The Shortening of Memory

1. Civilizations do not forget by accident. Memory shortens when it becomes inconvenient to remember—when continuity complicates action and precedent introduces restraint. In late cycles, forgetting is not a failure of education but a functional condition.

2. As memory contracts, repetition presents itself as novelty. Events appear unprecedented not because they are new, but because comparison has been stripped away. Context dissolves, and time collapses into an endless present.

3. The record still exists, but it no longer circulates. What once lived in shared understanding becomes specialized, archived, or dismissed as irrelevant to urgency. History remains available, but inaccessible.

4. Without continuity, accountability weakens. Actions cannot be evaluated in sequence; they can only be judged in isolation. Power benefits from this narrowing of time, as pattern recognition becomes increasingly difficult.

5. The shortening of memory rarely announces itself. It feels like acceleration. It feels like crisis. And by the time it is recognized, it has already reshaped the conditions of consent.