Modernity Breaking Through

Photograph of the Side amphitheatre
By M. C. Dutt

Modernity Breaking Through |
Sunday – August 9, 2026

Side, like many other port cities here in the Near East, the Mediterranean to be specific, is filled with tourist life and youngians in every other corner, and of course I will say no more than that I approve of this. Yes, I understand modernity, read "Modern Civilization", because I understand the fate of us all, or at least God has granted me this knowledge but for a moment in time, and this has enabled me to speak on behalf of God, read my "About me" page, again only for a moment.

    Is God located in Side, is he located in the corners and in the shadows of the old temple, or perhaps in the corners and in the shadows of the old amphitheatre? Partly yes, but it is also the case that God is everywhere at the same time, but perhaps I should put it this way: God is more palpable in the corners of the old, not because the old in and of itself carries more sacred meaning, but because God prefers the old, because the old still knows of the meaning of essence, something that most moderns have wilfully forgotten. Again, I can proclaim the might of the old Roman Empire here, but I actually prefer to do it in a different way, I prefer to proclaim the might of knowledge over emotion and so-called modern intellectuality. Think about it this way: if modernity is inevitable, should we not allow ourselves to ride the wave or the tide, as some scholars have proclaimed? And perhaps this is the answer, but allow me to still proclaim the greatness of knowledge: if we can establish that modernity indeed does bring moving cars and better health outcomes, why should we be looking into the past, why should we cling onto a time gone by? Well, those ruins did not become that way for no reason, and as long as we depend on time, we will remain bound by our own fate, and this is perhaps the point of modernity, because modernity can be quite hard to define, but if something is true, it must be true that modernity surely breaks through. Again, I am the author of that featured photograph, and I can assure you that those yellow cabs were indeed real; but the issue was not about whether or not the cab was real, the issue was all about whether or not modernity has to destroy the old. You know, or perhaps you do not know, there is an old saying that goes something like this: in order for me, your son, to move away from your dominion into my own dominion, I must allow myself to slain the sheriff, my own father, the man of the house and the king of my old domain; and indeed, there is much truth to this saying. Now, I may not be a sheriff, but I am knowledgeable enough to be able to state with great certainty that the man of his own domain is never a man without a certain sense of the edge. Modernity breaks through because it must, because God wills it, and because humanity deserves the fate of the dying man, the fate of the loser and the fate of Napoleon. This was never a matter of choice; this was always a matter of necessity, and so indeed those yellow cars, those cabs, are running across the ruins of an ancient civilization, whose memory is only virtual and dear in our imagination, a conjured up stereotype based solely on the dirty politics of the moment and the deceit of the lustful in that same moment, truly something quite monstrous.

    Yes indeed, those cars are driving across the land, and they are running over the ruins; these are the lords who reign supreme in ours times, read "Cars", and truly are generation is blessed and cursed: blessed with modernity and with materialism, and cursed with disease, deceit, and sin. I can go on to list all the sins in the whole wide world and between heaven and earth, on the high seas as well as on dry shore, but in the end only one truth matters: do those cars that travel across the ruins really expect to live forever, or will those ruins outlast the car, or rather does humanity expect their cars to outlast the ruins of an ancient civilization? While it may be a "bad bet" to bet against modernity, I would still suggest with manly firmness that those ruins will outlast those cars, for ruins are just that, ruins, and therefor independent of time and of action; the cars, the yellow cabs, will remain only to the extent that they may provide some material and functional benefit; but the fate of the car is the fate of modern man, but in the face of the God of all small and material things, the ruins of the old and of the dead will indeed remain, remain against all odds and against all reason. And this is not a conjecture, at least not if we actually consider quality: is it not true that the apples fall close to the tree? If we live in a devolved civilization and if we lack a sense of quality, read "Qualification", then it seems clear to reason that indeed, not only do the apples fall close to the tree, but most of the apples are rotting. Well, I refuse to eat rotten apples, not that I am able to east apples full stop, but here I am referring to most people. Of course, this iteration takes us further away from the source, which is why all of these things are fully inevitable. Now, since I am also devolving, we all are, I find it important still to document these things, and to that extent cameras are actually very valuable, because I believe that I am quite right in documenting everything that is worthy of being noted.

    Also and on a more personal note, I must say that even though modernity has certainly "broken through" here in Türkiye, I find it still to be the case that I must document the ancient world on own; in fact I can feel the Romans and where they would have been walking, especially around the old amphitheatre. Of course, I do have many more images to share and I will do so later, but the feeling here is still very good I must say. I did run into some issues, but I will write more about them later, but of course the issues that I ran into appear to be fairly expected these days, which is a sad thing indeed. I suppose that it is not yet time to say goodbye to the Roman Empire, but I am more certain that it would be appropriate to say goodbye and goodnight to those yellow cars in the not so distant future, and really this is what this has all been about. Now, there is no way to protect an entire society from modernity, nor would it be a good thing. Instead I think we are better off noting.

Reginald Drax (AKA, M. C. Dutt) – August 9, 2026.