Yes, I think any fair reading of history points to cycles. What’s kind of hilarious to me is that one of the best historians, Marx, totally decided to ignore that reality and project a Happy End Time Utopia for humanity. And then we also had Francis Fukuyama, with the End of History, thinking that Neoliberalism was that permanent state of cosmic happiness.
I’m not sure where Christianity fits into all of this. It is often blamed for this optimistic bent, but the Orbus Fortuna was a medieval concept and that was a thoroughly Christian culture. Early Christians (and Jews) of that era were expecting a permanent real-world Return of the King situation, but quickly pushed any hope of a final peace into the afterlife.
Yes, I think any fair reading of history points to cycles. What’s kind of hilarious to me is that one of the best historians, Marx, totally decided to ignore that reality and project a Happy End Time Utopia for humanity. And then we also had Francis Fukuyama, with the End of History, thinking that Neoliberalism was that permanent state of cosmic happiness.
I’m not sure where Christianity fits into all of this. It is often blamed for this optimistic bent, but the Orbus Fortuna was a medieval concept and that was a thoroughly Christian culture. Early Christians (and Jews) of that era were expecting a permanent real-world Return of the King situation, but quickly pushed any hope of a final peace into the afterlife.