970. As I write, the great revolution is modifying the structure +and functioning of human society and, consequently, the forces which +condition, shape and, in large measure, determine the directions and +channels in which humanity lives, moves and has its being. + +The great revolution is changing man's relation to nature, to the +structure and function of human society and the ways in which men think, +feel, act and live. The great revolution has shifted the human living +place from rural to urban, replaced a large measure of self-employment +by wagery, lifted large segments of mankind out of scarcity into +abundance, led to widespread migrations across Europe and from continent +to continent, expanded nations and built empires. In the course of these +developments Europe became the center of world economic, political and +cultural affairs, held the position briefly and lost it in the course of +two general, suicidal wars. + +Speaking broadly, such a period in the life of any society may be +described as a revolutionary situation--one in which changes are made +frequently, rapidly and with far reaching consequences. In a word, the +existing social pattern is in process of being turned over, turned +upside down, transformed by forces which seem to operate according to +their own principles and often quite independently of human intention or +intervention. + +Our society--western civilization--is undergoing a revolution. People +born into a rapidly changing society are often tempted and sometimes +compelled to play significant roles in the revolutionary process. +Unconsciously or consciously, unwilling and unwitting or deliberately +and purposefully they are revolutionaries. + +Among the participants in the revolutionary process, the far-seeing, +imaginative, perceptive and mature develop into purposive +revolutionaries. In the course of a series of political, economic and +cultural revolutions like those which played so fateful a part in China +between 1899 and 1969, an entire generation is born, grows up and, in +larger part, retires from active life or dies off. + +Long continued cultural changes play a part in local history. They have +an equally important role in the lives of neighboring nations and +peoples. With present means of communication, transportation and travel, +the influence of revolutionary events such as those in China from 1899 +to the present day may be profound. + +The bourgeois revolution from 1750 to 1840 centered largely in West +Europe and the Americas. In scope it was economic, political, cultural. +The Chinese and other revolutions of the present period, beginning with +the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the Chinese Revolution of 1911, are +once more transforming the economic, political and cultural life of +mankind. + +UNESCO's _History of Mankind_ (Harper and Row), particularly its Volume +6 titled _The Twentieth Century_, presents voluminous comments from a +wide range of qualified scientists and commentators on the changes +associated with the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +The economic, political and cultural life of the majority of human +beings has been modified by the events comprising the great revolution. +Its influence has been, and continues to be, planet-wide. Consciously or +unconsciously, human beings have been brought into contact with +influences that are transforming them as they revolutionize human +society. + +Western man and his way of life have been primarily responsible for this +great revolution. The changes brought about in the human life pattern in +the course of the great revolution have created a new world--in +structure, in function, in outlook, in stepped-up capacity for even more +spectacular changes in the future. + +Instead of regarding human beings and human society as unchangeable and +sacred we must regard both as a part of our social problem: taking the +steps necessary to reach and occupy the highest possible levels of +social and individual health and effectiveness. We can and should make +every effort to improve human society. We should be equally concerned to +improve man and his nature. + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +MAN COULD BREAK OUT OF THE AGE-LONG PRISON HOUSE OF CIVILIZATION AND +ENTER A NEW WORLD + + +We humans have been living for ages with various lifestyles--as hunters +and fishermen, as herdsmen, as cultivators of the soil, as craftsmen, as +traders and merchants, as professionals, as exploiters, as parasites, +wreckers and plunderers. On the whole, our energies have been spent in +relatively small, self-sufficient groups, staying close to nature, as a +part of nature. + +Occasionally we have turned from this "natural" way of life, to build +towns and cities, experimenting with large scale mass enterprises and +expanded aggregates of population, wealth and centralized authority to +which we have given the name of civilizations. + +These civilizations, in their turn, have passed through a recognizable +life cycle--the cycle of growing, developing, maturing, aging, breaking +up and disappearing. One aspect of their