good analysis! i've got a friend who's fond of the Steven Pinker, "things have never been this good" model of progress—the leveling-up that you're describing. it's an ongoing debate with us, because i've always maintained that those historical comparisons are impossible: we can't quantify the effect that greater metaphysical agency has on quality of life. it's something we don't even acknowledge within modernity.
we always talk about the end of life as a way to measure its quality, and assume that a life ending too soon in difficult conditions must be equally terrible for people outside modernity. but we can't relate to people who recognize with their whole being that the cunningfolk's healing magic is working—that the combined energy of the kin group or tribe is genuinely (not just metaphorically) lifting them up—and when their body finally fails, they'll literally ascend to the stars to join their ancestors.
i believe alienation due to loss of metaphysical agency is one of the most acute forms of suffering that humans can experience. although it's been turbocharged under modernity, it's only a recent condition, and people used to be free from it in ways we can't imagine now.
Definitely apples vs oranges in comparing the two! My own belief, such as it is, doesn't allow much for metaphysical agency, but maybe a merging of soul energy back into universal oneness (which would also be the extinction of the Self, so no meeting grandma in Heaven). Won't really know until it happens though! And then I'll either know, or there will be nothing left to do the knowing.
see, this is what i was getting at in my previous post: it seems so strange to me that one of the cornerstones of humanity for tens of thousands of years (metaphysical agency) should now be reduced down to a question of "belief." you're obviously not alone in feeling that way (far from it) but that's down to the triumph of material-reductionism, rather than a lack of evidence for any alternatives.
without even getting down to the level of specific cultural expression, there are plenty of communities around the world, indigenous and otherwise, who never took that deal and aren't suffering from the same degree of alienation as modern people (to say nothing of their long-term resilience in the face of environmental upheaval). of course, modernity can't acknowledge that deficit: it can't have any flaws that might endanger the ever-upward cosmic escalator, or else the whole enchantment evaporates. good fodder for future posts!
good analysis! i've got a friend who's fond of the Steven Pinker, "things have never been this good" model of progress—the leveling-up that you're describing. it's an ongoing debate with us, because i've always maintained that those historical comparisons are impossible: we can't quantify the effect that greater metaphysical agency has on quality of life. it's something we don't even acknowledge within modernity.
we always talk about the end of life as a way to measure its quality, and assume that a life ending too soon in difficult conditions must be equally terrible for people outside modernity. but we can't relate to people who recognize with their whole being that the cunningfolk's healing magic is working—that the combined energy of the kin group or tribe is genuinely (not just metaphorically) lifting them up—and when their body finally fails, they'll literally ascend to the stars to join their ancestors.
i believe alienation due to loss of metaphysical agency is one of the most acute forms of suffering that humans can experience. although it's been turbocharged under modernity, it's only a recent condition, and people used to be free from it in ways we can't imagine now.
Definitely apples vs oranges in comparing the two! My own belief, such as it is, doesn't allow much for metaphysical agency, but maybe a merging of soul energy back into universal oneness (which would also be the extinction of the Self, so no meeting grandma in Heaven). Won't really know until it happens though! And then I'll either know, or there will be nothing left to do the knowing.
see, this is what i was getting at in my previous post: it seems so strange to me that one of the cornerstones of humanity for tens of thousands of years (metaphysical agency) should now be reduced down to a question of "belief." you're obviously not alone in feeling that way (far from it) but that's down to the triumph of material-reductionism, rather than a lack of evidence for any alternatives.
without even getting down to the level of specific cultural expression, there are plenty of communities around the world, indigenous and otherwise, who never took that deal and aren't suffering from the same degree of alienation as modern people (to say nothing of their long-term resilience in the face of environmental upheaval). of course, modernity can't acknowledge that deficit: it can't have any flaws that might endanger the ever-upward cosmic escalator, or else the whole enchantment evaporates. good fodder for future posts!