SEASONS CHANGE.
(A day off listening to TOOL, Marilyn Manson and NOFX.)
I reject the view that history is a linear progress. Cultures are organisms, with natural periods of growth (culture) and decay (civilization). Cultures spring forth out of fear of death. The symbols that each culture uses to overcome that fear is meaningful for them and them alone.
Considering “metamorphosis of plants” cultures develop on a common theme called the metaphysical “prime symbol”. Each culture develops its symbols through its metaphysical prime phenomenon, with stages of youthful vigor, middle age refinement, and ultimately die of old age.
Western culture comes from the Celtic – Germanic tribes. Its prime symbol is boundless space.
Faustian culture is characterized by a strong feeling for the infinite and a tragic striving for the unattainable. Culture is IN-BORN and it expresses itself in every act of its people, from architecture, music and philosophy to the forms of money, mathematics, politics, science and the cult of the dead. The West is Faustian because it wagered its soul with Mephistopheles in the lust for limitless knowledge and power. The Nordic will to power, exploration, infinitesimal calculus, classical music, heliocentrism, the inquisition and global proselytism, the myths of energy and entropy.
Western culture overcomes its fear of death with purposeful action. We see our religion as requiring us to convert others, our sciences as one of forces moving objects, and our paintings as one of perspective and direction. This urge to change the world is inherent to The West and we call this urge Will, Force and Deed. Confession, autobiography, temple form: Gothic cathedrals, civilization form: soaring skyscrapers, globalization, Fiat money – fractional reserve banking. Western engineering strives for perpetual motion. In the end the creative energies of Faust become drained, his boundless striving exhausted, Faust's unlimited hopes were thwarted by Mephisto, everything had been an illusion.
For those noble spirits who are determined to be something in life this fatalism can be empowering. It encourages us to exploit the immense creative possibilities that are still available, to value every moment of our limited lives, and to live as passionately and as fully as possible. By understanding the historical process and its possibilities for creative expression, we can strive to make our lives into a self-creating masterpiece.
VIEW A CULTURES LIFE CYCLE IN TERMS OF SEASONS.
SPRING – Origin of a cultures principles. The people are strongly tied to the land. A deep religious and heroic period.
SUMMER – The time when the culture is in high form. The countryside and city life both have equal influence. An age of increasing refinement in taste manners and politics. Traditions seem clear and obvious.
AUTUMN – The culture's principles start to breakdown. Rise of megalopolis. Urban rationalism sterilizes the culture through criticism. Politics increasingly swayed by economic concerns.
WINTER – The culture petrifies into its final form. Cities depopulate. Despots take control of society. Art becomes repetitive imitations of past works.
CIVILIZATION MODEL – Culture
SPRING.
1,000 – 1,500 AD
Government form: Feudalism.
NOBILITY and PRIESTHOOD.
The period when the culture is agrarian. Town centers are only market places or castle strongholds. A deeply religious and heroic epoch. Birth of expression in a new god-feeling. Norse myths, early Viking exploration and conquest. Romanesque and Gothic architecture, stained glass, counterpoint music, panel painting, crusading nobility, empire and Catholic popes. Divine comedy (Dante), scholasticism, mysticism. Late Gothic and Renaissance, beginning of oil painting. Beginning of exploration. Crisis of patriarchal forms. Interregnum of 1254. From feudalism to aristocratic state. Reformation leads to gradual impoverishment of the mystical aspects of religion.
SUMMER.
1,500 – 1,800 AD
Government form: Dynastic monarchy.
ARISTOCRATIC STATE.
The period when all facets of a cultures principles are working. The age of its greatest achievements. And inner form. The countryside and urban ways of life both have influence in society. The rational and mystical ways of thought struggle with each other leading to magnificent creativity. States of strict form. Baroque era. Architectural painting, oil painting, rise of music, beginnings of purely philosophical world view (Galileo, Bacon). People conduct themselves with exquisite good manners. Wars are waged like duels with a strict tradition, honour and form. Reign of classical music (Mozart). Oil painting, calculus, dynamics (Newton), exploration (Cook), colonialism, grand politics.
AUTUMN.
1,500 – 1,800 AD
Government form: Dynastic monarchy.
ABSOLUTE POWER of the KING.
Exhaustion of creative forms. Classicism and Romanticism. Philosophy, civilization “enlightenment”, rationalism, victory of the city over the countryside. American and French revolutions. The chaos of the French revolution makes way for Napoleon greatly weakening the divine-right of kings and begins the dissolution of the Wests cultural forms.
AUTUMN.
1,800 – 2,000 AD
Government form: Democracy.
ABSOLUTE POWER of MONEY.
The era of contending states.
