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THE CIYILISATION PHENOMENON

**Have we got to get down and elear away the debris of a swamped civilisation and start a new world of man?”

D. H. Lawrence

The theoretical logie to support the concept of an explosive geńesis, prog-ression and life cycle for ciwilisation emerged in chapter 3 as a conseguence of the suggestion that a ciwilisation is a refined human culture, operating at an adwanced level. While being morę sophisticated in its functioning and structure it wili, nonetheless share many basie features with morę prosaic lower levełs of indigenous cultures. Attributes common to both include the ability to arise and prosper at any time, or Ln any global location, and the existence of a classic curwe, which may take one of three typical trajector-ies; ciwilisations can abort prematurely, adapt successfully or moue through a fuli cycle of birth, maturity, decline and collapse.

Superficially, the awesome imagery of a nuclear Chain reaction generating a dramatlcally sudden explosive climax in the presence of a critical mass of suitable fissionable materiał seems a bizarre analogy. Yet the similarities, on closer examination, are sufficiently strong to impły a uniwersał principle is operating. Both are examples of an autocatalytic reaction, the ratę of which is inereased by its own produets.¹ Such reactions proceed through the operation of positiwe feedback mechanisms. They accelerate until either the ingredients are exhausted or some external constraint is imposed.² With the nuclear reaction, free neutrons are produced by the splitting of an unstable heawy atom, like uranium. These may then go on to cause the further splitting of other atoms, so the atoms themselwes act as autocatalytic produets driwing the process along. They create the self-sustaining aspect of chain reactions, as each collision generates the energy to enable others to follow. ³

In culture, people actiwatę the messages that circulate around the system; but every action can generate a responding reaction, although its timing may vary from ultra-fast to extremely slow. These action/reaction messages become the autocatalytic produets of the culture process, fed by positiwe feedback to create extensive Chain reactions, where each triggers the next in ongoing sequences. When these chains are circulating in a balanced interaction across all fiue culture subsystems the system may throb with an almost perceptible inwigoration. In the absence of major disruptive impacts, a critical culture mass can arise, to erupt as a ciwilisation genesis; and this can take place within one generation of perhaps thirty to forty years. The outline sketch of political history in the Near East and Europę, (see chapter 1) charts the rise of dazzling ciwilisations and their imitators, each a unique wariant of a uniwersał theme. Many progressed through the fuli cycle of birth, growth, ascendancy, and decline, while some faced actual extinction. Despite the diwersity in periods or locations, this was the ultimate fale of most major ancient Eurasian ciwilisations, (although China's history suggests it was an exception)^ A similar course charted the history of the later ciwilisations that arose independently in the New World. Chapter 4 discussed the repeatmg life cycles of the main leading sectors thought to hawe been the engine of