A Civilization in Ruins

Photograph of the old amphitheater
in Side, by M. C. Dutt

A Civilization in Ruins |
Saturday – August 8, 2026

There is a lot of talk about the Roman Empire and really the Roman civilization these days, and indeed here in Türkiye the old Roman Empire is still felt, through the old Apollo Temple, pictures and updates to come, and the old amphitheater pictured to the right, and yes I am still the "photographer". These buildings would have been constructed in the 2nd century anno domini, around the time of Marcus Aurelius and the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Of course, while we still feel the Roman Empire in every step, some of us also feel sorrow over the eventual, and may I add inevitable, collapse about 2 to 3 centuries later. Of course, the Roman Empire collapsed over a long period of time, just like these old buildings must have slowly dilapidated over time, read "The End of History", but the Roman Empire is still significant of how a collapse occurs: these things do not tend occur quickly, which is similar to how the American Empire is today in a slow decline. Of course, the difference between the Roman Empire and the American Empire must be time, for time does tend to accelerate, read "Modern Civilization", or at least there is a feeling of accelerated time these days.* Now, with the slow collapse of the Roman Empire, we are not merely referring to how the political power, the central authority, collapsed, but how a civilization collapsed over time and was eventually replaced by Christendom, but not without a fairly long time of a power vacuum.† It is also true that the borders of Europe often extends far beyond the continent, read "The Problem of Borders", and that much of what is considered the cradle of European civilization has its roots in the Near East, a point obviously challenged by what we may only refer to as prehistory.‡ But the current roots of European Civilization are undeniably Mediterranean, something that actually points towards unification at the outset of this cycle, read "My Views on Disease and Decay".

    At the end of the day, one thing is clear: time, at least when man is dependant on time, has a corrosive effect on everything it sweeps across, and this is true in particular over great periods, because while one lifetime may be enough, which it is, it is made clearer yet how time tends towards dissolution and disintegration, or rather how the human spirit tends to completely devolve when dependant on time, when we only have to consider the fact that bad things seldom come about without enough time being given to some enterprise or without filling enough of the missing gaps, and this is perhaps the signal accomplishment of European civilization, something that has released man from the burdens of nature, but something that instead has attempted to fully encapsulate the human spirit within the moment of full potential, read "Transhumanism", something quite impossible and indeed tragic, especially as time is ever fleeting; but this on the other hand is something that most civilizations in the East, being far more fatalistic, tend to oppose with great firmness, and as a result it seems that civilization is much more continual in the East, while time and history appear discontinuous. Of course, time in the East is not a matter of linear and successive development forward, but rather something that is considered only as a placeholder for those missing gaps, and they are missing for good reasons, or because God wills it. This, again, is why history feels so much closer in the East, because there is no need, generally, to firmly delineate one period from another; it all flows together through that one cracked moment in time that is life, and nothing ever really happens without reason. And so you see, those missing gaps were never really missing in the first place, at least not from the Eastern point of view. But nonetheless, I am still walking in ruins, which is fairly significant I suppose, but then again Türkiye is surely Asia or on the edge of Europe...? Jokes aside, the Near East is an interesting place in between these two extremes, between the inward looking mentality of the Far East and the much to bellicose and action oriented mentality of the Western world, although some of that bellicosity has been on display recently.

    Now, when we are dealing with civilizational questions, we are of course dealing with knowledge and the transmission of knowledge, but the ruins and the artifacts of a time gone by must signal to us that there indeed is something missing, that there are things that we simply do not know of, because we may not know of them, either because we simply do not bother, which often and regrettably has been the case, or because we have reached such a low point of intellectuality, the height of ignorance, that knowledge simply do not reach us anymore, and in the Western world both of these explanations are very valid. Indeed, note that there are far fewer ruins in the East compared to the West, for life is simply continuous in the East. Again, we must not get ourselves too hung up on these distinctions, East and West, but they are obvious enough for anyone with their eyes opened, and here in Türkiye they become painfully obvious, which is why I have decided to travel here. Can we expect our current Western civilization to stand in ruins in the future, or will Western man perhaps learn something about the essence of keeping tradition? This question would not really be for me to answer, but it appears to me that Western man has learned nothing from his own obsession with history, because Western history lacks everything that used to fill the world with an enchanted glow of true essence; it all has just reached the low bar of packaged narrative for the masses to easily consume and for the victors of the day to reign over. In fact, I would even argue that it appears to be in question whether or not Westerners have even learned anything from their own recent history, and there is plenty to say about the previous century, and almost none of it is good. Perhaps the skyscrapers of our time should be allowed to symbolise the pursuit of the dreamer, the victory of the man who must live on the edge of the day, the explorer of new worlds and of new light, but what they cannot be allowed to symbolise is the man reaching for heaven, because that man is in no hurry and he certainly has no need to raise monuments over himself and his own ignorance; such a man knows what to do in his own condition, for he is truly enlightened.

Reginald Drax (AKA, M. C. Dutt) – August 8, 2026.

Footnote(s)

* It should be expected that time is accelerating, because humans are wholly dependent on this mechanical quantity, read "Mechanical Procedures", and the further away from nature man devolves, the more he should be expected to depend on time and the sense of each and every moment as fleeting if not fully realized into work, really missing gaps extending into the past. Of course, the attempt is to never let the slightest moment go without full realization – continual realization.

† While "Christianity" was made into the Roman state religion around 380 a.d., this "Christianity" was something completely different from what has been the course of the development of Christianity since the 14th century.

‡ Allow me to direct you to my posts about this subject: "Hyperborea" and "The Great North".