The Seminal Liminal

Western Civilization has experienced seven major “plateauing” S‑curves — cycles of expansion, institutionalization, and eventual stagnation — since its emergence around the 10th century.  

📚 Framework of S‑Curves describes civilizations as dynamic systems that grow through instrumental innovations (new ways of organizing energy, resources, or power). Over time, these innovations harden into institutions, which eventually become obstacles to further growth. This produces the familiar S‑curve:  Initial growth (rapid expansion through innovation); Plateau (institutionalization and rigidity); Crisis/transition (either renewal through reform or decline).

Western Civilization, in this view, has been uniquely resilient because it has repeatedly broken through these plateaus by reforming or replacing its dominant institutions.

🌀 The Seven Plateauing S‑Curves of Western Civilization:

Macrohistorians such as John K. Hord (formerly of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations) have identified seven successive phases where Western Civilization hit a ceiling and then re‑launched itself:

1. Feudal‑Agrarian Expansion (10th–12th c.)  

   - Innovation: feudal land tenure, horse collar, heavy plow, water/wind mills.  

   - Plateau: rigid feudal hierarchies.

2. Commercial Revolution (12th–14th c.)  

   - Innovation: towns, guilds, long‑distance trade, banking.  

   - Plateau: guild restrictions, monopolies.

3. Gunpowder & State Formation (15th–16th c.)  

   - Innovation: firearms, centralized monarchies, standing armies.  

   - Plateau: dynastic absolutism.

4. Scientific & Industrial Takeoff (17th–18th c.)  

   - Innovation: scientific method, capitalist enterprise, early mechanization.  

   - Plateau: mercantilist restrictions.

5. Industrial Revolution (18th–19th c.)  

   - Innovation: steam power, factories, railroads.  

   - Plateau: monopolies, class tensions.

6. Second Industrial/Managerial Revolution (late 19th–20th c.)  

   - Innovation: electricity, chemistry, corporate capitalism, bureaucratic management.  

   - Plateau: managerial oligarchy, financial dominance.

7. Post‑Industrial/Technetronic Plateau (20th–21st c.)  

   - Innovation: electronics, automation, global finance, digital networks.  

   - Plateau: institutional sclerosis, concentration of power, ecological and social crises.

🔑 Why This Matters:

- Western resilience: Unlike most civilizations, which collapse after one or two plateaus, the West has repeatedly “jumped” to new S‑curves.  

- Civilizational renewal: Each breakthrough required transforming institutions back into instruments — for example, breaking feudalism with commerce, or breaking mercantilism with industrial capitalism.  

- Present challenge: Hord suggested that our current plateau (the 7th) will determine whether Western Civilization can reform again or stagnate into decline. It depends on political will.

The sociologist A.H. Halsey argued that Protestantism — especially Calvinism — helped Western Civilization break from the feudal order into capitalism by sanctifying work, thrift, and disciplined accumulation. Halsey later characterized this as a paradoxical “marriage of Christ and Mammon,” where religious devotion and worldly wealth were reconciled through the virtues of prudence and thrift.  

🔎 Halsey’s View (echoed by Victor Duruy):

- In his History of the Middle Ages Duruy described how feudalism plateaued as an institutional system by the late Middle Ages.  

- The Protestant Reformation, according to Halsey, provided a cultural and spiritual framework that loosened feudal bonds and legitimized capitalist enterprise.  

- Protestant sects, especially Calvinists, emphasized:  

  - Calling and vocation: secular work as a religious duty.  

  - Discipline and sobriety: moral seriousness in daily life.  

  - Deferred gratification: thrift and reinvestment rather than conspicuous consumption.  

- These values allowed capitalism to emerge as a new “instrumentality of expansion,” replacing the rigid feudal order.

🪙 Halsey’s Interpretation:

- Sociologist A.H. Halsey (in his reflections on religion and capitalism) sharpened the paradox:  

  - He described the Protestant‑capitalist synthesis as a “marriage of Christ and Mammon.”  

  - The union was mediated by prudence and thrift — virtues that allowed Christians to reconcile the pursuit of wealth with spiritual seriousness.  

