1.   As one who constantly re-evaluates his previous evaluations, perceiving in this the necessity of facing up to the limitations of one's theories in order that, with further modification, such limitations may be undermined, if not transcended, in favour of a truer or more credible overall perspective, I have been obliged, by vocational conscience, to re-evaluate my most recent theories concerning the successive stages of civilization, as it advances from pagan to transcendental via Christian and humanist positions on a dialectical basis in which, for example, a thetic action is countered by an antithetic reaction which, in turn, becomes subject to a synthetic attraction which leads to a new thetic action, and so on, in a process which embraces both birth and death, positive and negative, alternatives.

2.   Actually I believe I was broadly right in my theorizing about this dialectical process, but not, alas, sufficiently comprehensive!  For I assumed a civilized beginning and ending to the entire process which made it seem as though there were five overall stages of dialectical unfolding, beginning with paganism, continuing with Christianity, or antipaganism, carrying on, thereafter, with first humanism and then corporatism, or antihumanism, and culminating with transcendentalism.  Our overall alpha and omega was thus couched in the framework not only of paganism and transcendentalism, but of a liberal/totalitarian antithesis between the first, or diastolic, phase of the former and the second, or systolic, phase of the latter, giving us a distinction between pagan liberalism and transcendental totalitarianism.

3.   Frankly I am now less convinced of that than I was at the time of writing it, and for the simple reason that I began to think of such stages of civilization's advance in relation to colloquial expressions like 'son of a bitch' and 'son of a gun' and realized, soon enough, that the alternation between birth and death, positive and negative, stages of civilization couldn't be limited to such a male-biased terminology, no matter how seemingly applicable it might be to the three 'birth' stages, viz. the birth of Devil the Mother, the birth of man (the father), and the birth of God the Father, corresponding to paganism, humanism, and transcendentalism, in which one could conceivably distinguish the initial phase from the ensuing reactionary phase in terms of the equation of the expression 'son of a bitch' with a liberal diastole and the equation of the expression 'son of a gun' with a totalitarian systole, the progressive antithetical reaction to the preceding thesis which confirmed an evolutionary centro-complexification as typifying the positive status of a 'birth' stage of civilization, whether paganistic, humanistic, or transcendentalistic.

4.   No such expressions could logically be attached to or identified with the two 'death' stages of civilization, however, neither in respect of the death of (worship of) Devil the Mother, which was identified with Christianity as an antipagan phenomenon, nor in respect of the death of man which, having reference if not exactly to worship then certainly to an increasing reliance upon machines, or machine culture, could be identified with corporatism as an antihumanist phenomenon, whether in its systolic or its diastolic manifestation.  For, of course, with the 'death' stages of civilization things proceeded in reverse of the 'birth' stages, if, indeed, 'proceed' is the word!  Rather it seemed to me that they receded, or regressed, from totalitarian to liberal, systolic to diastolic, phases in the course of their negative unfolding, the negative synthetic attraction with a preceding positive reaction leading to a totalitarian thesis which became subject, in the course of devolutionary de-centralization, to a regressive reaction in the form of a liberal diastole, the monotheism of Catholicism paving the way for the polytheism or, rather, pluralistic pantheism, as it were, of Protestantism; the totalitarianism of Fascism paving the way for the contemporary liberalism of American-style corporatism, neither of which stages of civilization, whether antipagan or antihumanist, had anything sufficiently positive and evolutionary about them to suggest that such male expressions as 'son of a bitch' and 'son of a gun' had much if any applicability.

5.   Therefore I began to think of new expressions which might have some applicability, and it wasn't long before I hit upon the notion of 'daughter of a gun' for anything negatively totalitarian, or monistic in respect of a thetic action, and 'daughter of a bitch' for anything negatively liberal, or pluralistic in respect of an antithetic reaction (to the preceding thetic action), thereby bringing to the all-too-familiar colloquial expressions noted above a female counterpart in each case that would adequately suffice to describe the devolutionary stages of civilization exemplified by either the death of Devil the Mother or the death of man.

6.   Consequently I found that the pagan-to-antipagan stages of civilization could be colloquially described in relation to a 'son-of-a-bitch' liberal thesis duly subjected to a 'son-of-a-gun' totalitarian antithesis in the case of paganism which would require that the ensuing negative synthetic attraction of antipagan totalitarianism, or Catholic monotheism vis-à-vis Judaic monotheism, be colloquially described in relation to a 'daughter-of-a-gun' totalitarian thesis which was duly subjected to a 'daughter-of-a-bitch' liberal antithesis, as things devolved, in de-centralization, from monism to pluralism, systolic action to diastolic reaction.

