John David Ebert's Video Introduction on Civilizational Macrohistory
Source
Videography
Thread 1: John David Ebert: Authors covering civilizational analysis
For John David Ebert Oswald Spengler is the key author to start with: he sees civilizations as unconnected to each other, but all are subject to evolution as an organism: birth, youth, maturity, decay and death
Toynbee can be seen as a complement or reaction to Spengler, but he recognizes three waves in civilizational history
Carroll Quigley focuses on the gaps between civilizations, their ‘dark ages’, often characterized by epic poetry.
Jean Gebser’s Ever-Present Origin focuses on mutations in structures of consciousness
Joseph Campbell focuses on comparative mythological structures
William Irwin Thompson on the current civilizational change of planetarization
Franz Borkenau focused, in one single and unfinished book, on the history of death cults distinguishing death-accepting, death-transcending and death-denying civilizations
Main Authors
Osward Spengler
The Oswald Spengler Project (multiple part, detailed discussions starting in 2020)
Part 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCdi10nRhEw&t=1708s
Decline of the West, Playlist from 2012 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzwfs3DjSJg&list=PLA7E2840B724C6695 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzwfs3DjSJg
Lecture on Oswald Spengler, 6 parts
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY41nnQ7brU
Man and Technics, 3 parts, part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8k3J9nYiXg
Arnold Toynbee
A Study of History
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_iQHqkkwVQ Arnold Toynbee A Study of History Part 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hr3mACjg-4 (this one focuses on the 1972 abridged version by Toynbee himself)
Jean Gebser
Ever Present Origin, Playlist at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB77_07isYU&list=PL84BA8833961C70DF
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhX9kl9wwh0
Carroll Quigley
“The U.S. answer to Toynbee” ? “ an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations
Intro, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpHET1510RI Historical Cycles, 2 parts, 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNaXHrTu58Y
Joseph Campbell
Introduction to Joseph Campbell, 5 parts 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w9fxQcq3jM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2f2sDMxIcY
John David Ebert on Joseph Campbell's Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, Shamanism concluded , ; 16 videos
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHD4GC9Daro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvv7xmUINZQ
Oriental Myth 4.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdTQj9GHHXs
Franz Borkenau
(also responding to Spengler’s challenges)
Online intro to the Cycle of the Dead, by John David Ebert, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwRkUgtbgnc The Evolution of Death & Burial , 13 videos 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0f-AYkEofc 13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKtfLSBAz2Q
William Irwin Thompson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnVO1nQChFQ
Other Authors
Also important
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm86ZNfg_GE
Rene Guenon; 1) The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, 12 videos 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxDdbyieiVY
Carl Jung Lecture 1 (1999, 8 parts) : Freud-Jung Conflict : 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSzl1K06PX4 Lecture 2 (1999, 5 parts) : Psychological Types and onwards 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYCU6VqwuQ4
Marshall McLuhan Marshall McLuhan Culture Without Literacy Discussion by John David Ebert, 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeMt9lyRFY
Heiner Muhlmann Heiner Muhlmann's Maximal Stress Cooperation Theory , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9d7KlUyXUk
Camille Paglia’s Sexual Personae, 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7shctO8cgc 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-yNcQIy6nE
Peter Sloterdijk, 6 parts, Spheres and Bubbles 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay6Qeb8HDI4 Intro, 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eihSnINUmZc
Ken Wilber, Up from Eden, 1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUg8u_R2pI
Arthur Young 2 part series, John David Ebert Lecture on Arthur Young Part 1, starts here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfcPwfGMsjM (12 years ago) Arthur Young's The Reflexive Universe Part 1: Light by John David Ebert, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_0L1D0OPT8