{Crisis}[21st December 1990]

[Redbook8:134-135][19901221:1809]{Crisis}[21st December 1990]

19901221.1809

‘In the twentieth century, though the idea of progress has certainly not disappeared, it has been rivalled by ideas of cyclical change and of degeneration of society. It is hard to miss the currency of ideas in modern times – status, community, purpose, moral integration, on the one hand, and alienation, anomie, disintegration, breakdown on the other – that reveal only too clearly the divided nature of man’s spirit,* the unease of his mind.**

*

**[Encyclopaedia Britannica 27:372 (per next entry)]

[continued]

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{Recollection for Crisis (2)}[21st December 1990]

[Redbook8:134][19901221:0036]{Recollection for Crisis (2)}[21st December 1990]

(20)

21.0036

One of the characteristics of the G~-R~-C* Crisis Approach phase is, I think, supposed to be Recall – equivalent to the reported sequence of memories experienced in mortal danger.** It’s interesting that in the last century or so our knowledge of our own history – especially that since 0ce, but also from before then – has expended at an accelerating rate.

*{cf [[Redbook8:68][19901027:2248]{Recollection for Crisis (1)}[27th October 1990],] 68,

[[Redbook8:73][19901028:1630b]{Description, Explanation, and Transformation}[28th October 1990],] 73}

(Or is it now C-r~-g~? I forget!)

[Surely not, if Crisis Approach]

**(Maybe this is looking in experience for a solution?)

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{Amitology}*[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:134][19901220:1925d]{Amitology}*[20th December 1990]

.1925

[continued]

…and* (2) the necessity for the study of non-sexual altruistic love as a science in order to avert world-wide chaos. ‘In his** view, this necessity followed from his principle of polarisation, according to which the moral indifference prevailing under ordinary circumstances is supplanted, for the duration of a crisis, by the extremes of selfishness and altruism. His study of the possibility of consensus and peace through love and mutual aid is sometimes called “amitology”.’

*[See last previous entry]

**[Pitirim Sorokin; see last previous entry]

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{Sensate and Ideational}*[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:133][19901220:1925d]{Sensate and Ideational}*[20th December 1990]

.1925

[continued]

See E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 11:21, ‘Sorokin, Pitirim’, re (1) distinction of two kinds of socio-cultural systems: ‘“sensate”** (empirical, dependent on and encouraging natural sciences) and “ideational”*** (mystical, anti-intellectual, dependent on authority and faith)’; and...

*{([Redbook8:170][19910105:1005]{Sorokin on Historical Cycles}[5th January 1991,]170)}

**{?**inner circle v ***outer circle, broadly right-semicircle? (because basically concerned with the government and ‘higher’ classes (ie hierarchy) of society)}

***[See fn = ** above]

****[See next entry]

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{Twentieth Century Multiplication in the Social Sciences}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:133][19901220:1925c]{Twentieth Century Multiplication in the Social Sciences}[20th December 1990]

.1925

[continued]

‘What is seen in the 20^th century* is not only an intensification and spread of earlier tendencies in the social sciences but also the development of many new tendencies that, in the aggregate, make the 19^th century seem by comparison one of quiet unity and simplicity in the social sciences.’

– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 27:36, ‘The Social Sciences’], 371

*2048R~-C

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{Nineteenth Century Specialisation}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:133][19901220:1925b]{Nineteenth Century Specialisation}[20th December 1990]

.1925

[continued]

‘Admittedly, the differentiation of the social sciences in the 19^th century* was but one aspect of a larger process that was to be seen as vividly in the physical sciences and the humanities. No major field escaped the lure of specialisation and investigation, and clearly, a great deal of the sheer bulk of learning that passed from the 19^th to the 20^th century was the direct consequence of specialisation.’

– E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 27:36, ‘The Social Sciences’, p369

*2048R~ff

[Ironically, it is this movement to specialisation that has led to the great encyclopaedias, and especially perhaps the Encyclopaedia Britannica itself, no longer being taken seriously, long before the Internet and the World Wide Web made them uneconomic.]

