I see the copyright in the book but this is now available freely from the authors site. (site offline as of 1/26/2015) THE PHOENIX PRINCIPLE AND THE COMING DARK AGE Social Catastrophes--Human Progress 3000 BC to AD 3000 Synopsis Introduction The biggest problem is when everything seems to be going well. PART I - A RECURRENT AND GLOBAL PHENOMENON The evidence Dark ages have occurred over and over again. Here are the common features. Chapter 1 - Demise of a superpower Egypt was number 1 superpower for 2500 years, and is now in the third world. Chapter 2 - What goes up… Rise and fall is the most persistent theme in history. Chapter 3 - Imposing order Decline involves the loss of authority and break-up of political entities. Chapter 4 - Creating wealth Decline involves the disruption of trade. Chapter 5 - Asserting a moral way Decline involves the rejection of traditional culture and values. Chapter 6 - The human ferment Decline occurs for complex reasons that are inherent to history. Chapter 7 - Rotten at the core Societies decline only when they are rotten, although external factors may be a trigger. Chapter 8 - The principle of mutual causality Every moment of history is both a turning point and a point of continuity with the past. Chapter 9 - The camel's back Societies accumulate outmoded institutions that inhibit progress. Chapter 10 - The phoenix principle A dark age is a time of creative destruction behind a veil of obscurity.
Thanks to the OP for the post, I registered just to download the PDF. I read it several years ago, and was looking for it again. Does anyone know what happened to this site? It had a lightly active community for a while, with new information being added regularly. It was more academic than anything, but interesting nonetheless.