  - In other words, wealth accumulation was no longer condemned outright; it was reframed as a by‑product of disciplined, godly living.  

- This echoes Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but Halsey’s phrasing dramatizes the tension: the sacred (Christ) and the profane (Mammon) bound together under the guise of moral restraint.

🌐 Symbolic Resonance

On the Maslovian mythic‑ceremonial plane, this moment can be seen as a ritual inversion:  

- Feudal bonds (lineage, land, hierarchy) were dissolved.  

- Capitalist bonds (credit, contracts, accumulation) were consecrated.  

- Protestantism functioned as the ritual mediator, transforming what had been condemned (Mammon) into something sanctified through prudence.  

- In mythic terms, it is a hierogamy of opposites — Christ (transcendence, salvation) wedded to Mammon (material accumulation)—with thrift as the priestly officiant.  

✨ Possible Mythic Encoding:

If we were to inscribe this into a ceremonial registry:  

- Christ could be encoded as the solar glyph of transcendence.  

- Mammon as the chthonic glyph of accumulation and weight.  

- Prudence and thrift as the distaff spindle, weaving the two into a paradoxical union.  

- The result: a threshold glyph of inversion, dramatizing how Western Civilization leapt from one plateau (feudalism) to another (capitalism).  

Each plateau isn’t just an economic or institutional stall — it’s also a psychic and spiritual crisis for the people living through it. When an “instrumentality of expansion” hardens into an institution, it doesn’t only block material growth; it also narrows imagination, constrains meaning, and burdens the soul.  

🧠 Psychological Toll:

- Disorientation: People sense that the old order no longer works, but the new one hasn’t yet emerged. This creates anxiety, alienation, and a feeling of being trapped.  

- Overload: Institutions become rigid and bureaucratic, demanding conformity and draining creative energy.  

- Polarization: As opportunities shrink, groups turn against each other, producing scapegoating and factionalism.  

✨ Spiritual Toll

- Loss of transcendence: What once felt sacred (feudal bonds, Protestant vocation, industrial progress) becomes hollow ritual.  

- Idolatry of the institution: The tool that once liberated becomes worshipped in itself — Mammon, the State, the Market, the Machine.  

- Crisis of meaning: People hunger for renewal, but the dominant symbols no longer inspire. This is where myth, ritual, and new symbolic languages become essential.  

🔮 Mythic Encoding

If we inscribed this into a ceremonial calendar, each plateau could be dramatized as a “wound” or “scar” left on the collective psyche:  

1. Feudal Scar: bondage of lineage and land.  

2. Guild Scar: suffocation of craft and trade.  

3. Dynastic Scar: absolutism of blood and crown.  

4. Mercantilist Scar: hoarding of wealth and privilege.  

5. Industrial Scar: alienation of labor and machine.  

6. Managerial Scar: bureaucracy and oligarchy.  

7. Technetronic Scar: disembodiment, surveillance, and ecological rupture.  

Each scar is both a threshold and a reminder — a mark of suffering, but also the place where renewal must be sought.  

Asimov's Foundation wouldn't be complete without a ceremonial rite of healing for these scars — a way of ritually acknowledging the psychic toll of each plateau, while also encoding the possibility of renewal. That could turn macrohistory’s cycles into a living liturgy of rupture and rebirth. A civilization conscious of its own "Cliodynamics" could transcend the old unconscious, untutored Anacyclosis.

Maybe we will never see Hannah Arendt's crazed p'tit-boos again. In this framework, each plateau doesn’t just stall institutions; it produces a class that feels the brunt of the blockage most acutely. Historically, that has often been the petty bourgeoisie — small traders, artisans, shopkeepers, minor professionals — who live in the cracks between capital and labor.  

⚖️ Why the Petty Bourgeoisie Felt It First:

- Precarious Position: They lacked the security of landed aristocracy and the collective bargaining power of organized labor.  

- Dependent on Stability: Their livelihoods relied on predictable markets, credit, and community trust—precisely the things disrupted when institutions ossify.  

