A civilization in which the people do not know how the representative of Narada and Krsna should be respected, how society should be formed and how one should advance in Krsna consciousness — a society concerned only with manufacturing new cars and new skyscrapers every year and then breaking them to pieces and making new ones — may be technologically advanced, but it is not a human civilization. A human civilization is advanced when its people follow the catur-varnya system, the system of four orders of life. There must be ideal, first-class men to act as advisors, second-class men to act as administrators, third-class men to produce food and protect cows, and fourth-class men who obey the three higher classes of society. One who does not follow the standard system of society should be considered a fifth-class man.

Srila Prabhupada — SB 6.7.13 Purport