ThinkingWest Profile picture
May 10, 2024 17 tweets 6 min read Read on X
“Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder,” according to 20th-century historian Arnold Toynbee.

He claimed every great culture collapses internally due to a divergence in values between the ruling class and the common people…🧵 Image
Toynbee was an English historian and expert on international affairs who published the 12 volume work “A Study of History,” which traced the life cycle of about two dozen world civilizations.

Through his work he developed a model of how cultures develop and finally die… Image
Toynbee argued that civilizations are born primitive societies as a response to unique challenges—pressures from other cultures, difficult terrain or “hard country,” or warfare. Image
Toynbee writes:

“Civilizations, I believe, come to birth and proceed to grow by successfully responding to successive challenges.”

But each challenge must be a “golden mean” between excessive difficulty, which will crush a culture, and ease, which will allow it to stagnate. Image
He believed civilizations continued to grow so long as they meet and solve new challenges, one after the other, in a cycle he calls “Challenge and Response.”

Thus, each civilization develops differently because each confronts and overcomes different challenges. Image
But societies do not respond to challenges as a whole; rather, it's a unique class of elites within a society that are the problem solvers.

He calls them the "creative minorities" who find solutions to challenges, and inspire—rather than force—others to follow their lead. Image
The masses follow the solutions of the creative minorities by 'mimesis' or imitation, solutions they would have otherwise been incapable of discovering on their own.

This synchronicity between the creative minorities and the masses brings civilization to its height. Image
Toynbee did not attribute the breakdown of civilizations to environmental forces or external attacks by other civilizations. Rather, it is the decline of the creative minority that leads to a culture’s downfall. Image
Through moral decay or material prosperity, the creative minority degenerates. They are no longer the great men who solve society’s problems but are simply a ruling class intent on preserving their power.

They become what Toynbee calls the “dominant minority.” Image
Toynbee points to a kind of self worship that takes hold of the dominant minority.

They become prideful about their positions of authority yet are wholly inadequate to deal with the culture’s new challenges. Image
Ultimately the dominant minority, incapable of solving their culture’s actual problems, form a “universal state” in a gambit to shore up their power, but it stifles creativity and subjugates the proletariat (common people). Toynbee used the Roman Empire as a classic example. Image
Toynbee writes:

"First the Dominant Minority attempts to hold by force—against all right and reason—a position of inherited privilege which it has ceased to merit; and then the Proletariat repays injustice with resentment, fear with hate, and violence with violence.” Image
As society deteriorates, four sentiments exist within the proletariat:

Archaism - idealization of the past
Futurism - idealization of the future
Detachment - removal of oneself from a decaying world
Transcendence - confronting the decaying world with a new worldview
From the disunity between the dominant minority and the proletariat, and between the different proletariat dispositions, a unified culture is impossible, and the civilization eventually ends. Image
Toynbee sums up the three aspects of failing cultures:

“...a failure of creative power in the minority, an answering withdrawal of mimesis (imitation) on the part of the majority, and a consequent loss of social unity in the society as a whole.” Image
It’s interesting to observe Toynbee’s formulation in light of the West’s current struggles.

What do you think—was Toynbee observing universal patterns of civilizational development that might shed light on our culture today?
If you enjoyed this thread and would like to join the mission of promoting western tradition, kindly repost the first post (linked below) and consider following: @thinkingwest

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with ThinkingWest

ThinkingWest Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @thinkingwest

Sep 4
All empires repeat the same cycle, says 20th-century historian John Glubb.

He observed that for the past 3000 years every civilization has followed the same 6 stages before decline—what are they?🧵 Image
Sir John Bagot Glubb was a British soldier and author who served as the commanding general for Transjordan's Arab Legion from 1939 to 1956.

In his later years he wrote about geopolitics and world history, and penned a succinct description of how civilizations rise and fall… Image
Glubb’s 1978 work, “The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival,” is an idea-dense essay that argues all great empires follow an eerily similar pattern.

From observing 11 distinct cultures, Glubb draws some intriguing conclusions that have implications for modern society. Image
Read 35 tweets
Aug 21
The East India Company was the most powerful corporation of all time.

It had an army larger than Great Britain's, and its influence shaped the borders of nations.

So how did a company become stronger than most countries?🧵 Image
The East India Company's origins started with famed explorer Francis Drake.

His voyage in 1577 opened the world to the East Indies, and when he returned to England in 1580, he brought exotic spices from the Spice Islands that investors believed could be a lucrative venture. Image
Soon after, the Queen granted a charter to a group of wealthy merchants and explorers for the region. The new corporation was called “Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies” or more commonly the “East India Company.” Image
Image
Read 21 tweets
Aug 19
Did you know the American $1 bill references Virgil?

The Great Seal featured on the bill was designed by a Latin teacher, and he left a reference to the Aeneid on the design.

But there’s more — America’s entire ethos has Roman underpinnings…🧵 Image
To understand how America adopted a Roman mentality, we first need to explore the idea of “Roman exceptionalism.”

It was essentially a type of self-confidence — a belief that Rome’s culture was better than all others. Image
This mindset is hinted at in the Aeneid, where the god Jupiter proclaims:

“I have granted [the Romans] empire without end.”

Virgil’s work proudly boasts how Rome believed it was destined to rule the world — that it was *exceptional*. Image
Read 33 tweets
Aug 15
The French Revolution was one of the great tragedies of history.

It ushered in an era of:

-violence
-class warfare
-authoritarianism

But France’s faith suffered the most—thousands of priests were executed or exiled as a new atheistic religion was thrust onto the people…🧵 Image
Before the revolution, France and Catholicism were inseparable.

France was called the “eldest daughter of the Church” since Frankish king Clovis I accepted the Catholic faith in the early 6th century. Image
In the 18th century, the vast majority of the population were Catholic, and it was the only religion officially allowed in the kingdom.

The church influenced all aspects of French life—hospitals, education, and birth/death records were controlled by the Church. Image
Read 18 tweets
Aug 11
Alexander the Great’s tomb has been missing for centuries. Over 140 official attempts have been made to locate it. All have failed.

But one rogue historian thinks he’s finally found it.

He claims everyone's been looking in the wrong place…🧵 Image
Alexander’s body wasn’t always missing. We know that figures like Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Augustus visited his tomb in Alexandria during the 1st century BC.

But somewhere along the way it disappears from the record… Image
By the time St. John Chrysostom visited Alexandria in 400 AD, he was unable to locate the tomb and said of Alexander "his tomb even his own people know not.”

There are a few mentions of the tomb afterward, but nothing reliable, and as of today no one knows where it is. Image
Read 27 tweets
Aug 5
A democracy can only last 200 years.

At least, that’s according to 18th-century historian Alexander Tytler.

He claimed democracies always follow a predictable pattern and are doomed to end in servitude…🧵 Image
Image
Tytler was a Scottish judge, writer, and Professor of Universal History as well as Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh.

After studying dozens of civilizations, he noticed some intriguing patterns… Image
He believed that democracies naturally evolved from initial virtue to eventual corruption and decline.

In ancient Greece, for example, he argued that "the patriotic spirit and love of ingenious freedom...became gradually corrupted as the nation advanced in power and splendor." Image
Read 17 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(