Аннотация: To date, the reasons for the success of certain communities are determined, in essence, superficially. Therefore, in the present work, an attempt is made to penetrate the depths of this phenomenon, which is quite complex and ambiguous.
It must be assumed that information is at the basis of the development of any living being. If information is being presented as data on the state of material objects that consciousness is capable of recognizing when scanning the environment with the means at its disposal, then information, on the one hand, ensures, in particular, the very existence of a person, giving him knowledge of the environment through the senses and his brain, and on the other hand, he himself is a source of information about the environment, as he imagines it.
Information cannot be qualified as something intangible and independent, since information is data, selected and decoded by consciousness about objects from the vast environment surrounding consciousness in own carrier.
Its volume, quality and timeliness in combination with external conditions are primarily capable of significantly accelerating or slowing down the development of communities of living beings, making them successful for some time or leading to decline after a certain time, since the ability and desire to use information flows, in turn, in particular for human communities, are always affected by changing conditions of existence, the level of collectivist self-consciousness of the community as well as neighbors competing with this community, who may be able to use the available information sources with greater success, receiving corresponding benefits from this.
At first glance, it seems that the advantage in development is gained by large communities that are able to independently create significant and diverse flows of information in relatively favorable conditions. Indeed, such a community several thousand years ago was imperial China, whose population created a unique culture and technologies based on the use of irrigation structures.
The favorable climate, technically competent creation and use of irrigation systems for growing large volumes of rice, made it possible to relatively quickly unite the population in the region of the Yangtze and Huang He rivers and increase its numbers, creating the prerequisites for technical creativity.
To a large extent, for this reason, at the beginning of the first millennium AD in China, mills, pumps were invented, new technologies for agricultural production, silk manufacturing technology, and multi-tiered buildings appeared.
The numerous bureaucrats in China with a large volume of paperwork and the production of silk caused the invention of relatively cheap paper.
The fact is that during the silk production in China, after the thermal and mechanical processing of raw materials, a fiber layer remained on the mats, which after drying turned into a thin sheet suitable for writing.
This paper was very expensive because the raw materials were expensive. Therefore, there was a demand for less expensive fiber raw materials in order to reduce the cost of paper. In the year 105 AD the updated paper-making process was proposed by the official Tsai-Lun. Instead of expensive raw materials, he found similar cheap materials: he took mulberry fibers, old rags, hemp and wood ash. All this was shredded and mixed with water. The resulting mass was laid out on a wooden frame and a sieve. After draining the water, the mass was being dried in the sun and thoroughly smoothed with stones. It turned out high-quality and inexpensive sheets of paper. This technology, with minor changes, has survived to this day.
Frequent earthquakes contributed to the invention of the seismograph, and the proximity of the Pacific Ocean seas led, over time, sea travel enthusiasts to invent the compass.
It would seem that on such solid foundation, the Chinese community could have become the most successful several thousand years ago.
But this did not happen, despite the absence of competing neighbors due to its favorable geographical location, as well as the presence of the favorable climatic conditions. It can also be noted that at one time, C. L. Montesquieu has pointed to these factors as a source of social development, and J. J. Rousseau has believed that the driving force of the development of society, and therefore its success, is a significant population size.
Even the creativity of a certain stratum of the population did not contribute to the success of the Chinese community, which also refutes the idea of Gabriel Tarde having noted that the driving force behind the development of society is the creative mind in the form of rationalization of tools of work and life, including the inventive. The last Tard considers as an adaptation mechanism, without which it is difficult for a person to apply himself to changing environmental conditions. The new arises as a result of the activity of a few gifted individuals. Then the process of imitation begins. In particular, according to the Tarde, the assertion of the basic social institutions was due to the inability of ordinary people to invent, and they began to imitate the innovators.
If we turn to the rather obvious reasons for the chronic stagnation of China for several millennia, we can note that the development of the Chinese community was blocked by the use of forced labor and slavery, as well as the lack of competition among neighbors who were at a lower stage of social development, being capable only of raids, and subsequently, as a rule, assimilated by the Chinese. All this unjustifiably caused the emergence of the opinion among the Chinese that their Middle Empire is the center of the Universe and will always be so, preserving the established order.
