Civilisation – Sumilisation

Mahatma Gandhi was reputed to have said this in response to:

Mr. Gandhi, what do you think about Western civilization?
Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

While a great ‘putdown’ of Western notions of what civilisation might be, I think ‘civilisation’ generally is a bad idea. So is civilization.

Civilisation: Noun. The social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization. Civil: [C14: from Old French, from Latin cīvīlis, from cīvis citizen].

Sumilisation: Noun. The social process where societies/cultures achieve a stage of development that is compatible/harmonious with the symbiotically generated productive capacity of natural and technological life systems at all scales. [Greek sumbiōsis, companionship, from sumbioun, to live together, from sumbios, living together : sun-, syn- + bios, life;].

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