Daelach
Setian
Let me first make clear that I'm not talking about specific organisations, and that my time horizon stretches far. Step back from everyday business, I'm plunging into dynamics humans usually miss because our lives are so short.
For the last 300 years, we have gotten used to PROGRESS, basically since the enlightment era which started our (i.e.: Western) period of rationalism. Other cultures had this phase, too, e.g. ancient Greece, where the character we are used to call Nietzsche embodied as Plutarch, killing Pan instead of Jesus. By embodied, I don't mean rebirth, only two persons enacting the very same principle. Read Spenglers "Decline of the West" if you want to get the point more deeply - despite the stupid and midleading title, it is worth reading, in fact one of the best books I ever have come across. Especially where it gets a strange note of mysticism. Even Nietzsche is second to Spengler. But back to the topic.
The great difference is that since then, our culture has fueled its way by using finite energy resources. From wood to coal to oil, always to something better. Peakoil is about, which doesn't mean depletion (for now), only that the fueling can't be enlarged anymore.
What we call progress isn't just a product of "science", but as well a product of ever increasing energy consumption. Now that has come to an end. The very nation that put a man on the moon doesn't even have a manned space program anymore, which is highly symbolic for our situation. Luckily enough, I don't have to explain you the importance of symbols as condensed meaning, I dare to suppose that you know how to treat symbols. So for now, we have a stagnation. Just look at what the 1970s predictions where how we'd live today and where we are in reality.
Progress has become the ersatz religion of our age, inheriting religious structures. The heroes of progress have always been triumphant, if not in their time, than later in hindsight. Nothing could stop the great god Progress. Opposing Progress meant putting oneself at the loser's end. That pseudo-religion did not even hesitate to fake history, e.g. claiming that middle age people thought earth were the middle of the universe (which simply isn't true - despite the world view not being heliocentric). In fact, it wasn't until "progress" adopted religious dramaturgy that it really took off.
Each century saw new technology, new weapons, things that would have been miracles to past generations.
Now how does this relate to Setianism? The god Progress is a secular one, and what Setianism did was turning that back into the religious sphere. That's Xeper.
Secular progress has come to an end, basically, and in fact the reverse movement is already on its way. How much do average people get for their income? A little less each year. 30 Years ago, one average (!) man could feed wife and children alone - that has gone. Few remember.
Now I'm not into wild theories. The think tanks of the US army, the Australian Army, even the German military feature ressource problems and their implications, and in fact we are witnesssing ressource wars now - their aim is to postpone the changes which are inevitable anyway, in the long run.
And for now, it is only stagnation we are facing, stagnation in energy and ressource supply. The decline end of peakoil hasn't hit yet. Since our progress was based upon this supply, decline will not only stop progress but will turn it backwards.
Oh, I know the techno babble of cool tech that will do miracles, I'm a professional myself, but without the input, no output. If we could insert $MIRACLETECH, we would have done this already. We woulnd't be waging ressource wars.
A long intro, I know, but necessary for framing my actual question.
Now, my point is, when secular progress comes to an end, and in fact decline will set in, what will be the effects on Setianism - when the secular myth of progress was what essentially gave birth to modern Setianism?
I do see an important point, namely that Setianism never claimed to lead to some world-wide paradise. It is just a personal quest. It doesn't depend on secular progress, on new technology, or on an improving world. That is the point that gives Setianism some independence from the overall progress myth. Even if things are in decline, we still can have our personal quest.
The question is just whether Setianism has enough momentum of its own to survive the breakdown of its logical parent. In a future society that will have acknowldged the death of the secular god Progress, will its child Setianism have a life? Will a spiritual way embracing personal progress have a future in a world forced to embrace overall decline?
The wind of the world is about to turn. While Setianism has sailed with the wind so far, the question is whether it can also work to windward.
For the last 300 years, we have gotten used to PROGRESS, basically since the enlightment era which started our (i.e.: Western) period of rationalism. Other cultures had this phase, too, e.g. ancient Greece, where the character we are used to call Nietzsche embodied as Plutarch, killing Pan instead of Jesus. By embodied, I don't mean rebirth, only two persons enacting the very same principle. Read Spenglers "Decline of the West" if you want to get the point more deeply - despite the stupid and midleading title, it is worth reading, in fact one of the best books I ever have come across. Especially where it gets a strange note of mysticism. Even Nietzsche is second to Spengler. But back to the topic.
The great difference is that since then, our culture has fueled its way by using finite energy resources. From wood to coal to oil, always to something better. Peakoil is about, which doesn't mean depletion (for now), only that the fueling can't be enlarged anymore.
What we call progress isn't just a product of "science", but as well a product of ever increasing energy consumption. Now that has come to an end. The very nation that put a man on the moon doesn't even have a manned space program anymore, which is highly symbolic for our situation. Luckily enough, I don't have to explain you the importance of symbols as condensed meaning, I dare to suppose that you know how to treat symbols. So for now, we have a stagnation. Just look at what the 1970s predictions where how we'd live today and where we are in reality.
Progress has become the ersatz religion of our age, inheriting religious structures. The heroes of progress have always been triumphant, if not in their time, than later in hindsight. Nothing could stop the great god Progress. Opposing Progress meant putting oneself at the loser's end. That pseudo-religion did not even hesitate to fake history, e.g. claiming that middle age people thought earth were the middle of the universe (which simply isn't true - despite the world view not being heliocentric). In fact, it wasn't until "progress" adopted religious dramaturgy that it really took off.
Each century saw new technology, new weapons, things that would have been miracles to past generations.
Now how does this relate to Setianism? The god Progress is a secular one, and what Setianism did was turning that back into the religious sphere. That's Xeper.
Secular progress has come to an end, basically, and in fact the reverse movement is already on its way. How much do average people get for their income? A little less each year. 30 Years ago, one average (!) man could feed wife and children alone - that has gone. Few remember.
Now I'm not into wild theories. The think tanks of the US army, the Australian Army, even the German military feature ressource problems and their implications, and in fact we are witnesssing ressource wars now - their aim is to postpone the changes which are inevitable anyway, in the long run.
And for now, it is only stagnation we are facing, stagnation in energy and ressource supply. The decline end of peakoil hasn't hit yet. Since our progress was based upon this supply, decline will not only stop progress but will turn it backwards.
Oh, I know the techno babble of cool tech that will do miracles, I'm a professional myself, but without the input, no output. If we could insert $MIRACLETECH, we would have done this already. We woulnd't be waging ressource wars.
A long intro, I know, but necessary for framing my actual question.
Now, my point is, when secular progress comes to an end, and in fact decline will set in, what will be the effects on Setianism - when the secular myth of progress was what essentially gave birth to modern Setianism?
I do see an important point, namely that Setianism never claimed to lead to some world-wide paradise. It is just a personal quest. It doesn't depend on secular progress, on new technology, or on an improving world. That is the point that gives Setianism some independence from the overall progress myth. Even if things are in decline, we still can have our personal quest.
The question is just whether Setianism has enough momentum of its own to survive the breakdown of its logical parent. In a future society that will have acknowldged the death of the secular god Progress, will its child Setianism have a life? Will a spiritual way embracing personal progress have a future in a world forced to embrace overall decline?
The wind of the world is about to turn. While Setianism has sailed with the wind so far, the question is whether it can also work to windward.
