the lives of
civilized peoples? How successful have civilized peoples been in
achieving their objectives?

At the outset we must realize that in any complex society there are wide
ranges of ideology, from the body of ideas held by small uninfluential
sects to the purposes, ideas, policy declarations and actions of
governing oligarchies. We do not wish to defend or attack the ideas, but
to summarize them and understand them in a way that will give a group
picture of the purposes, ideas, policies and day-to-day activities of
the civilizations in question. For convenience in our discussion we will
take up, first, civilized societies as collectives, and then the
operation of civilized ideology as expressed in the lives of
individuals.

Presumably the most immediate purpose of all civilized peoples has been
survival, getting on as a collective or group from day to day, through
summer and winter, under normal conditions, and/or in periods of stress
and emergency. If the group cannot survive it loses its identity,
breaking up into the self-determining parts of which it is composed.

Survival means continued existence as a group--in the face of disruption
from within or attack and invasion from without. The group which
survives continues to exist and to act as a group that maintains the
common defense and promotes the general welfare.

Each social group competing for survival has a sense of its own identity
and a belief in its capacity to survive. This ideology is strengthened
by the belief that the group has special qualities and is protected by
powerful entities that will guarantee its success in the survival
struggle. The group considers itself better qualified to survive than
neighbor groups. Such ideas, carried to their logical conclusion, make
the group in question superior to its neighbors in survival qualities
and a people chosen by its gods.

A superior people, chosen by its gods, is in a class by itself. Other
people, by comparison, are inferior. It is the destiny of the superior
people to take the lands of their inferior neighbors, and, whenever
opportunity offers, to defeat the neighbors in battle, capture them and
force them to do the bidding of the captors.

Cults of ideological superiority are widespread. Put into successful
practice by a victorious tribe, nation or empire, they develop into
cults of superiority which assert: "We, the victors, are stronger,
better people than our weaker neighbors." As one