I have been doing a lot of research on cycles in the past few years. Cycles seem to be in everything in nature to human emotion. Yet in the West we tend to think in a linear manner compared to the East and as a result fail to see changes in trend in advance.
This is opening up a broad philosophical discussion. Would you like to narrow it down at all or are you just thinking out loud?
I think it's unfair to brush off cyclical patterns as a non-western way of thinking. But I do agree it can be a useful paradigm for organizing many things, from psychological states to seasonal activities.
The interest I have from a cyclical perspective is from several angles:
1. Historically the solar cycle drives events on the planet and human behaviour. From what I have been reading low solar activity (sun - spots) and coronal holes have an impact on Earthquakes and Volcanic activity. A "Year without a summer" occurred in a solar minimum - from this perspective should this happen again would require some thought around how to prepare for such an event. Solar flares have impacted power grids in the past as well. A minor event along these lines throws up questions around how to be prepared and useful to others should this occur again.
2. We have monetary cycles where the currency is inflated and debt explodes which is followed by something like a debt jubilee. Something like this throws up questions about choice of business \ service to offer. I am personally interested in ideas in this area as we have children and would like to consider their skills for the future for example.
Any one of these possible impacts are good reasons for a permaculture approach in my humble opinion. I am personally looking at resilience to these type of events through applying permaculture principles.
Maybe some thought could be needed in the area of solar energy systems and making them more resilient for example, of which I have no knowledge. Perhaps communications, water pump systems and backup electrical supplies and the like need some thought.
As for philosophical versus historical - I have been reading a lot on cycles throughout history and some of the data in my humble opinion is quite compelling. As for Eastern thinking versus Western - sure worth a debate. The book "The Geography of Thought" discusses differences in the way East and West think.
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