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About this forum
This is a new section and up until a "reshuffle" in January 2013 users told a little about themselves in context in posts (often in their first posts), or above as they told how they heard of Dalrymple. Now though, if you would like to say a little more please feel free to start a thread with any title you like.
This is a new section and up until a "reshuffle" in January 2013 users told a little about themselves in context in posts (often in their first posts), or above as they told how they heard of Dalrymple. Now though, if you would like to say a little more please feel free to start a thread with any title you like.
7 posts
• Page 1 of 1
Hello
by PeterE » 09 Feb 2014, 17:59
Hi all,
Although I've been reading Daniels/Dalrymple for years, I only just found this site and its forum. This'll save me from checking the various other sites when I feel particularly pessimistic at the state of society!
I'm a scientist in Edinburgh - a beautiful city with a clean face but a dirty backside to match. Theodore Dalrymple's works have always appealed to me because I feel he's saying what few others say, despite the evidence of it everywhere. But I'm not overly pessimistic - as a fan of Cliodynamics (the study of the flows of history) I think we're merely passing through what one author called the Age of Decadence, and will within the next 20 years or so see the wheel turn once more. But what happens in the meantime is a depressing thought...
Although I've been reading Daniels/Dalrymple for years, I only just found this site and its forum. This'll save me from checking the various other sites when I feel particularly pessimistic at the state of society!
I'm a scientist in Edinburgh - a beautiful city with a clean face but a dirty backside to match. Theodore Dalrymple's works have always appealed to me because I feel he's saying what few others say, despite the evidence of it everywhere. But I'm not overly pessimistic - as a fan of Cliodynamics (the study of the flows of history) I think we're merely passing through what one author called the Age of Decadence, and will within the next 20 years or so see the wheel turn once more. But what happens in the meantime is a depressing thought...
- PeterE
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 09 Feb 2014, 17:45
Re: Hello
by Jonathan » 09 Feb 2014, 23:07
Hi Peter, welcome aboard. Cliodynamics? Never heard that term before. I suspect a jaunt to wikipedia is in order - though it might have to wait for a slightly more wakeful hour.
It does sound like an interesting concept, though. Perhaps you might recommend a good introductory book on the subject? It had better not be Asimov's Foundation, though :)
It does sound like an interesting concept, though. Perhaps you might recommend a good introductory book on the subject? It had better not be Asimov's Foundation, though :)
- Jonathan
- Posts: 411
- Joined: 03 Aug 2011, 05:14
- Location: Israel
Re: Hello
by PeterE » 10 Feb 2014, 23:03
Thanks Jonathan!
Cliodynamics was a tern coined by Peter Turchin, a scientist-turned historian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Turchin). He has an interesting blog, but if you want a read of one of the first modern conceptualisations I'd recommend this PDF version of a short book written by Sir John Glubb (himself a fascinating character) in 1977:
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf
Essentially what both Turchin and Glubb (among others) say is that there cycles within any civilisation of establishment, rise, peak, decline and fall. Although Glubb bases his findings on historical writings and Turchin on hard quantitative data, they both come to the conclusion that we in the West (or at least the English-speaking peoples) are in the phase of inevitable decline, to be followed sometime soon by some sort of cataclysm. It's not prophesy of course, but a trend which we seem doomed to repeat. Anyway, good night!
Cliodynamics was a tern coined by Peter Turchin, a scientist-turned historian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Turchin). He has an interesting blog, but if you want a read of one of the first modern conceptualisations I'd recommend this PDF version of a short book written by Sir John Glubb (himself a fascinating character) in 1977:
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf
Essentially what both Turchin and Glubb (among others) say is that there cycles within any civilisation of establishment, rise, peak, decline and fall. Although Glubb bases his findings on historical writings and Turchin on hard quantitative data, they both come to the conclusion that we in the West (or at least the English-speaking peoples) are in the phase of inevitable decline, to be followed sometime soon by some sort of cataclysm. It's not prophesy of course, but a trend which we seem doomed to repeat. Anyway, good night!
- PeterE
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 09 Feb 2014, 17:45
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