## Metadata - Author: [[William Ophuls]] - Full Title: Plato's Revenge - Category: #books ## Highlights - We who are now living have been entrusted with the ecological capital of all the ages. To fail to appreciate its beauty and respect its provenance is barbarism. To waste and consume it without regard for posterity is vandalism. ([Location 646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=646)) - Chaos theory has partially resurrected the discredited idea of telos. There are definite ends toward which natural processes are “attracted,” but contingency decides specific outcomes. ([Location 852](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=852)) - Indeed, at the heart of complexity lies something like an ancient mystery. The hidden order revealed by chaos theory is uncannily Platonic: invisible “strange attractors” inhabiting virtual “phase space” govern many complex phenomena. In effect, says Gleick, chaos theorists have rediscovered the Idea: “Behind the particular, visible shapes of matter must lie ghostly forms serving as invisible templates.” ([Location 895](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=895)) - Chaos theory ties together all that we have discussed. First, the cosmic process is everywhere similar: the basic principles of order are universal, and self-organization reigns in nature from microcosm to macrocosm. Second, the fundamental character of that process is nonlinear; the mechanical is at best a special case, at worst an aberration. Third, what we observe as physical is actually the manifestation of something mental: “invisible templates” that create standing waves in the stream of space-time. ([Location 900](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=900)) - The essential point is this: the new physics is fundamentally ecological. Everything is connected to everything else, and nothing exists in isolation because all phenomena are part of a larger, unified whole whose texture is determined not by the objects that it contains but by the complex tissue of interrelationships that create the contents. Thus the wisdom and ethic of ecology emerge equally from physics. ([Location 905](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=905)) - Nature has a tax system more onerous and exacting than any that has existed since the late Roman empire. For example, when coal is burned in a power plant, only 30 to 40 percent of the potential energy is turned into electricity. The rest is dispersed into states or forms that are relatively useless or even noxious. In other words, nature taxes this particular transaction at a rate of 60 to 70 percent—a ratio that is typical. ([Location 959](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=959)) - In sum, a human economy based on money is colliding with a natural economy rooted in thermodynamics. ([Location 1006](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1006)) - Our pursuit of economic wealth is impelling us toward thermodynamic bankruptcy. ([Location 1008](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1008)) - What we do not know is vastly greater than what we do, what we think we know may well be wrong, and what we do know is only a parable. ([Location 1019](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1019)) - Every civilized human being, however high his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. Just as the human body connects us with the mammals and displays numerous vestiges of earlier evolutionary stages going back even to the reptilian age, so the human psyche is a product of evolution which, when followed back to its origins, shows countless archaic traits. ([Location 1050](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1050)) - In effect, Jung concludes, a “2,000,000-year-old man” dwells in all of us. Even the distinctively human part of our nature associated with the cortex is irredeemably Paleolithic. ([Location 1054](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1054)) - The “2,000,000-year-old man” is what he is and will not be improved, only tamed. Indeed, at this point in human history, the essential task is forestalling racial suicide, not pursuing social perfection. ([Location 1097](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1097)) - So the rationalists who consigned myth to the dustbin of history have been outflanked by the human mind, which so craves a story that it will swallow evil and absurdity rather than go without one. The refusal to deal constructively with the “irrational” simply leads to greater irrationality. ([Location 1206](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1206)) - To bring the matter down to earth, a system of education that prepares people for “careers” rather than for life in all its dimensions, especially its tragic dimension, will readily lead its graduates into Thoreau’s trap of “improved means to an unimproved end.” ([Location 1583](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1583)) - We immediately encounter the paradox that myth, by its very nature, cannot be created rationally. It necessarily bubbles up from below, from the depths of the human unconscious. So it must emerge organically. The task is not to invent a myth and then impose it on the masses—an impossibility—but rather to end the tyranny of “overvalued reason” by restoring mythopoetic thought to intellectual respectability. ([Location 1830](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1830)) - We live at a historical juncture that will challenge governments as never before. Liberal society owes its existence to the bubble of ecological affluence fueled by the “discovery” of the New World and the exploitation