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