This is a curious project, to circumscribe a civilization for study. But what is it? A distinct phase of development, bounded by resources and energy?
Spengler speaks of the birth and death of civilizations as isolated events, as cohering greatness coalescing out of chaos, but for now I want to speak of civilizations as connected to each other, at least those of the classical and the western designations. The connector culture, the early Christians, were clearly in close relation to the Roman empire, and it is equally clear that modern culture itself has been built atop the Christian sensibility. But these are complex matters that take time to work out.
We want to do this because of what we are, finding ourselves exhausted of civilization, the never-ending accumulation and collapse of power which brutalizes all peoples involved. What's more, we can take into account the American anxiety of running out of a frontier, which has inspired countless apocalyptic visions, and one of which we face in an expanded form. The bloom of civilizations has culminated in the western thunderhead, covering all of the earth with its unprecedented drive for expansion and technological development, which now threatens the entire earth - or at least the earth's current-running "eon."
But we do have to take special care here. Does "civilization" have to mean the close coupling of higher stages of human development with explosive expansion and collapse? Is there a secret law which necessitates the archetypal rise and fall, or is another rate of development possible?