of the stored solar energy in fossil fuels. Those who have grown up in affluent societies have therefore enjoyed unprecedented opportunities and freedoms, as well as levels of comfort and plenty all but unimaginable to our ancestors. But the impending return of ecological scarcity means that the expectations and aspirations of billions of individuals cannot be met and that individual wants will increasingly be subordinated to collective needs. Governments now confront the Herculean task of effecting an epochal economic, social, and political transition from the industrial age to the age of ecology. The question is whether this can be achieved without lapsing into totalitarian tyranny or religious despotism. ([Location 1891](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1891)) - The French jurist J. M. A. Servan made the same point more cynically: A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas.… [T]his link is all the stronger in that we do not know what it is made of. ([Location 1947](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1947)) - According to Archibald MacLeish, “A world ends when its metaphor has died.” When the consent of the governed supplanted the divine right of kings as master metaphor, the consequence was a radically new and different political order. ([Location 1959](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1959)) - Everything depends on the master metaphor we use to construct reality. The image of the machine leads to one kind of society—individualistic, acquisitive, exploitative—whereas the image of Gaia points in a very different direction. Again, we come face to face with the enormous power and reach of metaphor. It can liberate us, or it can enclose us in a mental prison—either one of our own making or one imposed on us by powerful others. ([Location 1969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1969)) - The essential political struggle of our time is not to pass laws that reduce pollution and conserve energy so that the machine can keep running until it self-destructs, taking humanity along with it. Instead, it is to fight to make ecology the master science and Gaia the ruling metaphor—to abandon an ignoble lie and embrace a nobler new fiction that offers the means of long-term survival and the prospect of a further advance in civilization. ([Location 1973](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1973)) - The required strategy of change, says Meadows, is to expose the anomalies, contradictions, and failures of the old paradigm while at the same time offering a new and better one. ([Location 1980](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=1980)) - Rousseau’s political ideal is a gathering of peasants deciding their simple affairs under an oak tree. The smaller and simpler the polity, the more likely it is that those deciding will understand the issues, see what would best serve their mutual interest, and choose to implement this collective decision even if it does not fully satisfy their private preferences. ([Location 2089](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2089)) - Note: He would have approved of sociocracy - As we have seen, the result of nature’s design strategy must be understood dynamically—that is, in terms of positive and negative feedback, oscillation and damping, sensitivity and thresholds, and other identifiable features of systems behavior. ([Location 2228](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2228)) - Note: Great supporting quote for sociocracy - Alexander’s timeless way of building is the architectural equivalent of Plato’s justice: the purpose of the pattern language is to order the parts so they form a harmonious and beautiful whole. It should be possible to construct a similar pattern language for politics—a set of principles that would not dictate particular structures or institutions, which must be closely adapted to local conditions, but that would generate a political process supportive of the good life. ([Location 2246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2246)) - Note: David Fleming's Lean Logic is a pattern language - It is in the nature of a republic that it should have a small territory; without that, it could scarcely exist. In a large republic, there are large fortunes, and consequently little moderation of spirit; there are trusts too great to be placed in the hands of any single citizen; interests become particularized; a man begins to feel that he can become happy, great, and glorious without his country; and then, that he can become great upon the ruins of his country. ([Location 2279](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2279)) - Note: Great quote from Montesquieu - The West, says Joseph Needham, locates reality in substance, whereas the East finds it in relationship. Eastern thought therefore is more in tune with ecological reality (and with the emerging world of networks) than all but a few Western philosophies. ([Location 2287](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2287)) - The basic scripture of the Taoist religion, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, reads more like a systems primer, however mystical, than a metaphysical doctrine. It laconically sets forth the spiritual ecology of the universe and counsels humility, gentleness, simplicity, and flexibility as the way to harmonize one’s thoughts and deeds with the Tao, the fundamental way of nature. ([Location 2294](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2294)) - Nor are “the rights of man,” as well as other political “truths,” at all “self-evident” except within a moral context. In short, civil religion will be an indispensable component of the new politeia. ([Location 2304](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2304)) - Note: Echoes of McIntyre's After Virtue - The ecological worldview provides the core around which such a philosophical and ethical religion could grow, for although it begins in scientific explanation, it ends in a vision that is awe-inspiring. To understand the beauty, unity, and intelligence of the cosmos is to see that it is holy; and to see that it is holy is to desire to live according to its laws—with humility, moderation, and a deep appreciation for one’s connection to the totality of life on the planet. ([Location 2328](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2328)) - Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even such a small creature as I finds an intimate place in their midst. Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as my body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions. ([Location 2357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2357)) - Note: This was written by an 11th century Chinese scholar, but could have been by any Indigenous person - Radical change impends, whether we seek it or not, and there is reason to believe that conditions favorable to the new politeia will be the final outcome—because ecological scarcity will ultimately compel us to live in smaller, simpler settings congenial to the political ideas of Rousseau and Jefferson. ([Location 2366](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2366)) - Note: Rousseau and Jefferson as precursors of sociocracy - As we have seen, when a metaphor dies, so does its age. The ancien régime was doomed as soon as divine right was no longer a credible theory of politics, even though inertia kept the monarchy alive for nearly a century after it had been declared moribund. But our own theory of politics is equally moribund. The machine metaphor inspiring our political arrangements no longer accords with the epistemology and ontology of modern science, a discontinuity that cannot continue indefinitely. ([Location 2377](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2377)) - Socrates taught not that we should perfect the world but that we should perfect ourselves within an imperfect world. ([Location 2414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2414)) - We too easily forget that civilization is scarcely five thousand years old, that the human race broadly defined has existed for more than 99 percent of its history in savagery, that all the key inventions and innovations of civilization were made by savages, and that our savage ancestors were not brutes but scientists, philosophers, poets, and artists who created human culture. ([Location 2454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2454)) - ancestors—“We have invented nothing,” said Pablo Picasso after emerging from Lascaux6—only ([Location 2457](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2457)) - Our primal ancestors were not angelic. Because human nature is deeply flawed, all forms of human association are also flawed. The point is that modern civilization has caused humanity to depart so far from its natural state, both physically and psychologically, that the worst aspects of human nature predominate. ([Location 2464](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2464)) - Those whom we call savages, says anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, can teach us “a lesson of modesty, decency and discretion in the face of a world that preceded our species and that will survive it.”7 Savages may be predators, but they are humble and respectful predators. They understand that they are only a small part of creation and are deeply and ineluctably connected to the cosmos, the natural world, their fellow beings, and even their prey by the bond of Eros. ([Location 2468](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2468)) - Aristotle justified imperialism as an extension of hunting. Calling war a “natural mode of acquisition,” he said “hunting ought to be practiced, not only against wild animals, but also against human beings.” Just as nature has given the animals to man as lawful prey, some men “are intended by nature to be ruled by others,” and wars of enslavement are therefore “naturally just.” ([Location 2487](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2487)) - Note: Perhaps this is the true origin of the Doctrine of Discovery - Although it does not depend on chattel slavery, modern civilization is equally perverse, if not more so. Economic development is synonymous with plundering the storehouse of nature, and modern political economy depends on energy slavery. Modern man armed with powerful technologies is therefore a more aggressive, rapacious, and merciless predator than the savage. This fact is mostly disguised by the nature of industrial economies: remote consumers are not obliged to participate in the slaughter. Unlike our savage ancestors, we moderns are mostly unaware that we are predators and so fail to treat our prey with respect or to acknowledge the harm we do. We still live by hunting, but now we do so as heedless vandals instead of honest savages. Still before us, therefore, is the real work of civilization. ([Location 2492](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2492)) - If primal man was a dependent child of nature and civilized man an adolescent destroyer of nature, then the wiser savage will be a loving spouse of nature. ([Location 2499](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2499)) - Besides, said Rousseau, a merely political solution can never make men and women truly free because the real chains are not external, they are internal: “Freedom is found in no form of government; it is in the heart of the free man.” ([Location 2519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2519)) - Note: Importanxe of innerled change - Thoreau, Jefferson, and Rousseau are not alone in urging us to embrace a simpler and more natural mode of existence. There is a kind of universal utopia that recurs over and over in human history. A few of the best known include Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching (especially chapter 80), Plato’s Republic (especially book II), More’s Utopia, Shakespeare’s Tempest (act II, scene i),16 Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, and Huxley’s Island. All argue for a way of life that is materially and institutionally simple but culturally and spiritually rich. There seems to be an archetype of the good life lodged deep in the human psyche. We somehow know that such a life would be better, nobler, and happier, but we have so far mostly lacked the “wit” to achieve it. ([Location 2530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2530)) - Note: Plum Village comes pretty darn close - Participation involves an I-Thou relationship with creation—that is, a personal relationship characterized by immediacy and intimacy, as opposed to an impersonal, disconnected I-It relationship that keeps reality at arm’s length. The savage participates in nature to such a degree that reality blazes with intrinsic meaning. Life is directly perceived to be vital and sacred, as in Blake’s poetic vision of tigers burning brightly in the forests of the night. ([Location 2545](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2545)) - Note: Love the word blaze and the use of Blake - As humanity moves away from primal participation and toward civilized abstraction, myth becomes primary. Instead of perceiving infinity and eternity for themselves, men and women learn about them through stories and thereby enter the mythopoetic age, which is synonymous with the rise of civilization. As literacy displaces oral culture, stories give way to texts. Religion is now based on scripture, and the mythopoetic or “pagan” ways, with all of their emotional immediacy, are pushed to the margin. Truly civilized folk become “People of the Book,” and those who have mastered the book—whether Analects, Bible, Koran, or Torah—take charge of the spiritual flock. Despite this further weakening of emotional immediacy, scriptural religion once sufficed to provide a vital connection to the cosmic order. Finally, however, this attenuated but still real connection was destroyed when the scientific rationality promoted by the Enlightenment, which has as its purpose the construction of knowledge, vanquished the mythic mode of understanding, which has as its purpose the construction of meaning. This lack of connection causes the spiritual vertigo of modern times. ([Location 2551](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2551)) - Note: Great sequence - from participation, to myth, to text, to religion, to science. But is it too simple? - And the basic teaching of depth psychology is that our individual minds are outposts of a larger world of consciousness, so that both our nervous systems and our psyches are structured for participation. ([Location 2563](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2563)) - Note: Love tbe phrasing of this - The Hegelian dialectic is analogous to ecological succession. It is in the nature of social and intellectual systems, like ecosystems, to make themselves obsolete by altering the conditions that created and sustained them. In this way, successively higher stages of consciousness become necessary, moving civilization toward a climax of ever greater cultural maturity. ([Location 2579](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2579)) - Note: Is this not the myth of progress in disguise? - Unfortunately, our situation is more challenging in that industrial civilization relies on finite geological capital instead of potentially renewable biological income, so any transition is likely to be more wracking, as well as more protracted. ([Location 2601](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2601)) - Note: Our transition will be so much harder than our paleolithic ancestors after they wiped out the megafaun - Frugality is the art of making as little as possible go as far as possible. The etymology of frugal is revealing: it comes from frugalior, which is derived from the Latin word for fruit and denotes “useful” or “worthy.” It therefore fits perfectly with the essential principle of ecological economics—usufruct, which is the use and enjoyment of property or resources without damaging or depleting their worth so that they remain permanently useful. ([Location 2709](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2709)) - The problem lies with our notion of liberation, which is perverse. We have tried to escape from natural constraints and external limits by overpowering them and from social restraints and moral checks by discarding them. In other words, we have attempted to live lawlessly. This is a fundamentally mistaken strategy for achieving either individual happiness or collective well-being. ([Location 2833](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2833)) - True liberation comes from within. Rousseau epitomized this understanding when he said, “For the impulse of appetite alone is slavery, and obedience to the law one has prescribed for oneself is freedom.” ([Location 2837](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08BSWVJF1&location=2837)) - Note: Was Rousseau a closet Buddhist?