Civilization and Beyond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 282 pages of information about Civilization and Beyond.

Civilization and Beyond eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 282 pages of information about Civilization and Beyond.

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.

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Civilization and Beyond from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.