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”.

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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 !

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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”.

 

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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.

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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. 

 

 

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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.

You and China's Digital Yuan

Watch Richard Turrin's last video about China's Digital Yuan and the impact it will have on money and payments around the world. This is technologically world-changing stuff that will leave Western countries in the stone age ... 

I uploaded the "Synthesis" = Volume 00 of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity"

The synthesis of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity" just got published in e-book form and is available from my website. The 1st edition totals 128 pages.

The complete series totals 6 volumes :

I uploaded "Modernity" : the 2nd Volume of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity"

The second volume of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity" just got published in e-book form and is available from my website. The 1st edition totals 1,022 pages.

The complete series will total 5 volumes :

Volume 0 :  From Modernity to After-Modernity      (100 pages Synthesis)
Volume 1 : The continuum of the cultural field
Volume 2 : Modernity
Volume 3 : The societal formation of knowledge
Volume 4 : The essence of the arts is societal and not individual
Volume 5 : Societal evolution

Wider context of Ukraine's local fireworks celebrating a changing world order

The present Ukrainian episode of our shifting global order is omnipresent throughout the media all over the world. But its daily news is completely detached from the broader context of the last fifty years that planted the roots for its emergence today.

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The sudden rise of the 87% !

I'm personally struck, and this since the end of February, by the historical rejection of Modernity as the cultural field of the West by the whole non-Western world. It is a historical reality simply because for the first time in its history Western Modernity is opposed by a front bringing together 87% of the world's population which refuses to obey the Western diktat ordering to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. 

Western moment of madness at the end of Modernity !

I terminated my last article, dated 2022-03-25, with the following words :

"... to keep your sanity, and to avoid having your mind being captured by Western propaganda, I hope everyone stays as far as possible from the daily news about the fighting in Ukraine. To keep one's sanity one better remember that the daily news is a propaganda ploy to distract from the big picture… "

Ukraine : the local eruption of a shifting global order

At the core of our present moment figures the West trying to force its vision of a new "Rules Based Order" on the world at large. China is refusing to submit to such a forced Western order, or world government, and because of this the West has entered into full attack mode against China.

Is the Western paper-tiger on the verge of immolating itself ?

Never have I witnessed such a Western propagandist rage than around the question of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. It's nothing short of sickening and it begs the question "How on earth can otherwise reasonable people act and talk so far out of their normal selves ?". And where do they find the guts to shout in the face of the world that they are "the world community". Zhao Lizhang, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, did not miss sticking the map of their "world community" under their noses:

Is the West taking an existential risk to remain the sole tiger on top of the mountain ?

Part 3, of my last article "Deal with it : Dualism drives the thinking of Western minds !", was titled "The mainstream media announces "The Globalization of White Supremacy". In it I stated the following :

Deal with it : Dualism drives the thinking of Western minds

For 30 years M. K. Bhadrakumar was an Indian diplomat. He is now retired and writes about "Indian foreign policy and the affairs of the Middle East, Eurasia, Central Asia, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific". His views are those of a humanist who has reflected during his entire life on how the last Centuries of Asian misery, at the hands of white Christian Europeans, are shaping the cultural contours of Eurasia in this 21st century.

China will be instrumental in solving Europe's security and some more.

The USA was powerless to prevent Russia from acting in Ukraine to guarantee its security. And its adventurism, in the face of its loss of hegemony, excludes the possibility that the USA could ever be part of a solution to Europe's security problem. To have any security at all Europe will, one day, be forced to recognize the fact that the grand-mother of all civilizations is the sole impartial mediator that has the necessary wisdom to possibly avoid a Europe-wide conflict by guiding the parties directly concerned to a solution that is acceptable to all.

Separating Europe from China in the hope of remaining forever the sole Tiger on the mountain

Over the whole of its time-span Modernity has witnessed 7 shifts of the center of gravity of its economy-world. An eight’s shift is presently in the works that moves the center of gravity of the economy-world from the USA to China. But this time around it is leaving the territorial domain of the Western civilization for what Western eyes view as an "otherworldly" civilization. And Western minds have difficulties to accept this unfolding reality.

The great game for the soul of humanity in tomorrow's world

The context of Russia's two Treaty proposals with the West just got unveiled without ambiguity by Sergey Karaganov in an article, titled "It’s not really about Ukraine", that got published yesterday by RT :

"The security system in Europe, built largely by the West after the 1990s without a peace treaty having been signed after the end of the previous Cold War, is dangerously unsustainable.
... There are a few ways to solve the narrow Ukrainian problem ... But the task is wider: to build a viable system on the ruins of the present. And without resorting to arms, of course. Probably in the wider Greater Eurasian framework. "

What is at stake is thus what kind of a world we are going to be living in tomorrow !

Geopolitics was shaken to the core this 4th of February !

 

 

 Some Western commentators speculate that Western societies are facing a moment of truth because '...perhaps we are touching the crux of what is hybrid warfare that threatens the System with general upheaval.'  

 

 

A French vision about "The Russian Vision".

 

 

 

 

  I just read a good commentary titled, "La vision russe" or "The Russian vision", on the French blog dedefensa.org and I submitted the following comment :  

 

 

Visual arts served different functions throughout history

I'm in the final editing of the volume 2, of my series, titled "Modernity" ... and can't resist sharing this short passage about the different functions visual arts have assumed under the different models of society that succeeded each other along the path of societal evolution. 
 

Bear in mind that the volume 4 of this series will focus exclusively on the arts so my touching on this subject in the volume "Modernity" is necessarily sketchy... 

 

Anxiety in this frightful Geopolitical moment...

