The Essentials of a Civilization

A society-organism is a compound soul made up of a collection of waves which are represented by the soul-wave of every citizen.

The citizens that do not match the overall wave naturally leaves or wants to leave, or forms a mini-society with others of similar waves.

A society that is very harmonious allows concerted action whether as an army, research group, economic group, or cultural group.

At that point, it develops its own notable identity which is called a civilization.

• A society can become a state.
• A state can become a civilization.

A society only needs mutual agreement based on common interest.

A state needs to have that common interest codified into laws.

A civilization needs much more than laws. Here, we give 5 requirements derived from Indian philosopher PR Sarkar:

1. A Clear Ideology

A civilziation needs to have a clear ideology in order to harmonize its individual waves.

When we hear notable music, we can clearly classify its genre as rock, rap, pop, classical, etc.

Likewise, a civilization needs to have its own ideology to define its wave. This will then let its citizens match or mold themselves to that wave instead of contributing to messy or discordant music.

This harmony of waves was explained by Ibn-Khaldun as group feeling:

For example:

• pre-Han civlizations (as Warring States) were based on Taoism, while the current Han civlization is based on Confucianism or the ideology of Confucius.
• The Arabs became a civilization when they adopted the ideology of Prophet Mohammad. This made them into the Arab-Muslim civilization.

2. Cultural Practices

The ideology must have physical manifestation. This manifests as culture.

For example:

• the Confucian Chinese have rigid rituals and hierarchies as the expression of their Confucian ideology
• the Arabs have Islamic culture, most notably as architecture, food, and Shariah, to express the ideology of Prophet Mohammad

3. Socio-economic Theory

An ideology will only be adopted if it leads to physical well being.

And so socio-economics has to be part of that ideology.

• Confucianism has political and taxation systems, as well as resource allocation
• Islam has Islamic banking, taxation, and welfare systems

4. The transmission of its ideology

The ideology has to be written or orally transmitted from person to person and from one generation to another.

• The Aryans transmitted their ideologies (as beliefs and laws) orally, leading to the Aryan civilization.
• The Chinese have the works of Confucius
• The Arabs have the Quran
• The Romans have the 12 Tables

5. A leader to craft or carry its ideology

A leader is required to guide or to make the citizens match the ideology.

This is like a conductor of an orchestra to harmonize all the instruments to match the flow of the musical piece.

Notable leaders are:

• Alexander the Great of the Greeks, spreading Aristotle’s ideology
• Marcus Aurelius of the Romans, spreading Stoical ideology
• The Ming emperor, spreading Confucian ideology through its treasure fleet
• Spanish conquistadros under the rule of Philip II, spreading Catholic ideology
• Hitler of the Nazis, spreading Nazi ideology throughout Europe trying to establish a Third Reich civilization

Note that Genghis Khan, Attila the Hum are leaders, but are not from a civilization.

The Collapse of Civilizations

Civilizations collapse when these ingredients are lacking.

• Roman civilization collapsed when they switched their pagan ideology for the Catholic
• Persian civilization collapsed when Zoroaster’s ideology was replaced by Islam, with more complete ingredients
• Asian and African civilizations collapsed during European colonization because of the better leadership and economics (productivity and resource allocation) of the Europeans
• China’s civilization was signficantly reduced when Confucianism was overshadowed by the Mercantile ideology of the British and the Marxist Ideology of the Communists.