In addition, a kind of analogue of religion in the form of Confucianism in China - a product of bureaucratization and strict hierarchy of the Chinese community, the source of which was following the traditions of management and organization of work of irrigation structures, has established the strict rules of behavior and hierarchy of social structures for more than 2.000 years, with its public ethics, political ideology, scientific traditions, unlike the rest of the world which was recognized by the Chinese, who were proud of their cultural, structural and social achievements, as the barbaric, in fact has cut off China from the rest of the world, that eventually has led Chine to stagnation.
Besides, the Confucian idea of retribution, referring only to descendants, and not affecting the otherworldly, immortality of the soul, being essentially a primitive way of thinking of the archaic type, naturally, could not contain the contradictoriness both Creation and a human consciousness. Therefore, the Chinese community was more inclined to respect the traditions, than to try to produce something new, that is, to create, which, if it manifested itself, did not receive development, just as the navigation did not develop because of the opinion of one of the emperors that only savages lived around and there was no point in paying attention to them. And all the ships were burned.
The Chinese community and now practically only copies any innovations, without asking the problems of obtaining fundamentally new knowledge and new technologies on their own.
This fact, as well as the large number of poor people in China, were appreciated by the US leadership several decades ago, which decided to transfer production of almost everything to China, financing this event. As a result, China, with a meticulous and thorough approach to any work of an obedient population, has now become the world's factory, but its recent success has not come from its own internal sources, but under the influence of purely external influence, and this success can be questioned, since the majority of the Chinese population is still in a state of poverty and isolation from culture.
The Chinese lack the ability to generate something new, the prop only on their own cultural traditions, and lack of criticality towards their commercial rather than creative nature is unlikely to allow them to become a world leader instead of the US, despite the apparent proximity of this.
The example of the Chinese community demonstrates that neither favorable geographical and natural conditions, nor a numerically significant population, nor excellent traditions of work organization, nor a clear division of labor meet the criteria for success.
For the last, as well as the size and density of the population, were mistakenly pointed out by E. Durkheim as the main driving force of the development of society, since he believed that, unlike simple communities, where people are connected by personal relationships, interests and traditions, in large community people increasingly rely on each other due to differences in their own specialization.
As for religion or its analogue - Confucianism, as the Chinese community shows, they can manifest themselves as one of the most significant obstacles to the success of the community's development, as a rule, with one exception, which will be mentioned below. contributing to its stagnation and isolation from other communities. The same failure in development due to archaic religious dogmas is also characteristic of India with its chronic stagnation and disunity of the population (Hinduism, caste, Buddhism, the claim to the place of the founder of world civilization and the center of world wisdom), and for countries whose population professes Islam with its Old Testament views on society with many senseless prohibitions.
Thus, the Chinese community with their Confucianism, Taoism, strict hierarchy of society, ant-like collectivism, preservation of ancient hieroglyphic writing, state isolation, opinion of their own exclusivity in the world, despite the above-mentioned favorable conditions for development and success, fell after some rise into chronic stagnation for several thousand years, which eventually led to the country becoming a colony of more developed countries. And even at the present time, China is not able to independently effectively take advantage of the decline of European and Anglo-Saxon civilizations, hoping for some external factors that can help it in this.
That is, we can state the insufficiency, both individually and in combination, of the action of the factors indicated above for the success of a community, which can only be conditions for success, but they do not decisively allow the absorption and generation of information flows useful for development and success.
What then contributes to the greatest extent to the use of information flows for the successful development of a community, both technologically and culturally?
History tells us the answer to this question very clearly.
We only need to abandon traditional views on the history of civilization, such as the one that it is driven by the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressors.
The oppressed and oppressors of a sort also exist in the rest of the living world, competing and devouring each other, but their struggle changes the rate of development of existing communities very weakly, if at all. That is, the accelerated development of the natural world occurs extremely slowly.
In the human communities, in the initial period of the emergence of civilization, a similar phenomenon occurs, and the main reason for it is that the oppressed need to be represented by someone. In other words, there must be opposition to the authorities. If there is none or it is weak, then nothing happens in this community or state, despite the constant dissatisfaction of the oppressed with their situation, as a result of which uprisings or riots regularly occur, but the situation as a whole does not change.
Sooner or later, the opposition to the authorities arises in a number of countries, but the opposition does not arise spontaneously, but in the case when, in addition to authoritarian rulers or cliques, there is an opportunity to express opinions that do not coincide with the opinion of the authorities, for which they do not execute, but which are at least sometimes taken into account. Then a more or less reasonable or even effective solution to the problems that arise can occur with a greater probability, including in relation to reforms that ease the pressure on the oppressed, which leads, strange as it may be for the oppressors, to an increase in the labor productivity, as happened, for example, with the emergence of feudal lords with the fall of the slave system, which allowed workers on the land to keep a significant part of the harvest for themselves, thereby improving their own situation, but not reducing the income of landowners. In the same way, under capitalism, the reduction of the working day with the introduction of mechanization of labor significantly increased its productivity and the income of entrepreneurs, but the wages of workers also became higher.
However, nothing happens by itself, and, indeed, the actual opposition is being formed with the appearance in society of not only relatively independent advisers to rulers and even parliaments, but with the growth of the number of sufficiently educated intellectuals who are able to offer certain ways of the removal of the human community from similarity of the pack of primates led by the alpha male, who must be obeyed unquestioningly.
The interaction of these informal oppositionists with those in power gradually leads to the emergence of laws and the implementation of reforms that promote the progress and facilitate the development of the industrial relations, the expansion of the population's coverage of education and health care, which in itself cannot but affect the growth of public welfare.
Consumption grows, culture embraces almost the entire population, and it also becomes familiar with new technologies. This creates a basis for an ever-increasing absorption of information flows and the development of new information, mainly due to creative individuals who, with their scientific discoveries and technical innovations, further accelerate the development of society.
All this quite convincingly points to the external causes of progress, but the source of such progress, which initially makes some communities successful, while others, if it is weakly expressed, remain passive or their temporary success is still on the verge of savagery and is in no way connected with cultural development, remains in vain.
Such source cannot but be that very dissatisfaction that manifests itself in the consciousness of every living being, which forces it to constantly seek something better than what is available.
That is, the consciousness of any living being constantly strives to make room for a new one, applying itself to changing conditions in order to avoid death.
Exactly to this forced aspiration for such kind of freedom corresponds to the state of dissatisfaction of consciousness in the living both with itself and with the surrounding, rooted in the consciousness of any living being unlike inanimate objects, and, in particular, being a stimulus for the conscious striving of consciousness through a person to the new, the unknown.
It turns out that without freeing up the space occupied by previous structures for the new, that is being created by consciousness in alive, consciousness cannot do without. And this suggests that dissatisfaction in alive as an active creation inevitably produces freedom, first in the minimal expression of the liberation from the unnecessary at each stage of development, and then in its manifestation by the living beings choosing one or another in its surrounding from the multitude, and in a person freedom is not being limited only to the choice from what is, but makes him strive for the new, the unknown as a result of the creative efforts of the joint activity of the natural consciousness of a person and his self-consciousness.
The fact is that in a person and its communities this property of dissatisfaction, which is a consequence of the activity of the living, is strengthened by the fact that it manifests itself not only in his natural consciousness, which he inherited from primates, but also in his awareness of own actions, which he direct both for own prosperity and for the knowledge of the world, that turns into new scientific and technical achievements for him and his communities, influencing both the expansion of well-being in terms of obtaining a wider range of pleasant sensations, and the awareness of their place in the world, above which there is nothing.
If some particular community does not itself create flows of information sufficient for its own development, or it does not fall into them, and also if it does not have a level of self-consciousness sufficient to provide at least certain categories of individuals with the opportunity to work for itself, then it is doomed to stagnation and subordination to more developed communities, which was demonstrated by the colonial system that existed more recently.
In particular, China, despite the remarkable organization of its community, its favorable geographical location near the ocean between two large rivers in a warm climate, its significant population and a certain creativity of individual parts of its population, was unable to become successful at that time, which is explained by the fact that slaves cannot be drawn into the rapid process of economic and cultural development, since the cheap slave labor characteristic of the Chinese community at that time did not require any fundamental changes in labor methods.
The presence of slaves in those days in almost all developed countries indicates an extremely low level of both the collectivist and individual highest consciousness, or self-consciousness, which does not recognize the equal rights of all people without exception. In other words, slave or semi-slave labor and the stagnation in technological development it provoked were merely a consequence of the low level of self-consciousness of the population of the most developed countries of that time, not to mention other countries and peoples.
