THE DECLINE OF THE WEST sold tens of thousands of copies when it came out, and it's been prophetic.
100 years on, Spengler's predictions have been dead-on.
Here's the model he used to crack history, and how you can help ruin his record of prescience.
amazon.com/Decline-West-S…
100 years on, Spengler's predictions have been dead-on.
Here's the model he used to crack history, and how you can help ruin his record of prescience.
amazon.com/Decline-West-S…
Spengler's coup de grace was to discard the linear narrative model of history you get to cram in school.
Instead, he viewed culture and society as Organic Form.
Like you, he didn't care much about quackademics and shiny historical events. He knew that politics is epiphenomenal.
Instead, he viewed culture and society as Organic Form.
Like you, he didn't care much about quackademics and shiny historical events. He knew that politics is epiphenomenal.
The historical narrative of lo-awarenes culture has been that progress goes from unconscious, magical, pagan prehistory to modern, sciency and informed present.
Antiquity, the Middle Ages etc. are just stages on the way to modernity, which is the climax of civilization.
Antiquity, the Middle Ages etc. are just stages on the way to modernity, which is the climax of civilization.
Spengler saw that social Darwinism and the myth of ineluctable progress are loiq feelgood gobbledygook.
He understood that Western civilization was just the latest in a series of great cultures, and it was falling on its last breaths.
He understood that Western civilization was just the latest in a series of great cultures, and it was falling on its last breaths.
Spengler saw 9 great civilizations in recorded history:
☑️Sinic
☑️Indic
❌Sumero-Babylonian
❌Kemetic
❌Mesoamerican
❌Greco-Roman
☑️Magian
☑️Western (Faustian)
✅Russian
Faustian civilization was the first to engulf the globe.
❌= ded, ☑️ = zombie, ✅ = unrealized.
☑️Sinic
☑️Indic
❌Sumero-Babylonian
❌Kemetic
❌Mesoamerican
❌Greco-Roman
☑️Magian
☑️Western (Faustian)
✅Russian
Faustian civilization was the first to engulf the globe.
❌= ded, ☑️ = zombie, ✅ = unrealized.
Spengler's 1000-page work is dense and content-rich, definitely not an airport paperback.
If you pick it up, you will learn BIG about history, philosophy and culture – and how to bust narratives.
But the core mechanisms can fit in 3 tweets, simplicity that makes it so powerful.
If you pick it up, you will learn BIG about history, philosophy and culture – and how to bust narratives.
But the core mechanisms can fit in 3 tweets, simplicity that makes it so powerful.
Spengler's model of culture is not a linear path through "rational" development.
Culture, civilization, society follow plants' messy bottom-up organic growth – from seed to inevitable death.
Like plants, culture is fractal – the same memes reappear at different scales.
Culture, civilization, society follow plants' messy bottom-up organic growth – from seed to inevitable death.
Like plants, culture is fractal – the same memes reappear at different scales.
Culture's core symbol doesn't just show up all over its art, science & industry. It defines how people relate to the world.
Faustian – infinite space
Magian – the dome/cavern
Greco-Roman – the body/locality
Russian – the flat plane
(See why I keep grinding on about semantics?)
Faustian – infinite space
Magian – the dome/cavern
Greco-Roman – the body/locality
Russian – the flat plane
(See why I keep grinding on about semantics?)
Spengler's cycle of history:
1. Violent, heroic, instinctual spring
2. Poetic, lyrical, cultured summer
3. Rationalist, philosophical, logical autumn
4. Violent, hollow, regressive winter
Culture peaks at summer's end, as it reaches a cognitive balance of thought and instinct.
1. Violent, heroic, instinctual spring
2. Poetic, lyrical, cultured summer
3. Rationalist, philosophical, logical autumn
4. Violent, hollow, regressive winter
Culture peaks at summer's end, as it reaches a cognitive balance of thought and instinct.
The mainstream narrative is that Western civilization begins in ancient Greece, if not even as far away as Phoenicia.
