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.

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.

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Civilization and Beyond from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.