civilized life was the keeping +of records. Another aspect was building with baked clay and stone. Baked +clay, some metals and stone, have withstood the wear and tear of time, +sheltered in the temples and tombs which we are uncovering, deciphering, +translating. + +While engaged in these scholarly pursuits, our variant of the +pattern--western civilization--has been passing through the customary +life cycle. If we read the signs correctly, western civilization reached +the high point in its cycle toward the end of the last century. Since +then, for seventy-five years, it has been on the decline. + +If we accept the cycle of civilization as one of the facts or sequences +presented to us by history, we may continue to pass submissively through +the successive stages of decline until western civilization is +liquidated by the same forces that wiped out preceding civilizations. +This would be the normal course of a cycle of civilization as it appears +in recorded history. + +Need we follow this course? Must we follow it? + +History answers "yes" and also "no." + +History answers "yes"--the record to date reads that way. + +But the record of history also shows that men have repeatedly interfered +and intervened in the historical process by discovery and invention. The +historical record is subject to change. Man is not entirely free. +Neither is he helplessly bound on the wheel of necessity, presently +known as civilization. + +In Chapter 10 we listed a number of discoveries and inventions which +have greatly increased man's control over his own destiny. As these +innovations are embodied in the life styles of planet-wide human +society, there is every likelihood that men can deal with the future +almost as comprehensibly as they now deal with the past. Those who take +this position argue that humanity has reached a point at which it may +break out of the present cycle of civilization and begin a new cycle +which will correspond with the possibilities brought to mankind during +the great revolution of 1750-1970. + +The idea is not new. It has appeared repeatedly in various forms: +individual withdrawal from the world and its troubles to live solitary, +perfected, sin-free existences; the formulation of plans for utopian or +ideal communities; the establishment of such communities--apart from the +workday world; revolutionary mass movements away from the current time +of social troubles into a more workable, more acceptable, more basically +productive and fundamentally creative life style. + +Hermits and reclusive monastic life need not concern us here. They are +to be found in many parts of the existing society. They live their lives +apart from the main currents of human life. We may make the same +comment, with slight modifications, on intentional communities +organized within the bounds of surrounding civilizations. They meet the +needs of exceptional individuals who find the existing order intolerable +and who wish to move at once into a more congenial community life. +Intentional communities founded to demonstrate particular social or +economic theories usually are short-lived, covering, at best, one or two +generations. + +Intentional communities organized around ethical or social principles +are more enduring, lasting through generations and sometimes through +centuries. During their existence they may have considerable influence +on the communities of which they are a part. At best they parallel the +life of the civilization against which they protest, while they share +its problems. Religiously oriented intentional communities may be found +today in many of the countries composing western civilization. + +What concerns us here is the split of western civilization into two +broadly divergent groups: capitalism and socialism-communism. + +Capitalism, in its present monopoly form, is the outcome of a thousand +years of development. Throughout its existence it has been politically +and economically competitive. The vehicle of political competition began +as the nation, then continued as the empire. Economically, the vehicle +of competition has become the profit-seeking business corporation, +backed politically and often subsidized economically by the nation or +empire. + +As western civilization has developed, nations and empires have tended +to form more or less permanent alliances. Business corporations likewise +have tended to establish conglomerates which include widely divergent +businesses, some limited to one nation or empire, some international. + +Historically, the present-day business community developed out of a +segmented European feudal society as a protest against political +restrictions. Its early key-note was laissez-faire--freedom of +businessmen to make economic policy and accumulate profits. The +practical outcome of laissez-faire economy has been monopoly or finance +capitalism functioning through the sovereign state or empire. + +Marxian socialism-communism, organized and developed largely since 1848, +has grown up as a rebellion against monopoly capitalism. At it matured, +after revolutions in Mexico, China, Tsarist Russia and East