Everything rural is disdained, Urban city life completely dominates the culture. Music, architecture, painting gradually becomes attempts to excite or portray the urban population. Life becomes dominated by materialism and rational thought. Art, music, architecture becomes increasingly pompous. Zenith of scientific thought. Atheism spreads, cult of science, reason, utility and prosperity (Darwin. Marx). Traditions gradually breakdown. Huge cities are built on checkerboard patterns. American skyscrapers. Mass production. Mass media controlled by money is used to manipulate the masses. Nationalism replaces religious fervor. Mass conscription armies, gigantic wars, were each war is larger and more destructive than the last, followed with cries of pacifism, reconciliation and universalism. Zenith of mathematical thought. Life becomes a problem, leading to ethical / social ideals. Musical creativity exhausted. Impressionism. Creativity wanes, resulting in collecting, rise of skepticism and relativism. Mathematics ends with statistical doubt, uncertain statistical quantum physics (Schrodinger). Multiculturalism. Rise of feminism.
WINTER.
2,000 – 2,200 AD
Government form: Formation of Caesarism.
FORCE POLITICS: Military – economic expansionism.
Rise of global empire.
The world gradually becomes standardized – bureaucratized with common global imperial language – legal – economic (TPPA) .With life descending to a level of general uniformity science and mathematics stagnate. Technology flourishes. Music, art, architecture becomes meaningless, gigantic, pretentious. Fertility declines. Increasing ethnic diversity and a stagnate economy gradually impede democratic institutions making them ineffective. Wealth becomes concentrated in a few hands. Faced with stagnation, the people feel helpless and elect increasingly unusual leaders and give them extraordinary powers in the hope that it will reinvigorate society. Nationalism fades away to helplessness. Skepticism in science leads to refuge in the “Second Religiousness”. Political parties gradually turn into personal factions, each election is more expensive than the last, elections give way to civil wars. The military transitions into mercenary armies of war-keen soldiers loyal to individuals (Caesars) instead of the state. Caesars sick to death of money-politics begin exterminating the financial and intellectual classes. Huge make-work projects undertaken for the masses, bread and circuses, anti-intellectualism. Classes harden into castes.
WINTER.
2,200 – 2,400 AD
Government form: Caesarism.
WORLD AS SPOIL
Private politics of individuals and families.
Soldier – emperors, with their private armies, battle each other for control of the Earth, while the civilization decays around them. The people are despised and trampled upon. Gigantic projects are undertaken for imperial display. Formless – winner take all – wars for plunder, revolutions. Fixed stock of art, architecture, musical forms. Primitive life slowly thrusts up into the highly civilized mode of living. Constant civil wars weaken the society to the point where foreigners eventually come and conquer it.
“The fates guide him who will
-who won't, they drag.”
Optimism is cowardice!
(A day off listening to TOOL, Marilyn Manson and NOFX.)
I reject the view that history is a linear progress. Cultures are organisms, with natural periods of growth (culture) and decay (civilization). Cultures spring forth out of fear of death. The symbols that each culture uses to overcome that fear is meaningful for them and them alone.
Considering “metamorphosis of plants” cultures develop on a common theme called the metaphysical “prime symbol”. Each culture develops its symbols through its metaphysical prime phenomenon, with stages of youthful vigor, middle age refinement, and ultimately die of old age.
Western culture comes from the Celtic – Germanic tribes. Its prime symbol is boundless space.
Faustian culture is characterized by a strong feeling for the infinite and a tragic striving for the unattainable. Culture is IN-BORN and it expresses itself in every act of its people, from architecture, music and philosophy to the forms of money, mathematics, politics, science and the cult of the dead. The West is Faustian because it wagered its soul with Mephistopheles in the lust for limitless knowledge and power. The Nordic will to power, exploration, infinitesimal calculus, classical music, heliocentrism, the inquisition and global proselytism, the myths of energy and entropy.
Western culture overcomes its fear of death with purposeful action. We see our religion as requiring us to convert others, our sciences as one of forces moving objects, and our paintings as one of perspective and direction. This urge to change the world is inherent to The West and we call this urge Will, Force and Deed. Confession, autobiography, temple form: Gothic cathedrals, civilization form: soaring skyscrapers, globalization, Fiat money – fractional reserve banking. Western engineering strives for perpetual motion. In the end the creative energies of Faust become drained, his boundless striving exhausted, Faust's unlimited hopes were thwarted by Mephisto, everything had been an illusion.
For those noble spirits who are determined to be something in life this fatalism can be empowering. It encourages us to exploit the immense creative possibilities that are still available, to value every moment of our limited lives, and to live as passionately and as fully as possible. By understanding the historical process and its possibilities for creative expression, we can strive to make our lives into a self-creating masterpiece.
VIEW A CULTURES LIFE CYCLE IN TERMS OF SEASONS.
SPRING – Origin of a cultures principles. The people are strongly tied to the land. A deep religious and heroic period.
SUMMER – The time when the culture is in high form. The countryside and city life both have equal influence. An age of increasing refinement in taste manners and politics. Traditions seem clear and obvious.
AUTUMN – The culture's principles start to breakdown. Rise of megalopolis. Urban rationalism sterilizes the culture through criticism. Politics increasingly swayed by economic concerns.
