readoldthings

Well, you already know that I mostly agree with you. But what interests me is that the backward values of modernity aren't arbitrary-- they're literally one to one inversions of our traditional values. To name another example, it was a common place of medieval thought that everything is gradually becoming more precisely what it is. CS Lewis talks about this (it's a plot point in That Hideous Strength), and it turns up in Dante also. In contrast to this, a central concept in modern Physics is Entropy, which is the precise inversion: everything is falling apart forever. After a while, reading ancient and medieval texts ceases to be a red pill and becomes a glowing red apothecary. Sin and vice and evil have always been with us, but how is it that we've managed to get not just some things wrong, but everything utterly backwards?