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{Natural and Historical Cycles}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:132-133][19901220:1925]{Natural and Historical Cycles}[20th December 1990]

.1925

As well as relative freedom from external interference,* one might expect clearer historical cycles to appear in locations where the basic unit – in this case, the year – was more clearly noticeable.

In this connection, of course, the ancient Egyptian civilisation was utterly dependent upon the annual flood-cycle of the River Nile. Generally speaking, however, the cycle of the year must be more noticeable the further North one is,** with greater variation in length of days and (generally) temperature, agricultural growth, etc according to the time of year. So one might expect for this reason to find clearer cycles in (say) Northern Europe than in (say) the Middle East, or more especially {than} in (say) Northern or Central Africa.

But whether this is the case in fact, I do not know.

*ref [[Redbook8:125][19901213:0050b]{Insular Cycles and Interference ‘Patterns’ [continued]}[13th December 1990],] 125

**{Must it?}

[and (additionally) the further South of the Equator?]

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{Auguste Comte’s Crisis}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:132][19901220:1900]{Auguste Comte’s Crisis}[20th December 1990]

.1900

I note that the ‘peak’ of Auguste Comte’s* crisis, during which he tried to drown himself (after severe mental disturbances from April 1926, followed by deep depression and feelings of uselessness), occurred early in 1827. He was born on 19/1/1798, so in January 1827 he turned 29. By 1829, aged 31, he was up and going again. He was clearly a man who did not adhere naturally to tradition, rejecting his parents’ religion at the age of 14.

Perhaps this flexibility and independence of mind might allow a man to pass swiftly and in due time, if still painfully, through the stages of ‘mid-life’ crisis.**

*[See [Redbook8:4-7][19901003:1620d]{Social Evolution}[3rd October 1990]]

**cf VI. [[Redbook6:41-51)][19881128:2046]{Literary Circles}[28th November 1988],] 40ff

[for explanation of the page number discrepancy see fn=* on that ref]

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{[Period-doubling and Chaos [continued]] – Windows of Order in Chaos}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:131][19901220:1735c]{[Period-doubling and Chaos [continued]] – Windows of Order in Chaos}[20th December 1990]

.1735

[continued]

– ‘Chaos[[:] Making a New Science]’, James Gleick; Heinemann, [(London, 1988)], p74-5

cf The historical appearance & disappearance of cycles. Should I look for other periods (and their doubling series)? I suspect not, but I don’t know why.

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{Period-doubling and Chaos}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:130][19901220:1735b]{Period-doubling and Chaos}[20th December 1990]

.1735

[continued]

– Gleick,[James.] ‘Chaos[[:] Making a New Science.]’ [London, Heinemann, 1988], p71

*[For pp 74-75, see next entry]

[continued]

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{System-building}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:130][19901220:1735]{System-building}[20th December 1990]

.1735

‘When T.H. Huxley said that [Herbert] Spencer’s idea of a tragedy was “a deduction killed by a fact”, he called attention to the system-building feature of Spencer’s work that led him to look for what confirmed his theories and to ignore or to reinterpret what conflicted with them.’

– E[ncyclopaedia] B[ritannica] 11:83, ‘Spencer, Herbert’, p84.

(my emphasis [in which the double underlining [of 'or to reinterpret'] in the ts represents triple underlining in the ms])

[See [Redbook8:5][19901003:1620e]{Social Evolution [continued]}[3rd October 1990]]

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Gemistus Plethon}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:129][19901220:1535b]{Gemistus Plethon}[20th December 1990]

.1535

[continued]

(See also:* [‘]Gemistus Plethon, George[’ ] (below).)**

***

*[See last previous entry, fn=*]

**[ref article ‘Gemistus Plethon, George’ in Encyclopaedia Britannica 5:169 reproduced on this ms page, 129, but not reproduced here]

***[In the passage ‘Concerned more with the advancement of Neoplatonic philosophy than with religious questions, Plethon delivered to the Florentine Humanists the treatise “On the Difference Between Aristotle and Plato” and induced the | Forentine leader Cosimo de’ Medici to found the Platonic Academy of Florence that was to stimulate the renaissance movement|’, the words between the marks | & | here in this ts are highlighted by a vertical line in the ms margin against these lines of text.]

