The Nomadic Alternative – Page 64

Commitment to the logical consequences of civilization demands

limitless faith in vertical progress. But this inevitably reaches the point of diminishing returns. There civilization falters and may collapse into putrefaction unless men are prepared to learn some lessons from their pre-civilized past. Civilizations rarely - if ever - fall prey to an invader, for decomposition is internal.

Ib'n Khaldun likened a decaying dynasty to a ripened fruit; once great powers are really on the wane, once they can no longer rouse their subjects to fight each other, how they adore each other!

Ripened fruit belong to the same jam-pot.

There comes a point when human individualism says NO. People

realize they have been tricked by false promises and fake explanations of human nature and the purpose of human existence. The government presses them to work harder to maintain a way of life that has become meaningless. Fewer and fewer pay more and more taxes, once the advantages of no fixed address become obvious.

Devotion to the machine is, in human terms, futile, as more people adopt a Taoist attitude to the future of material improvement.

"The more cunning craftsmen there are, the more monstrous inventions there will be, the more laws are promulgated, the more bandits will abound." The splendour of any one civilization rises in direct proportion to the amount of human misery it causes either at home or abroad.

And the sacrifices needed to keep the structure going are simply not worth the price paid in mental anguish. When those, who were once committed, lose faith, no amount of alarms, threats of invasion or starvation, calls to self-interest or artificially trumped-up wars can rouse or resurrect their will to believe. They are like