The world cultures mentioned above were in reality not real cultures at all, since they were maintained almost exclusively by virtue of brutal superior force and lethal weapons. These weapons were kept in readiness, so that they were ready to inflict death and destruction, mutilation and terrible sufferings. In reality modern civilisation is still based on the principle of the robber: "Your money or your life". The fact that the states of the world cannot experience total world peace on this basis is a matter of course. Real peace can arise or exist only as a result of love. Peace maintained exclusively by threat or fear is not peace but mental bondage, reinforced by superior physical power. But bondage or confinement gives rise only to a longing in the being to free itself from the chains that bind it. Oppression generates hate or the desire for retaliation. The civilisations of the world have thus been based more or less on successive assumptions of power and the ensuing mutual permanent tension of war between those in power, and between those in power and the oppressed.