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{Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:128-129][19901220:1535]{Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft}[20th December 1990]

.1535

*

**

***

Although I had come across Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft before, I hadn’t appreciated how the opposition worked. Must learn German!

*[references the article ‘Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft’ from Encyclopaedia Britannica 5:168-169; p169 & the beginning of the article from p168 are reproduced on the next ms page, 129, but are not reproduced here]

** Gemeinschaft ‘Communal Society’ motivated by Wesenwille, ‘Natural Will’: Family, kinship systems, clans, new**** religious communities; marked by unity and solidarity.

[‘Wesenwille, ‘Natural Will’, includes impulses, unconscious drives, desires for emotional gratification, and spontaneous expressions of sentiment.’]*

*** Gesellschaft[,] ‘Associational Society’, the creation of Kürwille, ‘Rational Will’: Bureaucracy of modern government, armies, and industrial organisations;# characterised by a divorce of means and ends.

[‘Exists not for itself but for a well-defined purpose’]*

****(NB: ‘new’)

#[‘because they are affectively [sic] and morally neutral and because they are not based on prior status but upon roles rationally constructed to serve efficiency.’]*

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{[Lions and Horns in Mesopotamia [continued (3)]] – Goat in Branches}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:127-128][19901220:0958c]{[Lions and Horns in Mesopotamia [continued (3)]] – Goat in Branches}[20th December 1990]

19901220.0958

[continued]

‘The same medley of materials plus gold and silver was used in an enigmatic object, from a tomb at Ur, showing a rampant goat peering through shrubbery (British Museum, London). Its significance is difficult to understand – it seems to be more than just a picture of a goat. At the least it reflected the Sumerians’ strong belief that divine power resided in animals.’*

**

The ‘shrubbery’ is represented like an irregular 8-bracketed candelabra, in a virtually flat plane, with the goat peering through the middle, and resting his forefeet on the main junction, which also supports a ninth central piece or column. On the top of the 4^th or outer branch on each side of the goat is an ***8-pointed rosette

* ibid [E[ncylopaedia of] V[isual] A[rt] 1], 59-2{? [– Probably refers to the 2^nd text column]}

(See the {colour} photo on ibid 59)

{now attached here [see above]}

**cf [[Redbook8:152][19901223:1916]{Phoenician Symbols}[23rd December 1990],] 152

***(I can only actually count the petals of one)

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{Lions and Horns in Mesopotamia [continued]}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:127][19901220:0958b]{Lions and Horns in Mesopotamia [continued]}[20th December 1990]

19901220.0958

[continued]

‘Another prevalent motif*was that of an eagle** with spread wings and a leonine head resting its talons on the rumps of stags whose whose heads, in the round, are turned outwards in traditional manner.’

– ibid [E[ncylopaedia of] V[isual] A[rt] 1], 58

*(During the period of the early Sumerian city states, c[irca]3000-2371bc[e])

**[See diagram in last previous entry]

[continued]

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{Lions and Horns in Mesopotamia}[20th December 1990]

[Redbook8:127][19901220:0958]{Lions and Horns in Mesopotamia}[20th December 1990]

19901220.0958

‘Many cult vessels decorated in this heavier, later style* feature lions attacking domestic bulls: an epitome of the perpetual conflict in nature.’

– E[ncylopaedia of] V[isual] A[rt], 1:56

**

*during the Early Sumerian period (c3500-3000bc[e]) (later part)

**[re eagle in diagram, see next entry]

[cf [Redbook8:151][19901223:1916k]{More Mesopotamian Symbols [continued (11)] – Bulls and Lions}[23rd December 1990]]

[continued]

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