nations

• failure to increase in population prevents full realization

81:6.114. Hu­man re­sources. Man power is in­dis­pens­able to the spread of civ­i­liza­tion. All things equal, a nu­mer­ous peo­ple will dom­i­nate the civ­i­liza­tion of a smaller race. Hence fail­ure to in­crease in num­bers up to a cer­tain point pre­vents the full re­al­iza­tion of na­tional des­tiny, but there comes a point in pop­u­la­tion in­crease where fur­ther growth is sui­ci­dal. Mul­ti­pli­ca­tion of num­bers be­yond the op­ti­mum of the nor­mal man-land ra­tio means ei­ther a low­er­ing of the stan­dards of liv­ing or an im­me­di­ate ex­pan­sion of ter­ri­to­rial bound­aries by peace­ful pen­e­tra­tion or by mil­i­tary con­quest, forcible oc­cu­pa­tion.

• cannot rub elbows without conflict

134:5.7As sov­er­eignty passes from smaller groups to larger groups, wars are less­ened. That is, mi­nor wars be­tween smaller na­tions are less­ened, but the po­ten­tial for greater wars is in­creased as the na­tions wield­ing sov­er­eignty be­come larger and larger. Pres­ently, when all the world has been ex­plored and oc­cu­pied, when na­tions are few, strong, and pow­er­ful, when these great and sup­pos­edly sov­er­eign na­tions come to touch bor­ders, when only oceans sep­a­rate them, then will the stage be set for ma­jor wars, world-wide con­flicts. So-called sov­er­eign na­tions can­not rub el­bows with­out gen­er­at­ing con­flicts and even­tu­at­ing wars.

• Spirit of Truth lessens self-assertiveness

194:3.18Pen­te­cost was de­signed to lessen the self-as­sertive­ness of in­di­vid­u­als, groups, na­tions, and races. It is this spirit of self-as­sertive­ness which so in­creases in ten­sion that it pe­ri­od­i­cally breaks loose in de­struc­tive wars. Man­kind can be uni­fied only by the spir­i­tual ap­proach, and the Spirit of Truth is a world in­flu­ence which is uni­ver­sal.