[anvandare]

History is either seen as a circle or as a line.

If as a circle, then history repeats itself endlessly. The world is reborn and dies, over and over. It is seen as the lives of generations.

If as a line, then history has only one beginning and will have one ending. The world is born and will die. It is seen as the life of an individual.

The ones that adhere to the line can in turn be divided along those that see the line going up (toward a sunlit city at the top of a hill) and those that see the line going down (towards a hellish valley at the foot of a hill - Megiddo perhaps). Or rather, it's the same line, and the same hill, but they disagree on the direction they are headed.

Of course, any line is just a circle zoomed-in close enough, and any circle draws a line if it rolls on long enough. History is just another form of story, a way of seeing things. What matters is not the story, but who is telling it and why.

[eevilspock]

A philosophy professor of mine at Berkeley claimed that the fundamental difference between Eastern and Western culture is that the former is built around the concept of Saṃsāra[1] while the latter around telos[2] and the teleological[3], that Eastern religion and culture is centered on the eternal cycles (e.g. life, reincarnation) and thus the importance of peace and stability while Western religion and culture is centered on "a progression from the beginning to the end" (e.g. Genesis to Judgement Day, a teleological view of evolution) and thus oriented toward teleological change and revolution.

It's an interesting theory that provokes thought, but breaks down on analysis and reveals a deeply arrogant Eurocentric view of history.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara_(disambiguation)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telos

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleology