Cycles of Civilization

Discussion of the nature of Ultimate Reality and the path to Enlightenment.
Locked
User avatar
Russell Parr
Posts: 854
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:44 am

Cycles of Civilization

Post by Russell Parr »

  • - Civilization is in shambles
    - Society is unhappy, life is hard
    - Masculine values become dominant
    - Men conquer, fix, and build things
    - Civilization thrives
    - Society is happy, life is easy
    - Awareness of women's lowly status in maintaining civilization takes prominence
    - Women's abilities are raised to false heights
    - Feminine values become dominant
    - Civilization deteriorates
Rinse and repeat.
User avatar
Diebert van Rhijn
Posts: 6469
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:43 pm

Re: Cycles of Civilization

Post by Diebert van Rhijn »

Yeah, it's also how Nietzsche described ascend and decline. Especially the endings he described as "late", "decadent", "sunset", "twilight".

There's perhaps another stage though: mummification and zombifying of the lateness. Kind of frozen five for twelve. Christianity and Buddhism are then for example "late" religions coming out of their civilizational "afternoon". But what we see now is not even that. We're looking at something "undead" when looking at the majority of such institutions: museum collections!

The interesting thing of the current "cycle" (assuming for the sake of this post they are actually in place) would be the amazing unwillingness to let go of the last civilizational cycles. This happens all over the world: the West still trying to revive its old universal catholicism while in the East many Muslims pining to revive lost glory, Russia aching for fallen greatness in their lost empires while China tries to waken the ancient dragon. In former ages it would have been dust, all abandoned for some new, fresh, "insanely" bold venture rising out of the ashes of the old (but there's always lineage). It seems we don't know anymore how to end anything. We're perhaps living now in no-time.
User avatar
Russell Parr
Posts: 854
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:44 am

Re: Cycles of Civilization

Post by Russell Parr »

Diebert van Rhijn wrote:The interesting thing of the current "cycle" (assuming for the sake of this post they are actually in place) would be the amazing unwillingness to let go of the last civilizational cycles. This happens all over the world: the West still trying to revive its old universal catholicism while in the East many Muslims pining to revive lost glory, Russia aching for fallen greatness in their lost empires while China tries to waken the ancient dragon. In former ages it would have been dust, all abandoned for some new, fresh, "insanely" bold venture rising out of the ashes of the old (but there's always lineage). It seems we don't know anymore how to end anything. We're perhaps living now in no-time.
I think it is the case that with no unchartered land left to conquer on earth, there is no breeding ground left for an all-new form or system of belief or paradigm. It would take a cataclysm on a near global scale to reset civilization and clear way for something radically different.
User avatar
amerika
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2016 6:14 am

Re: Cycles of Civilization

Post by amerika »

Civilization collapses because it succeeds, and thus does away with the Darwinian filter that determines that only people who are independent and realistic can be included. Universal inclusiveness, or "equality," is the sign of death.
Locked