“Foundation: The Fall Of The American Galactic Empire”
Aug 16, 2017 14:10:07 #
“Foundation: The Fall Of The American Galactic Empire”
“Foundation: The Fall Of The American Galactic Empire”
by James Quinn
“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity - a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.” – Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
“Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.” – Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
I read Isaac Asimov’s renowned award winning science fiction trilogy four decades ago as a teenager. I read them because I liked science fiction novels, not because I was trying to understand the correlation to the fall of the Roman Empire. The books that came to be called the "Foundation Trilogy" (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation) were not written as novels; they’re the collected Foundation stories Asimov wrote between 1941 and 1950. He wrote these stories during the final stages of our last Fourth Turning Crisis and the beginning stages of the next High. This was the same time frame in which Tolkien wrote the "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and Orwell wrote "1984". This was not a coincidence.
The tone of foreboding, danger, dread, and impending doom, along with unending warfare, propels all of these novels because they were all written during the bloodiest and most perilous portion of the last Fourth Turning. As the linear thinking establishment continues to be blindsided by the continued deterioration of the economic, political, social, and cultural conditions in the world, we have entered the most treacherous phase of our present Fourth Turning.
That ominous mood engulfing the world is not a new dynamic, but a cyclical event arriving every 80 or so years. Eight decades ago the world was on the verge of a world war which would kill 65 million people. Eight decades prior to 1937 the country was on the verge of a Civil War which would kill almost 5% of the male population. Eight decades prior to 1857 the American Revolution had just begun and would last six more bloody years. None of this is a coincidence. The generational configuration repeats itself every eighty years, driving the mood change which leads to revolutionary change and the destruction of the existing social order.
Isaac Asimov certainly didn’t foresee his Foundation stories representing the decline of an American Empire that didn’t yet exist. The work that inspired Asimov was Edward Gibbon’s multi-volume series, "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," published between 1776 and 1789. Gibbon saw Rome’s fall not as a consequence of specific, dramatic events, but as the result of the gradual decline of civic virtue, monetary debasement and rise of Christianity, which made the Romans less vested in worldly affairs.
Gibbon’s tome reflects the same generational theory espoused by Strauss and Howe in "The Fourth Turning." Gibbon’s conclusion was human nature never changes, and mankind’s penchant for division, amplified by environmental and cultural differences, is what governs the cyclical nature of history. Gibbon constructs a narrative spanning centuries as events unfold and emperors’ successes and failures occur within the context of a relentless decline of empire. The specific events and behaviors of individual emperors were inconsequential within the larger framework and pattern of historical decline. History plods relentlessly onward, driven by the law of large numbers."
Please read the rest of this extraordinary article, and series, here:
Part 1: - https://www.theburningplatform.com/
◆
Part 2: "Foundation And Empire: Is Donald Trump The Mule?"
"The Mule"
“A horse having a wolf as a powerful and dangerous enemy lived in constant fear of his life. Being driven to desperation, it occurred to him to seek a strong ally. Whereupon he approached a man, and offered an alliance, pointing out that the wolf was likewise an enemy of the man. The man accepted the partnership at once and offered to kill the wolf immediately, if his new partner would only co-operate by placing his greater speed at the man’s disposal. The horse was willing, and allowed the man to place bridle and saddle upon him. The man mounted, hunted down the wolf, and killed him. The horse, joyful and relieved, thanked the man, and said: 'Now that our enemy is dead, remove your bridle and saddle and restore my freedom.' “Whereupon the man laughed loudly and replied, ‘Never!’ and applied the spurs with a will.”
– Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
Part 2: - https://www.theburningplatform.com/
◆
Part 3: "Second Foundation: Empire Crumbling"
"American Empire Crumbling"
“Mr. Advocate, the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen with the ears of psychohistory, and you will hear the creaking.”
– Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
Part 3: - https://www.theburningplatform.com/
“Foundation: The Fall Of The American Galactic Empire”
by James Quinn
“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity - a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.” – Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
“Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo.” – Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
I read Isaac Asimov’s renowned award winning science fiction trilogy four decades ago as a teenager. I read them because I liked science fiction novels, not because I was trying to understand the correlation to the fall of the Roman Empire. The books that came to be called the "Foundation Trilogy" (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation) were not written as novels; they’re the collected Foundation stories Asimov wrote between 1941 and 1950. He wrote these stories during the final stages of our last Fourth Turning Crisis and the beginning stages of the next High. This was the same time frame in which Tolkien wrote the "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and Orwell wrote "1984". This was not a coincidence.
The tone of foreboding, danger, dread, and impending doom, along with unending warfare, propels all of these novels because they were all written during the bloodiest and most perilous portion of the last Fourth Turning. As the linear thinking establishment continues to be blindsided by the continued deterioration of the economic, political, social, and cultural conditions in the world, we have entered the most treacherous phase of our present Fourth Turning.
