ion as a way of life is like any other contest. The struggle is
good for those who are able to benefit from it by learning its lessons.
Whether they win or lose is a matter of no great consequence. For the
losers the experience often is heart breaking and death-dealing.

Students of social history have been tempted to draw a parallel between
the biological life cycle of an individual and the sociological
lifecycle of a civilization. There are elements of likeness between
biological birth, growth, maturity, old age and death of human
individuals and of human civilizations. All of the individuals and
civilizations that we know have passed or are passing through such a
lifecycle. The same thing may be true of the larger universe of which we
are a minute fragment. However exact or inexact it may prove to be, the
parallel certainly is unmistakable, alluring. It may also be seductive
and mortal.

CHAPTER NINE

IDEOLOGIES OF CIVILIZATION

This study was laid out along inductive lines: an examination of the
facts with such generalizations as the facts suggest or justify. We
began our social analysis of civilization by presenting noteworthy facts
concerning the politics, economics, and sociology of various
civilizations. In the present chapter we deal with their ideologies.

We are accepting and following the fourth variant definition of
"ideology" presented by Webster's New World Dictionary: "The doctrines,
opinions or way of thinking of an individual, class, etc." In this case
we are reporting on the doctrines, opinions, thought forms and action
patterns of entire civilizations.

Our concern is not with the doctrines, opinions and ways of thinking and
acting advanced by elite minorities. Such an approach would involve a
study of comparative ideologies. Rather we are asking what civilized
peoples were trying to do, as measured by their political, economic and
sociological activities, programs and purposes.

It may be presumptuous for an individual to generalize about
civilizations of which he knows so little. On the other hand, if we
recognize the limitations under which all assumptions and
generalizations operate it is possible and often helpful to assume and
generalize, although the generalizations may be no more than interim
reports, subject to later amendment, correction or rejection.

What were the prevailing ideas of civilizations and what ideas were put
into practice? What purposes dominated and directed