Mastodon

civilization

After the War: Strategic Distrust and the Collapse of Western Legitimacy

In June 2025, while indirect negotiations between Iran and the United States were still underway, Israel  followed soon by the U.S.  launched a military attack on Iranian territory. The attack, met with a 12-day Iranian response of surprising scale and…

Joie de Vivre: Reclaiming a Positive Vision in Troubled Times

Not recognizing the magic of the present moment may just be a crime against our humanity. In my recent article, From Personal Development to Human Development, I explored the imbalance between our inner growth and society’s relentless focus on external…

The Crisis (or Crises) of Civilization

Recently the Polish sociologist Krzystof Wielicki has made a case for regarding the democracies of the world as in a civilizational crisis.   Somewhat less recently, Susan Strange of the London School of Economics proposed the idea that in our times…

Heroism, terrorism and social violence: Notes in political psychology III

The times of Renaissance and Enlightenment were reactions to the agricultural civilization’s system crisis and thus re-claimed the ancient rationalist thinking; this made Europe the leader of the historical evolution. The “grown-up” moral motivations were newly gaining strength together with…

Heroism, terrorism and social violence: Notes in political psychology II

Akop P. Nazaretyan.- The faith in posthumous life (first that of other individuals and then of one’s own) has accompanied the history of the Homo genus for more than two million years; in an anthropological version, it radically contributed to…

Heroism, terrorism and social violence: Notes in political psychology I

Akop P. Nazaretyan.- Behavioral and psychological difference between the terrorists of the 1990 – 2010s and the ones of the 1950 – 1980s reflects a worldwide trend towards increasingly primitive political thinking. The structure and logic of religious motivations and…