Europe, it +became an alternative and even a competitive life style. Marxism has +been, at least in theory, cooperative rather than competitive. Its +objective has been not private profit but a higher standard of economic +and social life for exploited masses of the business community and of +the Third World. Capitalism has had as its slogan "Every man for +himself". The slogan of Marxism is "Serve the whole people". + +Until 1917 Marxism was a body of social theory and a program of specific +political demands. In the period from 1848 to 1917 Marxism operated +through minority political parties organized in each nation, but linked +together internationally in loose federations, except during the brief +existence of the Communist International from 1919 to 1943. + +Beginning with the Russian Revolution of 1917, Marxism became a basic +state doctrine, first in the Soviet Union and subsequently in more than +a dozen other nations of East Europe and Asia. The area of Marxist +influence, as expressed in socialist construction, spread slowly from +1917 to 1943 and rapidly during and immediately after the war of +1936-1945. + +Today about a billion human beings live in countries of East Europe and +Asia calling themselves socialist-communist. A second billion human +beings live chiefly in West Europe, the Americas and Australasia calling +themselves capitalist. A third billion, the remaining segment of +mankind, living chiefly in Africa, Asia and Latin America make up the +"Third World," most of which consists of former colonies and +dependencies of the 19th century empires. + +At the beginning of the great revolution in 1750 the planet was occupied +by the European empires, their colonies and dependencies, with a segment +under the control of the crumbling Chinese and Turkish empires. The +ensuing two centuries witnessed a political, economic and social +transformation that reached across every continent. + +The revolutionary process is far from complete in 1975. Capitalism and +Marxism are still pitted against each other--ideologically, politically, +culturally. The Marxians form a revolutionary front. Capitalists retort +with counter-revolution. Nation by nation the third world is taking +sides. + +The capitalist world is suffering from the rise and fall of the business +cycle, from inflation and unemployment, from the scourge of militarism; +from the exhaustion of two general wars in one generation; from absence +of any positive common program or commonly accepted means of +administering public affairs; from its failure to provide its young +people with a satisfactory reason for existence, and from the fatal +malady of fragmentation which is the logical counterpart of every major +effort at coordination, consolidation and unification. Western +civilization, despite repeated efforts, was never able to establish the +kind of superficial unity that marked the high point in the Egyptian and +Roman civilizations. The stresses and strains of the current great +revolution have introduced into western civilization new disintegrative +forces of which the capitalist-Marxist confrontation is the most +extensive, divisive and decisive. + +The Marxist world, in its spectacular rise during less than a century, +offers the only workable alternative to declining and disintegrating +western civilization. It presents an alternative theoretical program for +dealing with the transition from the built-in competitiveness of western +civilization to the built-in cooperativeness of a planned, coordinated, +federated socialist-communist world order. + +The Soviet Union and its East European socialist neighbors have survived +the wars of 1914 and 1936; have survived the capitalist conspiracy to +strangle infant Marxism in its cradle. In a remarkably brief period the +Soviet Union has moved from a position of cultural backwardness to +become the number two nation in productivity and perhaps even number one +in fire power. + +Today Asia's active development of several variants of Marxism is +defended against any repetition of Hitler's 1941 drive to the East by +the massive land barrier of the Soviet Union and its East European +Marxist associates. + +On the west, Asia is protected by the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean +against the determined efforts of the Washington government to check the +spread of Marxism. Washington's current effort to become _The_ Pacific +power and also _The_ Asian power have been blocked and perhaps thwarted +by the defeat of General MacArthur and his international forces in the +Korean War of 1950-53, and by the unanticipated and unbelievable +resistance mounted by the peoples of South East Asia against the +repeated efforts made by Washington to replace the French imperial +presence there after its overwhelming defeat in 1954. + +The decisive political developments in South and East Asia following +war's end in 1945 were first, the expulsion of the British, French and +Dutch from their military strongholds in the area; second, the +spectacular unification of China and its rapid advance from inferiority +and political inconsequence to a place