The maturity of a civilization can only be measured when it exemplifies itself for what it engenders. When a civilization reaches maturity the signs are many, but perfection is not the obvious one. This is because the thing itself does not know that it has perfected its self-essence. It is possible for an entity, a society, a people, a country, to believe that it can be more, that it has not yet matured its potential, that it is in fact, only in its prime, failing thus to realize that its prime is the climax of its effervescence of expression.
A civilization will not comprehend its limitations most when it is at its zenith. Nor, will it obviously realize that from there it is downhill. When we speak of capitalism as waning, we are saying not that it is perfect but that it is as perfect as it is going to get, that neither its fundamental structures or its constituency have the ability to carry it beyond this point with the remaining creative elements within its maximums corporeal. Neither they nor the system which they represent and institute with their actions has the potential to exceed its self-imposed limitations. In the case of capitalism it is obvious that it can only see itself, it refuses to imagine that there is another way, and yet the cause for the rise of capitalism was that it had seen alternatives to dealing with the human condition. When severe economic depressions have hit in the past, capitalism has creatively spent in infrastructure, communications and education so as to buy its way out of depression; The railroads in America initially bankrupted more people than they made rich, in the short term that is; The New Deal was as anti-capitalist as you can get, and yet it is one of the triumphant horns of capitalism, and perhaps more, democracy. The issue is that today capitalism believes that there isn’t an alternative to its economic principles, this new and, for a mature system, appropriately sound inability is one of the symbols of the maturity of capitalism.
There are others, vivid colors, unilaterism, self imposed satisfaction. With self imposed satisfaction Americans build around themselves this idea that, even as things are difficult and not necessarily right, they are at least better than anywhere else. The rest of the world is for sure not as well off as America, and of course this ends up being a self imposed satisfaction because it is not valid in a secular sense, it is a subjective happiness, imposed by the self on the self, with a mental construct that dictates that chicken farmers with a maximum monthly income of 12 dollars, can not be happy cleaning chicken shit. Unilaterism is determinism; this is really how you lock yourself in tight on your current position and assume that ignoring the rest of the world will have its effects, some of them uncomfortable but in the end your will and way will prevail. Maturity does this to people and civilizations. Some of the most boringly interesting arguments I have had over the years have been with seventy year olds, who took a snapshot of the world when they reached the maturity of their forties, and they take it out of their worn out coat pockets, and with musty thoughts show it to you, they are still in black and white, and they show it to you so that you can see how the world is today, and obviously they know, they were there. Color, ah color is the surest sign, I don’t know why, it is not my job to explain prophetic truths, but for some odd reason, evolved civilizations poor or rich (and they can be both and evolved), tend to adopt peacock-like mentalities and display the color spectrum in every fashion. Consider how colorful America is today, they have reached the neon and x-ray spectrum, there are vivid reds and vivid greens, and deep purple green sunglasses challenge the rays of the sun; this is because as spirits mature they become red, which means that mature civilizations blossom with brightness, this is due to confidence and the self inflicted happiness, which somehow condemns them to display themselves, so as to say we are not targets, we do not have to hide, no one can hit us or destroy us and we must show ourselves off to the world so the world may acknowledge our greatness. The flashy materialism overtly sanguinary cars are cherry red, earrings everywhere, the value of uniqueness exasperated by prohibitive cost, designer houses and designer kitchens, and designer food, all blossoming before the coming rut.
I must tell you before you rot that there is nothing wrong with rotting, it is part of a process of change, as my darling Domaine likes to constantly remind me, “death is just change”, she would probably change the name of death to something more politically correct, what do you think of “this is my stop”, but regardless rotting is part of the process which beings of the organic sort (inorganic things apparently don’t die) when the sun runs out of hydrogen the sun is not going to agonize, but organic things seem to suffer a process which outright halts any endearing moment evolution, but there is nothing inherently bad about that, just like there is nothing wrong with blossoming with all force when you reach your systematic maturity as born by your own limitations and your won inability to stay a child forever.
Some of you might say, well true enough, we see the brilliance and radiance of Paris and New York, and yes it does seem like it is a process of maturity which allows them to exploit fashion and character and vibrant and ineffectual psychology, but what would you say of Africa, a continent that has not matured? You obviously know what my response is, Africa did mature, Africa has had many brilliant civilizations, Egyptian, Moroccan, …. These civilizations reflected the continent, and the tribes, which love vivid colors and are the inheritors of mature civilizations, carrying on, with their vividness even as civilization or the expression of their perfection has been lost. The Aztecs and the Incas were brilliant and regal civilizations, so was the more sedated, British Empire.
I hope that gives you something to think about.
