WANDERER
10-13-04, 08:27 PM
• The decline of any civilization is but an inevitable consequence of attrition; its success results in the circumstances of its own demise.
This is so because success eliminates the resistance that made it necessary and it exterminates the challenges that would keep it fit.
The same thing can be said about individuals or any unit of singular purpose.
For what is a person but a culture of molecules and a civilization of drives?
• One of the consequences of this decline is that the whole ceases to inspire or to discipline its parts to a single Will.
The parts become disenchanted, as weakening central control creates distances between the one from the many.
Rebellion ensues as pieces disentangle themselves from the entirety and become cancerous by attracting others of their kind to them.
We can see some of the effects of these phenomena in modern western societies, as their authority wanes and their earlier dominance fade.
Decadence is one such effect, as a culture’s moral fabric dwindles and individuals are cast free into the void.
• Free-Spiritedness is a natural occurrence within any unity for, every so often, a part of the whole, either due to dysfunctional design or an overabundance of resistant energy, fails to be indoctrinated harmoniously.
As the central controlling strength is weakened rebelliousness and free-spiritedness cease to be unique or a special circumstance but increasingly becomes commonplace as the whole deteriorates into nothing.
Its parts might reconstitute themselves into new unities or they will be obliterated or they will be absorbed into other stronger unities.
Ironically, freedom is another sign of deterioration and decadence, as excess liberty of the parts constitutes the whole superfluous.
• Just like a plant needs protection, support, nourishment and direction to survive its early delicacy and to harden its own rooting core and stem so that it becomes resistant to external elements, so it is for any living entity.
If these needs are not met early on the plant perishes or is warped or it atrophies, never reaching its full height or it mutates into something different from the original design.
What better explains current mutations and atrophying psychologies than this?
The loss of respect for authority, the absence of belonging and the psychological anxieties cultural decadence breeds is more evident within the young who are more desperately in need of guidance and a disciplining power.
• Manifestations of cultural decline amongst the populace- disregard for authority, exaggerated autonomy, directionless undisciplined striving, anger and bitterness towards all forms of control, a lack of moral fibber and/or respect towards everything including self, the need to latch onto counterculture and cultish ideals to replace the old ones or a need to rediscover old institutional ideals, a distancing from the norm and a desire to paint themselves with the colors of revolt, a rampant pessimistic cynicism to excuse participation, self-hatred, indifference to political participation, absence of ambition, social parasitism and lethargy, an obsession with destructiveness, a grasping onto any firm ground no matter its absurdity, a superficial engagement with life, an inability to appreciate the joy of simple living.
All these are attestations of cultural decline.
• Institutionalisation- The institutional mind is characterized by a complete inability to function outside a domineering and authoritarian structure.
In sophisticated social structures the ordered predictability, relative safety and efficiency it imposes become addictive to its participants.
This addiction sometimes has effects on an individual’s daily habits and rituals where any source of chaos and disorderliness causes anxiety and stress.
As the sheltering environment of the social structure diminishes the primordial instinctual drives are rekindled within a body unable to tolerate them or defuse them because now it has been domesticated.
• Boredom is a by-product of social structure.
The mind, evolved for more unpredictable and stressful environments, must be diverted through surrogate means.
Excessive work, ubiquitous entertainment, available legal and illegal medications and sexual promiscuity are some of the alternative diverting methods.
Fatigue a placating mechanism where the mind is drained of its energies and leisure becomes a luxury to be earned.
• Deinstitutionalisation- As the bars rust and the walls crumble, through neglect, the guards become complacent and sleep in the shadows.
Those that were once shackled suddenly find themselves in the open air surrounded by horizons of direction.
This is when some turn back in horror and try to rebuild the very walls that kept them in before.
Some go mad and cannot deal with the solitude of independence and the responsibility of choice.
The rest turn desperately to one another for comfort. Through this new alliance they build stronger structures using the lessons of the past as a guide and become more efficient jailers.
• Reason- The source of disillusionment and the loss of contentment can be found in the rebellious nature of reason.
It resists the incarceration of the body and the jurisdiction of instinct is questioned.
This conflict frees reason from the precinct of body but it then leaves it destitute scanning its surroundings for direction.
• Like all forms of resistance its success or failure is determined by its ability to conceal itself, by its ability to find fertile ground to grow in and its ability to adapt and alter strategies as the circumstances demand.
At times these strategies are more productively directed towards the self.
• The fate of every unpopular rebellion is that it becomes a caricature of itself and is mocked by all not touched by its spirit or its concerns.
• Schopenhauer believed that music was the purest expression of the underlying universal Will.
Given this very eloquent appraisal it would be easy to assume that the type of music an individual connects with most accurately represents the reverberations of his inner Will.