among the three major world +powers; third, the meteoric comeback of Japan after its unconditional +surrender in 1945; and fourth, the failure of the costly effort mounted +by Washington after 1954 to establish itself in a position from which it +could dominate the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. + +So much we may learn from history. Turning from the past and looking at +the trends of the immediate future, it seems likely that Marxism will +continue for at least some years to be the dominant force in Asia. +Furthermore, the Marxian presence in Asia will include both the Soviet +Union in Northern Asia and China in South Asia. Both countries are +unquestionably stabilized economically and viable politically. Both are +headed away from capitalist imperialism. Both are moving toward Marxian +forms of socialism-communism. + +The wars in South East Asia after the expulsion of the French in 1954 +were organized, financed and armed primarily by the Washington +government. They were avowedly aimed at the up-rooting of Marxism from +the area. They not only failed in their main objective but they gave +the Soviet Union and the Chinese a chance to pit their advisers, +technicians and military equipment against that of the United States as +the major capitalist contender in the area. This phase of the +counter-revolutionary drive to reestablish monopoly capitalism and +imperialism in the Far East thus far has met with decisive and +humiliating defeat. + +This defeat marks the end of the capitalist occupation of Far Asia. It +also opens the way for the Marxists to demonstrate the workability of +socialism-communism as a lifestyle for Asians and, presumably, for other +segments of the Third World. + +Success of the Marxists in maintaining and extending their presence in +Asia will make it politically and culturally possible for them to take +five essential steps: + +_First_, to extend the developing pattern of collective responsibility +and collective action around the earth as rapidly as possible. If such +an extension proves feasible, it should give Marxism a real priority in +stabilizing the economy and building up the political vigor of the Far +East. + +_Second_, organized counter-revolution could be liquidated and +revolutionaries, willing to take on the responsibility, could be +provided with necessary authority, leadership and equipment. + +_Third_, moving along with the formulation and fulfillment of carefully +developed plans for socialist construction in all of its ramifications, +to close the door gradually, step by considered step, on exploitation +and profiteering. In their places, well-laid plans could be drawn up for +developing a people's socialist-communist economy in the more backward +areas of Africa, Asia and the Americas. + +_Fourth_, the new economy could be federated as it was established and +stabilized, with special attention to the need for a maximum of local +self help to balance against pressures toward bureaucracy and the +development of overhead costs. + +_Fifth_, with one eye on its need for integration into a +socialist-communist collective planetary economy, the other eye must be +kept on the planetary chain of which the earth is an essential part. + +Life is a process operating through the linking of causes and their +effects. This is as true of social life as it is of individual life. +Reviewing history we check man's past actions and learn by so doing. +Turning to the future we plan and prepare to set in motion that +conglomerate of causes (plans) best calculated to assure a good life +individually, socially, cosmically--with a strong emphasis on the time +honored sequence: good, better, best. + +It is our opportunity, our destiny, and our responsibility to keep on +living, constructing, creating. We must live, not die. We must not stop. +We must go on. + +By such steps we humans could by-pass the restrictions and limitations +imposed on human creative genius by the structure and function of +civilization. In its place we could elaborate a substitute +inter-planetary culture in which a chastened, improved, rejuvenated +humanity could play a creative role, in accordance with our capacities +and our destiny as an integral part of the joint enterprise to which our +sun furnishes light, warmth and vibrant energy. We have latent among us +the talent and genius necessary to play such a part. Do we also have the +imagination, courage and daring to accept the challenge and take our +post of duty in the team that is directing the expansion of our +expanding universe? + + + + +SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES + +Among the books consulted in preparation of this essay on civilization +as a social institution, UNESCO _History of Mankind_ holds first place. +The authors describe the work as "the first global history, planned and +executed from an international viewpoint". The subtitle of the six +volumes is "Cultural and Scientific Development". + +The work is published under the auspices of the United Nations +Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by an International +Commission presided