Theme: Civilization

—“Leninism’s development of the totally expropriating state was profoundly atavistic. So atavistic that, the Soviet Union managed to pass through ibn Khaldun’s state cycle in a single life time. “— Michael Phillip –“Lenin famously claimed that communism was socialism + electricity. Actually, it was an attempted return to the origins of the state + electricity. But bargaining states had let loose technological dynamism on the world, and mere expropriation was no longer the cutting edge in organising societies. The gap between Leninist pretension and economic reality became de-stabilisingly obvious. So, we have collapsed Leninist regimes or societies with notionally Leninist ruling regimes ruling very not-totalitarian societies or, in the case of North Korea, a regime that has embraced its atavism. History is how the present was created, but only provides understanding if we accurately grasp that history.”— Michael Phillip

Ibn Khaldun’s State Cycle 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Khaldun
(I might recommend Carroll Quigley instead)

Atavistism : “The tendency to revert to Ancestral type”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atavism