Regarding the psychohistory model and the three paradigms of transcendentalism, materialism and magic that I discussed earlier, allow me to explain some of the examples given in this model more closely.
Carroll divides time into aeons, and each aeons into two sub-aeons. Anything before the religious aeon is more or less pre-historical, and so less interesting to consider in a historical discussion such as this one. Suffice to say that in the shamanic aeon, the transcendent is distant, the focus is on the here and now, magic employed for material gain, with little effort invested in living according to some high principle. As the shamanic aeon progresses, the materialist paradigm collapses while the magical paradigm becomes "oppressive" - hegemonic, exaggerated, characterized by more and more superstition and meaningless ritual. Thus we enter the religious era, where the fallacy of magic along with a contempt for the fallen material world creates a yearning for transcendence which is soon realized in the evolving phenomenon of religions of salvation focused on such things as Nirvana, Moksha, a transcendent God, an eternal afterlife.
Such transcendental religious movement initially rely on charisma and magic to attract followers, but soon thereafter magic becomes more and more suspect and more and more prophets and philosophers begin to question the legitimacy of magical thinking and polytheism as such. The Monotheist sub-aeon begins, and the preachers of transcendence now employ reason (the materialistic paradigm is once again starting to rise) to criticize the worship of idols and the performance of divination among other things. The transcendental paradigm has now entered its hegemonic phase and all eyes are focused towards the heavens: God, Truth, the Law, the Good, Salvation, Liberation is all that matters. Intolerance and various forms of millenarianism is greatly strengthened during this period and magic and science (representing the two defeated paradigms) are conflated with one another: the scientist is a magician, the magician is a scientist, and in any case both are suspect.
Next comes the atheist sub-aeon of the rationalist aeon. Matter begins to be redeemed as scientists and philosophers start to believe that the world can actually be improved upon. They are still guided by a clear sense of transcendence - Reason, the Good, Truth, Happiness, Humanity, Progress, Virtue and various other exalted principles, but these principles are no longer removed from the flesh - rather, they are realized in tandem with materialistic improvements. Magic now reaches its ultimate low point: it is unbelievable, incredibly primitive, irrational, a mere proto-science that can now safely discarded in the light of reason. Eventually, during this era, "modernism" arrives in full bloom: socialism, nationalism and liberal imperialism all want to tell the story of human progress, with Humanity or Man or the People as the transcendent subject who will forge destiny according to its will.
After the Second World War, the "grand narratives" were soon questioned (Michel Foucault comes to mind), the transcendent human subject was beginning to be seen as dangerous and therefore necessary to deconstruct. This was accomplished and the transcendentalist paradigm has now suffered a great defeat at the hands of postmodernist philosophy. The final nail in the coffin of the "atheist" sub-aeon was, I believe, the collapse of the USSR and the dream of socialism. Picture the difference between the world before and after this collapse, and the difference between atheism and nihilism should become clear.
After the fall of the atheist sub-aeon, materialism has started to become oppressive: reasoning has lost its transcendent anchor and has degenerated into mere babbling; people feel increasingly lost, lacking direction, except for that kind of "direction" offered by TV screens, smartphones, advertising, materialist attainments of various kinds. A sense of magic - i.e. "energy" - has become infused into the hitherto solid matter, and the Newtonian vision of a mechanistic universe has been completely undermined. Environmental destruction is rampant, since the here and now of material enjoyment and comfort is the only value that now commands any real respect.
Carroll claims (somewhat before his time; the book was published in 1992!) that while some people today like to speak of "the return of religion", this is not the case. Rather, it is magic that is making a belated comeback, and just as magic and science (materialism) were conflated in the hegemonic age of transcendentalism, so is magic and religion (transcendentalism) conflated today, united simply by their distinction from the all-encompassing materialism. But in the long run, these two paradigms will part ways: magic is on the way up, transcendence on the way down. The next age will be the "Chaoist" sub-aeon of the "Pandemon" aeon: "Chaoist" because of Carroll's affiliation with Chaos Magic, I assume. Thus we are back to where we started in the Shamanic aeon (Animist sub-aeon): materialism and magic in a practical union with one another, in a world where the Transcendent or the Absolute will be perceived in a similar way to magic a century ago: utterly and completely unbelievable. Not by everyone of course, but by many.