over by Professor Pauls E. deBerredo Carneiro of +Brazil. The Commission consists of 23 members, mostly academicians from +23 countries. The commission also has a corresponding membership of 93 +drawn chiefly from the academic personnel of 42 countries. + +Textual material for the _History of Mankind _was prepared and edited by +hundreds of experts in the widely ranging fields covered by the +_History_. Final approval of the text came from the Commission. In cases +where there were differences of opinion or of interpretation, varying +and opposing points of view are presented. + +_The History of Mankind _is in six volumes. + +I. Prehistory and The Beginnings of Civilization. + +II. The Ancient World. + +III. The World A.D. 400 to A.D. 1300. + +IV. The World A.D. 1300 to the End of the Eighteenth Century. + +V. The World in the Nineteenth Century. + +VI. The Twentieth Century. All but the first volume of the _History_ +deal with the epoch during which civilization has played a fateful role +in world affairs. + +Professor Arnold J. Toynbee's ten volume _Study of History_ is concerned +chiefly with the rise and decline of those civilizations which have left +a noteworthy historical record. His emphasis is geographical and +political rather than cultural and social. The same thing may be said of +other histories of civilization. They stress personalities, nations and +empires. + +There are few books which approach the study of civilization as a stage +or level of human culture. Among them are: + + Abbott, Wilbur C, _The Expansion of Europe_, N.Y.: Holt, 1918. + 2 vols. + + Adams, Brooks, _The Law of Civilization and Decay_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1943. + + Adams, Brooks, _The New Empire_, N.Y.: MacMillian, 1902. + + Adams, George B., _Civilization During the Middle Ages_, N.Y.: + Scribners, 1914. + + Albanes, Ricardo C, _La Civilizacion y el Communismo Marxista_, + Habana: Cultural S.A., 1937. + + Ashley, Percy W., _Europe from Waterloo to Sarajero_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1926. + + Baikie, James, _The Life of the Ancient East_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1923. + + Ballester Escalas, Rafael, _Historia de la Civilizaciones_, + Barcelona: Gasso, 1961. + + Balmes, Jaime Luciano, _La Civilizacion_, Barcelona: Lopez Lansas, + 1922. + + Barnes, Harry E., _A Social History of the Western World_, N.Y.: + Appleton, 1921. + + ----, _A Survey of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: Crowall, 1947. + + Bell, Clive, _Civilization, an Essay_, London: Chatto and Windus, + 1928. + + Blackmar, Frank W., _History of Human Society_, N.Y.: Scribners, + 1926. + + Bornet-Perrier, Paul, _L'Unite Humaine_, Paris: Alcan, 1931. + + Bose, Pramatha, _Epochs of Civilization_, Calcutta: Newman, 1913. + + Breasted, James H., _A History of Egypt_, London: Hodder and + Stoughten, 1921. + + Brier, Royce, _Western World_, Garden City: Doubleday, 1946. + + Briere, Yves de la, _Grands Imperialismes Contemporaires_, Anvers: + Association des Licencees de St. Ignace, 1925. + + Brodeur, Arthur G., _The Pageant of Civilization_, N.Y.: + McBride, 1931. + + Brown, Lawrence R., _The Might of the West_, NY.: Obolensky, + 1963. + + Bruce, Maurice, _The Shaping of the Modern World 1870-1914_, + N.Y.: Random House, 1958. + + Brugmans, Hendrik, _Les Origines de la Civilization_, Liege: + Georges Thone, 1958. + + Bryce, James, _Holy Roman Empire_, London: MacMillan, 1903. + + Burns, Edward M., _Western Civilizations, Their History and + Their Culture_, N.Y.: Norton, 1968. 2 vols. + + Burns, Emile, _Imperialism_, London: Labor Research Department, + 1927. + + Callot, Emile, _Civilization et Civilizations_, Paris: Berger-Levrault, + 1954. + + Casson, Stanley, _Progress and Catastrophe_, London: Hamilton, + 1937. + + Chapot, Victor, _The Roman World_, London: Paul, 1928. + + Childe, V. Gordon, _New Light on the Most Ancient East_, London: + Kegan Paul, 1934. + + Clough, Shepard B., _Basic Values of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: + Columbia University Press, 1960. + + Clough, Shepard B., _Rise and Fall of Civilization_, N.Y.: Columbia + University Press, 1957. + + Crozier, John B., _Civilization and Progress_, London: Longmans, + 1892. + + Cunningham, William, _Western Civilization_, Cambridge: University + Press, 1900. + + Demangeon, Albert, _Le Declin de l'Europe_, Paris: Payot, 1920. + + Dorpsch, Alfons, _Economic and Social Foundations of Western + Civilization_, N.Y.: Harcourt, 1937. + + Douglas, Sholto O.G., _A Theory of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1914. + + Elias, Norbert, _Uber den Prozess der Zivilisation_, Basel: Falken, + 1939. + + Farrington, Benjamin, _Science and Politics in the Ancient World_, + London: Allen and Unwin, 1939. + + Fischer, Eric, _Passing of the European Age_, Cambridge: Harvard + University Press, 1943. + + Fleiweiling, Ralph T., _The Survival of Western Culture_, N.Y.: + Harper, 1943. + + Forrest, J.D., _Development of Western Civilization_, Chicago: + University of Chicago Press, 1907. + + Fougeres, Gustav and others, _Les Premiers Civilisations_, Paris: + Alcan, 1926. + + Frank, Tenney, _Economic History of Rome_, Baltimore: John + Hopkins Press, 1927. 