That's BS.
While each great culture was influenced by what came before, it never flourished until predecessors were rejected, if not outright destroyed.
That's BS.
While each great culture was influenced by what came before, it never flourished until predecessors were rejected, if not outright destroyed.
Greek culture did not peak until 600-400 BC, well after its Kemetic predecessor had been wiped out by Assyria & Persia.
The heart of the Classical world was the body and its surroundings, the locality, ἦθος.
It's highest art form – sculpture – was also centered on the body.
The heart of the Classical world was the body and its surroundings, the locality, ἦθος.
It's highest art form – sculpture – was also centered on the body.
Greek culture was already getting exhausted by the breakout of the Peloponnesian War.
Giant cities like Athens, Antioch & Alexandria dominated the Hellenistic autumn and Roman winter, separating people from the land.
Original art was succeeded by pale replicas of old masters.
Giant cities like Athens, Antioch & Alexandria dominated the Hellenistic autumn and Roman winter, separating people from the land.
Original art was succeeded by pale replicas of old masters.
The early Roman Empire completely replaced the organic bottom-up politics of the early city states with brutal dictatorship, gigantic public works, bureaucracy, military expansion, huge estates, bread and circuses, and uninspired reactionary art & hollow rationalist philosophy.
These are the symptoms of winter disintegration, the final period which Spengler terms "civilization" to highlight that its organic cultural core is long dead.
Does it remind you of anything you've seen in your lifetime?
Does it remind you of anything you've seen in your lifetime?
The infinite space of Western civilization would have been horrifying to anyone in the Greco-Roman world.
Classical & Faustian culture are polar opposites in their orientation.
In Greece, even the gods were constrained to their own space by the Moiras, who punished trespassing.
Classical & Faustian culture are polar opposites in their orientation.
In Greece, even the gods were constrained to their own space by the Moiras, who punished trespassing.
Contrary to popular belief, the core of Western culture isn't Christianity but Norse-Germanic wyrd.
Wyrd is fate vested in the individual, in contrast to external fate personified by the Moiras & Platonic ideas.
Abrahamic religions & Zoroastrianism are native to Magian culture.
Wyrd is fate vested in the individual, in contrast to external fate personified by the Moiras & Platonic ideas.
Abrahamic religions & Zoroastrianism are native to Magian culture.
Westerners copied Magian forms until ~1000 AD, when the spires of Gothic cathedrals broke with the cavernous domes of Eastern churches.
Upward infinity broke off Magian enclosure.
Western culture didn't peak until the Reformation replaced consensus religion with a PERSONAL god.
Upward infinity broke off Magian enclosure.
Western culture didn't peak until the Reformation replaced consensus religion with a PERSONAL god.
The hero of Classical Antiquity defied fate, lived and died for the sake of the community.
The Magian hero is the Christian or Muslim warrior fighting for the religious consensus.
The Faustian hero is Nietzsche's lonely individual staring into the abyss of infinite space.
The Magian hero is the Christian or Muslim warrior fighting for the religious consensus.
The Faustian hero is Nietzsche's lonely individual staring into the abyss of infinite space.
Spengler found the same cultural tropes in everything from high art to architecture to mathematics.
He considered classical music the final form of Faustian high art.
The imperialism and rationalism of the 19th century signaled the autumn and cultural exhaustion in the West.
He considered classical music the final form of Faustian high art.
The imperialism and rationalism of the 19th century signaled the autumn and cultural exhaustion in the West.
In the prosaic autumn, money and what can be measured, large cities, "rational" high culture dominate.
In the disintegration of winter, politics become violent, the giant cities depopulate and collapse, desperate masses look to religiosity, tradition and despotism.
In the disintegration of winter, politics become violent, the giant cities depopulate and collapse, desperate masses look to religiosity, tradition and despotism.
Late Rome: giant latifundia and millions of agricultural slaves.
Late America: giant corporations and millions of wage slaves.
Late Rome: decaying infrastructure, well-funded bread and circuses.
Late America: decaying infrastructure, well-funded mainstream media.
Late America: giant corporations and millions of wage slaves.
Late Rome: decaying infrastructure, well-funded bread and circuses.
Late America: decaying infrastructure, well-funded mainstream media.
Late Rome: constant wars with little gain for the empire & huge public debt.
Late America: constant wars with little gain for the empire & huge public debt.
Late Rome: shift from republican to despotic government.
Late America: shift from republican to presidential government.
Late America: constant wars with little gain for the empire & huge public debt.
Late Rome: shift from republican to despotic government.
Late America: shift from republican to presidential government.
Late Rome: grotesque and uninspired imitative art.
Late America: pathetic pop "art" and modern "art".
Late Rome: huge concentration of wealth & impoverishment of the citizenry.
Late America: huge concentration of wealth & impoverishment of the citizenry.
Late America: pathetic pop "art" and modern "art".
Late Rome: huge concentration of wealth & impoverishment of the citizenry.
Late America: huge concentration of wealth & impoverishment of the citizenry.
Late Rome: elites fleeing up to stoic rationalism.
Late America: elites looking up to rationalist scientism.
Late Rome: masses fleeing for the mysticism of Early Christianity.
Late America: masses fleeing for the mysticism of spirituality and the occult.
Late America: elites looking up to rationalist scientism.
Late Rome: masses fleeing for the mysticism of Early Christianity.
Late America: masses fleeing for the mysticism of spirituality and the occult.
Since Spengler's book came out 100 years ago, Western civilization has followed the path of disintegration he mapped out every step of the way.
From the destruction of small business by unaccountable corporations to the depopulation of urban cores, his model has been dead-on.
From the destruction of small business by unaccountable corporations to the depopulation of urban cores, his model has been dead-on.
If you see Spengler as pessimistic, that’s just a projection of your own fatalism and collectivist views.
The objective of his model is to inform – so you can transcend.
If you know what's up, you have a much better view of what you need to do with your own life, for yourself.
The objective of his model is to inform – so you can transcend.
If you know what's up, you have a much better view of what you need to do with your own life, for yourself.
You can buy into the supermarket consumerism and political violence Spengler predicted.
Or you can build an antifragile life that feeds on the disintegration of the dead world and its dead culture.
This is what the Integral way is all about & how Spengler's cycle can be broken.
Or you can build an antifragile life that feeds on the disintegration of the dead world and its dead culture.
This is what the Integral way is all about & how Spengler's cycle can be broken.
Build a life that is energizing and satisfying in its own right instead of seeking refuge in mass culture or the mythical past.
The glory of the past is an illusion, and cannot be repeated anyway.
You can learn from the past, but you have to innovate & build your own world.
The glory of the past is an illusion, and cannot be repeated anyway.
You can learn from the past, but you have to innovate & build your own world.
In the Integral way:
☑️ find cognitive balance of logic & instinct
☑️ reconnect with nature without forsaking technology
☑️ render the dead culture irrelevant by originality
☑️ learn from the past without escapism
☑️ avoid falling for scientism & mysticism.
Create.
☑️ find cognitive balance of logic & instinct
☑️ reconnect with nature without forsaking technology
☑️ render the dead culture irrelevant by originality
☑️ learn from the past without escapism
☑️ avoid falling for scientism & mysticism.
Create.
It's your responsibility to lead an authentic life regardless of conditions & what the community thinks.
Individual energy is the key to overcoming decline.
If enough people do this, disintegration won't end in an implosion, but the birth of a new future – one that is Integral.
Individual energy is the key to overcoming decline.
If enough people do this, disintegration won't end in an implosion, but the birth of a new future – one that is Integral.
You can get to work on Yourself or submit to Spengler's apocalypse of the West: violence, dictatorship, technological decline, depopulation, book-burning, starvation, pandemics, tribalism, cannibalism.
Your choice, your move.
amazon.com/Decline-West-V…
Your choice, your move.
amazon.com/Decline-West-V…