China's power elite and its large bureaucracy were quite satisfied with the current state of affairs, there was no opposition to the government, and forced laborers, breaking out of their slave status during the uprisings, were not capable of more than replacing the overthrown power elite.
A slightly different situation developed in Western Europe in the second millennium AD.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, a feudal economic system gradually developed in Western Europe, replacing slave labor with more free labor for small producers, that is, to a certain extent for themselves, and not just for their masters.
A significant part of the population moved to the cities, freed from feudal dependence. They took up various crafts and artistic trades, which required certain knowledge to increase the efficiency of labor activity. Various schools and then universities began to open.
The emergence of educated people not only among the clergy served as the basis for the gradual development of culture, science and technology, which, in essence, was hindered by the attitudes of religion, whose ministers understood the harm to its Old Testament ideas of everything new.
As a result, an informal opposition began to form among a part of educated people, supporters of progress, dissatisfied with the established order.
Ultimately, the breakthrough of progressive ideas through the retrograde nature of the church occurred at the weakest point of those in power.
By the beginning of the 16th century, the feudal lords found a common language with the townspeople in their desire to abandon the extortions and omnipotence of the papacy, especially since the complete disintegration of the Catholic Church was evident, expressed in the sale of indulgences - a paid charter from the Pope on the remission of sins.
And here, very opportunely for the power elites of some Western European states, a German theologian was found who dared in 1517 to speak out not only against indulgences, but also in an address "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation" declared the fight against papal dominance to be the cause of the entire German people.
This theologian, Martin Luther, essentially, expressed the dissatisfaction of the leading part of society with the autocracy of the church fathers, thereby reflecting the fact of the growth of public self-consciousness to a level that would allow society to move to a greater degree of freedom for its members, and which would be difficult to oppose with anything else.
Luther rejected the juxtaposition between the worldly and the spiritual, stating that God's grace is being exercised also in worldly life on the professional endeavors, since God intends people to one or another type of activity, investing in them various talents and abilities, and the duty of a person to work diligently, fulfilling his calling.
As a result, there was a split of the Catholic Church with the formation of several areas of Protestantism.
The idea of Luther that the main vocation of man is diligent labor, has liberated Protestant public, who appeared, allowing it to take a different attitude not only to labor, but also to its fruits, especially new ones.
In all Protestant countries the prohibition on novelties of the technology and their use was removed.
Therefore, the reason for Reformation that took place in Europe was the progressiveness of Christianity, in which, unlike other religious directions, initially in the Christ's Mount Preaching was laid the contradiction between the existing beingness and the "world" other - the best.
Naturally, sooner or later the idea of a "right" joining this better "world" should have appeared through the improvement of the existing world through effective labor efforts and their fruits for the common good that God cannot fail to notice directly.
The result of this outwardly religious reformation was the removal of strict regulations and restrictions that hinder private initiative, scientific and technological progress, the recognition of labor not as a duty, but as a benefit, and the emergence of an independent and educated part of the population within a centralized and independent state.
However, it has so far gone unnoticed that these changes hid the action of dissatisfaction with the personal and collectivist self-consciousness of individual communities of Western Europe within the framework of different conditions of existence compared, for example, with the Chinese community, in which the growth of this dissatisfaction was actually blocked, and where instead of informal opposition to power structures acted one obedient bureaucracy.
Having received the appropriate "permission" from the reformed church, the creative persons in a number of European countries did not slow down to intensify scientific research, offering as a result a lot of technical and organizational innovations.
The machine production arose, ships and navigation improved, trade revived, mail, newspapers appeared, and communications between continents expanded.
It is precisely the fairly free expression of ideas and actions of both an individual and the entire community, which must be achieved as a result of the emergence of certain objective conditions, that presupposes the success of this community, which is what happened in the Protestant countries of Western Europe, unlike the rest of the world, which did not have such conditions for the most effective use and production of information flows. All other countries and communities found themselves in the role of borrowers, and a significant part of them fell into direct dependence on the leading countries of the world, from which they are still unable to get rid, but do not lose hope for this due to the stagnation that has begun in the leading countries of the world.
It should also be noted that the success of a community may not necessarily be based on a sufficiently intense cultural and technological upsurge, but it may be associated with the growth of the community's self-consciousness, which occurs under the pressure of purely external influences.
