Decay
He argues that the breakdown of civilizations is not caused by loss of control over the physical environment, over the human environment, or by attacks from outside. Rather, it comes from the deterioration of the "Creative Minority," which eventually ceases to be creative and degenerates into merely a "Dominant Minority" (who forces the majority to obey without meriting obedience). He argues that creative minorities deteriorate due to a worship of their "former self," by which they become prideful, and fail to adequately address the next challenge they face.
Read more about this topic: A Study Of History
Famous quotes containing the word decay:
“The constant abrasion and decay of our lives makes the soil of our future growth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It has taken me nearly twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public; and I am not sure that I am not still regarded as a suspicious character in some quarters.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is the intermixing of different genres.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)