FLOW, The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Whenever a culture has had a run of good luck and for a while seems indeed to have found a way of controlling the forces of nature; at that point it is logical for it to begin believing that it is a chosen people who need no longer fear any major setback. The Romans reached that juncture after several centuries of ruling the Mediterranean, The Chinese were confident of their immutable superiority before the Mongol conquest, and the Aztecs before the arrival of the Spaniards. This cultural hubris, or overweening presumption about what we are entitled to from the universe, that is basically insensitive to human needs, generally leads to trouble. --- [Not quite correct Mihaly, the Universe might be “insensitive”, but not the “Kosmos as a whole”. What our “needs” actually are and what they are not is determined by the “Evolutionary concepts” build right into the fabric of this Kosmos. Or even better, the Kosmos is build right around these concepts.]

            From the chapter "The Ultimate Control,    Yoga and the Martial Arts"

In many respects, what the West has accomplished in terms of harnessing material energy is matched by what India and the Far East have achieved in terms of direct control of consciousness. That neither of these approaches is, by itself, an ideal program for the conduct of life is shown by the fact that the Indian fascination with advanced techniques for self-control, at the expense of learning to cope with the material challenges of the physical environment, has conspired to let impotence and apathy spread over a great proportion of the population, defeated by scarcity of resources and by overcrowding.