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Augustine's Warning: The Unseen Powers of History · Chapter by Chapter — The Lost Library

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  So think about when you walk past a like a really massive
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  towering skyscraper in a major financial district.
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  Right. Yeah, like in New York or
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  London. Exactly.
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  Your eyes are just naturally drawn to the visible structure
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  in a you notice the the sheer glass, the steel beams, maybe
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  the way the building reflects the clouds.
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  Yeah, you're looking at the architecture that was basically
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  designed specifically to impress you to project power.
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  Spot on. But if that building suddenly
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  begins to lean or sway violently in the wind?
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  You stop looking at the window panes.
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  Right. You immediately question the
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  foundation. You're forced to consider the,
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  you know, the invisible physics, the deep subterranean anchors
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  that you can't even see, which are either holding the entire
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  structure up or, well, fundamentally failing.
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  Because the focus shifts entirely right from the
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  aesthetic surface to the actual underlying mechanics of its
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  structural integrity. Exactly, and welcome to the deep
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  dive. And a special welcome to you,
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  the learner. Today, we're examining the
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  ultimate cracked foundation of Western civilization.
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  Yeah, this is a big one. It really is.
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  We are pulling from a pretty dense, towering stack of sources
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  today excerpts from Saint Augustine's monumental work, The
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  City of God, Volume 1. Specifically the translation by
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  Reverend Marcus Dodds, just for reference.
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  Yes, thank you. And our mission for today's Deep
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  Dive is to explore how this ancient text creates what is
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  essentially the very first real philosophy of history.
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  Yeah, because Augustine fundamentally reframes human
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  events. You know, he moves away from
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  just chronicling visible political power.
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  Right. And he redefines history as this
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  massive, invisible struggle between hidden philosophical and
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  spiritual systems. He's basically forcing his
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  contemporaries, and us really, to look at the subterranean
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  anchors of society, to ask our modern societies still operate
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  under these hidden belief structures engineered by the
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  elite. But to grapple with that, we
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  really have to look at the historical crisis that forced
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  Augustine to write this 22 book masterpiece over 13 years.
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  So set the stage for us. Well, the year is 410 AD and the
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  unconquered mistress of the world, Rome, has just been
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  stormed and sacked by the Goths under King Alaric.
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  Which is just, I mean, the civilized world is in absolute
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  shock, right? Complete devastation.
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  Psychologically, it was like the end of the world.
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  And in the aftermath, the remaining pagans immediately
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  direct their outrage at the relatively new Christian
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  religion. Because they abandoned the old
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  ways. Exactly.
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  They argue that because the Empire abandoned its ancient
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  gods, those gods withdrew their divine protection and just
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  allowed Rome to fall. OK, let's unpack this.
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  Because Augustine is facing a profound cultural indictment
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  here. How does he actually defend
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  against such a massive accusation?
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  Well, he starts by deploying a really rigorous empirical
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  critique of Roman history. He bypasses the theological
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  debate at 1st and goes straight to the historical record.
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  Like checking the receipts. Yes, pointing out the glaring
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  logical flaw in the Pagan argument, which is that the Old
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  Gods had a very documented history of, well, failing to
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  protect anyone. Oh, right, he draws immediate
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  attention to Troy, right? The mother city of the Roman
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  people, The Trojans fervently worshipped the exact same
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  pantheon, Minerva, Juno, Apollo. Yet Troy was utterly annihilated
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  by the Greeks. Right, And he highlights the
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  incredible paradox of Aeneas, the legendary founder of the
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  Roman lineage. Yeah, Aeneas flees the burning
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  ruins of Troy. And what is he doing?
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  He's physically carrying his gods to safety in Italy.
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  Exactly. Augustine actually calls them
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  conquered gods. It's this brilliant logical
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  trap. Because if a deity requires a
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  human refugee to rescue it from a burning temple.
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  How can a society rationally expect that same deity to
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  provide a shield over an entire? Empire, you're relying on a
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  security apparatus that has already been breached.
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  You know it's completely destroyed.
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  And Augustine drives that point home by contrasting the sack of
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  Troy with the sack of Rome in 410 AD.
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  OK, how so? Well, during the fall of Troy,
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  the Greeks showed absolutely no respect for the Pagan
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  sanctuaries. I mean, the Temple of Juno was
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  commandeered by the Greeks to hoard stolen treasure and Amura
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  captives. OK, but Fast forward to Rome,
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  the Goths. Who are these barbarian
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  invaders? They storm the city, but out of
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  reverence for Christ, they actually halt their slaughter at
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  the steps of the Christian churches.
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  Wait, really? The invaders just stopped.
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  Yeah, at the shrines of Peter and Paul, they allowed anyone
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  who crossed those thresh to find true asylum, even pagans who
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  were just faking it to save their own skins.
