CIVILIZED AND BARBARIC

Germane to civilization is the concept

Of an Eternal Life to-come,

An aspiration towards a condition superior to

And distinct from human reality - in short, a divine End.

A civilized period is one in which concern with the Beyond

Preponderates over the here-and-now, or mere survival;

In which the spiritual good of the Many

Is put before the material interests of the Few.

A barbarous period, by contrast, focuses

On the world and the individual's stake in it.

It is the difference between wavicles and particles,

Cohesion and differentiation,

Spirituality and materialism.

A civilized barbarity, however, will focus

On the Many and the future,

Like a genuine civilization,

Albeit on down-to-earth, materialist terms,

Suggestive of world socialism,

The millennial concomitant of which

Would be a kind of Spartan consumer society

Broadly commensurate with

The utmost contraction of materialism.