Inadequate national empathy for external hardship

The organization of the state involves mainly the satisfaction of the interests of the ruling groups. External calamity or hardship is not often operative as an effective basis for domestic sacrifice. Substantially, empathy normally ceases at the territorial boundaries even to the limited degree that it extends to diverse groups within the national domain. As a result there is no realistic hope that equalizing pressures can be generated within the nationalistic framework of global relationships, and without such pressures there is no prospect for a peaceful transition toward ecological equilibrium. Even the role of foreign aid as a form of world philanthropy is very suspect, partly because it involves nominal help and partly because it involves characteristic nationalistic pressure to use national wealth to project influence in foreign societies.