The technical rationality of Modernity

The following quote was copy-pasted from page 583 and following of "Knowledge Formation. 6.2.1. The quasi-Worldview of Modernity".

This 1,150 page book will be available on my website this 27th of August.

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A given set of contextual settings forces a given future

The following quote was copy-pasted from the introduction of "Knowledge Formation. 6.2. A given context forces a given future" starting on page 570 and following.

This 1,150 page book will be available on my website this 27th of August.

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Marx confused the substance of capitalism for its form and this resulted in a temporary victory of Western big capital holders 150 years later

In my last post from 2003-03-06 I mentioned that I would try to give a monthly quote of parts of the book "Knowledge formation" that I was writing. I have not been able to keep this promise because my attention was fully absorbed by writing the book which visibly hindered my capability to conciliate the extreme focus, necessary to write it, with a weekly interruption to publish an extract of it.

Writing the book is finally terminated and my focus is presently on the customization of its published form. Its 1,150 pages will be available for download this 27th of August on my website. Until then I'll publish some parts that I personally find of particular interest.

Today's quote explains why the left, and the working class which represent over 90% of the population, have been defeated by Western big capital holders. Yes, as Warren Buffet recognized some years ago, his class has indeed won the class war. But, rest reassured, it was merely a temporary victory !  The failure of the Western left, and of the Soviet-Union, was due to Marx's confusion of the substance of capitalism for its form which Marxism has perpetuated to this day. China's millennial practice and theory, about societal governance, gave to the Communist Party of China the clout to see through this confusion and its success proved that "There Is An Alternative" (TIAA) to Western-hegemony after all. Herein resides Russia's daring to claim its territorial security from the West and the energized mood of the Global South that no longer hesitates to say no to the West !

The following quote was copy-pasted, from page 335 and following, of "Knowledge Formation. 4.2.1. Rupture versus continuity".

Foreword to "Societal Knowledge Formation".

This is a first post related to the book "Societal Knowledge Formation" that I'm presently writing.

I'll try to give a monthly extract of parts of the book that I personally find particularly interesting. The present post is the foreword to the book.

 

The e-book “The perspective of the grandmother of all nations" is online

I just uploaded the eBook “The perspective of the 5,000 year old grandmother of all nations”. 

It is a compilation, and edited version, of my series of 5 articles under the same title. 

This book examines the contemporary through the lens of my recently published book “Modernity”. 

The perspective of the 5,000 year old grandmother of all nations. Part 5. the necessity of a new societal paradigm and an actualization of our societal worldviews

In these twenties humanity is in the midst of a Geo-Political storm that is being activated by the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world from the West to East-Asia. 

The perspective of the 5,000 year old grandmother of all nations. Part 4. Western Modernity or Chinese Modernity ?

I started Part 1 with the following sentence :

"The media noise nowadays relates in one way or another to the Western refusal to accept the natural shift of the economy-world to East-Asia."

The perspective of the 5,000 year old grandmother of all nations. Part 3. While the West falls apart China ensures its technological self-sufficiency.

The impetuosity of the US adolescent nation culminated during the Trump presidency. Aware that the Middle-Class' had fallen into poverty Donald Trump got elected because he focused on the hope of "Making America Great Again". But he knew that the dream of going back to the sixties was a non starter and so, as an inveterate racist, he scapegoated China. The peak of his trash-talking came when, unable to address Covid-19, his administration accused China of having unleashed the virus on the world and declaring that it was thus liable to pay trillions of dollars in damages.

The perspective of the 5,000 year old grandmother of all nations. Part 2. An impetuous adolescent USA gets isolated in its corner of the world

Western decision-makers seem to be stuck, in a highly chaotic bout of delusion, absolutely impervious to the facts on the ground of our planet earth. 

 

This is how the Global times recently summarized this Western chaotic bout of delusion : 

 

The perspective of the 5,000 year old grandmother of all nations. Part 1. An adolescent is sowing Chaos all around !

Before I retreat, for something as a full year in hibernation, to edit the volume 3 of my series "From Modernity to After-Modernity" that is  titled "Societal Knowledge Formation", I would like to share my interpretation of China's perception, as the 5,000 year old grandmother of all nations on earth, about humanity's present state of affairs.

You can read the extensive version of this summary in "Modernity 02", or in "The Great Turning". 

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Total digital variations grew to 4396 paintings

In between writing... here is an update on my digital variations. 

I selected 4 variations, from each of the series terminated as of today, to let you see their evolution over time.

The links bring you to the full galleries corresponding to each particular series.

Click on the images to get a larger version (1200 x 800 px).  Have a great surf.

