Politics has been going on for a long time, and sometimes it is so subtle that we don’t even realize politics is involved. If we look at non-monotheistic religions we notice that they are grounded in a cyclic way of life.
Hinduism is a case in point, with life, nature and the universe going in great cycles. In life, we have continual rebirth in reincarnation; in nature the religion is grounded in the natural cycles of the seasons; in the universe and existence, everything goes forever around in cycles known as yugas.
Monotheistic societies and their modern, secular offsprings such as the west are not cyclic, but linear. Things don’t go in cycles, but follow a path from a beginning to an eventual end, and the purpose of existence is to continually change and advance.
This is where the Creation and eventual Apocalypse come from. It is reflected in the secular with concepts such as the Big Bang giving the universe a beginning, so it must eventually end in Heat Death.
This redefining of life from the cyclic to the linear was perhaps the greatest, and worst, social achievement of mankind. For in a cyclic world you do not have to change for the cycle carries you along anyway. In such a mind-set, there is no need to advance.
The success of the west was due to the monotheist politicization of the linear. It placed into man the notion that change doesn’t occur naturally, but by his own effort. It is THE idea behind the modern world. It defined why we advance, and it enslaved us in continual struggle. And it was defined millennia ago.
I guess they knew how to do politics a lot better than us in those days.
© Anthony North, Mar 2007
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