WINTER – The culture petrifies into its final form. Cities depopulate. Despots take control of society. Art becomes repetitive imitations of past works.
CIVILIZATION MODEL – Culture
SPRING.
1,000 – 1,500 AD
Government form: Feudalism.
NOBILITY and PRIESTHOOD.
The period when the culture is agrarian. Town centers are only market places or castle strongholds. A deeply religious and heroic epoch. Birth of expression in a new god-feeling. Norse myths, early Viking exploration and conquest. Romanesque and Gothic architecture, stained glass, counterpoint music, panel painting, crusading nobility, empire and Catholic popes. Divine comedy (Dante), scholasticism, mysticism. Late Gothic and Renaissance, beginning of oil painting. Beginning of exploration. Crisis of patriarchal forms. Interregnum of 1254. From feudalism to aristocratic state. Reformation leads to gradual impoverishment of the mystical aspects of religion.
SUMMER.
1,500 – 1,800 AD
Government form: Dynastic monarchy.
ARISTOCRATIC STATE.
The period when all facets of a cultures principles are working. The age of its greatest achievements. And inner form. The countryside and urban ways of life both have influence in society. The rational and mystical ways of thought struggle with each other leading to magnificent creativity. States of strict form. Baroque era. Architectural painting, oil painting, rise of music, beginnings of purely philosophical world view (Galileo, Bacon). People conduct themselves with exquisite good manners. Wars are waged like duels with a strict tradition, honour and form. Reign of classical music (Mozart). Oil painting, calculus, dynamics (Newton), exploration (Cook), colonialism, grand politics.
AUTUMN.
1,500 – 1,800 AD
Government form: Dynastic monarchy.
ABSOLUTE POWER of the KING.
Exhaustion of creative forms. Classicism and Romanticism. Philosophy, civilization “enlightenment”, rationalism, victory of the city over the countryside. American and French revolutions. The chaos of the French revolution makes way for Napoleon greatly weakening the divine-right of kings and begins the dissolution of the Wests cultural forms.
AUTUMN.
1,800 – 2,000 AD
Government form: Democracy.
ABSOLUTE POWER of MONEY.
The era of contending states.
Everything rural is disdained, Urban city life completely dominates the culture. Music, architecture, painting gradually becomes attempts to excite or portray the urban population. Life becomes dominated by materialism and rational thought. Art, music, architecture becomes increasingly pompous. Zenith of scientific thought. Atheism spreads, cult of science, reason, utility and prosperity (Darwin. Marx). Traditions gradually breakdown. Huge cities are built on checkerboard patterns. American skyscrapers. Mass production. Mass media controlled by money is used to manipulate the masses. Nationalism replaces religious fervor. Mass conscription armies, gigantic wars, were each war is larger and more destructive than the last, followed with cries of pacifism, reconciliation and universalism. Zenith of mathematical thought. Life becomes a problem, leading to ethical / social ideals. Musical creativity exhausted. Impressionism. Creativity wanes, resulting in collecting, rise of skepticism and relativism. Mathematics ends with statistical doubt, uncertain statistical quantum physics (Schrodinger). Multiculturalism. Rise of feminism.
WINTER.
2,000 – 2,200 AD
Government form: Formation of Caesarism.
FORCE POLITICS: Military – economic expansionism.
Rise of global empire.
The world gradually becomes standardized – bureaucratized with common global imperial language – legal – economic (TPPA) .With life descending to a level of general uniformity science and mathematics stagnate. Technology flourishes. Music, art, architecture becomes meaningless, gigantic, pretentious. Fertility declines. Increasing ethnic diversity and a stagnate economy gradually impede democratic institutions making them ineffective. Wealth becomes concentrated in a few hands. Faced with stagnation, the people feel helpless and elect increasingly unusual leaders and give them extraordinary powers in the hope that it will reinvigorate society. Nationalism fades away to helplessness. Skepticism in science leads to refuge in the “Second Religiousness”. Political parties gradually turn into personal factions, each election is more expensive than the last, elections give way to civil wars. The military transitions into mercenary armies of war-keen soldiers loyal to individuals (Caesars) instead of the state. Caesars sick to death of money-politics begin exterminating the financial and intellectual classes. Huge make-work projects undertaken for the masses, bread and circuses, anti-intellectualism. Classes harden into castes.
WINTER.
2,200 – 2,400 AD
Government form: Caesarism.
WORLD AS SPOIL
Private politics of individuals and families.
Soldier – emperors, with their private armies, battle each other for control of the Earth, while the civilization decays around them. The people are despised and trampled upon. Gigantic projects are undertaken for imperial display. Formless – winner take all – wars for plunder, revolutions. Fixed stock of art, architecture, musical forms. Primitive life slowly thrusts up into the highly civilized mode of living. Constant civil wars weaken the society to the point where foreigners eventually come and conquer it.
“The fates guide him who will
-who won't, they drag.”
Optimism is cowardice!