QUOTE : The hostility that the Jews and the early Christians constantly evoked in great States was a gauge of the frustration that mere military power and 'absolute' political authority experienced in dealing with a small community held together by a traditional common faith, inviolable rituals, and rational ideals. For power cannot long prevail unless those upon whom it is imposed have reason to respect it and conform to it. Small, seemingly helpless organizations that have an inner coherence and a mind of their own have in the long run often proved more effective in overcoming arbitrary power than the biggest military units-if only because they are so difficult to pin down and confront. This explains the efforts of sovereign states all through history to curb and suppress such organizations, whether they were mystery cults, friendly societies, churches, guilds, universities, or trade unions. And in turn, that antagonism suggests the way in which the modern megamachine may in future be curbed, and brought under some measure of rational authority and democratic control.