03-04-2019, 06:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-04-2019, 07:24 AM by Bill the Piper.)
The "civilizations" described in the article are in fact socio-political orders. They come and go, but Mankind endures. I see post-1945 West as, in many ways, a different socio-political system than either pre-Enlightenment Thomistic Christendom and high Industrial Age modernism. So, if the average lifespan of such an order is 336 years, the end of the current one should happen in late 23th century.
The basic principles of modernism were individualism and empiricism, resulting in rule of reason established as its core tenet. But the chemical attacks during WW1, and then the Holocaust and the murder of Hiroshima made many intellectuals question the value of rule of reason. Hence the Lost, and later the Boomers adopted a different set of tenets. The Lost were more driven to hard nihilism (fascism), while boomers tended to be attracted to soft nihilism (sex, drugs and rock'n'roll). In the boomer-led Anglosphere individualism went up to eleven, best expressed in Maslow's ethos of self-actualisation adopted by many post-1945 psychologists, and nature started to be viewed more favourably than the modernists ever did. Environmentalism, excessive appreciation of pre-modern cultures (think Avatar) and sexual revolution (think Sex in the City) are the most distinctive traits of this "New Americanism", and were exported all over the world.
Perhaps the last modernists were the neo-cons, other aspects of modernism are also present in the transhumanist movement which is for the time being NOT mainstream. Can modernism become fashionable again when boomers are gone? I suppose it could, "New Americanism" might turn out to be as short-lived as Bolshevism. Apollonian character of the upcoming cycle is a good prognosis for a revival of modernism, an improved form of it could come from China where Confucianism encourages more communitarian values. The Chinese already use the expression "white Leftism" for what I have called New Americanism. They are not attracted to it. But a Chinese-led renaissance will happen only if China starts democratising.
I'm not afraid of an actual apocalypse caused by global warming, but I do worry about out-of-control AIs and genetic engineering in hands of dictators. 1950s-style nuclear winter might be a possibility if a non-democracy uses nuclear weapons.
The basic principles of modernism were individualism and empiricism, resulting in rule of reason established as its core tenet. But the chemical attacks during WW1, and then the Holocaust and the murder of Hiroshima made many intellectuals question the value of rule of reason. Hence the Lost, and later the Boomers adopted a different set of tenets. The Lost were more driven to hard nihilism (fascism), while boomers tended to be attracted to soft nihilism (sex, drugs and rock'n'roll). In the boomer-led Anglosphere individualism went up to eleven, best expressed in Maslow's ethos of self-actualisation adopted by many post-1945 psychologists, and nature started to be viewed more favourably than the modernists ever did. Environmentalism, excessive appreciation of pre-modern cultures (think Avatar) and sexual revolution (think Sex in the City) are the most distinctive traits of this "New Americanism", and were exported all over the world.
Perhaps the last modernists were the neo-cons, other aspects of modernism are also present in the transhumanist movement which is for the time being NOT mainstream. Can modernism become fashionable again when boomers are gone? I suppose it could, "New Americanism" might turn out to be as short-lived as Bolshevism. Apollonian character of the upcoming cycle is a good prognosis for a revival of modernism, an improved form of it could come from China where Confucianism encourages more communitarian values. The Chinese already use the expression "white Leftism" for what I have called New Americanism. They are not attracted to it. But a Chinese-led renaissance will happen only if China starts democratising.
I'm not afraid of an actual apocalypse caused by global warming, but I do worry about out-of-control AIs and genetic engineering in hands of dictators. 1950s-style nuclear winter might be a possibility if a non-democracy uses nuclear weapons.