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  But I, I mean, let me play devil's advocate for a second.
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  Wasn't that simply a matter of like, tribal loyalty?
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  The Goths were technically Aryan Christians.
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  Couldn't the pagans argue they were just sparing their own
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  religious monuments? They could.
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  Try but August encounters that this behavior violated every
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  known convention of ancient warfare.
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  In the classical paradigm, a city's temples were the primary
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  targets for looting because that's where the wealth was, the
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  victor claimed the defeated city's gods.
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  Sparing people just because they stood inside a specific building
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  was entirely unprecedented. So, Augustine argues, the pagans
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  survived precisely because of the mercy introduced by the
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  religion they were blaming. Exactly.
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  It's a massive irony. But that sets up a fascinating
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  historical contradiction. If these Pagan gods were
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  demonstrably so useless historically, why did the highly
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  pragmatic Romans rely on them for over 1000 years?
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  That is the $1,000,000 question. I mean, were the Roman gods
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  essentially just like an ancient corporate mascot?
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  You know, a branding exercise taking credit for the sheer
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  engineering and hard work of the Roman legions.
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  What's fascinating here is that Augustine completely agrees with
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  the premise of your mascot analogy.
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  Oh really? Yes, he asserts the gods
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  contributed absolutely nothing to the expansion of the empire.
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  The Roman state was built by the early Romans.
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  Insatiable desire for human glory, their civic discipline,
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  and what Augustine identifies as their lust of rule.
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  The drive for domination built Rome, not the gods.
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  But here is the critical pivot, right?
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  Because the Roman elite actually understood this.
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  They did. They knew the gods were an empty
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  facade. Which brings us directly to the
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  architecture of societal control.
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  So the political leaders knew the pantheon was a fabrication,
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  yet they kept funding the temples and mandating
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  sacrifices. Exactly, they maintained a
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  religious infrastructure they privately knew was false.
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  Augustine relies heavily on Marcus Varro for this.
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  Rome's most learned scholar. Right.
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  Yeah, Varro was brilliant and he divided theology into 3 distinct
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  types. OK, walk us through them. 1st,
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  mythical theology, which was the fabulous, often obscene plays in
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  the public theater. Second, natural theology, which
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  was the domain of the philosophers dealing with the
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  actual physical truths of the universe, right.
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  And 3rd civil theology, which dictated the official state
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  religion and the city worship. So we have theater for the
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  masses, philosophy for the intellectuals, and state
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  religion for civic order. Precisely.
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  And Varro separates the philosophical truth from the
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  state religion because the truth was completely incompatible with
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  social utility. They knew the myths were absurd.
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  Oh, completely. But Varro makes this shocking
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  admission that Augustine exposes.
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  Varro writes that while the educated elites and Princess
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  knew the mythical and civil gods were false, it is expedient that
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  the people should think otherwise, even though falsely.
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  Expedient that the people should think otherwise.
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  Wow. Here's where it gets really
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  interesting, especially for you, the learner navigating our
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  modern world. Oh, absolutely.
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  Is describing A calculated deployment of myth for
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  psychological control. And we have to ask, are we
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  really so different today? Look at our modern, visible
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  political powers. Yeah.
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  Do they rely on invisible expedient myths?
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  Exactly. Think about political spin
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  rooms, or algorithms curating outrage, or the myth of endless
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  economic consumerism. Are these are modern civil
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  theologies designed to keep the populace docile and predictable?
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  Augustine draws a very sharp conclusion about that dynamic.
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  He says that by prioritizing civic utility over truth, the
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  elites acted like demons. Like demons?
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  That's strong language. Very strong because they
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  intentionally deceive the public to bind them more firmly into
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  civil society, subjecting them to control.
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  So the Public Theater spectacles, all the crimes and
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  obscenities were actually demanded by these hidden
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  structures. Yes, to keep the masses
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  distracted and morally compliant.
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  The visible empire ran smoothly because its foundation was an
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  invisible system of expedient lies.
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  The elite just want taxes. They wanted total psychological
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  capture. Right.
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  But because the visible earthly state is built on this
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  manipulation, Augustine has to introduce his ultimate thesis.
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  An alternative right? He can't just tear down the
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  building without proposing a new.
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  One exactly. So he introduces a grand
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  framework, the city of the world or earthly city, and the city of
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  God, the heavenly city. OK, so let's look at the source
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  codes of these two parallel societies.
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  The earthly city is the mistress of the nations, but what drives
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  it? It's ultimately ruled by its own
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  lust of rule. It seeks human glory.
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  And the city of God. It's a Pilgrim on earth, it
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  lives by faith, seeking eternal peace, and it grows silently.
