While every society of human beings that has ever existed probably had some final arbiter (whether an individual or a council) in the process of making decisions for the group as a whole, there is no doubt that hierarchy of a very different kind came with the advent of (comparatively) large, complex cities. I am convinced that, at this point in time, the best we can do for an ethic to govern any contemporary society is mutual respect (of a basic kind: taking one another into account as we live our separate lives together in this world). It seems to me to form an intermediate stage between a society dominated by competition for power of any and every kind within a hierarchy of relationships defined by power and one fully governed by cooperation.