This article explores the pattern of revival throughout time & civilization and how there’s more rhythm to it than coincidence. I love how it describes the soul within every culture, and when it senses its own disorder and breaking point of decline coming along, a final straw falls & revival ensues because a remnant of ppl feel a necessity for restoration and see revolt as an appropriate response.
As I’m reading I’m thinking about how often revival is preached & declared but also wondering about what “revolt” would look like, or if it is as feasible, necessary now as it was back then? The Jews decided they had enough when they were forced to make worship & sacrifices to pagan gods. What does that crossing of the line look like today, & what does a response of revolt look like today in America?
There is no point in even trying to strive as a society if reducing religion to the bare minimum is the ultimate goal. (Think Russian or French revolutions.) It can't be replaced. A family on a small scale, or a country as a whole, becomes so un-inspiringly shallow when there is no deeper meaning behind everything they do.
Civilizations turn when meaning finds carriers with leverage.
Not interpreters alone. Not managers of discourse. Not prestige functionaries of the already intelligible.
The decisive figures are those able to recognize a deeper order without exploiting it, and to act from it without translating it back into the symbolic opportunism of the age they inherit.
Another good, well conceived, article. Would like to hear more of your thoughts re Spengler and his work.
Interesting take on the Spanish civil war, which makes for an interesting compare/contrast to the Ukraine-Russia war.
This article explores the pattern of revival throughout time & civilization and how there’s more rhythm to it than coincidence. I love how it describes the soul within every culture, and when it senses its own disorder and breaking point of decline coming along, a final straw falls & revival ensues because a remnant of ppl feel a necessity for restoration and see revolt as an appropriate response.
As I’m reading I’m thinking about how often revival is preached & declared but also wondering about what “revolt” would look like, or if it is as feasible, necessary now as it was back then? The Jews decided they had enough when they were forced to make worship & sacrifices to pagan gods. What does that crossing of the line look like today, & what does a response of revolt look like today in America?
There is no point in even trying to strive as a society if reducing religion to the bare minimum is the ultimate goal. (Think Russian or French revolutions.) It can't be replaced. A family on a small scale, or a country as a whole, becomes so un-inspiringly shallow when there is no deeper meaning behind everything they do.
Civilizations turn when meaning finds carriers with leverage.
Not interpreters alone. Not managers of discourse. Not prestige functionaries of the already intelligible.
The decisive figures are those able to recognize a deeper order without exploiting it, and to act from it without translating it back into the symbolic opportunism of the age they inherit.
That separation has begun.
For those who can read it:
https://leontsvasmansapiognosis.substack.com/p/the-prevented-elite
— Leon Tsvasman