End?

 Jackson Pollack

“The world's great civilizations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage.”   Alexander Tyler (ca.1770) 

The fall of civilizations is always for a reason, we are on the cusp of such an event. I do believe that we are in terminal decline-whether this is a natural progression  or some force causing our catastrophic end due to our behavior is questionable. I also doubt very much that it is due to the clash of civilizations, as some believe-thus I shall not delve into the political aspect of the decline on which I could harp forever, but more so the way I see it, which is due more to a spiritual, social and moral decline as has been with the previous fall of some of the greatest civilizations on the planet. Yes-we do it unto ourselves; and keep doing it.

 These days I am often bitching about the way things are in the world, but to be honest is going to hell in a hand basket –the world , that is the western world as I do not know that much about the eastern, apart from a few weeks I spent in a few different countries on a holiday. Here in the west, we are obsessed with affluence and indulge in luxuries and freedoms, we have lost the inner control and are spiraling into moral and spiritual bankruptcy -into the utter abyss.

There is a drastic absence of morality, and such , at some point, this will affect the entire society and will inevitably bring about its downfall. We have sacrificed our soul to modernization, to science and to depravity. Spirit, as in “holy”-no longer exists as it has been extinguished by the anthem of “freedom and liberation”- in other words; we have sold our souls to the devil. I am not even mentioning here a relationship with a higher power, that is for an other time- and that is a private relationship between each individual and their God if they so choose or not. Nothing wrong with being an atheist-though I don`t choose to be one.

 I am most bothered about the loss of the arts-for that what reflects the inner life of the human spirit-its very core. Some will say- “We have great art, great artists (like the eg Jackson Pollack), writers, poets, composers, -great works of various magnitude-the world is full of it”. But, examine it with the eye of truth, with the eye of reason, and one realizes that within most, not all; the soul is missing-it is dead, it is cold, hard  and it has no heart beat, and has very little esthetic beauty also.

Maybe I am just old fashioned, born in the wrong century-but it actually pains me to see what is happening-and my heart cries for my child and grandchildren who will have missed what I so much enjoyed and brought so much joy to my spirit. It is so important to life that which feeds spirit-beauty in music, in art, in literature and architecture, which now is only reserved for those who are drawn to study it, where in the past it was available to all of humanity to partake and enjoy.  Yes Tyler was right-“back again into bondage” once more.