The e-book "Societal Knowledge Formation" is online.

I just uploaded the Volume 3, of the series about "The transition from Western-Modernity to After-Modernity", titled "Societal Knowledge Formation". 

It is now available on my website. 

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About the societal chaos fostered by the crisis of our times

I was reading an article this morning titled "L’Université et son double" published by Dedefensa a blogging platform in French. The title translates as "The university and its double" or better perhaps "the university and its shadow". My interest was prickled by an insistence on Modernity's excesses at all levels and more particularly by the expression "the  advancement of progress is galloping mad".  I commented the following :

"The continuity of the cultural field" : A new project (1)

I just commented on an article written by Peter Koenig for The Saker Blog.

The substance of this comment addresses one of the matters I'm presently writing about. 

Here follows this commentary :

 

 

First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (20)

 7.4.6. giving meaning to one’s life

Last article in this series. 8,052 words.
 

I want now to address, the perception of our present human condition, from a holistic angle. This placing into perspective, of the structural factors that shape the human condition in Late-Modernity, forms the conclusion of this long series of articles.

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Content

7.4.6.1. the whole is the ultimate purveyor of the universal potential
7.4.6.2. polarities are powering changes and transformations that open the doors to the universal potential
7.4.6.3. living species are the embodiment of life
7.4.6.4. Non-submission to the foundations of life results in the species’ extinction
7.4.6.5. the settlement of disputes, between their polarities, leads species toward more complexity
7.4.6.6. the loop from the whole to the local and back to the whole
7.4.6.7.  the true meaning of life
7.4.6.8. a new credo in After-Modernity

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First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (15)

Part 7. 

A changing context forces a new worldview and a new form of society to emerge

First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (13)

5. A gradual shift from a Western to an Eastern model of society

5.3. Covid-19 is a first fatal blow to Late-Modernity

Covid-19 did not collapse national economic systems as is portrayed in Western mainstream media. It was merely the catalyst that activated the clean-up of the many severe imbalances that had been accumulating since the nineteen-eighties which then exploded after the  great recession of 2007-2008 :

First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (6)

Part 4.  The virus is the pin that deflated the bubble of everything

“  In less than three decades, a mere blink of the eye in historical terms, the United States has gone from the world’s sole superpower to a massive foundering wreck that is helpless before the coronavirus and intent on blaming the rest of the world for its own shortcomings.  … But how and why did this pitiable condition come about? Is it all Donald Trump’s fault as so many now assume? Or did the process begin earlier?

The answer for any serious student of imperial politics is the latter. ... two things are clear. One is that the process did not start under Trump, while the other is that it will undoubtedly continue regardless of who wins in November. Once collapse sets in, it’s impossible to stop.”  (1)

First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (3)

Part 1.  Western propaganda distorts reality 

Late-Modernity, humanity’s present historical era, is being swept by two waves of worldwide changes that impact one another and announce a new historical era in the forming:

• the Late-Modern governance-world is undergoing a shift of its center of gravity from the West to the East (1)

• the side-effects of Modernity are increasingly becoming a threat to life on earth

The spectacle of a Western break-down

I had written a comment as a response on an article titled "It’s Time for Conscious Uncoupling With China" that was written by Dan Harris and published on "The China law blog" this April 11, 2020.

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I now share this response on my blog because "The China Law Blog" censured it while in no way does it peddle fake-news, nor does it attack individuals, nor does it use foul language. It conveys an analytical sketch of the present moment in history. In other words refusing to publish it was a blatant act of censuring free speech. A screenshot of freedom made in the USA...

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We are rapidly sliding into a new era

The 20ths of the 21st century are going to be remembered as a turning point in world History. Vital trends have been accelerating for years and are now reaching a tipping point. The overriding factor at work here is the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world from the West (with Washington-NewYork at its core) to the East (with Beijing-Shanghai at its core.

What’s going on here ? (11)

6. societal collapse


Over their thousands of years of observation, of nature and of human activities in nature, the ancient tribal wo(men) of knowledge concluded that humans have a nefarious tendency to damage their habitat. To counter this tendency they devised what is called “the precautionary principle” or in the words of Black Elk “the 7th Generation principle”.1 Both of these principles teach that it is imperative to make certain every, personal or societal, decision will not negatively impact the life of future generations. These principles are part of a worldview that was elaborated over the long time span of tens of thousands of years.


With Modernity ‘the reason that is at work within capital’ concerns itself with one thing only and that is to generate profits. Those who venerate the reason get rich and enjoy an abundance of material possessions. All other citizens envy their richness and the abundance of their possessions. This worldview was elaborated over the relatively short time span of 6-8 centuries.
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What’s going on here ? (10)

5. art in the societal maelstrom

 
“ The situation we are in –in terms of what receives attention and prominence– is post-art. At this time, and in social space, art is basically an adjunct of the entertainment business. … The issue is how to snap art out of its death trance –living its own death, so to speak– and make it once again a living and lived experience.” ¹.

