Man creates institutions

to satisfy his social needs in accordance with his philoso-

phy. Individuals join these institutions and make their

personal interests fuse with those of the institutions, on

whose wealth and power their own prospects depend.

What follows is that very soon these institutions begin to

serve their own interests rather than social needs. As time

goes by the social needs and philosophy change, but the

institutions don't; they remain fighting for their own inter-

ests until they are swept away by revolution, often at the

price of much suffering, bloodshed and devastation. Man

grows by virtue of these upheavals; he becomes, then,

like a snake, bursting his skin periodically.

The emergence of modern science has greatly speeded

up these changes. Most of our social institutions now serve

mainly their own interests while pretending to serve the

purpose for which they were created. This holds equally

for armies, churches or governments and means that we

are living in a hypocritical world, one of false pretenses,

one which is now being rejected wholesale by our youth.

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi