Guess Which One We’re In

“Sorokin identified three distinct phases through which cultures pass: ideational, idealistic, and sensate. Each phase has distinctive characteristics and in general runs a specific course. Virtually every human society can be found at any particular time to be in one phase or another, or in transition between two of them . . . The ideational mentality sees spiritual truth and values as virtually the only truth and values worthy of the name . . . The idealistic mentality represents a compromise between the ideational and sensate, although it inclines more to the ideational . . . an idealistic culture rates spiritual truth and values above all others, but it also appreciates the realities and values of the sensory world . . . The sensate mentality is the exact opposite of the ideational mentality. It is interested only in those things, usually material in nature, that appeal to or affect the senses. It seeks the imposing, the impressive, the voluptuous; it encourages self-indulgence” (Harold O.J. Brown, The Sensate Culture, p. 9).