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  Augustine quotes this beautiful classical phrase grows silently
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  like a tree. Crescent Occulto Velut Arbor
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  Evo. Grows silently like a tree.
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  I love that. So while the earthly city is,
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  you know, throwing military parades and fighting for
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  borders, the city of God is just quietly expanding.
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  Exactly. But crucially, these two cities
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  are not physical, geographical places.
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  They aren't, no. They are completely entangled
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  together in this world and intermixed until the Last
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  Judgment. By intermixed.
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  So what does this all mean for the listener going about their
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  daily life? Yeah, because if they're
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  entangled, how do you figure out which city you or the people in
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  power actually belong to? It sounds like this forced dual
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  citizenship. It is like you pay taxes to a
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  visible country, but your true loyalty belongs to an invisible
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  one. If we connect this to the bigger
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  picture, Augustine says citizenship is determined
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  entirely by what you love. By what you love, yeah.
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  Lust for power versus love of truth and God.
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  You can have incredibly corrupt people sitting inside the
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  visible church. So they belong to the earthly
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  city. Exactly, and you can have future
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  Saints currently outside of it. The visible boundaries don't
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  match the spiritual reality. Which forces a radical rereading
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  of human history, right? History isn't just the story of
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  empires falling anymore. No, it's the story of the
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  invisible city of God surviving the wreckage.
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  Just enduring the collapse. But for that invisible heavenly
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  city to actually achieve a final victory, the very nature of time
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  has to support a final destination, doesn't it?
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  It has to, yes, because if history just repeats itself,
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  endurance is pointless. The City of God can never truly
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  win. And this is where Augustine
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  breaks down the prevailing Pagan philosophy of time, which was
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  the cyclical view. OK, the cyclical view.
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  Yeah, philosophers like Plato believe that history just loops
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  endlessly. Just going in circles.
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  Right at fixed intervals, the exact same people, the exact
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  same schools, and the same miseries will just repeat
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  forever. Why would the pagans find that
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  appealing in the 1st place? Yeah, I mean, Pagan's cyclical
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  time is like being trapped on a treadmill.
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  Yeah, you're sweating, you're working hard, but you're going
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  absolutely nowhere. They liked it because it implied
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  a sort of eternal, unchanging perfection to the cosmos.
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  But Agustin comes along and says, no, you're actually
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  running a marathon. There is a finish line.
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  Right, he shatters the loop with the concept of linear time.
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  He argues time had a definitive beginning created with the
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  world, and is moving toward a definitive end.
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  How does he prove that the loose can be broken?
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  He uses the biblical concept that Christ died once.
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  If that unique event happened once, it proves novelty is
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  possible. A soul can be permanently saved.
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  We are not trapped on a cosmic hamster wheel.
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  We don't have to do this all again in a million.
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  Years exactly. Augustine actually quotes the
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  Psalms against the Pagan philosophers, saying the wicked
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  walk in a circle. The wicked walk in a circle that
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  is so evocative. But how does this shift to
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  linear time change how the listener should view their own
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  personal history and, you know, their own struggles?
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  This raises an important question about the meaning of it
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  all. Linear time gives meaning to
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  suffering. OK, if the sack of Rome or any
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  modern tragedy is just a point on an endless loop, it's
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  meaningless misery. It's a.
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  Glitch on the treadmill. Right.
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  But if it's a point on a line moving toward ultimate justice,
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  it has purpose. The struggle actually matter.
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  Exactly. History has a plot.
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  Wow. OK, let's synthesize all all of
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  this. We've covered massive ground.
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  We started with the shocking physical collapse of Rome in 410
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  AD. The.
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  Ultimate visible skyscraper falling.
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  Exactly which led Augustine to expose the cynical, elite driven
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  civil theologies of his day. And from those ashes, he built
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  this stunning philosophy of history.
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  Based on 2 entangled invisible cities.
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  Right, moving along a linear timeline toward a final
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  meaningful destination. And for you, the learner, this
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  framework completely changes how you read the news today.
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  Oh, it really does. When you see political empires
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  clashing or institutions crumbling, you are only seeing
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  the visible surface. Just the glass and steel.
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  Yeah, the real story is the invisible struggle of belief
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  systems underneath. Which leaves us with a final
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  lingering question for you to explore on your own.
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  And it's a tough one. It is.
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  Think about the institutions, the media, or the political
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  parties you interact with daily. What are the modern civil
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  theologies of our time? Yeah, what are they?
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  What are the beautiful, comforting myths that our
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  leaders find expedient for you to believe just to keep the
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  visible empire running smoothly? And more importantly, are you
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  going to keep believing them? Look at the foundation, not just
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  the building. Exactly.
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  Thank you for joining the conversation today, and as
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  always, keep digging beneath the surface.