Dear LO,
Margaret Wheatley write in 2002,
"Just now, the people who inform me most are the earlier historians,
like Otto Spengler and Arnold Toynbee, who had this organic theory of
civilizations as living beings, which is quite similar to how I'm
feeling about this time in history. It's one of decline, the winter of
Western civilization."
...i think i know that the contemporary (espoused) American culture is
one of a fundamental optimism.
So i was interested to come on this from MW.
I said the same thing in relation to my own personal experiences of
life of later just a few weeks ago....and i see it reflected
everywhere. Though my vision of this winter is a retreat from
creativity into a new ''dark age'', i see also a new hundred years war
opening up, but not a nice 'crisp' front or even number of ''fronts'',
but a war of multiple attritions in a fog, a cold and dessicating
shrouded, fog or era.
Maybe we need cultivate the disciplines of ''spareness'' in a culture
of winter?
Love,
andrew
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