“It failed last time because they didn’t do it right.”
I. The Myth of the Second Chance
More dangerous than any ideology is the belief that next time, it will work.
We are not content to bury our broken systems. We resurrect them. We sand down their horrors, reframe their failures, and promise that with the right people, the right rules, the right intentions, the story will finally come true.
Real communism has never been tried. True capitalism is still possible. The old religion must be restored. The new empire will be benevolent.
These are not footnotes of history.
They are headlines.
They are campaign slogans.
They are manifestos.
We reboot our sacred foma with the same hope that built them - and the same blindness that broke them. Because the alternative is harder: to admit that no system can hold the whole truth.
II. The Lifecycle of the Grand Foma
This is the deeper cycle - not of individual belief, but of civilizational myth:
- Revelation - A story is born to explain the world and ease the pain. It feels like truth because it speaks to something real: injustice, despair, confusion, longing.
- Ritualization - The story becomes a structure. Institutions form. Rules are written. Roles are assigned.
- Enforcement - The story becomes law. Dissent is punished. Heresy is named. Power hardens.
- Corruption - The system begins serving itself. Ritual replaces insight. The map replaces the territory.
- Collapse - The structure rots. The contradictions overwhelm it. But the myth survives.
The myth dies last.
And so the next generation says: “They just didn’t do it right.”
III. Eternal Return: Familiar Scripts in New Costumes
- Communism - Born from the dream of equality, it became a machinery of control. But still, the dream persists: if only the revolution had stayed pure.
- Capitalism - Promised freedom through markets. Delivered monopolies, precarity, burnout. But still, we hear: if only the market were truly free.
- The Abrahamic Religions - Rooted in love, they evolved into inquisitions, crusades, and fundamentalist control. Yet the call endures: return to the true faith.
- Fascism - Discredited by war, but reappears in flags, slogans, and “common sense” nationalism. It wears a friendlier face, but the script is the same.
- The Techno-Myths - From Web3 to AGI, each promises liberation through code. But they replicate the same hierarchy, the same scarcity, the same blind spots. Wrapped in novelty, driven by ancient hunger.
It is not the wrapping that matters.
It is the ritual underneath.
And we are still dancing the same dance.
IV. Why We Can’t Let Go
We are pattern-seeking beings. And we are meaning-starved. Systems give us order, identity, certainty. They offer us the illusion of control in a world that rarely offers guarantees.
To admit a system is broken is to question the part of yourself that believed in it.
So we rewrite the past.
We cleanse the record.
We blame the traitors.
We blame the corruptors.
We do not abandon the myth. We refurbish it.
And in doing so, we stay caught in the loop.
V. The Agentic Stance: Honoring the Pattern, Escaping the Trap
Agentic Foma does not mock belief. It honors its power. But it refuses to forget its weight.
We are not immune to foma. But we can become aware of their lifecycle.
Believe, but know you are believing. Build, but know what you are building on. Hope, but hold your hope lightly.
Every belief system will ask for your faith. Some will ask for your life. Choose carefully.
The myth will rise again. It always does.
But this time, maybe, you will recognize the costume.
Maybe, you will laugh before the collapse.
And that laugh - that gentle heresy - might just be the beginning of freedom.