In contrast to days-gone-by, modernity lacks both initiation ceremonies and public ritual. Even prayer before meals is becoming less and less common. Ritual sacrifice, as grisly as it is, was a ubiquitous reality common to all religions and cultures of the world. It is now a thing of the past. Today we think of it [...]
Posts Tagged ‘civilization life cycle’
Burning Man
Man has celebrated the Solstices and the Equinoxes from time immemorial. In America we still do this. The Autumnal Equinox has essentially become Halloween, the Winter Solstice has become Christmas, the Vernal Equinox, Easter. Curiously, the Summer Solstice does not appear to have a corresponding holiday in America. In Europe, however, especially in the north, [...]
The problem is you
The world has become small to too many people, as it’s too easy to communicate across countries for just about anyone. Blogger account? Check. Facebook posts about the travesties going on in Kashmir, in the DMZ between the two Koreas, about finally freeing Tibet from the evil Chinese government? Check. We leave behind something more [...]
Suburban Isolation
Look at a suburban neighborhood thirty or forty years ago, and you’d see some pleasant images: neighborhood kids policing their own imaginary worlds in kickball, fort-building, and other games; neighbors getting together for barbecues and maybe even block parties and pool parties; open garages and screen doors letting in fresh air and even glances from [...]
Getting back on track
I reckon that many reading this blog are children of Baby Boomers. That’s one of the reasons the Boomers are such an easy target here. The Boomers have problems of their own, such as the the Social Security bill finally coming due. But what about their children? Baby Boomer children have grown up and become [...]
The religion of growth
We like to cover a lot of ground at this blog from the conservation-conservative perspective. Recent history in the western nations has shown a pattern of novelty seeking type behaviour that has reached into almost every part of civilization today. Modern economics, called a social science, is little different. Novelty seeking is a better description [...]
A Guide to Cosmic Evolution – Part 3
The third part of a guide to cosmic evolution initiates us on a journey through the local cosmos, we taste the potential of our future and the weird and wonderful exotic repercussions of a mechanized intelligence clawing itself from the hollow shell of a mechanized civilization. The following article is going to be ‘slightly’ hypothetical and mythical, [...]
