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Nearing, Scott, 1883-1983

"Civilization and Beyond Learning from History"

Productivity, wealth,
prosperity filled their honey pot to overflowing.
Honey pots provide the "good things" of life for their owners. They also
tempt outsiders. Honey-pot owners fear pilfering by their servants; fear
sponging by their relatives, friends, neighbors; fear robbers and
kidnappers; fear migrating hordes on the lookout for plunder. Defense is
a necessary aspect of each rich household, neighborhood, city, nation,
empire, civilization.
The sequence from productivity, through prosperity, wealth accumulation,
abundance and the measures needed to defend and safeguard the
accumulations, leads to an affluent community or society. It also calls
into being new and distinctive class forces.
I. The business class (hucksters and profiteers), a self-seeking,
aggressive group of adventurers, promoters and
organizers of bourgeois society to whom _profit_ comes
first. At one or another stage in the life cycle of every
civilization aggressive bourgeois greed for wealth and
power makes itself felt. Their role in western civilization
has been outstanding. The business class through
its control of the productive apparatus and the sources
of credit has been able to surround itself with subordinates,
scientists and other experts, apologists, strong-arm
squads (police and military), spies and assassins.
II. A middle class, made up of business class subordinates
plus self employed tradesmen, professionals, independent
farmers and craftsmen.


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