Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Myers-Briggs analysis: Long cultural cycles in history

“Lao Tsu said that all very large countries will become feminine meaning sensory/feeling in Myers-Briggs terms (earth/water) but in Lincoln's time America was small and NY was just beginning its economic rise. The Comanche wars in west Texas only ended in 1880. But bigness became the world model after the northern victory. England was able to remain "small" in world conquest by demanding that Brits abroad remain in culture and could for long sustain thinking/intuition (air/fire) but the rest of their conquests -Africa, India, China had long become earth/water (sense/feeling) and were vulnerable to conquest by the smaller English force. But by the end of Victoria's realm they had become sense/feeling and were vulnerable to the acute thinking/intuitive (air/fire) apparatus thrown together almost overnight in Germany. Likewise the conquest of China by the lightning strikes of Ghengis Khan. Toynbee makes the idea agreeable to understanding that in political time Yang becomes Yin - the Roman military aparatus became the Roman Catholic Church – and how Eastern church Constantinople yielded to Islam, a potential fate for childless Europe. Post war Europe likely felt Germany and the Balkans would blend as a strong force watching the rise of the U.S; but U.S. is new world with its own karma and mantras. But Europe has likewise become sense/feeling in a very short time. Following the Keynsians principle I guess Greece was supposed to become more "German." But as Lao Tzu suggested it would go the other way. American bigness is an illusion. It was all a classic economic arc rising classically from 1953 to 2007. Something else will happen in the world now and in America.

America today is at the apex of sense/feeling and  vulnerable to a intuition/thinking conquest. In psychological terms it is likewise possible for a small band in intuitive/intellectual (sky/fire - yang) to master a broad yin (earth/water - sense feeling) field.

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