BELIEFS FROM THE TYRANNY OF TIME AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
If we look carefully behind these apparently very different labels, Astrologers, Millennialists and Historicists exhibit many of the characteristics of a religion. They have their own set of beliefs and values which are intended to direct the lives of their followers in a wholly consuming way. We will therefore explore some of the beliefs and values of these varied groups and see how the Tyranny of Time is a form of religion that lies behind them; whether they realize it or not.
The first and most important belief is in generalisations. It is the belief that classes, categories, groups, races, or any other generalisation about people, is more important than the diverse and unclassifiable nature of individual human beings themselves.
For the Astrologers, people are classified in terms of their 'star sign' or some other label relating to their time, and sometimes place, of birth. Whilst it is easy to laugh at this idea, it can be the beginning of something much more serious and sinister. If someone tells me that I'm a Pisces, for example, that can lead me into being curious about typical Pisces characteristics. I then go on to imagining how far I share these characteristics. The danger is that I'm then more struck by the fact that I share some of these characteristics, than I am by the fact that I don't share some of the others. If this happens, I can then unconsciously start being more like a Piscean than being my independent self. In particular, it can poison my relationships with others: like if I meet someone who is born under Virgo. Astrology tells me that Pisceans and Virgoans make a bad match; so instead of being open to learning about my new aquaintance as a unique individual, I look for characteristics that astrology tells me they should have.
Apocalyptic Millennialists are more simple but more sinister. Their view of the human race is not a varied mix of twelve star signs, but a simple division into 'us' and 'them'. 'Us' are the Apocalyptic Millennialists themselves, who believe that they have the privileged knowledge and that they are the elite elect who know about the oncoming doomsday and will be saved. 'Them' is everyone else and who are damned for eternity or destined for extinction. The sinister quality of this believe derives from this simplicity. The rich variety of human beings with their different loves and lives; with their different appearances and actions; with their different concerns and commitments; all this is reduced to two identities: 'us' and 'them'.
The Historicists think themselves to be very different from what they see as the superstitions of the Astrologers and the Apocalyptic Millennialists. Historicism has supposedly replaced the superstitions about time with the rational analysis of 'history'.
G W F Hegel
(Famous Historicist)
