faust.deals
Deal Registry
Historical bargains traced through seven stages — from crisis to catharsis. Pick a case to enter the navigator.
60 cases · chronological order
- No. 0042/CT-RLManifest universeTimeless
The Trap of Ahamkara
A metaphysical precedent from Vedantic philosophy in which Ahamkara (individual ego) plays the fooled Faust, striking a bargain with Atman (Supreme Consciousness) for dominion in the material world. Blinded by Maya's illusion, ego considers itself sovereign master of reality — not noticing its autonomy was doomed to dissolve from the start.
Spiritual cults - No. 0069/CL-RLHumanityTimelessNOW:THE CATHARSIS
The Fall of Eve
A root metaphysical precedent from Genesis that began all later Faustian plots in human history. Eve strikes a mental bargain with the cunning tempter as Serpent for autonomy of reason and divine status. She trades Eden's bliss and immortal unity with the Creator for the fruit of knowledge of good and evil — bringing expulsion into a world of suffering, labour, and mortality.
Culture & literature - No. 0054/CL-RLAtlantisTimelessNOW:THE CATHARSIS
Myth of Atlantis
A philosophical-mythological precedent from Plato's dialogues in which Atlantean civilisation strikes a metaphysical bargain with its own pride for world dominion. The island empire trades divine origin and spiritual moderation for material wealth and expansion — becoming a tyranny and meeting instant divine retribution.
Culture & literature - No. 0041/CL-RLHumanityTimeless
The Deceived Satan
A universal precedent in which Satan plays the fooled Faust, striking a bargain with the Creator for dominion over humanity. Blinded by pride, the usurper misses the contract's hidden terms — leading to total collapse.
Culture & literature - No. 0056/CL-RLHumanityTimelessNOW:THE CATHARSIS
Tower of Babel
A philosophical-biblical precedent from Genesis in which united humanity strikes a vast bargain with engineering ambition to reach heaven and forge its own cult. People trade humility before the Creator and territorial dispersal for totalitarian megaconstruction — ending in confused tongues and global civilisational fracture.
Culture & literature - No. 0001/CT-RLAncient Egypt1353—1336 BCE
Akhenaten's Reform
A historical precedent in which the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) strikes a radical religious bargain with his fanatical convictions for absolute spiritual and political power. He destroys the traditional pantheon for a monotheistic cult of the Aten disc — and plunges the empire into chaos, condemning his name to total oblivion.
Spiritual cults - No. 0029/CL-RLCanaan / IsraelXIII century BCE
Old Testament Exodus and the Conquest of Canaan
The destruction of basic empathy to create an ethnocentric state on the blood of the indigenous peoples of Canaan.
Culture & literature - No. 0055/CL-RLIcarus and DaedalusTimelessNOW:THE CATHARSIS
Flight of Icarus
A philosophical-mythological precedent from ancient Greek epic in which the inventor Daedalus and his son Icarus strike a forced bargain with technological breakthrough to escape captivity. They trade natural limits of human nature and earthly safety for artificial wings — a brief triumph that ends in the youth's death.
Culture & literature - No. 0058/CL-RLHumanityTimelessNOW:THE CATHARSIS
Prometheus's Fire
A philosophical-mythological precedent from ancient Greek epic in which the Titan Prometheus strikes a forced bargain with civilisational progress to save mortal humanity from extinction. The Titan trades Olympian order and his own physical freedom for sacred fire — launching human evolution but condemning the hero to eternal torment.
Culture & literature - No. 0035/CL-RLJudaism / Israel586 BCENOW:THE RECKONING
Messianic Expectation and the Third Temple
The exchange of the universal Kingdom of God in the heart for earthly geopolitical dominion and a stone sanctuary on others' land.
Culture & literature - No. 0002/PO-RLRoman EmpireI century BCE—V CE
Rome — Bread and Circuses
The great people's voluntary renunciation of the Republic's democratic institutions in exchange for the eternal social narcotic of the dictator.
Politics - No. 0038/CL-RLJesus ChristI century CE
The Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness
The only example in civilization's history of total refusal of a Faustian contract to preserve an undivided bond with the Primal Source.
Culture & literature - No. 0030/CL-RLJudea / JerusalemI century CE
The Trial of Pilate
The deliberate condemnation to death of a knowingly innocent Man in order to keep the governor's seat in Judea.
Culture & literature - No. 0031/CL-RLJerusalemI century CE
Peter's Denial
A second's capitulation of the spirit before the instinct of survival, turning into the deepest crisis of conscience.
