The outlays
necessary to finance such a top-heavy bureaucratic fabric grow in direct
proportion to the age and rigidity of the bureaucracy, draining off
public funds into private coffers and adding uncompensated elements to
overhead costs. If inflation is a problem, at or beyond the apex of an
imperial epoch or cycle of civilization, financial costs rise
correspondingly.
The chief overhead cost in every civilization is and has been war.
Examine the budget of the United States or any other leading civilized
power. From two-thirds to three-quarters of central government outlays
are for war in the past and preparation for war in the future.
The net result of rising overhead costs appears in the history of all
previous civilizations. They are eating out the vitals of western
civilization while we write and read these words.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE SOCIOLOGY OF CIVILIZATION
Sociology is the science and art of association.
Human associations range from kinship groups like the family, tribe and
clan to larger more complex groups like villages, towns, cities,
nations, empires, to still more inclusive leagues, federations and
civilizations.
In a broad view, sociology includes politics, economics and ideology.
For the purposes of our social analysis, we have divided the field into
four separate categories, beginning with politics, continuing through
economics and drawing our study together under the general headings of
sociology and ideology.
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