Western civilization differs from its predecessors in one crucial
respect: it is planet-wide. Previous civilizations known to history have
been limited by oceans, deserts and other geographical barriers. The
revolution in communication and transportation has by-passed geographic
barriers.
The French saying "the more things change the more they remain the same"
finds ample justification in the story of western civilization and its
predecessors. In one instance after another, for at least six thousand
years, civilizations have been built up to summits of wealth and power.
Then, on the downward sweep of the cycle, they have declined, decayed
and been dumped on the scrap heap of history. No two of these cycles
were exactly alike. Each cycle was a social experiment that followed a
well marked path. There were variations, innovations, deviations from
the norm, but institutions and practices were strikingly similar. In
this broad sense, and despite minor departures, the life patterns of
civilization have appeared, disappeared and reappeared with close
similarity in structure and function.
Western civilization has had a life cycle of approximately a thousand
years. During that millennium it has undergone many changes--political,
economic, sociological, ideological. Throughout these changes its basic
characteristics have remained; have appeared and reappeared. In the
1970's western civilization retains the essential features which justify
us in describing it as a civilization.
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