7.   Likewise I found that the humanist-to-antihumanist stages of civilization could be colloquially described in relation to a 'son-of-a-bitch' liberal thesis duly being subjected to a 'son-of-a-gun' totalitarian antithesis in the case of humanism, which would require that the ensuing negative synthetic attraction of antihumanist totalitarianism, or Fascism vis-à-vis Communism, be colloquially described in relation to a 'daughter-of-a-gun' totalitarian thesis which was duly subjected to a 'daughter-of-a-bitch' liberal antithesis, as things devolved, in de-centralization, from monism to pluralism, systolic action to diastolic reaction.

8.   Then, finally, it became feasible to equate the transcendentalist stage of civilization which was conceived as beginning via a positive synthetic attraction vis-à-vis liberal corporatism with a 'son-of-a-bitch' liberal thesis which would duly become subject to a progressive reaction in the form of a 'son-of-a-gun' antithesis, the latter of which would bring the birth or, more correctly, dying birth of God the Father to a totalitarian head, commensurate with the development of 'Kingdom Come' towards an omega point of systolic summation in what would be a truly global phenomenon or, rather, noumenon of transcendent universality.

9.   When, however, one comes to contrast the omega-most position of such a projected divine totalitarianism with the alpha-most position of civilization, as previously defined by me in The Dialectics of Synthetic Attraction, one finds one is contrasting a 'son-of-a-gun' omega point with a 'son-of-a-bitch' alpha point in what was described as the liberal inception of pagan civilization.  Frankly, that does not seem to me like the beginning and end of things!  For surely, the real antithesis to a 'son-of-a-gun' omega point in transcendentalism would be a 'daughter-of-a-gun' alpha point in something fundamental to even pagan civilization, something that could be said to have preceded pagan civilization and thus be Edenically reflective of the Big Bang with which the Cosmos is alleged to have begun, whether or not such a totalitarian monism was repeated on earth in the earliest of tribal or pre-tribal communities, as, in fact, one is led to believe from the Biblical account of Eden.

10.  Therefore if, indeed, something approximating to a 'daughter-of-a-gun' totalitarianism is more feasibly antithetical, on absolute terms, to the 'son-of-a-gun' totalitarianism we are equating with a transcendental omega point, and thus effectively with Social Theocracy, this must surely mean that the real antithesis to anything transcendentalist is not pluralistically pagan, least of all on civilized terms, but monistically pagan on barbarous and effectively pre-historical terms, such as would be commensurate with the colloquial notion - somewhat unique to my thinking - of 'daughter of a gun'.

11.  And not only would there be a pre-historical and therefore barbarously pagan 'daughter-of-a-gun' totalitarianism as the absolute alpha point, but an equally pre-historical and barbarously pagan 'daughter-of-a-bitch' liberalism as the pluralistic offshoot, in devolutionary de-centralization, of such monism which would have preceded its liberal counterpart in what was described as the first phase of pagan civilization, a phase rather more polytheistic than monotheistic.

12.  For just as the Cosmos could be said to have devolved from the Big Bang monism to a diaspora of galaxies and solar systems over many, many millennia, so would this process have been reflected, I believe, on earth in terms of a gradual regression from tribal unity to tribal disunity, parity to disparity, from an Edenic Oneness in some monistic parallel to the origin of the Cosmos which could be colloquially described in terms of a 'daughter-of-a-gun' totalitarianism to a post-Edenic Manifoldness of devolved tribes or communities whose colloquial parallel would be a 'daughter-of-a-bitch' liberalism, and which would have constituted the pre-historical precondition of that 'son-of-a-bitch' liberalism, backing away from it on synthetically attractive positive terms, which emerges, in Hindu-like guise, with the dawn of civilization as ...

13.  But as what in relation to what?  Not as a continuation of what could be called the living death of Devil the Mother, whether in totalitarian or liberal, monistic or pluralistic, pre-historical terms, wherein cosmic timelessness is the cardinal attribute of what, on earth, becomes Edenically associated with an animal-like identification with Nature, but in respect of a revolt against such a Living Death which, commensurate with the beginnings of civilization, seeks to palliate the bitter pill of a gradual devolution from cosmic fact with the sugar coating of a theological panacea, whereby Devil the Mother is hyped as God.

