Monkeys and termites

The 14^th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun had this interesting explanation for the rise and fall of dynasties and empires. The high density of population in large urban centres is only possible if violence is repressed by law, morality and habit. Citizens must have recourse to it as little as possible. But this necessary passivity makes them vulnerable to aggressions. So mercenaries are hired to maintain order and protect the frontiers. They come from the periphery of the city’s dominions where primitive customs persist. After a while, the mercenaries evict the feeble rulers and form a new government. It will in turn be softened by city life and overturned.

Ibn Khaldun found matter to support his idea in antiquity and in his own century. In Rome, Cordoba, Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, regime change had often been decided by foreign mercenaries such as the Praetorian Guard and the Mamelukes, and by invading Hun, German, Berber or Mongol tribes. What this shows is the inherent fragility of urban civilisation, and its fundamental contradictions where the abhorrence of violence coexists with its constant perpetration. “Humans”, said the sage, “are bands of monkeys trying to live like termites”. Predatory violence is not adapted to concentrated homogeneity, so constraint is the only option. And the constrainers periodically change from serving society to ordering it.