A clear example of this kind of success is the manifestation of Spanish rule in the role of a world empire, over which the sun did not set for more than a century and a half, beginning in the late 15th century AD.
The high level of self-awareness of the Spanish community was formed on the basis of its dissatisfaction with the capture of a significant part of the Iberian Peninsula by the Muslim Moors for several centuries until the 14th century AD.
The peasants and townspeople who fought alongside the knights with the Moors did not fall into serfdom. On the contrary, they received the great benefits: the peasants have been forming the free communities, and the townspeople enjoyed greater rights than the townspeople of other European countries. In the struggle against Muslims, the self-consciousness of Spaniards developed and became stronger, so how the war for the return of the lands of the ancestors has been consolidating the Spaniards, causing the emergence of such traits as valor, honor, perseverance in achieving the set goals, adherence to ancient traditions based on the Christian faith as opposed to Muslim customs and mores.
With formation of Christian states in Spain and the weakening of Moorish rule for internal reasons, the return of the territory continued with success, and by the end of the 13th century the entire peninsula, except for the Granada Emirate, had been conquered by Spaniards-Christians. During the entire period from the beginning of Reconquista before its actual end continued strengthening of the of such quality of self-consciousness of Spaniards, how exactly Christian peculiarity as opposed to Conquerors-Muslim. Both new created kingdoms - Aragon and Castile - developed the specific statehood, which basis was the protection of trade and industry by laws.
Both kingdoms were being united in the single kingdom of Spain to the end of XV century. The renewed power elite began with even greater zeal to strengthen the Catholic Church: Inquisition was introduced, persecution of Jews and Muslims began. At the same time, the power of the king was being strengthened, sciences and arts became more encouraged. America was discovered, and its absorption by the Spaniards began. Expansion of strong Spanish army extended also to Europe: Naples was conquered, Navarre was annexed, in 1519 the Spanish king was elected as the German emperor. At the end of the 16th century Spain expanded colonies in South and Central America, seized Portugal (1580), having become thereby the world power.
This interval of the development of the Spanish community is characterized by the rise of the collectivist self-consciousness of Spaniards, who became to feel themselves to be the world leaders.
Thus, the dissatisfaction of self-consciousness works quite well on different grounds, as long as they provide the opportunity to ensure a change in the situation for the community towards its radical improvement, which is reflected in an increase in the degrees of civil and personal freedoms, and, consequently, leads to the absorption and production of a larger volume of information.
However, the basis for the success of communities largely depends on the time interval in which the given community is in the civilizational development, since at the very beginning of the formation of civilization as an entity based on property relations, the level of collectivist and personal self-consciousness could not be high, thereby providing almost complete freedom to the egocentric natural consciousness with all its "brutal" features.
States that emerged as a result of the structuring of united tribes at the very beginning of the civilizational development were naturally located in the zones of the planet that were most favorable for effective management, contacting each other mainly for trade.
Success in trade depended to a large extent on strengthening contacts with neighbors, and this strengthening could be achieved most easily by military means.
Since the altruism of self- consciousness was in its most embryonic state at that time, the natural consciousness dominated in the collectivist consciousness of each community, which always demands the best, no matter at whose expense - the main thing is to manage to seize this best for your own benefit, which can be hindered or facilitated by both internal and external situations.
Assyria is an example of a successful community in the case of an extremely low level of the collectivist self-consciousness, and therefore more similar to the expansion of predators than to the way of community development. This small trading city-state, in which the leading role was played by merchants, fortunately the state was located near the trade routes of the Middle East, initially appeared under the name of Ashur at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. It was not independent, being under the domination of larger states in the region.
The power elite of Ashur made repeated attempts at a policy of conquest for several hundred years, but at the end of the 16th century BC Ashur was defeated by the then powerful state of Mitania, and the country found itself in a period of the deep decline.
As a result of this, in the community from 15th century BC has been increasing by the discontent with the imperious elite, presented generally by merchants and has been arising an aspiration to replace the merchants with military.
Merchants in the power were replaced by the military nobility headed by the tsar in the middle of the 14th century BC. These events and weakening of Mitania - Assyria were under its power - resulted in military achievements in the form of occupation of the neighboring territories.