The ebook "The Great Turning” is online.

 

I just uploaded the ebook “The Great Turning”. It is a compilation, and edited version, of my series of 10 articles under the same title. “The Great Turning” examines the contemporary through the lens of my recently published book “Modernity”.

The great turning (11)

10. A new worldview in After-Modernity

The historical combination of the societal disintegration of the West, with China’s economic rise to the top spot, have initiated the hope in the Global South of a potential liberation from Western hegemony. But, notwithstanding this potential, it is already a mathematical certainty that lifestyles comparable to the present ones in the West will never become available in the Global South !

The Great Turning (10)

9. The Fall of Modernity

At first sight one might think that what is at stake, in these two-thousand twenties, is the rejection of Western hegemony which, the large majority of citizens by now know is entirely geared toward privileging the biggest Western capital owners, their Multi-National corporations, and their armies of servants : — state bureaucracies and their units of force — the intellectuals and scientists — the managerial class — the professionals in charge of those technologies that sustain the systems of state and corporate institutions.

The Great Turning (09)

8. The Russian operation in Ukraine is a rallying cry against uni-polarity (1)

At the image of a train, whose engine has stopped running for lack of energy but that continues to move powered solely by the force of its physical inertia, a society, that is atomized, loses the existential power conferred to her by the initiative of her citizens, but it continues to move forward for some more time powered by the sole force of its societal inertia.

The Great Turning (08)

7. Western resistance to the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world to East-Asia

Over the last decade the center of gravity of the economy-world has been shifting extremely rapidly to east-Asia. But, as the graph hereunder illustrates (1), that shift is in reality no more than a return to the historical normality of these last 2,000 years.

The Great Turning (07)

6. ‘separation – rationality – scientific knowings’ / ‘interconnectedness – pragmatism – knowledge’

Content of this article (8000 words)

6.1. Animism = ‘interconnectedness – logic of pragmatism – traditional knowledge’
6.1.1. The reduction of individual suffering
6.1.2. Institutional reproduction of the societal group
6.2. Modernity = ‘separation – rationality – scientific knowings’
6.3. knowledge versus science
6.3.1. About the finality of knowledge and science
6.3.2. About the nature of knowledge and science
6.3.3. science and rationalism versus knowledge
6.3.4. How knowledge got kicked out of the picture

The Great Turning (06)

5. The expansion of the paradigm of Modernity into philosophic rationalism and science

As I wrote in Part 3 “the pragmatic common sense of the long distance merchants ensured the thriving of 'the reason' but this came at the price of subduing its development as a worldview”. This implies that by leaving “the reason” unspoken, in its fundamentalist Christian context, it was given the chance to thrive.

The Great Turning (05)

4. how did Modernity arise ?

 

 

Modernity did arise with the emergence of the paradigm of  “the reason that is at work in the transformation of money into capital”.

 

The Great Turning (04)

3. The Continuum of the societal cultural field

This title is also the title of the first volume of my collection “From Modernity to After-Modernity” and I summarized the gist of this volume in “Part 6. The cultural continuum” of my “synthesis” of the collection's 5 volumes.

Hereafter I first give a 4 points contextual condensation of the process that is at work in “the continuum of the societal cultural field”. Then I use this 4 points condensation to illustrate the formation of daily culture in the West and in China and how the result is such a contrast of different visions, mental representations, and perceptions that, due to our failure to understand the mechanisms of daily culture formation, remain most often irreconcilable.

The Great Turning (03)

2. A new lease on life for the unipolar world ?

The prospect of an ending of Western hegemony implies that the days of Western prosperity, by sucking the resources of “the others”, are coming to an end and this means the following : 

Peasant Pelosi goes to Taiwan

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tale at the end of Western modernity. 

 

 

The Great turning (02)

1. How the West created the conditions of its downfall ?

The end of Western hegemony was predicated by the class-war mindset of Western big capital holders, and their institutional servants, who could not fathom that the social-wellness of the nineteen-fifties and sixties was foundational to the Western economic boom of the time.

The Great Turning (01)

This is an introduction to a series of 10 articles in which I describe the contemporary moment through the lens of my just published book “Modernity”. Starting today I’ll publish a new article every Friday until attaining the end of the series.

The Western axis of evil is not taking well the inevitabilty of its collapse !

Day after day our minds get ever more confused by the not-ceasing media noise. 

 

I followed the advice, that I personally gave in one of my last articles related to the Ukrainian mess, to avoid the daily garbage bin of words... 

 

But you have nevertheless to be attentive because a rare pearl of deep thinking sometimes is mixed in the trash and you have to be ready to dig for it.