© Public Domain
A strange
ennui and distracted attention envelops the West today.
Hat-tip to
Simplicius' Bones of Tomorrow, in which he reflects on a Culture that has become debased; its lures that used to trap us into the 'Myth of the West' lie withered, as patently false idols. The dimming fire has squandered any sense of 'magic' in the guttering West, or indeed of hope to recoup this something 'lost'. It is the wistful realisation that -
as it stands - the myth is never likely to offer anything of lasting value again.
The
figments of a utopian future once promised, nonetheless continue their seductive hold on our psyche, but only on attention-hopping, hypnotic touch-screens. Cultural touchstones crumble around us like rotting edifices one after another. Yet, we are too distracted to take real notice, or to absorb the significance. Counter 'currents' in the shadows gleefully applaud.
Where we stand now is where we've always stood - in the quicksands of time. A passing of the guard; one world fading, deep into the slow, declining burnout phase, the natural process of decay and renewal, whilst taking us forward towards some next, still-to-sprout, green shoots. A sense of something lost and never to be found again, which we all endure these days.
The 'Elect' though, have deliberately raised the stakes. They do not want to 'let go'. They have determined that, with the western train wrecked on its own cultural 'wall', the 'End of Time' story of convergence on a common future is 'over' too.And along with it, the claimed western mandate to dictate the 'direction forward' is over also.
Beneath the gimcrack and baubled veneer, the western meta-narrative
"from Plato to NATO, that superior ideas and practices whose origins lie in ancient Greece, and have been transmitted down the ages so that those in the West today, are the lucky inheritors of a superior cultural DNA" has transpired to be nothing more than the faded tinselry of hollow narrative.
This is the deep fear of western political leaders - they know the 'Narrative' to be a fiction. Nonetheless, they go on telling it to themselves, despite knowing that our era has been made increasingly and dangerously contingent on this meta-myth. Absent the Myth, they sense, the western project, and western prosperity, could disintegrate utterly.
Comment: Nothing says 'winning' like the call to totally mobilize a population. Russia has already defeated three NATO armies. The chances that a fourth could ever be constituted are slim to none, even if armaments could be found. There are no personnel to use them. And the U.S./NATO know it.
Scott Ritter from June 2023: