Thank you, for taking the time to think it through and comment.

One minor quibble.

It is not so much that time is circular, as the underlaying processes of which time is a measure, that are circular, cyclical, reciprocal.

Time is simply a measure of rate/frequency.

Much as temperature is simply a measure of amplitudes, degrees. Measures of economic activity could be considered a temperature reading of the economy, not as some metaphysical realm on which the economy is working.

Yet because our minds work as a sequence, we tend to project much more meaning onto time, then we assume it is foundational to what is actually happening, not just a measure of its rate. Then it gets to the problem of thinking our models of reality take precedence over whatever reality is trying to tell us.

It goes from being science to religion, because everyone starts following the herd and trying to tell the herd, once it gets running, that it is going in the wrong direction is impossible, until it runs into a wall, or off a cliff.

Like religion, that historical flow of time becomes foundational to our societies, so we don't sense when the tides are shifting, the waves have crested, the peaks have been reached and we need to account for that change. When time is treated as foundational, we can only march in one direction, toward some future that is usually being dictated by those with all the power. Which then becomes a feedback loop, as the power becomes ever more focused, concentrating all the energy on goals, like money, that corrode the larger realities.