Re The West and the Rest

[John Landon <nemonemini@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography
by Martin Lewis, Karen Wigen

After the note on the issue of the 'west' one might
recommend the book listed, "The Myth of the
Continents", and its excellent critique of the
fictions proposed as historical units of analysis.
The idea of the West never made any sense as an
historical unit, in relation to the clear sequencing
of basic civilizations starting in Egypt and Sumer
(not really 'starting' there, but taking that as a
relative onset, then branching in parallel in the
Classical era. This basic core with its western
extension is a confusing unity, witness the egregious
ambiguity of the Judaic aspect of the 'western'
tradition (with plenty of concealed Indian influence).
Is the Judaic aspect East or West?
Idries Shah in The Sufis and other works
(controversially) points to a host of Islamic
influences in the 'west', viz everything from the
troubadours to the thematic of the 'romance of the
rose'.
For a general world history without a 'west' or any
concept of 'western civilization' cf. my material on
'eonic effect' at http://eonix.8m.com
This material from a book cited there is coming online
nearly full text, so it might interest people here
with its useful way of seeing world historical
evolution as a single unit, the term 'west' deprived
of theoretical status (although the term remains as a
rough pointer to a sector in Eurasia.
Theories of civilization need to get beyond the term
'civilization' in the Toynbean sense, and to find a
proper 'fundamental unit of historical analysis'.
Cf. http://eonix.8m.com/chapthree_1.htm and
chapfour_1.htm
Also, in this regard, there is a webpage
http://eonix.8m.com/axial.htm.
One of the ironies of Sept 11 is that this webpage got
bombarded with hits, starting at google, with the
search term 'axial'. The reason is probably the rise
of Karen Armstrong's Islam to near bestseller status,
wherein there is her speil on 'axial age religions'
and the postmodern trojan horse of the 'new axial age'
as a resurgent religious traditionalism. Good to get
cracking on my critique of 'axial age' thinking. The
religions wish to outflank the left, as events quite
clearly show.
Most of the text of World History and the Eonic Effect
is now online. A good toolkit for historical theories.
don't get thrown off by the Darwin angle or the
'mystic aeons' twist in 'eonic' (it isn't there)
John Landon
http://eonix.8m.com
nemonemini@xxxxxxxxx



=====
John Landon
Site for Eonic Effect
http://eonix.8m.com
www.eonica.net

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