Consequently rebelliousness is most profoundly echoed through the angered energy and unyielding crescendo of the music it prefers.
This is so because success eliminates the resistance that made it necessary and it exterminates the challenges that would keep it fit.
The same thing can be said about individuals or any unit of singular purpose.
For what is a person but a culture of molecules and a civilization of drives?
• One of the consequences of this decline is that the whole ceases to inspire or to discipline its parts to a single Will.
The parts become disenchanted, as weakening central control creates distances between the one from the many.
Rebellion ensues as pieces disentangle themselves from the entirety and become cancerous by attracting others of their kind to them.
We can see some of the effects of these phenomena in modern western societies, as their authority wanes and their earlier dominance fade.
Decadence is one such effect, as a culture’s moral fabric dwindles and individuals are cast free into the void.
• Free-Spiritedness is a natural occurrence within any unity for, every so often, a part of the whole, either due to dysfunctional design or an overabundance of resistant energy, fails to be indoctrinated harmoniously.
As the central controlling strength is weakened rebelliousness and free-spiritedness cease to be unique or a special circumstance but increasingly becomes commonplace as the whole deteriorates into nothing.
Its parts might reconstitute themselves into new unities or they will be obliterated or they will be absorbed into other stronger unities.
Ironically, freedom is another sign of deterioration and decadence, as excess liberty of the parts constitutes the whole superfluous.
• Just like a plant needs protection, support, nourishment and direction to survive its early delicacy and to harden its own rooting core and stem so that it becomes resistant to external elements, so it is for any living entity.
If these needs are not met early on the plant perishes or is warped or it atrophies, never reaching its full height or it mutates into something different from the original design.
What better explains current mutations and atrophying psychologies than this?
The loss of respect for authority, the absence of belonging and the psychological anxieties cultural decadence breeds is more evident within the young who are more desperately in need of guidance and a disciplining power.
• Manifestations of cultural decline amongst the populace- disregard for authority, exaggerated autonomy, directionless undisciplined striving, anger and bitterness towards all forms of control, a lack of moral fibber and/or respect towards everything including self, the need to latch onto counterculture and cultish ideals to replace the old ones or a need to rediscover old institutional ideals, a distancing from the norm and a desire to paint themselves with the colors of revolt, a rampant pessimistic cynicism to excuse participation, self-hatred, indifference to political participation, absence of ambition, social parasitism and lethargy, an obsession with destructiveness, a grasping onto any firm ground no matter its absurdity, a superficial engagement with life, an inability to appreciate the joy of simple living.
All these are attestations of cultural decline.
• Institutionalisation- The institutional mind is characterized by a complete inability to function outside a domineering and authoritarian structure.
In sophisticated social structures the ordered predictability, relative safety and efficiency it imposes become addictive to its participants.
This addiction sometimes has effects on an individual’s daily habits and rituals where any source of chaos and disorderliness causes anxiety and stress.
As the sheltering environment of the social structure diminishes the primordial instinctual drives are rekindled within a body unable to tolerate them or defuse them because now it has been domesticated.
• Boredom is a by-product of social structure.
The mind, evolved for more unpredictable and stressful environments, must be diverted through surrogate means.
Excessive work, ubiquitous entertainment, available legal and illegal medications and sexual promiscuity are some of the alternative diverting methods.
Fatigue a placating mechanism where the mind is drained of its energies and leisure becomes a luxury to be earned.
• Deinstitutionalisation- As the bars rust and the walls crumble, through neglect, the guards become complacent and sleep in the shadows.
Those that were once shackled suddenly find themselves in the open air surrounded by horizons of direction.
This is when some turn back in horror and try to rebuild the very walls that kept them in before.
Some go mad and cannot deal with the solitude of independence and the responsibility of choice.
The rest turn desperately to one another for comfort. Through this new alliance they build stronger structures using the lessons of the past as a guide and become more efficient jailers.
• Reason- The source of disillusionment and the loss of contentment can be found in the rebellious nature of reason.
It resists the incarceration of the body and the jurisdiction of instinct is questioned.
This conflict frees reason from the precinct of body but it then leaves it destitute scanning its surroundings for direction.
• Like all forms of resistance its success or failure is determined by its ability to conceal itself, by its ability to find fertile ground to grow in and its ability to adapt and alter strategies as the circumstances demand.
At times these strategies are more productively directed towards the self.
• The fate of every unpopular rebellion is that it becomes a caricature of itself and is mocked by all not touched by its spirit or its concerns.
• Schopenhauer believed that music was the purest expression of the underlying universal Will.
Given this very eloquent appraisal it would be easy to assume that the type of music an individual connects with most accurately represents the reverberations of his inner Will.
Consequently rebelliousness is most profoundly echoed through the angered energy and unyielding crescendo of the music it prefers.