Development of this policy has given the opportunity to deploy a large-scale military action. In the middle of XIII century BC Assyrians have been robbing the Central regions of Babylonia, in XII century BC - have reached the shores of the Black and Mediterranean seas.
However, the Aramean invasion put an end to the military expansion of Assyria, and from XI century BC up to the end of X century BC Assyria again has come in a deep decline: cities were empty and the population has been fleeing to the mountains.
Due to the fact that Arameans were unable to create the large and powerful state, Assyrians at the end of the 10th century BC, rebuilt their military organization and carried out series of progressive military reforms. As a result, during IX century BC. Assyria has conquered all Northern Mesopotamia and has advanced to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
However, at the beginning of VIII century BC the troops of the neighboring state of Urartu have inflicted the strong defeat over Assyria, which has lost some of own territories. In connection with the onset of the social and economic crisis, the population's uprisings began.
Discontent with the old nobility has led to the loss of power by it. New tsars in the second half of VIII century BC has carried out the major reforms, reorganized the army and began the new campaigns for the robbery and the seizure of territories.
By the middle of VII century BC Assyria manages to capture Egypt and all Mesopotamia.
The capture of countries with different populations, languages and customs made the Assyrian community unsustainable, the more that the position of the indigenous Assyrian population had deteriorated significantly: the rural communities had lost their independence, and the agrarians had come close to the situation of slaves, planted on the ground. This circumstance, as well as the debilitating wars, frequent uprisings in conquered countries has caused a crisis in the state.
Attack at the end of VII century BC on Assyria by the strong enemies from the east and south has led to the complete defeat of its army, the capital was burned, resistance ceased, and the population gradually dissolved among the neighbors.
This kind of success of communities in that "barbaric" time, which, in essence, was sought by only the ruling elite, who received the corresponding spectrum of pleasant sensations, but did not affect the well-being of the rest of the population, depended mainly not so much on the economy as on military force, the degree of which, in turn, was determined by the high level of dissatisfaction of the natural collectivist consciousness of the military nobility of the community, interested only in robbing everyone who could be robbed and ruined without any hint of mercy and development. It was precisely this kind of "success" that Assyria demonstrated for quite a long time - for seven centuries, with some interruptions, until the population inside it became catastrophically impoverished due to the flow of continuous wars and a comprehensive collapse began, and stronger rivals appeared outside.
Nevertheless, the extraordinary cruelty, neglect of other peoples, and at the same time a close-knit and strong army with the most effective weapons of destruction and inventive tactics of warfare at that time made it possible for Assyria to engage in actual banditry throughout the Middle East for a long time. But there is a limit to everything, and the Assyrians hated by everyone simply disappeared from the face of the earth.
In conclusion, we note the following.
If the success of communities at the very beginning of the existence of the civilization was determined in fact by the dissatisfaction of the dominant collectivist natural consciousness, then with the development of the collectivist self-consciousness in its altruistic component, the success began to be determined to an ever greater extent by it, contributing not only to the robbery of neighboring communities, but also to their merging into larger ethnic groups interested in their preservation, which is greatly facilitated by cultural, scientific and technological development.
However, the difference in the level of altruism of collectivist self-consciousness and the degree of influence of collectivist natural consciousness on the community can be quite significant under the influence of various factors, including natural ones.
In particular, the level of altruism of the collectivist self-consciousness of the leading countries of the world (USA, Europe, Japan) even by now turned out to be so low, and the degree of dominance of the collectivist natural consciousness of these same countries is so high, that they, like Assyria, having captured many underdeveloped countries, shamelessly plundered them for several centuries and are still plundering, excluding the possibility of their development, under false slogans of helping the weak, providing their population with a relatively high standard of living, and thus likened to a somewhat cultivated flock of primates who do not care about the suffering of the rest.
So, the civilizational development, which is based on the interaction of the collectivist natural consciousness and the collectivist self-consciousness, leaves most of the world's population virtually outside of this development. And this indicates, on the one hand, the impossibility of evading contradictions and negative consequences, in essence, the deep struggle of collectivist natural consciousness and self-consciousness of all layers of an extremely heterogeneous population, and, on the other hand, quite clearly shows that a person and his communities are nothing more, as an instrument of consciousness, which through these finite lives in their contradictions and struggle of all living provide both its own endless change and development, and the removal from the nothingness of all that exists.