14.  Thus God enters into the civilized pagan frame, whether in relation to the polytheism of a religion like Hinduism or, subsequently, in relation to the monotheism of one like Judaism, as a theological retort to primitive savagery and the living death of Devil the Mother, and does so precisely as the birth of Devil the Mother hyped as God, a situation which was to continue beyond civilized paganism in the Christian antipaganism of the death of (sacrificial worship of) Devil the Mother hyped as God via the sacrifice of Her Son on the Cross, an emblem both of the rejection of free soma and of an acceptance of a Christian alternative to pagan sacrifice in the forms of the Saviour's own body and blood, as subsequently endorsed on the sublimated basis of the Eucharist, with its wafer and wine.  But just as Devil the Mother was and had been hyped as God wherever civilized paganism obtained, so the Son of Devil the Mother would have to be hyped as the Son of God, since - except in relation to peoples still given to pagan savagery - the hyping of Devil the Mother as God ... the Father ... was inseparable from civilized paganism and could not be dropped or discarded - though modified it assuredly could be to suit less-civilized peoples - with the dawn of Christianity.

15.  Therefore the civilized desirability of maintaining the theological expedience of treating Devil the Mother as God and then, in like vein, the Son of Devil the Mother as the Son of God was incontestable, since one cannot advance civilization except by rejecting the living death of Devil the Mother as symptomatic of pagan savagery, and substituting for it the birth of Devil the Mother hyped as God and, when this proved inadequate or insufficiently civilized, turning against such a civilized birth in the name of the Son of Devil the Mother hyped as the Son of God in order that civilization could be further advanced in respect of the death of Devil the Mother, though not of the hype thereof, in antipagan vein.

16.  Therefore the pre-historical timelessness of pagan barbarity is gradually eclipsed by the time-based chronology of both civilized paganism and antipaganism, both of which would have been demonstrably beyond 'the Garden' of the Edenic 'Paradise' which a timeless identification with both Nature and the Cosmos must signify, and therefore beyond the savage, whether 'noble' and totalitarian or 'ignoble' and liberal, 'daughter of a gun' and monistic or 'daughter of a bitch' and pluralistic, this latter significant of a regressive reaction to the former as devolutionary de-centralization ensued upon the original thetic action, to become subject, in due pluralistic course, to a positive synthetic attraction such that led to the birth of civilization as described in this and previous texts, and thus to the birth of Devil the Mother(s) hyped as God(s).

17.  But if history is chronological in respect of the succession of paganism by antipaganism, it is by no means, at this stage or, rather, with these stages of its advance overly concerned with time; for time is subjective and therefore affiliated with psyche, whereas that which is concerned with soma, whether on a free (pagan) or a bound (antipagan) basis, can only be affiliated with space, since soma can only be objectivized within the context of space, which enables it to be or, more correctly, to do.  Therefore even if civilized paganism and its Christian offshoot isn't overly committed to absolute space in respect of a cosmic-based free soma primarily having metachemical implications, its commitment to soma, both free and bound, ensures that space takes precedence over time, and more usually within the chemical/antiphysical context of phenomenal sensuality, broadly identifiable with nature.

18.  Consequently noumenal sensuality is effectively superseded, through antipagan civilization, by phenomenal sensuality, with metachemical/antimetaphysical manifestations of soma accordingly superseded by their rather more relativistic chemical/antiphysical counterparts which, with Christianity, embrace binding via the Crucified, and thus stigmatize as 'sinful' that which appertains to free soma, whether absolutely or, especially, relatively, as in the context of phenomenal sensuality itself.

19.  But if absolute space is superseded, in such fashion, by an emphasis, within phenomenal sensuality, upon relative space, whether in respect of free soma or, with antipaganism, bound soma, such relative space co-exists with relative time, and thus with a correlative manifestation of psyche, whether bound in connection with free soma or free in connection with bound soma - the antipagan and, more specifically, Christian ideal.

20.  And yet we cannot characterize these two stages of civilization, pagan and antipagan, primarily in terms of time but, rather, in terms of relative space, and thus as an extrapolation from the female actuality of space as the context or setting in which soma objectivizes itself, and never more completely than in the noumenally sensual context of absolute space, of metachemical objectivity/antimetaphysical anti-subjectivity which we have identified with pagan savagery, with the undiluted Heathenism of Devil the Mother, whether in terms of a 'daughter-of-a-gun' monism or, following devolutionary de-centralization, a 'daughter-of-a-bitch' pluralism.

