Never ending cycles

Credit: mckaysavage

First, a quote. 

>>>But it was above all once it ceased to be a revolutionary class, and even more when it entered its epoch of decadence, that the bourgeoisie more and more abandoned the materialist outlook of its youth and relapsed into irrational and semi-mystical world-views: the case of nazism is a concentrated example. And the final phase of capitalist decadence - the phase of decomposition - has exacerbated such tendencies still further, as witness phenomena such as the upsurge of Islamic fundamentalism and the proliferation of suicidal cults. These ideologies are increasingly all-pervasive and the proletariat can by no means escape them.>>>

Reading the above funny quip (yes, it´s from the ultraleft International Communist Current – who else?) a few things struck me. Yes, the bourgeoisie used to be “rational” et cetera. I assume all ascending classes during periods of “progress” are rational and enlightened, somehow. What the ICC is describing is presumably what Spengler would call “The Second Religiosity”. When society is no longer progressing, religion and “mysticism” does indeed increase – including in the previously rationalist ruling class. In the ancient world, I suppose we could relate this to the rational period of the early Roman Empire and then the ascendancy of Neoplatonism and, ahem, Christianity during the decline of classical civilization. Of course, parallels of this kind will never be exact, but they are certainly present. (Or in India: compare the scientific advances during the Guptas with the later period of collapse when magic, orgies and Tantrism became widespread.)

What the ICC fails to see, no doubt because their dogmatic Marxism, is that this cyclic pattern of rise, decline and fall is inevitable. It will never cease in favor of Utopia. For all we know, the ideologies of the ascent and descent are equally true: the rational ideology is needed to remake the Earth, the “irrational” or trans-rational ideology is needed to reach Heaven when Earth proves to be un-remakable. Or unite with Nature, as the case might be.

It also struck me that this analysis must be applicable to the PMC or professional-managerial class, which has shared power with the bourgeoisie since at least the 1930´s. It, too, started out as a “rational” class, often with a “socialist” ideology. But now? They too are collapsing into rank irrationality. Yes, that would be postmodernism, “identity politics”, veganism, trans-people, trans-humanism, oikophobia, whatever. The religion of these spiteful mutants is presumably some kind of bizarrely fragmented form of New Age. Or Satanism. This, however, isn´t the Second Religiosity, but the collapse preceding it. 

Somehow, I find it difficult to believe that the PMC will ever return to traditional religion (or survive at all), but who knows? Maybe Shia Islam could be something? Or, cough cough, Modern Orthodox Judaism. But many of the younger ones will probably just commit suicide rather than facing a long decline (with Russian domination) in castrated condition without the necessary medication. And oh, the trans-humanists will probably also jump into some lake, when the AI-UFO-cyborg singularity fails to show up on schedule circa 2040.

Will the masses ever learn, I wonder? Or even the ruling classes…