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Aug 22, 2022Liked by laughlyn (johan eddebo)

Most excellent essay, here are a few ideas that leapt off the page (for me).

The body is now utterly objectified, i.e. made into a thing, and disconnected from its rich network of lived relations in which the human person normally has its being,

is now being pushed aside by the centralized authority of an expert class and its ideological institutions.

because the ruling class by this time enjoyed a growing sense of security concerning its power, not because a more enlightened view of the world had emerged

because the ruling class by this time enjoyed a growing sense of security concerning its power, not because a more enlightened view of the world had emerged

We become dependent upon authority to know whether or not we’re actually healthy and sane. Expertise becomes a proxy between ourselves and reality.

the workforce, the human machinery

What's missing are bit comments concerning the machine's food we are eating (I propose purposely making us sick) and the nature of hierarchy. Otherwise don't be dissing the generalists as they are the source of ideas for you who dig well into ideas.

I've gotten over this we thing a few years ago and respond by typing don't include me in we!

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Aug 24, 2022Liked by laughlyn (johan eddebo)

Have you read Spengler Johan? He has a great take on this period of the west and the changes wrought. He argues that what happened during that early modern period is not unique to the west, it's merely what happens as a culture begins to urbanise to a greater degree as it goes though its life cycle. Obviously the west also has unique qualities that made this particularly damaging. to the outside world.

The catholic religion of the early middle ages is a religion of the countryside, fantastical, beautiful and crazy, with many different deities (saints, Mary, Satan and his Demons). Protestantism and the Puritanism that followed are that of the City, cold, calculating, intellectual, demanding much while offering little in regards to priestly contrition, festivals or just fun. Nature is the Devil, human brilliance is God (God becomes a master of machine universe). Medicine becomes completely caught up in this and everything else is shoved to the side (it is interesting that dissection is carried out on the dead, not the living).

It is but a short step from there to atheism and 'scientific rationality'. Nothing is scared and everything is up for grabs.

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Aug 22, 2022Liked by laughlyn (johan eddebo)

Thoroughly enjoyed this essay! Shadowrunners is becoming my favorite substack.

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Stunning. Makes clear connections I hadn’t thought of

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