Tag: Renaissance

Burn It!  Burn It All!

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Ah, the heady days of our civilizational maelstrom.  As the world we knew is ripped to shreds and flung around us in centripetal chaos I can recognize fragments of familiar things flying by.  Sort of like the images that Dorothy sees in the scene where she is riding in the tornado and sees her friends and relatives float by in a rocking chair or a row boat.

You recognize some normal American ritual or an icon of a former day.  There’s a flash of recognition and it triggers some reflexive emotion or thought.  And then it flies by and is gone and the reality of being spun around in a howling cyclone of fragmented bits of the former reality returns.

But when we’re not fighting for our lives, human beings have to search for the interesting and enjoyable things around them.  Even in hell there must be a coffee break where people gather around the water cooler (or battery acid cooler) and shoot the breeze.  It’s just the nature of the beast.

You know I really enjoyed thinking about the minutia in the giant ant movie yesterday.  Thinking about the characterizations and the movie conventions that they employed back then was the most fun thing that I have thought about in weeks.  And it occurred to me that here is so much substance, so much American-ness in these old silly things from sixty, seventy years ago.  And not because there’s great art on display.  This is a story about giant ants.  Nothing more absurd is imaginable.  Nothing less important exists.  And yet the people who wrote the script and acted the scenes managed to do a good job of creating this ridiculous world that they were employed to create.  The guy who played the booze-soaked hobo in the hospital ward was highly entertaining.  The general working with the cop to operate the bazooka for the phosphorus bombardment of the ant nest was amusing in his portrayal of upper management trying his hand at a front-line task.

Maybe that is what the future looks like.  We’ll be like the medieval monks copying and illuminating fragments of the classical world to preserve something for when the rampaging vandals have run out of places to sack and burn and whoever is left sets about the hard work of rebuilding civilization from what’s left of the wreckage.  So, I’ve found new direction in celebrating whatever fragments and shards of the old order strike my fancy and even any worthwhile new shoots as they present themselves.  Certainly, it’s an uphill battle while the orcs are still busy burning and pillaging all around us.  And from time to time, we’ll have to put down our quills and cap our inkwells and pick up a battle axe and shield to fend off the latest incursion of rampaging savages.

But there is absolutely more sense in celebrating the things that give meaning to life and to enjoy art; high or low, than there is in just bemoaning the destruction and dwelling on how low we have fallen.  After all, no one threw a switch one day and ended the dark ages and began the renaissance.  The knowledge was always there.  It needed people who were willing to apply that knowledge.  It needed human ingenuity and imagination and a little breathing space between them and the nearest barbarians.

So don’t be surprised if I sound a little happier.  Sure, the orcs may win this war.  Our whole civilization may come crashing down in an orgy of death and darkness.  We may be on the cusp of a millennium of ignorance and misery.  But as Hurin said in the Silmarillion, “ Aurë entuluva!”, “Day shall come again.”  It seems inevitable that human intelligence will persevere over entropy and stupidity.  There is in life that which strives against chaos.  I’ll bet on us.

Now, let’s take another look at that giant ant movie.  Have you ever noticed how annoying the girl scientist gets when she’s down in the ant nursery in New Mexico?  She starts yelling at her colleagues, “Burn it!  Burn it all!”

I mean who the hell is she?  Especially since Ben and Bob are going to have to haul her fat butt up several steep inclines by rope to get her out of that cyanide laden death trap.  It’s not like she has the upper body strength to get herself out.  She could at least act a little more polite.  An incipient girl-boss even back then.  Ah well.

Where Will the Next Renaissance Occur?

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Human history has a cyclical structure to it.  Civilizations are born, grow, weaken and die.  Each one is unique but they have similarities that cause their histories to resemble older ones.  We are at the end of the European Renaissance Civilization and it’s been a humdinger.  From its origins in the rise of a merchant class in 14th century Florence, Italy it has spawned the growth of human learning and the taming of the forces of nature to such an extant that the world we live in today would be completely unrecognizable to those scholars and even the forward-thinking politicians of the early days.

But without a doubt, the impulse that animated the birth and growth of that mighty endeavor is completely spent.  The United States and the European Union are the main political centers that represent the descendants of the Renaissance civilization.  These two entities are moribund.  Senescence defines everything they do.  Vigor and youthful enthusiasm are completely lacking.  And the whole of their failing energy is directed toward protecting the status quo positions of the wealthy elites.  And even in that sadly myopic endeavor they are losing ground rapidly to a more confident culture, the Chinese.

But very often the birth of the next civilization appears among the ashes of the previous one.  And that brings me to the point of this essay.  Where will the next Florence be found?  Some might say that Silicon Valley is our Florence.  Here the brightest minds are assembled building the trillion-dollar industry that increasingly runs every aspect of modern life.  It sells us our clothes and tools and entertainment and provides our leaders with the information they need to control us.

But I think an organization like Silicon Valley that seeks to subordinate human happiness to an algorithm and openly espouses a worldview that disparages faith and family is hardly a new Florence.  Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg is hardly the next Lorenzo de’ Medici.  You could say that at least Elon Musk might have a chance at claiming to be a new Edison perhaps.  And Peter Thiel does talk about the lack of innovation but that’s not the same as playing patron to Michelangelo or Galileo.

No, I think the next big explosion of heroic human creation will happen elsewhere.  Where?  No one can tell.  Maybe it’ll be in Texas or Hungary or Russia.  Maybe it’ll be in Japan.  Or maybe it’ll be in some third world backwater.  Somewhere people will figure out how to switch things up and get to keep the fruits of their labor without having to pay the Pope and the Emperor.  Somewhere (probably a small place) will break away from the global hive and think and live for themselves.  Will it take a thousand years as it did with post-Rome?  For my grandchildren’s sake, I hope not.  Could it happen today?  I tend to doubt it.  We haven’t successfully revolted against the king in 250 years and we’ve grown weak and fearful.

My guess is it’ll happen elsewhere.  But that’s no excuse for not trying to make it happen here.  As weak and fearful as we are, that doesn’t mean our opponents are brave or strong.  They’re just positioned on the high ground and they’ve done a good job of gaslighting our kids.  If we do a better job of organizing, we may be able to get them off our backs for good.  But that’s a big if.