Culture & literature - No. 0032/CL-RLJerusalemI century CE
The Betrayal of Judas
Voluntary rupture with the Primal Source for thirty Tyrian shekels and an attempt to «rationally» resolve one's inner dead end.
Culture & literature - No. 0003/PO-RLHeliogabalus211—222 CE
Heliogabalus
The collision of an imported Syrian solar cult with Roman civic identity, ending in the boy-emperor's murder by the Praetorian Guard.
Politics - No. 0033/CL-RLRoman / Byzantine Empire325—700
The First Council of Nicaea
The transformation of a persecuted church of martyrs into a rigid bureaucratic hierarchy punishing dogmatic errors with the force of Roman legions.
Culture & literature - No. 0034/CL-RLKievan Rus988—1700
The Christianization of Rus
Violent breaking of the ancient Slavic cultural code to turn a conglomerate of wandering tribes into a monolithic European empire.
Culture & literature - No. 0044/EC-RLMedieval Europe1119—1312
The Fall of the Templars
A historical precedent in which the poor knightly Order of the Temple strikes a forced bargain with an emerging capitalist system to survive after losing the Holy Land. Becoming Europe's largest financial corporation, the order surrenders its original ascetic ideals — making it hostage to monarchs' debts and leading to brutal destruction.
Economy - No. 0045/PO-RLEurope and colonies1540—1773
Society of Jesus
A historical precedent in which the Catholic Jesuit order strikes a forced bargain with Machiavellian political technology to save papal power during the Reformation. Adopting «the end justifies the means» and becoming a secret elite of royal courts, the order surrenders Christian sincerity for geopolitical control — making it a common enemy of European monarchs and leading to total suppression.
Politics - No. 0047/EC-RLSouth Asia1600—1874
East India Company
A historical precedent in which British merchants and the crown strike a vast bargain for colonial expansion and a monopoly on Asian trade. The joint-stock company trades India's national sovereignty and ethical norms for commercial profit — turning the corporation into a sovereign military power, then into liquidation after a bloody rebellion.
Economy - No. 0067/EC-RLHumanity1600NOW:THE BLINDNESS
Capitalism
A global historical precedent in which human civilisation strikes a vast bargain with market self-organisation and private capital for explosive technological progress. Humanity trades traditional estate stability, communal bonds, and sacred values for free competition and constant expansion — spawning the modern industrial world while pulling the planet into a crisis of overproduction.
Economy - No. 0016/PO-RLRussiaXVII century
Church Schism and State Orthodoxy
Nikon's liturgical reform and the subordination of the church to the Muscovite state — unity by decree, schism by consequence.
Politics - No. 0017/PO-RLRussia1680—1725
Peter's Modernization
Forced Europeanisation of the elite, deepening serfdom for the peasantry — modernisation purchased with civilisational fracture.
Politics - No. 0068/PO-RLHumanity1689NOW:THE BLINDNESS
Liberalism
A global political precedent in which humanity strikes a worldview bargain with the ideology of individual freedoms and human rights to free the person from church dictate and absolute monarchy. Civilisation trades collective identity, sacred taboos, and traditional hierarchy for ego autonomy — spawning the modern open society but ultimately driving atomisation and a values vacuum.
Politics - No. 0046/EC-RLGreat Britain1711—1720
South Sea Company
A historical precedent in which the British government and the South Sea Company leadership strike a debt deal to restructure the national debt. The financial elite trades real trade for aggressive stock speculation — spawning history's first large-scale economic pyramid and a total market collapse.
Economy - No. 0005/CL-RLFaust1770—1832 CE
Faust — J. W. Goethe
The philosophical baseline of the entire framework: Goethe's pact, the Walpurgisnacht, and the contested salvation of Faust's soul.
Culture & literature - No. 0011/PO-RLUnited States1787—1865
U.S. Constitutional Compromise for Cotton
The deliberate legalization of institutional slavery in the Constitution to unite the states and secure raw-material superprofits.
Politics - No. 0048/PO-RLFrance1792—1794
Jacobin Terror
A historical precedent in which the radical wing of the French Revolution, led by Maximilien Robespierre, strikes a fatal bargain with emergency violence to save the republic's gains. Radicals trade basic human rights and ideals of freedom for dictatorship in the name of public salvation — spawning the machinery of the guillotine, then the destruction of the regime's own creators.
Politics - No. 0057/CL-RLVictor Frankenstein1818NOW:THE CATHARSIS
Frankenstein
A literary-philosophical precedent from Mary Shelley's novel in which young scientist Victor Frankenstein strikes a mental bargain with secret scientific knowledge to defeat death. The researcher trades ethical boundaries and natural childbirth for the spark of artificial life — gaining creator status but bringing nightmare and the death of all he loves.
