Bell Curve of Civilizations

Like human life go through three stages of bell curve: childhood, youth and aging, a nation history goes through these stages too. A nation starts its history very weak like a child, then becomes strong, and then goes back to be weak again.

In the following pages, we will use the terms “childhood, youth and aging” to distinguish between three civilizational stages in nations' history, not ages stages in people's lives. The first one (childhood) is pre-civilization, the second one (youth) is the civilization, and the last one (aging) is post-civilization.

In the childhood stage, people live a natural life, with no rule. They do not have the sense of belonging. Each one of them has an individual interest, to find the materials that feed his natural needs, such as foods, drinks, clothes, shelter and sex. They might kill each other for these materials. They focus only on their present minute. Because they are Illiterates, they cannot learn from their past, and because they are closed mind, they cannot look at their future.

They live in this way until some man inspires them with an idea. This idea could be religious (such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam), national (Such as Nazi, Zionism and Arabism), political (such as Autocracy, Democracy and Anarchy) or economical idea (such as Capitalism, Socialism and Communism).

The idea
Religious	Nationalism	Political	Economic
Judaism Christianity Islam	Zionism Nazi Arabism	Autocracy Democracy Anarchy	Capitalism Socialism Communism

This idea would unite the people around it, so they would start to feel the sense of belonging, and to see their community interests. This idea would enrich their material and natural life. It would make them creative technologically, and looking at their future to face the challenges they have. They would apply science practically in their life to meet the needs of their societies in special circumstances, and to supplement what he lacks of power and abilities. But when they would look at their past their belief in this idea would get strengthen.

They would work very hard to reach the top point of their youth stage; even they could kill those who try to stop their progress and rise. So when they would reach it they would feel that they have to rest. They need to enjoy their minute, and they deserve to celebrate. They would start to spoil their children, so next generation would be weaker and seeking for luxury and consuming. Their bell curve would start to go down, generation by generation, to decline and collapse.

In the aging stage, their life would stagnate, immobilize and be full of rules and have no nature. They would care about the manifestations of their idea more than the idea itself.  For example, they would care about the rules of their election and parliament but they would not care if they really have democracy or not. They would care about their religious clothes and Places of worship more than the principles and values of their religion.They would care about their Communist party more than justice and equality. Their idea would be more important than its respective owners, so they would have any problem if all the believers of their idea die for their idea to live! Accusations, recriminations, suspicions, mistrust, religious excommunications and political and sectarian propaganda would be very common; because they would judge and accuse each other by treason, infidelity, unbelief or unloyalty to their idea. They would look all the time at their past, and feel nostalgic. They would kill in the name of their idea, which explains why some people kill in the name of their God, and some nation kill in the name of Democracy!

Both childhood and aging stages are dark ages. People’s goal in these stages is just their survival, because when they look at themselves they feel low self-esteem; because they are dependent even though they are afraid of other cultures.

Unlike childhood and aging stages, the youth stage is golden age. People’s goal in this stage is to be better. When they look at themselves they feel self-confidence, because even though they are independent, they still learn from others and teach them.

Of course, some of these stages last longer than others in different nations. Also, the top point of some nation’s youth stage could be higher than other nation’s youth stage.

	Childhood	Youth	Aging
	Dark ages	Golden ages	Dark ages
Goal	Survival	growing and development	Survival
they look to themselves	low self-esteem	self-confidence	low self-esteem
they look to others	Dependent even they are afraid of other cultures	Independent  but they learn from others and teach them	Dependent even they are afraid of other cultures
Their life	Material life, Nature life and no rule	An idea enriches the material life	Life is full of rules and no nature. They care about manifestations of the idea more than the idea itself
Their thought	Closed minded	Create, Technology	Stagnation and immobility
They look at	Present	Future	Past
When they look at the past	They find nothing.	Their faith get strengthen	They feel  nostalgic
Interest	Individual interest	Community interest	Accusations, recriminations, suspicions, mistrust, religious excommunications and political and sectarian propaganda
They kill	for the Material	Those Who try to stop their progress and rise	in the name of their idea