What was it that Will Durant had to say about civilizations?
The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within.We've allowed the barbarians within to proliferate and poison the well of freedom. There's a butchers bill due for that, payble in blood.
--Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage (page 459) - 1935
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A good comment form Durant. I’ve heard this same thing from others though not as elegant as that from Durant.
They are the grasshoppers begging us ants for food. We know how that “fable” turned out.