“You read your book of Ether and you’ll find the whole history is a tale of fierce and unrelenting struggle for power. It’s dark with intrigue and violence particularly of the Asiatic brand. When the rival for a kingdom is bested, he goes off by himself in the wilderness, bides his time, and gathers an army of outcasts … .
“A grand cycle running from unity of the nations to division, and conflict, and hence to paralysis or extinction is repeated at least a dozen times” (Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, 4:256).