I appreciate how provocative and lucid this is, Doug, and the sweep of your imagination here. But your evocation of "shifting waves like a giant tsunami from an asteroid flooding the whole earth" seems to put the mess, and and possibility of agency to shift it, beyond the reach of mere mortals. Or even if we get less celestial and "[t]hink of Rome to Christianity or from the Waring States Period to Confucian stress on civility and ritual," these are not exactly things that people band together to choose to cause to happen. But perhaps you're seeing something that I"m not yet seeing.
BTW, if you're quoting Sorokin directly for some of this, it would be helpful if you'd "mark the quotes.")
I appreciate how provocative and lucid this is, Doug, and the sweep of your imagination here. But your evocation of "shifting waves like a giant tsunami from an asteroid flooding the whole earth" seems to put the mess, and and possibility of agency to shift it, beyond the reach of mere mortals. Or even if we get less celestial and "[t]hink of Rome to Christianity or from the Waring States Period to Confucian stress on civility and ritual," these are not exactly things that people band together to choose to cause to happen. But perhaps you're seeing something that I"m not yet seeing.
BTW, if you're quoting Sorokin directly for some of this, it would be helpful if you'd "mark the quotes.")