1. Yes. I have this feeling all the time. It is perhaps the least appreciated insight of Spengler’s. That the great idea of each culture works itself out from its conclusion. He argues that cause and effect are not a thing. The effect, the end result, is there from the start.
2. This is also an under appreciated facet of understanding the biblical mindset. A choice is never just an isolated choice with a limited effect from which you can then “move one.” You are always on a path whose present is determined by its end.
3. Thus when you make a foolish choice, it is never just a choice in isolation. Each foolish choice sets you on the path of folly, whose end is chaos, disorder, suffering and death. Each wise choice sets you on the path of life, Shalom, order, goodness etc.
4. This is why “repentance” is so important. You acknowledge that you have walked down the wrong path, bringing its end into your life, and you then “turn around” and walk in the opposite direction, towards life.
5. Life is not about cause and effect (that is a modern, western, scientific way of thinking) but rather about ends. Our scientific mindset believes that the future is determined by today’s action. Whereas, each action opens your life up to the telos, the end.
6. That end then begins to determine more and more each future choice, shaping the character of the whole of your life. The end of the path you are on, we might call it, in Spenglerian terms, is living out in the present your “life idea.” What is you current “life idea”?
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