Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.

When we are reflecting on terrorism we can grieve for many things we do and have done.

It seems true that the growth of science and secularism made organized Christianity feel under threat.

Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.

Any great organization can go through sectarian phases.

Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination.

An escalating, violent tit-for-tat may lead to terrorism.

Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.

I am sure it must be true that people opt out of the mainstream society because they feel that there are going to be no rewards for them, if they stay.

Every year the progress of advanced capitalist society makes our population consist of more and more isolates. This is because of the infrastructure of the economy, especially electronic communications.

What did our nation ever do to provoke these madly vicious enemies? What is seen as injustice in one place is seen as just requital in the other.

I have increasingly, over the years, felt that religion today does our civilization more harm than good.

If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny.

The theory of cultural bias... is the idea that a culture is based on a particular form of organization. It can't be transplanted except to another variant of that organization.

I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too.

Enclave life becomes very tense, Even when they do elect a leader, the factions remain, with the threat of splitting off.

Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.

The natural response of the old-timers is to build a strong moral wall against the outside. This is where the world starts to be painted in black and white, saints inside, and sinners outside the wall.

The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting.

Just in our lifetime our society has become looser and more private, it becomes extremely difficult to hold to any permanent commitment whatever, least of all to organized religion.

Our technological infrastructure alienates us from each other. No need to form a workplace community, everybody there will be out in a year or two, and so will you, looking for a better place.

Religion can make it worse. Are you supposing that if people were encouraged to believe in a transcendent reality, and to be encouraged by grand rituals and music and preaching, to love their neighbors, then they would put jealousy and frustration aside?

Inside a religious body you get sects and hierarchies, inside an information network you get bazaars and cathedrals, it is the same, call them what you like. They survive by pointing the finger of blame at each other.

Some scholars have been arguing that a civilizational clash between organized religions is the next step in human history.

Islam is in principle egalitarian, and has always had problems with power.

Yes, disappointment over perceived unfairness, injustice, promises not kept, tends to go hand in hand with increasing prosperity. Expectations are dashed. What can I say!

It's unlikely that the organized religions will get more sectarian... or is it? I am not at all sure.

Real equality is immensely difficult to achieve, it needs continual revision and monitoring of distributions. And it does not provide buffers between members, so they are continually colliding or frustrating each other.

Since 1970, relationships can be more volatile, jobs more ephemeral, geographical mobility more intensified, stability of marriage weaker.

Behind a leader there must be followers, but they should always be on the lookout for the main chance and ready to change sides if the current leader doesn't deliver.

Mormons... are so strong, they can handle wealth, they are confident. I think it is because they are not bogged down by rules for equality, but have a firmly defined system of relative status and responsible command.

It is only partly true that religion does more harm than good in society. The community makes God into the image it wants, vengeful, or milky sweet, or scrupulously just, and so on.

If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.

Without that assured American largesse Israel would have been obliged to come to an accommodation with her neighbours.

It is very reasonable to worry about the harm done by organized religion, and to prefer looser and more private arrangements.

The theory of cultural bias is the idea that a culture is based on a particular form of organization. It cant be transplanted except to another variant of that organization.

If you want to change the culture you will have to start by changing the organization.

Where there is dirt there is system. Dirt is the byproduct of a systematic ordering and classification of matter.

What we've proven is that you can protect the environment, use it wisely and grow the economy and that there is no conflict between the two.

I think the human body is beautiful, and I don't really have a huge problem in dealing with it, but it's the context, the environment and what I feel about it that that makes the difference for me.

Organized Christianity has always represented immortality as a sort of common heritage; but I never could see why spiritual life should not be conditioned on the same terms as all life, i. e., correspondence with environment.

If you're going to be at a job environment, you should love it. You shouldn't do it just for money. You should do it because you love it. And the money comes naturally.

When on the set of a film, you have to play natural for entire scenes in a very unnatural environment. You have to express emotions and interact with other actors and also use your voice.

An organization's reason for being, like that of any organism, is to help the parts that are in relationship to each other, to be able to deal with change in the environment.

The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there's a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants.

In fact, because of their connection to the land, farmers do more to protect and preserve our environment than almost anyone else. They are some of the best environmentalists around.

We don't have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.

You get elected, often, if you're a woman, on the strength of the women's vote; then you get into office, and you have to adapt to an overwhelmingly male environment.

But the idea of a man making his living by writing seemed, in that hardy environment, so fantastic that even today I am sometimes myself assailed by a feeling of unreality.