“How to snap art out of its death trance and make it once again a living and lived experience” ?    Hum… assumptions will not revive the function of art Mr. Kuspit !

The reality is that, over 99.9% of the historical span of societal evolution, art was first and foremost a societal matter while the individual genius was at best an accessory. In that sense snapping art out of its death trance, if it ever happens, will be a societal feat and not the heroic act of individual geniuses. And the probability, that such a societal feat will be instigated by human will, does not register high on the scale of realism.

But how did art enter its death trance in the first place ?

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What’s going on here ? (9)

4. determinant side-effects of Modernity

From a very long haul perspective the present re-balancing of world affairs appears as the rebuilding of the governance-world in the wake of a category 5 economic hurricane that swept the whole world of its postmodern pipe-dream fantasies. In contrast in the aftermath of the great convergence of all the side-effects of Modernity there is a very high probability that nothing will be left to rebuild. In the most innocuous of all possible scenarios only a small number of humans will survive who eventually will be forced to start a new cycle of “societal evolution” in order to survive.

Organic art = the patterns of life (3)

2.   how did Modernity emerge in Europe

Why is understanding the emergence of Modernity so important ? Well, in order to survive in the 20th century, all countries on earth were forced to convert to the quasi-worldview of Modernity and to the reason that is at work within capital. What ensued was a radical departure from the past that thoroughly impacted the ways of thinking and the behaviors of the individuals in all third-world nations. And this resulted in a blow-back of monumental proportion on their worldviews, culture, art, and societal governance.

I observed first hand how – the art world in Beijing during the eighties was mesmerized to ape Western productions, rock and punk music, the modernist avant-garde painting, – and how this resulted in three decades of sheer insanity. Things have certainly evolved since then but the blow-back resulting from aping the first world has still not been completely digested...

Having said that the fact of the matter is that the blow-back on the 3rd world is nothing compared to the chaos that was unleashed on the first world.

Today we come to suspect that Modernity and capitalism have cursed humanity. And nothing could liberate us more thoroughly from this curse than by gaining a clear comprehension of why and how Modernity emerged in Western Europe in the first place and how things then evolved toward Late-Modernity.

Organic art = the patterns of life (2)

1. The nature and function of art over the last tens of thousands of years


In my last article I wrote “ Life is a rare gift in the universe but our power societies, and more particularly the quasi-worldview of Modernity, lost touch with this evidence. Now that we start to grasp the fact that this gift could be taken away we come to appreciate that it is the most precious thing we ever had. ”

Since the principle of life is the most important thing we ever had would it not be logical to derive all our ideas and actions about how to live from this principle ?

The first question that arises is then ‘what is life? ‘.

A sketch of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity” (1)

A few weeks ago my friend Titus Hora (Facebook, Pinterest), and I, entered a conversation relating to art which is also the core subject of this blog. I wrote a sketch of a summary about my series of posts titled “From Modernity to After-Modernity” that I wanted to share with him and I post it here for the readers of this blog who might be interested.

After formatting the series I got some 1500 book pages that I’ll further edit and gradually publish within the coming months or years. This text is the first of two posts that sketch a summary, in 10 pages, of that series (1 page summary for every 150 pages in book format).

Big capital holders own Western ‘democracies’

In democracies a few families own controlling stakes of the capital that is invested in strategic sectors of the economy. This gives them, for example, the control over the media and ensures them the power to shape public opinion. And so the political decision making process is rendered captive of a public opinion that is being constantly framed around the interests of big capital holders.

Is America still a nation?

This 4th of July Patrick Buchanan asked if America is still a nation (1).

This question touches a raw nerve and our minds ache.
What will we do without America?

America First? Hum... but China Is already starting to Dominate Global Technology!

As I wrote in the first post of this series (A growing disconnect between Chinese and Westerners) "Change is assaulting our certainties as never before. The fields it affects are multiplying while its speed is accelerating and in consequence our minds are being numbed into incomprehension".

But few would ever think that these changes already imply that the technological center of gravity of the world is leaving the US. So what follows will come as a surprise to most. The reality is that China is sprinting investing all over the place while the West is broke, its societies atomized and on the verge of violent confrontations, and the interconnections between its systems are clogged like the arteries of a patient with advanced arteriosclerosis. Treating this condition is not a given and many specialists (economists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, etc...) believe that the patient is on its death bed. It should thus not come as a surprise that year after year, month after month, the scientific news is informing us that Western technological supremacy is sifting, one sector after the other, like sand falling through the fingers.

Imaginings of the future. Rational abstractions reached by the thinking mind…

1.  Past trends that help to understand the present: