Churchill on Alliances: Cultural Evolution

From Franklin and Winston at page 119:

"I think of it in this way," Churchill had written of the idea of alliance in Savrola. "When the human race was emerging from the darkness of its origin and half-animal, half-human creatures trod the earth, there was no idea of justice, honesty, or virtue, only the motive power which we may call the ‘will to live.’

Then perhaps it was a minor peculiarity of some of these early ancestors of man to combine in twos and threes for their mutual protection. The first alliance was made; the combinations prospered where the isolated individuals failed. . . .

Thus man became a social animal. Gradually the little societies became larger ones. From families to tribes, and from tribes to nations the species advanced, always finding that the better they combined, the better they succeeded.

Now on what did this system of alliance depend? It depending on the members keeping faith with each other, on the practice of honesty, justice, and the rest of the virtues. Only those beings in whom such faculties were present were able to combine, and thus only the relatively honest men were preserved.

The process repeated itself countless times during untold ages. At every step the race advanced, and at every step the realisation of the cause increased."

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