2.3 The Birth Of Democracy
Last modified 04/22/2008
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Perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon of the Axial Age, often not even
mentioned in accounts attempting to describe it, is the birth of democracy in
Greece, in full concert with the parallel cultural phenomena in the full
spectrum of the Axial interval. Even as the Old Testament world moves from its
localized source in the saga of Israel/Judah to its exteriorizing form in the
wake of the exile, the world of Archaic Greece with its gestating experiments in
republicanism gives birth to a dramatic and short-lived era of democracy. The
most mysterious aspect of this is the timing. And a closer look shows the
earlier stages in preparation directly correlated with the Axial interval.
The focus on the religious outcomes of the Axial period is thus misleading, as is the designation of this period as being some kind of 'spiritual age'. It is as if the 'secular' is being born at the same time. Perhaps we should be wary of, and not use the term in this context, save that a larger perspective on the eonic effect as a whole shows us that the Greek experiment is almost like a prelude to one and the same rebirth of democracy in the modern transition, successor to the Axial. In both cases the timing is a subtle yet spectacular hint of something deeper, a system dynamic of an elusive character. |
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