In an article, titled "Iran-Russia hit maximum strategy", Pepe Escobar sums up the gist of the anxiety that characterizes the present Geopolitical moment :

“One of the crucial geopolitical questions of our time is how an emergent, supposedly Chinese hegemony will articulate itself. If actions speak louder than words, then Sino-hegemony looks loose, malleable and inclusive, starkly different to the US variety”.

 

Humanity's fate will most probably be decided in this first quarter of 2022

The first quarter of 2022 will most probably be remembered, for a long time to come, for having decided humanity's model of collective response to "the Great Convergence of Late-Modernity". If I'm proven right then what happens in this month of January will be determinant for the future of humanity.

So how best can we summarize the situation ?

A Chinese-Russian Christmas tale ?

I spend my time, retreated from society, writing thinking and image-making. I'm presently writing a volume about Modernity. My perception is thus necessarily the long haul. Unfortunately these last few days the anti-system bloggers, who constitute my first source of information, were overtaken by too much fantasy for my taste. 
To console myself in this period of the Year I hereafter share a Geopolitical Christmas tale that is rooted in the last episodes of actuality.

Debt jubilees merely treated societal symptoms ...

The following is an extract from the "Volume 2. Modernity" of my series "From Modernity to After-Modernity" that I'm presently editing.

I give this extract as a blog post because it is adding some more substance to the post "Michael Hudson Asks Naked Capitalism's readers... " that I published on 2021-04-15. 

Art versus propaganda

The difference between propaganda and art resides in the function of their signs.

The first is at the service of individualism while the latter serves the community (1) : 

 

Digital wall 301 is online

The complete gallery of 256 digital variations that compose wall 301 is online and so the total digital variations grew to 3,884.

Here under are a few sample panels from this last collection. The size of the printed panels of each of these variations is 60 x 90 cm and added together they form a wall of 9.6 x 14.4 meters. 

Click on the images to get a larger size at 1200 x 800 px.

"The Continuum of the Cultural Field" got finally published.

The first volume of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity" just got published in e-book form and is available from my website. The 1st edition totals 705 pages.

The complete series will total 5 volumes : 

Volume 1 : The continuum of the cultural field
Volume 2 : From Early-Modernity to After-Modernity
Volume 3 : The societal formation of knowledge
Volume 4 : The essence of the arts is societal and not individual
Volume 5 : Societal evolution and societal governance

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"The continuity of the cultural field" (10). The axioms of civilizations

3.2.1. Signals of imperial stabilization

An empire is a system of governance reigning over multiple cohesive polities. By cohesive polities I mean societies whose citizens have been bound together for multiple generations through the sharing of a common worldview. Over time such a binding necessarily resulted in the creation of institutions and habits that grew their specific national flavors. 

"The continuity of the cultural field" (9). The axioms of civilizations

3.2. Imperial stabilization

The earth's average temperatures increased abruptly some 12,000 years ago and they stabilized a little less than 9000 years ago. Since then they have varied within a very narrow bandwidth, of + 0.5 °C to - 0.5 °C, which procured humanity a unique climate stability that climatologists have never observed in the earlier climate history of the earth.

"The continuity of the cultural field" (8). The axioms of civilizations

3.1.3. The growth of village population fostered ever more recourse to force

Ultimately free tribesmen did not rush to adopt agriculture. It was not as if this new technology was adopted after having been perceived to offer the paradise on earth. The rise of agriculture was imposed as an answer to an existential threat. Three factors combined that imposed its rise  :

 

Michael Hudson Asks Naked Capitalism's readers...

 

 Michael Hudson's article "If Democracy Winds Up Creating Financial Dominance, What Do We Call China?" attracted a flood of comments, on the blog "Naked Capitalism", to which I added my two cents.

Here follows an edited version of my comments.

"The continuity of the cultural field" (7). The axioms of civilizations

3.1.2. Force stabilized village life

The period between 8,000 and 5,000 years ago was generally characterized by trial and errors to stabilize and reproduce the institutions of power which was accompanied by the parallel trials at sharing the narrative of new worldviews.

"The continuity of the cultural field" (6). The axioms of civilizations

3.1.1. agriculture had been experimented long before answering a vital societal need

The reason agriculture finally got practiced some 10,000 years ago in the Tri-Continental-Area was not at all because tribal populations had suddenly discovered the marvels of seeding and harvesting.

"The continuity of the cultural field" (5). The axioms of civilizations

3.1. About Early Kingdoms and Empires

Some 11,700 years ago an abrupt climate warming put in motion a cascade of events that unleashed a deep destabilization of the life conditions that had prevailed over the past tens of thousands of years during which people had been living in tribal societies the world over. It was this destabilization that put in motion a societal chain reaction which ultimately set humanity on the long and tortuous path of civilization building.

"The continuity of the cultural field" (4). The axioms of civilizations

Part 3.  the axioms of civilizations

Introduction  

I plan on publishing this part 3 in its entirety on this blog (6-8 more articles). 

Being one part of a book, that is in the final stages of editing, these articles do not give a footnote explanation for some dates and facts because these facts have been touched upon in the earlier sections of the book.

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" (3). Two irreconcilable understandings about how reality operates.

Here is a chapter of "The continuity of the cultural field" that addresses the origins of the night and day difference between the civilizations of the West and of China.

2.2.4. shared worldviews stabilized early power societies 

"The continuity of the cultural field". (2) Modernity is dieing. What comes after Modernity ?

While writing my earlier books I published a first draft  week after week.  

For the present book I will, from time to time, publish some parts that I think illustrate a particular   flavor of our present air of the time. 

 

Today I offer a chapter about what comes after Modernity.
Your comments are welcome.

"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 :

 

 

Digital variations : Wall 205 is online

The complete gallery of 256 digital variations that compose wall 205 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection. The size of each of these variations is 60 x 90 cm and the complete wall is 9.6 x 14.4 meters. 

 Click on the images to get a larger size at 1200 x 800 px.