point at which the costs
of further expansion are greater than the income derived from further
extension of its authority. Up to this point expansion had paid its own
way. Beyond this point it is a losing proposition--politically,
economically, sociologically. At this point begin times of troubles; bad
harvests; colonial or provincial revolts; power struggles between
individuals or classes in the homeland; new rivals moving in to share in
the prospective plunder of the mother-city.

From this time of troubles the civilization enters a new phase of its
lifecycle. Up to this point victory has brought plunder and prosperity
which have financed new foreign adventures and led to new victories.
Beyond this point lies stalemate, economic stagnation, military defeat.
Building an empire and establishing it as the central force in a
civilization is a long and arduous process. Once the process is
reversed, the decline may move quickly or slowly, but as it proceeds the
civilization is fragmented and eventually dissolved or taken over by a
more vigorous rival.

At all stages of this cycle there have been life and death survival
struggles. Peoples, nations and empires entered the contest, played
their parts, made their contribution to the up-building process. There
were ups and downs, advances and withdrawals, victories and defeats.
There were many contenders for survival and supremacy. Usually there was
one survivor which gave its name to the civilization.

The period of ascendancy of any civilization has been historically
brief. The struggle to the summit was long and exhausting; the descent
from the summit more rapid than the ascent. Literally, like the bear
that went over the mountain to see what he could find, and who found the
other side of the mountain, the civilizations that have reached the
summit of wealth and power have found on the other side of the summit a
steep downward sloping time of troubles that ended in dissolution and
liquidation.

Civilization, as a sociological life pattern, has proved to be seductive
and alluring in prospect, but in retrospect unsatisfactory and
frustrating. Civilization has proved to be not an opportunity for the
ambitious, but a trap for the ignorant, inexperienced and unwary. For
the many contestants who set out to conquer the world the experience
has been disappointing and on the whole disastrous. For the few who have
reached the summit the experience has been frustrating.

Civilizat