5 votes

Financial Bubbles are the Gnostic Heresy: The Voegelin-Minsky Synthesis

4 comments

  1. [4]
    onyxleopard
    Link
    Never read such a long piece about economics that concluded that they don’t know everything (a pleasant surprise). While I enjoyed reading it a lot, I also don’t know that I actually grok...

    Never read such a long piece about economics that concluded that they don’t know everything (a pleasant surprise). While I enjoyed reading it a lot, I also don’t know that I actually grok Voegelin’s gnosis any more now than when I started reading (and I hadn’t heard of Voegelin when I started reading).

    1. [3]
      skybrian
      Link Parent
      Here's a Wikipedia article that explains it a bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanentize_the_eschaton

      Here's a Wikipedia article that explains it a bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanentize_the_eschaton

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        onyxleopard
        Link Parent
        I think I more or less grok the idea of immanentizing the eschaton in this context (realizing the endpoint of a bubble). The thesis about this being analogized to spirituality is what I don’t...

        I think I more or less grok the idea of immanentizing the eschaton in this context (realizing the endpoint of a bubble). The thesis about this being analogized to spirituality is what I don’t grasp, though. Maybe that is because of my secular upbringing and lack of study of religion (esp. Christianity). Unless the analogy is really as shallow as just commenting on how economic bubbles are somewhat similar to the popular, biblical notion of the rapture? In that case I have to say that Voegelin’s turn of phrase is bordering on pompous obfuscation.

        1. skybrian
          Link Parent
          Yeah, I think it's deliberately obscure for the fun of it, but not actually all that deep. (Or else I missed it entirely.)

          Yeah, I think it's deliberately obscure for the fun of it, but not actually all that deep. (Or else I missed it entirely.)

          1 vote