The saddest aspect of life now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. - Isaac Asimov

We can see, now, that the social background of the Empire makes wars of conquest impossible for it. Under weak Emperors, it is torn apart by generals competing for a worthless and surely death-bringing throne. Under strong Emperors, the Empire is frozen into a paralytic rigor in which disintegration apparently ceases for the moment, but only at the sacrifice of all possible growth.

Modern theoretical mathematicians frown at this and make haughty remarks such as "But you are making the unwarranted assumption that the line is the same length when it is straight as when it was curved." I imagine the honest workman organizing the construction of the local temple, face with such an objection, would have solved matters by throwing the objector into the River Nile.

Grip the nettle firmly and it will become a stick with which to beat your enemy.