For a future post, I would like to discuss some of the ways I think signs of an increase in magical thinking are visible, and future prospects for an even greater increase in such thinking, in relation to postmodernist and post-structuralist philosophy.
Carroll divides time into aeons, and each aeons into two sub-aeons. Anything before the religious aeon is more or less pre-historical, and so less interesting to consider in a historical discussion such as this one. Suffice to say that in the shamanic aeon, the transcendent is distant, the focus is on the here and now, magic employed for material gain, with little effort invested in living according to some high principle. As the shamanic aeon progresses, the materialist paradigm collapses while the magical paradigm becomes "oppressive" - hegemonic, exaggerated, characterized by more and more superstition and meaningless ritual. Thus we enter the religious era, where the fallacy of magic along with a contempt for the fallen material world creates a yearning for transcendence which is soon realized in the evolving phenomenon of religions of salvation focused on such things as Nirvana, Moksha, a transcendent God, an eternal afterlife.
Next comes the atheist sub-aeon of the rationalist aeon. Matter begins to be redeemed as scientists and philosophers start to believe that the world can actually be improved upon. They are still guided by a clear sense of transcendence - Reason, the Good, Truth, Happiness, Humanity, Progress, Virtue and various other exalted principles, but these principles are no longer removed from the flesh - rather, they are realized in tandem with materialistic improvements. Magic now reaches its ultimate low point: it is unbelievable, incredibly primitive, irrational, a mere proto-science that can now safely discarded in the light of reason. Eventually, during this era, "modernism" arrives in full bloom: socialism, nationalism and liberal imperialism all want to tell the story of human progress, with Humanity or Man or the People as the transcendent subject who will forge destiny according to its will.
After the Second World War, the "grand narratives" were soon questioned (Michel Foucault comes to mind), the transcendent human subject was beginning to be seen as dangerous and therefore necessary to deconstruct. This was accomplished and the transcendentalist paradigm has now suffered a great defeat at the hands of postmodernist philosophy. The final nail in the coffin of the "atheist" sub-aeon was, I believe, the collapse of the USSR and the dream of socialism. Picture the difference between the world before and after this collapse, and the difference between atheism and nihilism should become clear.
After the fall of the atheist sub-aeon, materialism has started to become oppressive: reasoning has lost its transcendent anchor and has degenerated into mere babbling; people feel increasingly lost, lacking direction, except for that kind of "direction" offered by TV screens, smartphones, advertising, materialist attainments of various kinds. A sense of magic - i.e. "energy" - has become infused into the hitherto solid matter, and the Newtonian vision of a mechanistic universe has been completely undermined. Environmental destruction is rampant, since the here and now of material enjoyment and comfort is the only value that now commands any real respect.
Carroll claims (somewhat before his time; the book was published in 1992!) that while some people today like to speak of "the return of religion", this is not the case. Rather, it is magic that is making a belated comeback, and just as magic and science (materialism) were conflated in the hegemonic age of transcendentalism, so is magic and religion (transcendentalism) conflated today, united simply by their distinction from the all-encompassing materialism. But in the long run, these two paradigms will part ways: magic is on the way up, transcendence on the way down. The next age will be the "Chaoist" sub-aeon of the "Pandemon" aeon: "Chaoist" because of Carroll's affiliation with Chaos Magic, I assume. Thus we are back to where we started in the Shamanic aeon (Animist sub-aeon): materialism and magic in a practical union with one another, in a world where the Transcendent or the Absolute will be perceived in a similar way to magic a century ago: utterly and completely unbelievable. Not by everyone of course, but by many.
For a future post, I would like to discuss some of the ways I think signs of an increase in magical thinking are visible, and future prospects for an even greater increase in such thinking, in relation to postmodernist and post-structuralist philosophy.
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