Abstract

Civilization is never finished and always endangered. It is endangered, for the maintenance of civilized standards of behavior depends on certain conditions such as a relatively stable level of individual self-discipline. This in turn is linked to specific social structures. The supplying of goods, the preservation of the accustomed standard of living are among them, and especially social pacification, i.e., the non-violent settling of conflicts within the state. But the internal pacification of society is always endangered by social and personal conflicts which are among the normal phenomena of social life — precisely the conflicts which the pacifying institutions serve to settle.