In the Middle Ages the king offered protection to his subjects in return for their loyalty, and the subjects were doubly protected, for the church also sheltered them. The need for shelter - for a father image that cares and will hopefully provide and give some meaning to human lives - remains as real as it was in the Middle Ages, but modern technocracy has no place for either the father or the church and provides no substitute.

Fragmentation occurs when a civilization is in decline.

It is no more rational to have lawyers in positions of power than it would be to have garbage collectors in positions of power. And in human terms garbage collectors would be preferable.

The second corruption of the state is oligarchy (oligos = few), in which the military elite is narrowed down to a few ruling families of immense wealth and prestige, who now openly flaunt their wealth and possessions.

Nietzsche's accomplishment is that he permits us to see corruption from the inside.

The United States is dangerously close to being a plutocracy. A third of the private wealth is owned by less than 5 percent of the population.

It is almost a general rule that nations do not decline gradually. Instead they fall abruptly from their greatest heights.