Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century. - Lewis Mumford

The cycle of conquest, extermination, and revenge is the chronic condition of all 'civilized' states, and as Plato observed, war is their 'natural' condition. Here, as was so often to happen later, the invention of the megamachine, as the perfected instrument of royal power, produced the new purposes that it was later supposed to serve. In this sense, the invention of the military machine made war 'necessary' and even desirable, just as the invention of the jet plane has made mass tourism 'necessary' and profitable.

Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends.

On any pure theory of causality or statistical probability, organization would be completely improbable without the external aid of a divine organizer.