Thoughts about the end of empire.
Basic idea:
As we find out more about what causes the decline and death of single organisms we may find that very similar forces are at work in the decline of civilizations. Look at Rome, look at the great age of China, look at the Indian civilizations and south American, and the golden age of the Islamic Caliphite.... All of these civilizations have eclipsed "western" civilization at one point or another. Actually, it may be that we are too biased in favor of ""western "civilization in some ways. Our reading oh history places the West and Especially the US as the victors in some sort of race for supreamacy. But it really only looks that way from the vantage point of the last 6o years or so. Really, the US wasn't even a competitor until after WW2.
"That's really quite sad."
That's funny I find it hopeful.
"How can you? If you're right, then civilizations run their course, and then they die or decline, right? That means that we will never reach any lasting peace, and that even if we are able to establish an enlightened society in the future, then it too is doomed to eventual death."
Maybe only if we continue to hold on to our current ideas about identity. The very definition of violence seems to be resisting these natural paterns. Who's to say that in the future, as we understand our gods better, that we won't find a way out of this cycle of samsara. It seems to me that an enlightened society might accept these natural rises and falls as we accpet the seasons. Perhaps our future enlightened societies will be cyclic-- they will decline, only to grow green again in the spring. The problems start to beat us down when we can only accept unlimited growth model. The more the US for example tries to exert it's world dominance in the future the more turbulance we cause, and the more violence we cause in the sine wave. But what if instead we accepted this temporary winter, this temporary stagnation or even decline, what would happen?
We invent a new refridgerator. There is a great period of growth. But at some point, everyone owns a refridgerator. We we can blah blah blah.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Thoughts about the end of empire.
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3 comments:
All patterns progress towards an entropic state. This is as true of the universe, as of society. The reason that it feels bleak, I think, is that 'enlightened society' as you describe it looks unlikely: all matter tries to resist entropy. It just can't.
Raging against the dying of the light is a natural tendency.
Hmm...
I see no clear evidence that social systems are constrained by the laws of thermodynamics...
At least not more than the swirling bits of mater that carry the memes that make up social systems....
At some point, if the Universe is destined to that grey soupy future (if the insufficient gravity of the Universe infact renders it an open system) then, of course, our gods die with us...
But our social systems are our gods! (Not because I use that word, but because early humans MADE the word GOD to explain the phenomenon of self organizing systems and their emergent properties--that was the true definition of "god" before powerful intrest groups coopted it for social domination) Their ability to animate the actions of humans extends far beyond our comprehension.
For example, I contend that the same clusters of memes, which I call gods, organize human behavior today as did 2000 years ago. I believe, for example, that much of the modern American Christian Right are motivated by a confluence of many of the same memes that were refered to as "Mamon" in the old Testament.(I read the Bible as well as all of those old religious texts as the history of the "gods.")
In the same way, many of the Roman gods walk the earth today as well. And sure, even Jesus lives, though he is sitting in a "time out" corner somewhere ("it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven." Do you think "Christian" George Bush believes that?)
In the end, people try to kill the gods, but they tend to control us, not the other way around.
As we increase our understanding of the mechanisms that organize humans, I think that we will gain a better perspective on "the end of empire." Right now, the US is causing a great deal of violence trying to maintain our control of the world, when it might not be necessary or even desirable....
OK, I can do better than this...
More is comming to the front page....
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