tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post193539207669254419..comments2024-03-29T02:03:49.151-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: What Balzac can tell usDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-49647291944978264962015-01-24T08:27:45.643-05:002015-01-24T08:27:45.643-05:00Thank you for this post. Generally, I tend to thi...Thank you for this post. Generally, I tend to think that we have reached and discovered new depravities all by ourselves. But I have hopes that you are right and someday, long after we are gone, things will be better for the spirit and for the flesh.<br /><br />That it will not be ours is fine. As long as it returns for others who care.<br /><br />Thanks<br /><br />JIm Assurance-First-Assurancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03957716561174470697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-8220879996645789372015-01-23T16:42:32.451-05:002015-01-23T16:42:32.451-05:00What free time I have I try to keep up on rapidly ...What free time I have I try to keep up on rapidly changing current events. However like you I find that reading older more basic works is very instructive in times of crisis to gain perspective on present reality. I had started reading the 1951 detective novel in french by simenon 'lettres a mon juge' and the mind set is quite different to today. I had also read a short story by Eric-Emmanuell Schmitt 'Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran'. Madame Bovary in original was a bit too difficult for me after some chapters.I try to read difficult works in german or english, in which I am fluent. In this way I can learn more in shorter time. For example Toynbee and Spengler are from another era, write in a difficult to understand way so that it slows one down like reading a foreign language.<br /><br />At any rate the generational theory is a god send for literary interpretation. Imagine Dickens, Shakespeare interpretations inhigh school lit courses. I read mill on the floss 1860-Tess of the durbervilles-1890s started portrait of a lady-1880s-with different-cyclical concepts of understanding. If I can see the first book as similar to 1940 and the other two as 60s to 70s similar then my personal understanding becomes more personal. I get it. They are not boring. The same is true of history in general. My Dad was like the young soldiers in Napoleonic wars or WWI vets in 20s-30s, great gatsby, tender is the night are like vietnam war or iraq war vets before and after 2008 crisis. Otherwise history, literature becomes a linear vacuum to be ignored as apparently, according to Spengler, the grecoromans ignored history.<br /><br />The greater picture I have recently picked up on is the greater civilizational cycle. The West has peaked, is going into winter phase. So we have 200-250 years, or 2-3 80-100 year cycles declining into cultural dark age. Roman empire at height was similarly corrupt.<br /><br />I have read you for a while and you keep to US history, your calling. Western history as a whole in such a cyclical perspective from say 1200 to 2200 would take us the whole cycle through but of course this is unsubstantial and ovrgeneralized unless like toynbee one writes 7000 pages or like spengler in very deep philosophical concepts.<br /><br />The 'Generations' book did a good job with England from 1600 to modern USA, 400 years. Spengler and Toynbee were of a different, European, intellectual class, with deep knowledge of classics, world history, philosophy. People born since WW II do not have such a background. My mother learned Greek and Latin in English school in 30s-40s as a matter of course but was more intereested in living languages. Sciences, technical training, business has taken precedence.<br /><br />Spengler would compare this with commercialization of art in roman times or perhaps 19th century. <br /><br />So combining generational and civilizational analysis would be very fruitful. Hero generation in 17th century fighting indians as opposed to hero generation 2100 being destroyed by climate change, coalition of foreign armies invadind usa. A rising optimistic culture vs. a declining one. We can learn lots from Europe, more from Rome.<br />Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.com