Relevant Research Notes vis-a-vis Spengler

How Spengler predicted our world

1 Introduction. Oswald Spengler, in his book Man and Technics, calls the industrial civilization a "Faustian Civilization." Faust traded his soul away for power - in a similar vein, our world trades away spiritual values for material success and political power. A quick breakdown👇

2 As individuals, we benefit from living in a Faustian civilization. We get material plenty and security - but at a cost. As cogs in a incomprehensible machine, we understand "neither the object nor the purpose" of our work. This creates a "spiritual barrenness" in our lives.

3 The industrial civilization has overplayed its hands. Spengler saw climate change, deforestation, and mass animal extinctions coming. He wrote: "The picture of the earth...has altered." By extracting too much too quickly, the industrial world imperiled its own long-term future.

4 Spengler wrote: "All things organic are dying in the grip of organization. An artificial world is...poisoning the natural." Complex global enterprises, political states, regimented societies are all results of man's organizing instinct - they're squeezing out his organic essence.

5 Hijacked by materialism, our imagination assigns economic utility to everything it sees. Spengler: "We think only in horsepower now; we cannot look at a waterfall without mentally turning it into electric power."

6 The machine defeats its own purpose. But perhaps all the sacrifices are worth it - perhaps the Faustian civilization gives more than it takes? No, Spengler says: "In the great cities the motor-car has by its numbers destroyed its own value, and one gets on quicker on foot."

7 Foreshadowing the hippie movement? Spengler wrote in 1931 that people will get "sick of machines." Instead of fighting with nature, they'll return to a simpler life that is "nearer to Nature." Modern cities will be hated, and people will run from "the pressure of soulless facts."

8 Spengler predicted that when the industrial world is weary of itself, birth rates will plummet. Intelligent people will "no longer find any reason" for having kids. Spengler: "When reasons have to be put forward at all in a question of life, life itself has become questionable."

9 Another sign of decline: "strong and creative" people are turning their back to practical problems to spend their time and energy on "pure speculation." When the end is near, and anything built will be washed away, why not spend oneself on leisure, wandering, and distractions?

10 Bottom line. History is a "physiognomic fact." Civilizations are organic structures that take birth and die: "Each has its childhood, youth, manhood and old age." Hence studying the past is indispensable - our time is not unique, but a rerun of an episode that has run before.