Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“There is always a center whenever humans are arranged in relation to each other, and the center is always occupied, even if only by a sacred carcass. All the continuities and discontinuities in human history follow from successive attempts to occupy, hold, expand the reach of, or replace, the center or its present occupant. Questions of scale are therefore questions of the reach of the center, and its maintenance or extension of that reach through the creation of subordinate centers. A particular historical trajectory (Christian-informed modernity) is completed once every individual can become a center within some space, and this only happens once the occupant of the center has been sufficiently singularized so as to become something like a “personality” upon which other “persons” can model their own, which also means becoming sufficiently desacralized so as to become an actor outside of very tightly scripted ritual roles.”

— Adam Katz, Scale · Nov 16, 2021 · Bouvard Substack