Sociologically speaking this is the antithesis
of the situation we have been considering: expansion and exploitation in
the interests and for the purposes of the expanding forces. So long as
expansion and exploitation are accepted and practiced as the basic
principles of any community, so long independence and self-determination
will be irrelevant and inimical to the dominant elements in the nation,
empire or civilization under consideration.
Under the "you work--I eat" formula natural resources will be utilized
in the manner best calculated to advance the interests of the ruling
oligarchy. Who will be the judge, jury and executioner in the case? Who
else but the concerned ruling oligarchy?
In the history of civilization this principle has been followed
systematically. The forests have been cleared away, the land has been
overgrazed, cultivated and exposed to the erosive attacks of sunlight,
air, water and frost. Wood from the forests has been hauled to the
cities and burned, has been used to construct palaces and temples,
houses and ships, with no recognition of the principles of priority or
renewal. If wood was available where must it go? The oligarchy decided
the issue in terms of ostentation and expediency. Rarely during recorded
human history have there been oligarchs who said: "Irreplaceable
resources like minerals must be used with extreme economy. Replaceable
resources like forests or top-soil must be used and at the same time
replaced and if possible augmented.
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