ies; 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 o