The Revolution Eats its Children
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Society is like an onion, ordered according to several layers. According to these layers, a revolution can happen (towards the center, or towards the outer layers). In this essay, I will explain the two opposites revolutions happening at the moment. This will also explain in which directions they will go.
A revolution consists of three parts: a spark, following cycles, and the end.
The main idea is the following: once a revolution has started, it has to play out. Each one starts a slow descent, from which it is impossible to escape. The revolution becomes something greater than then people that started it, eating them in the next cycle.
Introduction: revolutional structure
This revolution can attack two structures:
Hierarchical (top versus bottom)
Layers of society (from inside to outside, or the opposite)
Of course, in all revolutions both happen. In a normal hierarchy, there is an interaction between the top and the bottom. The top gives commands to the lower, but also cares for it. The lower provides and listens and protect the top. If the bottom wants too much, a revolution can happen, starting with several strikes. Think of a child that wants too much from his parents, without doing what is expected from him (doing chores…). The top can also stop to care (this is similar to the Vampire archetype1, which takes from the top, but never gives).
The second (layers of society) is an attack on the core, or on the borders. A society can attack itself at the center, always moving towards the corners of identity. If a society becomes self-destructive this way, it will implode. The move towards the corners are unsustainable. There needs to be a central pillar which holds something together. If there is no central stem to the tree, it will break. If there is no glue (love) in society, it will splinter). Another pattern is eternal purification, removal of the borders. The things which were just some minutes ago part of the system, are not anymore. This will also lead to breakdown, as the center becomes too empty.
Part 1: Uglification
At the core of a normal society, there is beauty. This can be clearly seen, as the natural tendency of each human is to strive towards beautiful things (visit monuments, have beautiful cars, have a beautiful spouse). Beauty attracts, ugliness repels. Humans need beauty to live and to thrive. The natural tendency was to move towards a more beautiful world.
Something strange happened in the last century. Something dark attacked: all art now had to be mocking traditional values. Beauty is essentially connected to the idea of traditional art, and thus, it got attacked as well.
Some 50 years later, we are still stuck in this strange attacking of the centre. The western world is still building ugliness everywhere, and bringing it to the furthest corners of the world.
This attack on beauty is in essence an attack on the core ideas of a society. There are many more ideas that hold a society together: love, clear identities…
We keep moving towards the borders (which are ugliness) and where society becomes confusing. In a healthy society, the monsters are kept out, and are kept at the borders. Nowadays, they are placed at the core of the villages, which was once the house of Beauty. There is no clear indication anymore which is the core of a village. This confusion of the center and the borders manifests itself on every front. A small example is that churches, which were once the center of a village, are not full anymore. The center, which once was, does not hold anymore.
The revolution eats its children, this essay was called. In this case, the attack on the core started, and what was considered beautiful 50 years ago now stands as a shameful testimony to past mistakes, ready to be destroyed and replaced by something just as “hip”. The ideas of 50 years long forgotten… The revolution continues and eats its children. It is clear that everything has to be replaced by this pervading dogma of ugliness. Each cycle of the iteration getting more meaningless and emptiness.
In this essay, Jonathan Pageau shows us how this pattern works, but on a hierarchical scale. He explains, based on a video of the Joker, how a chain of bankrobbers tries to get the money for themselves. The first bankrobber opens the safe. Then the second in a row kills the first. Then the third kills the second and realises he has to kill the fourth, but is too late. Ultimately, the Joker appears (and kills the last person), but he does not want the money. The revolution lead to nothing. 2
In part 1, I explained the move towards the borders. This revolution has started, and it is difficult, if not impossible to refocus on the centre. This focus on the strange and the border, calls itself inclusive or hip.
In part 2, I will explain a similar revolution, but now with an attack on the outside.
Part 2: Exclusion
The Catholic world holds fast to the dogmas that are unchangeable. It is possible to explain them more, but one cannot change the meaning of them. Adding dogmas have to be a very careful decision, because they impact a lot.
A society needs to have rock solid dogmas.
Build Your House on the Rock (Matthew 7:24 - 27)
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The modern society will still have its dogmas, but the disadvantage of it, is that they are now hidden. They are not made explicit. That makes it very hard to discover the hidden currents of thought. Everything a society builds on, can change in an instant. It becomes impossible to take steps back.
Once a society starts excluding people, based on arbitrary “dogmas”, the revolution has started. The outer layers of a society, will slowly disappear. And with each revolution, the circle will get smaller. While these steps will be not great, it will continue. It is impossible for revolutionary structures to admit to themselves that they were wrong and take a step back. They happen based on emotions and rarely on ratio.
Conclusion
Revolutionary patterns keep appearing everywhere. If a person truly want to oppose them, it is not enough to take one step back. To truly achieve something, one has to take all the steps back.
The rollercoaster of the revolution is inherently self-destructive, ending in a huge crash. To “solve” it, enough people have to save a seed, in order to prevent the whole system from collapsing and to have something after the collapse. That is why we need to hold fast and embrace the wisdom of the past, of a classical education, to cultivate virtues, to go to Church.
To prevent the revolution from happening, it is necessary to focus on the center. The Christian God is the center of all, of which everything comes. Christ will resurrect.
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The vampire (Jonathan Pageau): https://thesymbolicworld.com/articles/the-meaning-of-vampires-2/
Joker and Cancel Culture, Pageau: https://thesymbolicworld.com/videos/the-joker-and-cancel-culture/
The Revolution Eats its Children
I love it!
That scene as an example is perfect.
Think of the french revolution.