2nd ed. + + Frank, Tenney, _Roman Imperialism_, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1914. + + Freud, Sigmund, _Civilization and its Discontents_, N.Y.: Norton, + 1961. + + Friedell, Egon, _A Culture History of the Modern World_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1930. + + Friedjung, Heinrich, _Das Zeitalter des Imperialismus_, Berlin: + Neufeld und Henius, 1914. 3 vols. + + Georg, Eugen, _The Adventure of Mankind_, N.Y.: Dutton, 1931. + + Glotz, Gustav, _Aegean Civilization_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1925. + + Goddard, Edward H. and Gibbons, P.A., _Civilization or Civilizations_, + London: Constable, 1926. + + Gollwitzer, Heinz, _Europe in the Age of Imperialism_, N.Y.: + Harcourt, Brace, 1969. + + Goshal, Kumar, _People in Colonies_, N.Y.: Sheridan House, 1948. + + Grigg, Edward W.M., _The Greatest Experiment in History_, + New Haven: Yale University Press, 1924. + + Guizot, F.P., _Histoire de la Civilisation en Europe_, N.Y.: Appleton, + 1938. + + Gupta, N.K., _The March of Civilization_, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo + Ashram, 1959. + + Haas, William, _What Is Civilization_, London: Oxford University + Press, 1929. + + Hankins, Frank H., _The Racial Basis of Civilization_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1926. + + Harris, George, _Civilization Considered as a Science_, London: + Bell and Daldy, 1872. + + Heard, Gerald, _The Source of Civilization_, London: Cape, 1935. + + Hertzler, G.O., _The Social Thought of the Ancient Civilizations_, + N.Y.: McGraw Hill, 1938. + + Hubbard, Arthur J., _The Fate of Empires_, London: Longmans, + 1913. + + Innes, Harold B., _Empire and Communication_, Oxford: Clarendon, + 1950. + + Louis, Paul, _Ancient Rome at Work_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1927. + + Lowie, Robert H., _Are We Civilized?_ N.Y.: Harcourt Brace, + 1929. + + Lubbock, John, _The Origin of Civilization_, London: Longmans, + 1875. + + McCabe, Joseph, _The Evolution of Civilization_, London: Watts, + 1921. + + Majewski, Erasme de, _La Theorie de l'Homme et de la Civilisation_, + Paris: Le Soudier, 1911. + + ------, _La Science de la Civilisation_, Paris: Alcan, 1908. + + Maritain, Jacques, _Twilight of Civilization_, N.Y.: Sheed and + Ward, 1943. + + Marshak, Alexander, _The Roots of Civilization_, N.Y.: McGraw + Hill, 1972. + + Marvin, F.S. ed., _The Unity of Western Civilization_, London: + Oxford University Press, 1929. + + Means, Philip A., _Ancient Civilizations of the Andes_, N.Y.: + Scribners, 1931. + + Moraze, Charles, _Essai sur la Civilisation d'Occident_, Paris: + Colin, 1950. + + Moret, A. and Davy, G., _From Tribe to Empire_, N.Y.: Knopf, + 1926. + + Morgan, L.H., _Ancient Society_, N.Y.: Holt, 1907. + + Morris, Charles, _Civilization: An Historical Review of Its Elements_, + Chicago: Griggs, 1890. + + Mumford, Lewis, _Technics and Civilization_, N.Y.: Harcourt + Brace, 1934. + + Pendell, Elmer, _The Next Civilization_, Dallas: Royal, 1970. + + Quigley, Carroll, _The Evolution of Civilizations_, N.Y.: + MacMillan, 1961. + + Randall, Henry J., _The Creative Centuries_, N.Y.: Longmans, 1944. + + Rod, Edouard, _L'Imperialisme_, Paris: Revue des Deux Mondes, 1907. + + Rostovtzeff, Mikhail I., _Economic and Social History of the + Roman Empire_, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926. + + Schneider, Hermann, _The History of World Civilization_, N.Y.: + Harcourt Brace, 1932. 2 vols. + + Schumpter, Joseph, _Zur Soziologiedes Imperialismus_, Tubingen: + Mohr, 1919. + + Schrecker, Paul, _Work and History_, Princeton: + University of Princeton Press, 1948. + + Schweitzer, Albert, _The Philosophy of Civilization_, N.Y.: + MacMillan, 1949. + + Seignobos, Charles, _The Rise of European Civilization_, N.Y.: + Knopf, 1938. + + Sellery, George C., _The Founding of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: + Harper, 1929. + + Spengler, Oswald, _Decline of the West_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1928. + + Swain, Edgar S., _A History of World Civilization_, N.Y.: + McGraw Hill, 1938. + + Toynbee, Arnold J., _A Study of History_, N.Y.: Oxford, 10 vols. + + UNESCO, _Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind_, N.Y.: + Harper and Row, 6 vols. + + Walker, C.C., _The Biology of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1930. + + Walsh, Correa Moylan, _The Climax of Civilization_, N.Y.: + Sturgis, 1917. + + Wells, H.G., _The Salvaging of Civilization_, N.Y.: MacMillan, + 1922. + + Widney, Joseph, _Civilizations, their Diseases and Rebuilding_, + Los Angeles: Pacific Publishing Co., 1937. + + Zimmern, Alfred E., _Greek Commonwealth_, Oxford, Clarendon + Press, 1911. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Civilization and Beyond, by Scott Nearing + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CIVILIZATION AND BEYOND *** + +***** This file should be named 12320.txt or 12320.zip ***** +This and all 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