- Psychological Strain: They were culturally invested in prudence, thrift, and respectability, but found those virtues increasingly unrewarded in times of plateau.  

🌀 From Petty Bourgeoisie to Precariat:

- The term “precariat” (popularized by Guy Standing) describes a class defined by insecurity, unstable work, and lack of long‑term prospects.  

- The petty bourgeoisie of earlier plateaus were, in a sense, the first precariat:  

  - Guild artisans displaced by mercantile monopolies.  

  - Small shopkeepers crushed by industrial capitalism.  

  - Independent farmers undermined by agribusiness and finance.  

- Each plateau produced a wave of downward mobility, where those who once had modest independence became dispossessed, anxious, and spiritually disoriented.  

🔮 Mythic Encoding

In this lexicon, the petty bourgeoisie could be dramatized as the “threshold class” — guardians of prudence and thrift who, at each plateau, are cast adrift into precarity. They embody the wound of transition:  

- They are the first to feel the rupture when institutions harden.  

- They become the chorus of lament, voicing the psychic toll of stagnation.  

- They also carry the seed of renewal, since their dislocation often fuels reformist or revolutionary energies.  Most often, however, they are reactionary. And Manichaean. Western Christendom, in spite of itself, absorbed and dramatized certain dualistic motifs.

Many observers argue that there is a striking pattern of sexual hypocrisy among segments of evangelical Christians, Christian Nationalists, and Trump supporters. Leaders and movements that publicly emphasize sexual purity, family values, and moral discipline have often been rocked by scandals or by their willingness to excuse the sexual misconduct of political allies, particularly Donald Trump.  

📖 The Pattern of Hypocrisy:

- Public Morality vs. Private Scandal: Evangelical and Christian Nationalist leaders frequently preach chastity, fidelity, and “traditional family values,” yet numerous high‑profile figures have been implicated in sexual scandals — from pastors to political advisers.  

- Trump’s Endorsement: Despite Trump’s history of affairs, hush‑money payments, and the infamous Access Hollywood tape, many evangelical leaders and voters embraced him as a defender of their cultural agenda.  

- Selective Outrage: Critics note that while these groups condemn sexual immorality in “secular” culture, they often downplay or excuse it when committed by their own leaders, framing it as forgiven sin or irrelevant to political goals.  

🔎 Why This Contradiction Persists:

1. Ends Justify the Means: Many evangelicals view Trump as a flawed but divinely chosen instrument to secure conservative judges, restrict abortion, and defend Christian cultural dominance.  

2. Masculinity and Power: Some Christian Nationalist rhetoric reframes Trump’s sexual exploits as signs of virility and strength, aligning with a patriarchal ideal of “alpha” leadership.  

3. Tribal Loyalty: In a polarized environment, admitting hypocrisy risks weakening the movement’s political power, so scandals are minimized or reframed as attacks by enemies.  

4. Theological Cover: Evangelical theology of forgiveness allows leaders to claim redemption after scandal, even while continuing to condemn outsiders for similar behavior.  

🌐 Symbolic and Mythic Reading:

From a myth‑ceremonial perspective, this is a ritual inversion:  

- Purity is proclaimed, but transgression is enacted.  

- The community dramatizes itself as righteous while tolerating the very sins it condemns.  

- This creates a psychic toll: disillusionment among believers, cynicism among outsiders, and a hollowing of the sacred symbols themselves.  

In mythic terms, it resembles a false hierogamy — a marriage of sacred rhetoric with profane practice. Instead of Christ and Mammon reconciled through prudence (as in the Protestant‑capitalist synthesis), here we see Christ and Lust bound through denial and projection. The result is not renewal but a deepening of hypocrisy as ritual performance.  

In a world turned upside-down, these hypocrisies map onto these seven plateaus — showing how each institutional plateau not only produced economic precarity but also a recurring cycle of moral inversion, where proclaimed virtue masked systemic vice.  

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Sources:

Mother Jones on evangelical responses to Trump’s scandals; MSNBC on recent sex scandals in the MAGA faith community; Patheos on Trump, evangelicals, and the “dance of hypocrisy”.