IDEAS MATTER MOST. Porphyrogenitus has been writing and generating commentary on the continued conversation over the role of the Trivium and Quadrivium, particularly in light of the conversation over Certification U or preferred alternatives thereto. Porphyrogenitus proposes another (ranting screed?) shortly. It is not to that post that I wish to speak tonight. Rather, it is to his contrasting of cyclical and linear time, particularly as viewed by the academic Left. I'm not sure there's that much of a contrast, particularly if one uses the Fourth Turning (details or compare prices.) The notion of cyclical history bothers me for the same reason that cobweb cycles bother me: the existence of a cycle implies the existence of an arbitrage opportunity, which has the effect of dampening the cycle. There is, however, a dialectic present in the cyclical view of history: the thesis, antithesis, contradiction, and synthesis appear in recursive, rather than convergent, ways.