The Decline of the West

barryqwalsh

Gold Member
Sep 30, 2014
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So - is the West now in mortal decline? Or are we seeing an older, anti-liberal version of the West - the 'West' that Spengler really valued - beginning to stir?

Was he simply wrong that the West was sinking, or was he ahead of the curve? After all, he warned of Asian countries seizing on Western technology, and foresaw a great future for Russia, provided it turns its face against the weakening West.

AUDIO
BBC Radio 4 - The Decline of the West
 
Who gives a fuck really? We're all just trying to stand up and not fall down - can't keep a whole society up even if it became necessary.
 
Western Civilization evolves, and that evolution may seem like a decline if you're standing in the middle of it. However, when viewed on a timeline, Western Civilization has always expanded and advanced in a generally positive way.

The fall of Rome is often held as analogous example of the decline of the modern West. But, as the City of Rome and the Italian Peninsula did fall into decline, the Roman Empire continued to flourish and expand in the East as the Byzantine Empire. By the time the Eastern Empire began to decline, Rome in the West had rebuilt itself as Europe.

Europe introduced many advances in the arts, the sciences, and political equality. The rights of man, universal law, and freedom of speech were transplanted from Europe to the new land of America. America has struggled to advance the cause of Western Civilization and continues to do so today.

Evolution is a painful process, one entity cannot evolve without the death of another. But, we have to trust the process and know that, like in our past, Western Civilization will continue to evolve for the better.
 
So - is the West now in mortal decline? Or are we seeing an older, anti-liberal version of the West - the 'West' that Spengler really valued - beginning to stir?

Was he simply wrong that the West was sinking, or was he ahead of the curve? After all, he warned of Asian countries seizing on Western technology, and foresaw a great future for Russia, provided it turns its face against the weakening West.

AUDIO
BBC Radio 4 - The Decline of the West

Undoubtedly so.

The so-called positive expansion and evolution of the West is neither historically unique nor even representative of how dark an Age can become--on the way to something better. At length, and even long before the decline of the Roman Empire, mankind has seen it all before--lived through it all before.

Old ways eventually oppress. New ways ultimately restrict the freedoms they intended to guarantee. And finally, after the new freedoms have oppressed too many, too destructively, popular opinion turns back to the old ways and a call for absolute power to reinstate them in similar or new form. An oversimplification, but a well documented historical cycle nonetheless. One we seem to forget near the end or beginning of every new Age.
 
So - is the West now in mortal decline?


Of course it is. Societies run in cycles. We have now passed the point where abundance has led to selfishness and complacency, which invites corruption, abuse, and apathy. Corruption and apathy leads to dependence which brings us right back to bondage again. People need to lose their freedom now in order to rediscover why they valued it. When a society has 25 different sexual orientations and naked men doing lewd things in public in front of children, promotes the breaking of laws, protects criminals and punishes freedom of speech and thought while unable to decide which bathroom a person should use, it isn't long before final collapse.

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It's been decades since I read Spengler, but if Trump represents his return of the great Caesars, I must say I'm a bit disappointed.
 

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