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Hinduist "four ugas" capture this idea very well: the golden age when strong and good create values, the silver age when weak and good uphold the values, the br
by akomtu 3y ago
Hinduist "four ugas" capture this idea very well: the golden age when strong and good create values, the silver age when weak and good uphold the values, the bronze age when weak with sloppy morals let the values decline, the iron age when strong and evil destroy the values.
I doubt that the current situation with marriage institute is seen as a problem by those in power. As we're progressing towards the iron age, the culture of indiscriminate hookups will prevail and will be celebrated by governments, the only motive of short connections will be greed and lust, and the kids, occasionally born from such encounters will be raised in the gov kindergartens. And people will worship AI that, among other things, will match pairs on the dating market.
- shrimp_emoji 3y agoWoah. The Ancient Greeks did the metal thing too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_Man Maybe it was an even earlier Proto-Indo-European meme that radiated out to everyone.
- akomtu 3y agoSpeaking of Greeks, they believed that such universal ideas come from the world of ideas, or the world of archetypes; great thinkers merely perceive this world, and that's why different cultures seemingly by accident end up with the same ideas in their "books of wisdom". In this worldview, the achievement of greek or indian philosophers isn't creating the idea of the four ages, but expressing it in the limited thoughts framework they had to deal with. It's a lot like how painters try to express what they see on a small flat rectangle of paper.
- shrimp_emoji 3y agoThey were wrong; it's all from the Proto-Indo-Europeans.
- PoignardAzur 3y agoDeveraux's blog makes a good argument that this meme is ahistorical: https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collections-the-fremen-mirage-part-i-war-at-the-dawn-of-civilization/ https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collections-the-fremen-mirage-... Tldr: we glorify the men of harsh societies shaped by scarcity, but soft liberal societies actually outcompete them militarily and economically.
- akomtu 3y ago"Strong" in the golden age has nothing to do with physical strength. It's about moral strength, when one does the right thing even under grave pressure. The harsh strength comes into play in the iron age when might is the right.