At the
beginning of this epoch man walked the earth literally, except when he
sailed on the water or used the horse or some other swift animal to
travel by land. In the course of the great revolution mankind has
learned to move his body at speeds which sometimes exceed the movement
of sound, on the land, on the water, through the air and into space. He
has done this short-cutting by revolutionary changes in types of energy
coming from outside his physical body. In another sphere--communication
devices--man has stepped up the movement of his emotions and thoughts
and his creative imagination beyond the speed of light.
This analogy is not complete, nor is it wholly convincing. But the great
revolution in science and technology, applied in the field of social
science can quite conceivably provide humanity with the means of
short-cutting the normal or "natural" processes in sociology as it has
already short-cutted the normal or "natural" process in human
transportation and communication.
As long as human beings accept the normal, traditional, "natural"
principles of association and group action, humanity will continue on
the tread-mill of civilization with its long established cycles of
beginning, expansion, exploitation, maturity, conflict, decline and
extermination.
This aspect of planetary sociology may be illustrated by the rise and
decline of total membership in the human family.
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