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.
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