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What Season is this?

Started by Cramulus, March 10, 2008, 02:45:43 PM

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Cramulus

So according to the Book of Uterus, there are five seasons:
Chaos, Discord, Confusion, Bureaucracy, and Aftermath.



And these stand for stages of Order and Disorder. We can look at any society through this model and chart the rise of Order and it's eventual shift into Disorder. As I understand it:

Chaos is the beginning - it's a stage where nothing's even started yet. It's just an idea. "In the beginning there was nothing." I think of America's Chaos stage as colonial times. It wasn't America yet - just a loose idea of America. Edith Hamilton (in her retelling of Greek Mythology) says "First there was Chaos, the vast immeasurable abyss, outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild."

Then there was Discord. And some stuff happened

Confusion comes next - it's the stage where the disorder in the system must be squashed out, and as a result, Order is imposed on high.

Bureaucracy is stage four. In numerology, doesn't Four have the connotation of Perfection? It's a stainless steel machine which - though it may not work perfectly - exists to create a sense of an ordered society.

Aftermath is what comes next. It's the decay of Bureaucracy that can lead to its replacement with something better. Aftermath is the beginning of the next Chaos. It represents a shift from the values which required / justified / reified Bureaucracy.


So here we are in Western Civilization, in the year 2008. What Season do you think we're in?





---For my part

I think there's a camp that believes that we're in Confusion, and that things are gonna get worse before they get better.

And I think there's a camp that believes we're in Bureaucracy, and that to escape from this stage we've got to learn not to ADJUST to all this mess, but to replace it with something more comfortable.

And certainly arguments could be made for the other seasons as well.



Me? I think Bureaucracy started on September 11th, 2001.

Cain

Early stage Aftermath, just to be a jerk. 

Idem

If we're in bureaucracy right now, when was confusion?

Also, I'd say late bureacracy - I'd think that bureacracy started quite a hile before 9/11 though.

hooplala

I agree with Idem, I think we are in the very late stages of Bureacracy . .  which I consider having started around the turn of the Twentieth Century, give or take a decade or so.

But I think you mean ages, not season, no?  Or do I have that confused.

My impression was that the ages and the seasons use the same name, but ages are of indefinite length, whereas the seasons are around three of our months?  Am I wrong?
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

Idem

I think that "seasons" is just another word for "stages" in this context.

But its kind of a comparison, in that there are 4 "seasons" and they have a tendency to repeat over and over again, in a loop.

Aftermath leads back to Chaos, supposedly, which leads back to aftermath, repeating.

LMNO

I feel that there can be multiple ages happening simultaneously, depending on how far you pull back.

Bebek Sincap Ratatosk

Chaos: 1776 - 1789 (Revolution/First President)
Discord: 1789 - 1865 (First president/End of Civil War)
Confusion:1865 - 1933 (End of Free Association of States - New Deal)
Bureaucracy: 1933-? (New Deal through the Corporatization of America)
Aftermath: Dunno, probably not yet.
- I don't see race. I just see cars going around in a circle.

"Back in my day, crazy meant something. Now everyone is crazy" - Charlie Manson

Jasper

This

Quote from: Cain on March 10, 2008, 03:29:26 PM
Early stage Aftermath, just to be a jerk. 

And this

Quote from: LMNO on March 10, 2008, 04:39:43 PM
I feel that there can be multiple ages happening simultaneously, depending on how far you pull back.

Are both spot on.

Iason Ouabache

I'm going to say that we are in Bureaucracy right now.  The next presidency is going to be Aftermath, but only if McCain loses.
You cannot fathom the immensity of the fuck i do not give.
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Verbal Mike

Quote from: LMNO on March 10, 2008, 04:39:43 PM
I feel that there can be multiple ages happening simultaneously, depending on how far you pull back.
You put this far better than I would have.
I tend to believe we're currently in late Bureaucracy, slowly seeing the first signs of coming Aftermath. The hippies, Discordianism, yippies, and punk were all first blossoms of Aftermath, in a way. But if you "zoom in" on the current stage of the cycle, the rise of these seeds of Aftermath was Discord, triggering Confusion (consider the general response of "normal people" to the 60's and 70's), and in turn Bureaucracy-within-Bureaucracy.
In a different way, the post-Disco era into the early eighties might have been a short Aftermath, with the 80's and 90's seeing a new cycle through advances in technology which have changed the face of Western Civilization. This somehow fits in with the sentiment that Bureaucracy started on September 11, 2001AD (which sounds right).

In the end, though, this is just the law of fives all over. If you look for this pattern on any scale, it will become evident.
Unless stated otherwise, feel free to copy or reproduce any text I post anywhere and any way you like. I will never throw a hissy-fit over it, promise.

Verbal Mike

I also feel that the whole seasons thing is just a more complex way to say that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. But the "seasons" metaphor is a pleasant one.
Unless stated otherwise, feel free to copy or reproduce any text I post anywhere and any way you like. I will never throw a hissy-fit over it, promise.

hooplala

Quote from: st.verbatim on March 10, 2008, 05:35:37 PMIn the end, though, this is just the law of fives all over. If you look for this pattern on any scale, it will become evident.

There is much troof in this.
"Soon all of us will have special names" — Professor Brian O'Blivion

"Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." — Bob Dylan?

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

Idem

I doubt there's a truly discernable barrier in between "seasons".  WHere we're at now has qualities of Bureacracy and aftermath, maybe chaos.  If it was the last day of fall, and you didnt know it, could you really tell if it was earlywinter/late fall?

Bebek Sincap Ratatosk

Quote from: Idem on March 10, 2008, 07:38:12 PM
I doubt there's a truly discernable barrier in between "seasons".  WHere we're at now has qualities of Bureacracy and aftermath, maybe chaos.  If it was the last day of fall, and you didnt know it, could you really tell if it was earlywinter/late fall?

Quite a good point... and (at least here in Ohio) we may end up with a snowstorm in April.
- I don't see race. I just see cars going around in a circle.

"Back in my day, crazy meant something. Now everyone is crazy" - Charlie Manson

Jasper

I think the seasonal metaphor is restrictive.  I think that when events are patterned like this, it is only recognizable on "white paper" analysis.