The Long Civilization is a frame. American Civilizationism is a method for examining that frame: >brushing past lazy priors >moving recursively >looking for zero

The long civilization is this: the gods quarreled in the east and fought their way west. We added the details. Some good. Some bad. Some wonderful.

Up, down. East, west. Light, dark. Doors are barred. Limits placed. “This far and no further.” Divine minds don’t seem to waste a lot of time on details.

Rumors, stories, symbols, words, pictures, reports, suggestions. Yesterday: myth. Today: mass communications. Same wine, new skin.

Three hard things. The hardest thing to replace: time. The hardest thing to get: attention. The hardest thing to retain: memory.

The long civilization is this: the gods quarreled in the east and fought their way west. It is flow. Directionality. A civilization afloat.

Saying Western civilization began in Greece is like saying American civilization began in England. True, but woefully incomplete. A fatally compromised prior.

>early 20th century writers were like ancient prophets, writing the world into being. >look, that’s a bit over the top, I mean… H.G. Wells doesn’t get enough credit for basically describing the long march towards global governance. He used his words, Leonidas.

The Greeks misnamed Egypt and the name stuck for thousands of years. It’s called Interpretatio graeca. Wilson’s translation is Interpretatio moderna. Where we backform the present onto the past. The Greeks, wide eyed in new world act from innocence. And us?

The long civilization is this: the gods quarreled in the east and fought their way west. We wrote it down.

Thucydides wrote a war into existence. History as inquiry, as witness. He brought disjointed events—the Archeology, Megara, invasions—into a single “mythistoricus” field. WWI and II are one war. A war needing a history. A Thucydides. The Chaplin-looking fellow was a hinge.

It’s kind of funny that their Achilles Shield and our Observable Universe are basically asking the same question from different directions.

We focus on events so the world seems upside down. Events— foam, spray, wave tops. Transitory. >Greenland, oil tanker, Venezuela, Ukraine, Somali fraud, USAID Trends—bays, inland seas. They look permanent but can dry up. >Post War Consensus, Cold War, the Fifty Year Mistake

The memes are coming to life. Walking around.

The long civilization is this: the gods quarreled in the east and fought their way west. And we are the redactors. Memnon Things. The “I remember” moment.

Redaction is a double edged word. Redaction means to “blacken, hide, obscure.” You think certain files. Redaction also means “to draw together, to write to gather.” To illuminate. Redaction is a sword with two mouths.

An apocalypse is just an unveiling. Sure you can have dragons sweeping stars from the sky or helicopters riding like Valkyrie. But an apocalypse is an unveiling. A light shone. A questioning of priors.

Branding: “Welcome to Planet Earth.” De-branding: “Welcome to Planet Dirt.”

What is real, what is lasting? The Iliad, Gilgamesh? Or the barley production #s from ancient Eridu? Which has: >greater temporal reach? >greater spatial diffusion? >greater behavioral impact? >greater recursive self-renewal?

The long civilization is this: the gods quarreled in the east and fought their way west. Along the way, we got better at boiling water and breaking rocks. But belief never changed. It rebranded.