21.  The civilized pluralism which ensues with the sugar-coating of Devil the Mother through the birth of Devil the Mother hyped as God necessarily signifies a positive synthetic attraction vis-à-vis the regressive reaction of 'daughter-of-a-bitch' pluralism to 'daughter-of-a-gun' monism, and such a synthetic attraction we have identified with 'son-of-a-bitch' pluralism, the first phase of that civilized paganism out of which not merely 'son-of-a-gun' monism was monotheistically to emerge, but against which, in due repudiation of pagan birth, the negative synthetic attraction of antipagan (Christian) 'daughter-of-a-gun' monism came to the fore as the bound-somatic retort not only to paganism, but as the necessary precondition of the ensuing 'daughter-of-a-bitch' pluralism which one can only identify with a Protestant phase of Christianity, as the totalitarianism of Catholic monism, or monotheism in respect of the Son of Devil the Mother hyped as Son of God, becomes subject to a regressive reaction in the guise of the Protestant schism which, in its liberal pluralism, effectively brings the stage of civilization associated with the death of Devil the Mother hyped as God or, more specifically, with the Son of Devil the Mother hyped as Son of God (if not in some cases as God) to a devolutionary close.

22.  So much for civilized birth and death in its pagan and antipagan guises!  The emphasis is still, at this point in civilization's advance, on soma rather than psyche, and therefore there is more space than time, more objectivity than subjectivity, in accordance with either pagan freedom of soma or Christian denial of soma (as illustrated by the Cross), and its fixation on the avoidance of 'sin', or somatic licence.

23.  Without such a stage of civilization as antipaganism, however, there could have been no birth of man through humanism, and therefore no positive synthetic attraction vis-à-vis the pluralistic phase of the Son of Devil the Mother hyped as Son of God, and consequently no liberal inception to the birth of man in terms of a 'son-of-a-bitch' pluralism which, in its emphasis on relative free psyche, would switch the locus of civilization from bound space to free time, and thus inaugurate the Age of Reason which was to supersede the Age of Faith (in the Crucified) and in which the space/time dichotomy of soma/psyche would acquire a subjective bias under a male lead of society, as of civilization, which would eventually become subject, in various countries, to a progressive reaction against pluralism that would take an increasingly totalitarian guise in respect of a sort of social-democratic repudiation of liberal democracy.

24.  Be that as it may, there can be no question that anything as evolutionary in regard to a psychic emphasis as humanism can only undergo centro-complexification as from 'son-of-a-bitch' pluralism to 'son-of-a-gun' monism, liberal to totalitarian modes of democracy, and only within the framework, by and large, of phenomenal sensibility, which is to say, of a physical/antichemical gender dichotomy the antithesis of such chemical/antiphysical relativity as characterizes phenomenal sensuality.

25.  But such a stage of civilization, no less historical than its pagan/antipagan predecessors, is fated to be overtaken by its equivalent of antipaganism which, focusing on the death of man (via worship and utilization of the machine), we have termed antihumanism, and such antihumanism, centred around economic corporatism, can only start in terms of a negative synthetic attraction to the progressive reaction, antithetically, of totalitarian humanism to its liberal thesis, and such a synthetic attraction was fated to be no-less totalitarian than its humanistic predecessor, thereby enabling us to infer a fascist supersession of Communism which we can describe, if rather colloquially, as a 'daughter-of-a-gun' monism in opposition to a 'son-of-a-gun' monism, always bearing in mind that such a fascistic 'daughter of a gun' is no totalitarian Catholic, still less an Eve-like savage, but the totalitarian manifestation of the death-of-man stage of civilization which cannot but be subjected, in due historical course, to a regressive reaction in the form of some 'daughter-of-a-bitch' pluralism significant of liberal corporatism, the type of corporatism (in machine culture) which currently rules the global roost as that which is at the cutting edge of civilization's advance - indeed, the end of civilization as a historical phenomenon in which space/time relativity exists not simply as the worldly retort, in paganism/antipaganism, to a space absolutism but, effectively, as the precondition, in humanism/antihumanism, of a time absolutism, of the coming Eternity of absolute psychic freedom in which time is the exemplification of such freedom as a profoundly subjective experience which cannot but take evolution to its transcendental victory over the world ... of space/time relativity.