All Queries:
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Citation Needed
Quoted text:
“Oriental despotisms.”
Can you help us figure out where this quotation is from? It is possible that it is an allusion to the book
Oriental Despotism? Whatever the answer, this may also affect the
Preface, which mentions “an Oriental despotism” without quotation marks.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Vague Text
Quoted text:
One consideration is the concept of liberty—freedom from slavery—versus our economic liberty, i.e., the freedom to use market forces to extort as much as we can.
Can you help us make this more specific?
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Transition Note
Quoted text:
Classical Greece and Rome were more in the character of aristocracies than democracies.
Can you help us add a transition and expand the thought here?
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Translation Check
Quoted text:
chrematistike
Can someone with Greek language familiarity verify the spelling of this word throughout the paragraph (twice used)?
See also
the same query in Chapter 6.
Note: It’s called “chrematistics” in the
Epilogue chapter outside the context of this quotation, which is repeated there.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Verify Citation
Quoted text:
“associated with trade (chrematistike), which is not productive of goods in the full sense but only through their exchange. … All those engaged in acquiring goods go on increasing their coin without limit… the end is sheer increase”
Can you help us verify the quotation and identify and add a citation (linked if possible) for Aristotle’s
Politics here?
See also
the same query in Chapter 6.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Verify Citation
Quoted text:
Aristotle concluded (Politics I.10), “is fully justified, for the gain arises out of currency itself, not as a product of that for which currency was provided. Coinage was intended to be a means of exchange, whereas interest represents an increase in the currency itself. Hence its name, tokos (‘offspring’), for each animal produces its like, and interest is currency born of currency. And so of all types of business this is the most contrary to nature.”
Can you help us verify the quotation and citation details for Aristotle’s
Politics here (ideally with a source link)?
See also
the same query in Chapter 6.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Specify Citation
Quoted text:
Can you help us identify the full citation that is missing here? See
Chapter 3 for possible solutions. Also, the answer could lie in either of the two in the footnotes, which we have added (originally this was written as “TABLET (Lewy 19)” and we assumed a year was missing for a citation and a tablet name too); which of the two Lewy texts is it? And what should replace “TABLET”? See also
this query.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
Western civilization itself seemed to be a dead end, at least to the Eastern (
Byzantine) half of the Roman Empire and to the Christian
millenarianists as to the Hebrew prophets.
If possible, expand here specifically about Judgment Day (see the Key Concepts section of this chapter, particularly
this query).
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
Also “cosmopolitan,” locking progress into an international grid.
Grids are discussed in the chapter body, but the word “cosmopolitan” is not used. Can you help us add it and work it in?
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Fact Check
Quoted text:
beginning the year 10 days late instead of on the winter solstice, which falls awkwardly on December 21 instead of on
January 1
Can you help us figure this out: Is the year actually begun 11 days late, not 10 days late? (January 1 is 11 days after December 21, not 10; perhaps it was different in 46 BC?) This also affects other chapters’ mentions of Julius Caesar and the “10 days” in
Chapter 1,
Chapter 2, and possibly others.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
The lunacy of beginning the year 10 days late instead of on the winter solstice, which falls awkwardly on December 21 instead of on
January 1, simply so that in
Julius Caesar’s day it could coincide with a new moon.
Some of this is discussed in generality (“the Julian calendar”) but we’d like to see these specifics from the Key Concepts section about Julius Caesar (and his Julian calendar) and the winter solstice in the chapter body; can you help us insert it in the Epilogue chapter body? See also
Chapter 1 for a cohesive discussion on both.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Add Context
Quoted text:
Solar symbol: The Roman emperors and subsequent European kings emerged out of aristocratic infighting. They presupposed an irreversible inviolability of bloodlines, not social fluidity.
The connection between emperors and kings and the sun needs to be explained briefly (since this falls under the “Solar symbol” section of Key Concepts). Can you help us add that?
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
Caesar’s year of 365 1/4 days, subsequently refined. Worldwide adoption of the foot and mile, then the meter and gram. Division of the world into 24 time zones.
International prices all plugged into a single worldwide grid.
This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
Only the millennium is left. In 1000 AD
millenarianist Christian social movements awaited the resurrection as the
Day of Judgment at the end of historical time.
Judgment Day is discussed in the Key Concepts section of this chapter but is not explicitly mentioned in the chapter body. Perhaps a brief mention could be added near the chapter body sentence (see
this query): “Western civilization itself seemed to be a dead end, at least to the Eastern (Byzantine) half of the Roman Empire and to the Christian millenarianists as to the Hebrew prophets.”
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
The
Enlightenment and its individualism replaced astrology as “queen of the sciences” and theocratic analysis. The result was classical
moral philosphy’s offshoot, modern economics.
These Key Concepts are not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add them? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
The limited-liability corporation protects individuals from state control under the
law of nations.
The Law of Nations and international law are not mentioned in the chapter body. Can you help us add it there?
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
International bodies sponsor worldwide uniformity of prices (as well as the metric standard) under free trade, and also the sanctity of world debt—and hence finance-capital—operating via offshore banking enclaves to evade national controls.
This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
Separation of church and state is associated with a conflict between personal self-seeking and social obligation.
This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Key Concept Missing in Chapter Body
Quoted text:
International economic polarization threatens to become so extreme as to force a new Clean Slate.
This Key Concept is not discussed in this chapter’s body. Can you help us add it? Please include what to add and where in the chapter to add it, and any sources.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Interrelated Query
Quoted text:
This text is cited in a part of the
Epilogue chapter omitted and moved into the
General Queries page in
this query. We can remove it if you don’t think it was used in the chapter as is for now, or if the other general query was resolved in a way that should result in this being removed from the Bibliography.
Query: Epilogue: Modern Civilization as the Destruction of Archaic Order
Specify Citation
Quoted text:
Which of the two Lewy texts was meant? One of these two may be removed from the footnote and
Epilogue chapter Bibliography and book
Bibliography chapter depending on what happens in the body text with the “TABLET” and “Lewy 19__” (see
this query).