Culture & literature - No. 0036/CL-RLRaskolnikov / St. Petersburg1860s
Raskolnikov's Crime — Dostoevsky
A penniless student-intellectual's attempt to test a mathematical theory of murder on one «harmful louse» — at the price of burning out his own human essence.
Culture & literature - No. 0019/PO-RLPalestine / Israel1880sNOW:THE CATHARSIS
Zionism and Palestine
The absolutization of the right to sovereign survival after the trauma of the Holocaust, turning into decades of occupation and dehumanization of the neighbor [📚].
Politics - No. 0059/CL-RLDorian Gray1890NOW:THE CATHARSIS
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A literary-philosophical precedent from Oscar Wilde's novel in which young aristocrat Dorian Gray strikes a mystical bargain with his selfish desires for eternal youth. The aesthete trades his soul and moral responsibility for unchanging youthful beauty — turning life into a conveyor of vice and tragic self-destruction.
Culture & literature - No. 0049/PO-RLRussia1917NOW:THE CATHARSIS
October Revolution
A historical precedent in which the radical wing of Russian social democrats (Bolsheviks), led by Vladimir Lenin, strikes an uncompromising bargain with class violence to build a classless communist society. Radicals trade centuries of law, private property, and civil liberties for the dictatorship of the proletariat — spawning a rigid one-party system, a vast civil war, and millions of victims.
Politics - No. 0006/CL-RLGermany1918—1947
Doctor Faustus — Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann's twentieth-century civilisational mirror — Adrian Leverkühn as the metaphor for a nation's pact and its reckoning.
Culture & literature - No. 0007/PO-RLGermany1918—1933
The Weimar Republic
Hyperinflation, the permissiveness of the Sittengeschichte, and political fragmentation in the republic caught between two catastrophes.
Politics - No. 0053/PO-RLUSSR1922NOW:THE CATHARSIS
Soviet Communism
A historical precedent in which Soviet society strikes a vast civilisational bargain with a planned distributive totalitarian system to build a new type of superpower. The nation trades basic civil rights and freedoms for forced modernisation — turning the state into a monolithic camp of industrial breakthrough.
Politics - No. 0050/PO-RLGermany1933—1945NOW:THE CATHARSIS
The Third Reich
A historical precedent in which German society and conservative elites strike a fatal bargain with National Socialism to overcome national humiliation and economic crisis. The nation trades Weimar democracy and humanist values for totalitarian dictatorship — spawning racial terror, the Second World War, and Germany's total collapse.
Politics - No. 0012/TE-RLHumanity1939—1945
Manhattan Project
A historical precedent in which the world scientific community, led by Robert Oppenheimer, strikes a forced bargain with the military-political machine to build a weapon of absolute destruction. Scientists surrender ethical principles for victory over fascism — and become hostages of the technology they created and a new spiral of global threat.
Tech & AI - No. 0028/PO-RLEastern Europe1939—1989
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The partition of Eastern Europe by two totalitarian regimes for tactical gain and the illusion of control over an approaching world catastrophe.
Politics - No. 0043/PO-RLHumanity1945NOW:THE CATHARSIS
Doctrine of Deterrence
A civilisational precedent in which leading world powers strike a collective bargain with military-technological progress — trading the planet's guaranteed security for geopolitical superiority. The architecture of international relations is entrusted to mutual assured destruction, holding humanity hostage to an endless arms race.
Politics - No. 0066/DY-RLHumanity1945NOW:THE BLINDNESS
Consumer Society
A global civilisational precedent in which humanity strikes a metaphysical bargain with consumer capitalism for unlimited comfort and material abundance. Civilisation trades ecological regeneration and the planet's resources for immediate extraction of gain — spawning the Anthropocene, with humanity in a phase of total blindness before deferred ecological debt.
Dystopia - No. 0060/TE-RLHumanity1956NOW:THE ILLUSION
Artificial Intelligence
A global technological precedent in which human civilisation strikes an irreversible bargain with silicon intelligence to automate cognition and overcome biological limits. Humanity trades its monopoly on thought and control of the future for technological super-efficiency — spawning the risk of total loss of subjectivity before the coming singularity.
Tech & AI - No. 0061/TE-RLHumanity1961NOW:THE BLINDNESS
Total Robotization
A global technological precedent in which world industry and society strike a vast bargain with mechatronics and automation for manifold productivity gains. Humanity trades live physical labour, jobs, and social stability for flawless machine precision — spawning a crisis of surplus millions and dependence on artificial life-support systems.
