Ego and civilization

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): The questioner says, “If everyone drops their ego, there would be no civilization and everybody would be roaming naked in the Jungle.”

We have to understand what is ego and what is civilization? What is it that is meant by civilization? Civilization refers to a particular order in living. A particular system in living, an orderliness. That is the meaning of civilization. Civilization refers to an orderliness in living. An orderliness, that is not random, it is orderly.

Order can arise from two distinct sources. Order can arise either out of fear, as you see in our society. That, if people are civilized then most of them behave in a civilized way because of fear of punishment, right? Order can arise from there.

And when there is fear, there is ego. Because you are afraid of somebody else, that’s what ego is. Somebody else is dominating your mind. So, we have seen order only of one kind, civilization only of one kind which is the civilization arising from fear. That, if I behave in an uncivilized way then I will be jailed or I lose my respectability.

Hence, the questioner is justified in thinking that the very basis of civilization is fear. The civilization that we see, is based on fear but it is not…