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Re: 5 Reasons We’re In This Mess - Toynbee&Quigley (21/04/19 20:30:26)
    The other day I was looking for Toynbee without any previous knowledge but - I knew that a great generation of scientists turned scifi writers were fascinated with him ( Bradbury - Toynbee Convector ). Arnold J. Toynbee was a historian who made a try at sketching up the life cycles of civilizations - and was probably the first to say that civilizations can come and go including ours. He's got massive amount published - his abridged Study of history Vol. I.-VI. and Vol. VII.-XII. in two books are well over a thousand pages ( see them on libgen ).

    Now the interesting part for me was the next generation. Carrol Quigley seems to be a unique historian ( not that I know many ), as someone who tries to apply a seriously SCIENTIFIC approach to history. I think one of his point is that "civilizations" have instruments necessary to their function. With time those instruments turn into institutions and cease their original function, instead simply try to exist. And that is where the fuckup starts. Coz people instead of focusing on real problems need to get an instrument instead of the institution.
    Obviously Quigley is far more coherent and interesting than my scribble. I've got Tragedy&Hope which begins with a fair introduction to World History ( in fact I would be delighted to go back to when I was 10 years old and have this as my single source of history ), but I've got tired so I put it aside halfway. Now I got "The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis", and I found it lovely especially its approach. The only question is how he isn't more dominant in the field of history.
    "5 Reasons We’re In This Mess" seems to me the typical opposite of what Quigley tried to spread. It's general western intellectual whining - could have been written by any of us, with no scientific approach, not pointing at the real problems, and of course neither offering any solutions to them.
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Re: 5 Reasons We’re In This Mess - Toynbee&Quigley