That ominous mood engulfing the world is not a new dynamic, but a cyclical event arriving every 80 or so years. Eight decades ago the world was on the verge of a world war which would kill 65 million people. Eight decades prior to 1937 the country was on the verge of a Civil War which would kill almost 5% of the male population. Eight decades prior to 1857 the American Revolution had just begun and would last six more bloody years. None of this is a coincidence. The generational configuration repeats itself every eighty years, driving the mood change which leads to revolutionary change and the destruction of the existing social order.
Isaac Asimov certainly didn’t foresee his Foundation stories representing the decline of an American Empire that didn’t yet exist. The work that inspired Asimov was Edward Gibbon’s multi-volume series, "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," published between 1776 and 1789. Gibbon saw Rome’s fall not as a consequence of specific, dramatic events, but as the result of the gradual decline of civic virtue, monetary debasement and rise of Christianity, which made the Romans less vested in worldly affairs.
Gibbon’s tome reflects the same generational theory espoused by Strauss and Howe in "The Fourth Turning." Gibbon’s conclusion was human nature never changes, and mankind’s penchant for division, amplified by environmental and cultural differences, is what governs the cyclical nature of history. Gibbon constructs a narrative spanning centuries as events unfold and emperors’ successes and failures occur within the context of a relentless decline of empire. The specific events and behaviors of individual emperors were inconsequential within the larger framework and pattern of historical decline. History plods relentlessly onward, driven by the law of large numbers."
Please read the rest of this extraordinary article, and series, here:
Part 1: - https://www.theburningplatform.com/
◆
Part 2: "Foundation And Empire: Is Donald Trump The Mule?"
"The Mule"
“A horse having a wolf as a powerful and dangerous enemy lived in constant fear of his life. Being driven to desperation, it occurred to him to seek a strong ally. Whereupon he approached a man, and offered an alliance, pointing out that the wolf was likewise an enemy of the man. The man accepted the partnership at once and offered to kill the wolf immediately, if his new partner would only co-operate by placing his greater speed at the man’s disposal. The horse was willing, and allowed the man to place bridle and saddle upon him. The man mounted, hunted down the wolf, and killed him. The horse, joyful and relieved, thanked the man, and said: 'Now that our enemy is dead, remove your bridle and saddle and restore my freedom.' “Whereupon the man laughed loudly and replied, ‘Never!’ and applied the spurs with a will.”
– Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
Part 2: - https://www.theburningplatform.com/
◆
Part 3: "Second Foundation: Empire Crumbling"
"American Empire Crumbling"
“Mr. Advocate, the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen with the ears of psychohistory, and you will hear the creaking.”
– Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"
Part 3: - https://www.theburningplatform.com/
Aug 16, 2017 16:42:50 #
pickmeup
Loc: Mid Michigan
Explain please what you mean by the question "Is Donald Trump the Mule" in Part 2
Aug 16, 2017 17:31:53 #
pickmeup wrote:
Explain please what you mean by the question "Is Donald Trump the Mule" in Part 2
If you are not familiar with Asimov's Foundation Trilogy this explanation may help.
In the Foundation stories there is a group founded by Hari Seldon, who is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. In his capacity as mathematics professor at Streeling University on the planet Trantor, Seldon develops psychohistory, an algorithmic science that allows him to predict the future in probabilistic terms. On the basis of his psychohistory he is able to predict the eventual fall of the Galactic Empire and to develop a means to shorten the millennia of chaos to follow. Seldon proceeds to set up Foundations which are analogous to the deep state, Bilderbergers, Trilaterals, CFR's, Skull and Bones -- in other words, the establishment dedicated to carrying out Seldon's plan. This is analogous to the one world government gang.
The Mule was a powerful mentalic mutant, warlord, and conqueror who posed the greatest threat to the Seldon Plan. His acute telepathic ability to modify the emotions of human beings derailed one of the basic assumptions of Hari Seldon's psychohistory - that, in general, the responses of human populations to given stimuli will remain the same.
The Mule used his extensive powers to rise to power and conquer even the First Foundation. The Mule uses his telepathic ability to carve his own empire out of nearby territory, sweeping aside the remnants of the Galactic Empire centered around Neotrantor.
Now while Donald Trump does not possess Telepathic abilities he has in some measure duplicated the Mule's success in overthrowing the shadow government. His mantra of draining the swamp is the overthrow of the dark government or the destruction of the first foundation. Plus, he changed peoples minds about the dismal future facing us and succeeeded in winning the presidency when everyone knew it was in the bag for Hillary and Obama's next term. That altered mind set has derailed the immediate slide into financial chaos and atomic war which would have been the likely result if Clinton won.
We may still go through another Great Depression and war but they have been deferred by Trump's actions.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.