Tech & AI - No. 0009/CT-RLRajneeshpuram1970—1985
The Osho Commune
The voluntary surrender of mind and property to charismatic leaders for life in a high-tech oasis in the middle of the desert.
Spiritual cults - No. 0037/CL-RLAlexander / Gotland1986
The Sacrifice — Andrei Tarkovsky
A willingness to sacrifice everything one loves — reason, home, family, and self — in a mystical vow to turn back time and avert nuclear apocalypse.
Culture & literature - No. 0065/PO-RLHumanity1990NOW:THE RECKONING
Climate Consensus
A global civilisational precedent in which the world community strikes a vast bargain with the climate agenda to avert ecological apocalypse. Humanity trades cheap hydrocarbon energy, national sovereignty, and industrial growth for carbon quotas — turning decarbonisation into an instrument of supranational control.
Politics - No. 0020/EC-RLRussia1991—2000
Shock Therapy
Shock therapy, voucher privatisation, and oligarchic capture — democracy and markets discredited in a decade.
Economy - No. 0021/PO-RLRussia1991NOW:THE RECKONING
Russia's War in Ukraine
Post-Soviet trauma answered by force — a full-scale war to restore great-power status, reckoning in real time.
Politics - No. 0051/TE-RLHumanity2004NOW:THE CATHARSIS
Power of Algorithms
A global technological precedent in which modern civilisation strikes a voluntary bargain with social-media recommendation systems for instant access to information and global connectivity. Humanity trades privacy, attention, and cognitive autonomy for digital comfort — turning algorithms into de facto curators of human behaviour.
Tech & AI - No. 0023/PO-RLWestern alliance2008NOW:THE RECKONING
The West's War in Ukraine
Weakening Russia without NATO casualties — proxy war with calibrated limits, deindustrialisation as the hidden bill.
Politics - No. 0052/EC-RLHumanity2009NOW:THE CATHARSIS
Digital Gold
A global economic precedent in which investors and the crypto community strike a bargain with decentralised network algorithms for full financial freedom and outsized returns. Humanity trades state guarantees and stability of classical law for blockchain's volatile autonomy — spawning a new speculative matrix and a shadow parallel financial system.
Economy - No. 0025/PO-RLMiddle Eastlate 2010sNOW:THE CATHARSIS
Abraham Accords
An attempt by Arab elites to «buy» technological prosperity and security from Israel, ignoring the existential problem of occupied territories.
Politics - No. 0064/EC-RLHumanity2011NOW:THE RECKONING
Inclusive Capitalism
A global economic precedent in which the largest transnational corporations and financial institutions strike a bargain with a new ideology of social equality and environmental responsibility (ESG) to preserve global dominance. Big business trades classical market competition and entrepreneurial freedom for hard regulatory quotas — spawning a new form of corporate totalitarianism.
Economy - No. 0022/PO-RLUkraine2014NOW:THE RECKONING
Ukraine's War for Independence
Sovereignty defended as NATO's eastern bulwark — total war on home soil, financed by Western arms and budgets.
Politics - No. 0026/PO-RLUkraine / Donbas2014NOW:THE CATHARSIS
Minsk Agreements
Signing a knowingly unenforceable treaty to defer an inevitable clash, which accumulated critical potential for total war.
Politics - No. 0027/PO-RLKyiv2014
Yanukovych's Agreement with the Opposition
A desperate attempt by a weakening autocrat to exchange real levers of power for paper international guarantees amid an armed street uprising.
Politics - No. 0063/PO-RLHumanity2019NOW:THE CATHARSIS
Coronavirus Pandemic
A historical precedent in which global civil society strikes an emergency bargain with state security institutions to save lives before a biological threat. Humanity trades basic freedoms, privacy, and freedom of movement for sanitary control — turning biopolitics and digital surveillance into a legitimate norm of governance.
Politics - No. 0062/EC-RLHumanity2020NOW:THE TEMPTATION
Universal Basic Income
A global socio-economic precedent in which society and states strike a forced bargain with the fiscal system to save consumer markets in the age of total automation. Citizens trade economic subjectivity, labour motivation, and personal independence for guaranteed state payments — turning the population into hostages of Big Government's distributive machine.
Economy - No. 0039/TE-RLThe faust.deals authors2024NOW:THE TEMPTATION
Monetizing faust.deals — Selling Indulgences
Selling the illusion of spiritual salvation on the blockchain to monetize an intellectual startup — our own Faustian contract as the authors of faust.deals.
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