The Decline of the West | Oswald Spengler

Spengler's Civilization Model
Goethe's Faust Lecture
The Decline of the West

Faust's Modern Ideals
Let's fast forward to the last scenes of Part II. The Emperor rewards Faust for services rendered, including the introduction of paper currency, with its inflationary proclivity and hence with its propensity for making the money-brokers even richer. Faust obtains the privilege of reclaiming land from the sea.
The money economy facilitated by Faust makes possible an economic growth which promises ever-greater prosperity: "Many a meadow, field and garden, wood and town" are foreseen as spreading over the area Faust has reclaimed from the waves. Goethe understands the fascination the promise of economic growth exerts. He does not say where the limits to growth might lie, but he does suggest that mankind will soon no longer even be capable of recognizing limits. Like Faust, who becomes blind at the end of the play, man is becoming blind to the problems that surface with the submerging of constraints on growth.
To Goethe this breaking of constraints is due to the economy's change in form, as the subsistence economy in which labour dominates gives way to the industrial economy, in which capital plays the decisive role. The subsistence economy is adapted to satisfying physical needs, which are satiable. Its goals are therefore finite. On the other hand, the industrial economy is adapted to imaginary needs, which can be constantly expanded, and are insatiable. Inherent in the industrial economy is an infinite striving. It follows from the striving for money, since money can be increased more quickly than goods, which must be laboriously obtained. The tendency is, therefore, first to produce money, and then, tempted by profit, to grant this money additional value, as capital, through a corresponding imaginative expansion of demand, and the production of goods this entails.
By removing these inner limits to its progress, the economy increasingly gains the upper hand and casts the whole world under its spell. Economy, capital and money markets know no boundaries. The logical conclusion of this development, as Goethe so clearly foresaw, is globalization: the whole known world transformed into a kind of panopticon -- and a Hobbesian one at that -- with its centrally placed watchtower keeping an eye on everyone and ensuring that everybody conforms to its ideals.
The ideal of an ever-improving future is a vital ingredient in the economy of finance and industry. It could be a market-type economy (which since Marx, has been known as 'capitalism') or a collectivist economy and society, such as that of the former Soviet Union and its satellite countries. Whichever alternative, whatever stands in its way or suggests limitation must be eliminated. The process of elimination is harsh and ruthless, although the methods applied in societies based on market economies are more subtle and less overtly bloody compared with the coercion, repression and genocide practiced on such a large scale by totalitarian regimes. All these aspects are prefigured in Faust.
That Shine of Heavenly Light
George Ross

The West's Method of Overcoming Its Fear of Death
The lie of life. There is something of this lie in the entire intellect of the Western Civilization, so far as this applies itself to the future of religion, of art or of philosophy, to a social-ethical aim, a Third Kingdom. For deep down beneath it all is the gloomy feeling, not to be repressed, that all this hectic zeal is the effort of a soul that may not and cannot rest to deceive itself. This is the tragic situation -the inversion of the Hamlet motive- that produced Nietzsche's strained conception of a "return," which nobody really believed but he himself clutched fast lest the feeling of a mission should slip out of him. This Life's lie is the foundation of Bayreuth -which would be something whereas Pergamum was something- and a thread of it runs through the entire fabric of Socialism, political, economic and ethical, which forces itself to ignore the annihilating seriousness of its own final implications, so as to keep alive the illusion of the historical necessity of its own existence.
~Oswald Spengler Decline of The West Vol1 pg. 365

West's Prime Symbol
~Oswald Spengler Decline of The West Vol1 pg. 337

Spengler's Decline Blank For Translation

[AL_THOMAS_]

"Through money, modern democracy destroys itself - after money has destroyed the spirit" (O. Spengler) . . . how true . . . how bloody true . . . In these days we live . . .

[smashstuff]

"Art becomes repetitive imitations of past works." Like the sample heavy music of today.

[corypratto]

Spengler never mentions him in his work, but Vico is the originator of the entire cultural relativist point of view of history. Read and understand Vico and you’ll see it corresponds exactly with Spengler’s model of history, ie pre-cultural period to the Age of Gods, early culture to the Age of Heroes, and late culture to the Age of Men.

[mesikamoto]

The West has lost all of its honour and glory . People have changed too, honesty and pride is no longer a virtue. What a shame...

[OhFortunae]

*Winter is coming..*
This is a masterpiece!

[marquisdesade]

A genius. A great man who foresee the future of Europe. A shame his ostracism in educated and academic circles

[martiansurgery]

"Urban rationalism sterilizes the culture through criticism" Thats a very important statement in my opinion.. I see that in our news everyday. Theres too many people who have nothing AND are too complacent to doing anything for themselves(to change their condition), YET THEY EXPECT everything.They want all the modern consumer products and quality of living that they see marketed to them everyday on TV, Internet etc.. THAT seems to be a strange by-product, exclusively of capitalism

[EmpiricalMethod]

This video is now being censored in Germany. 

[jnsurg]

This book by Spengler was banned by US occupation army in Japan soon after the end of WWll in the process of WGIP( war guilt information program). More than seven thousands of books(mainly on world's history) were censored and banned. The huge volume of the verification of this process were already published by prof.Kanji Nishio( German literature, specialist of Nietzsche)

[Ares_gaming_]

Man, you and Spetznaz seriously need to make a return to youtube. You guys honestly make some of the best content on the site imo.

[jeffreykalb]

Spengler was easily the greatest mind of the 20th century. It's a scandal how little attention he gets.

[oisindayo]

All things must come to an end, even the West. It is preferable to make the best of what little life remains than to spend our twilight years searching for the fountain of youth and ultimately dying in a state of fear and regret. We will die, but until then, let's live!

[Jamminn]

Incredibly insightful and powerful video summary of Spengler's view. Thank you so much for producing and posting this!

[almilligan]

There is a saying that the true prophet is one whose prophesies come to pass. In that respect Spengler seems to be one of the true prophets of the ages. I love this vid every time I watch it. I present this to my Introduction to Philosophy students every semester in the final chapter on the meaning of life as progress in science and morals. One thing I like to point out is that the Decline of the West is not the end of the world. And like Toynbee said, we do not know what will remain when another civilization rises up after this one, what will be carried over we can not know.

[PaulRevere]

Great video, as expected.  I think the Winter of civilization will be sooner than 2200 AD.  At the rate we are going, more like 2030.

[technologic]

Basically, the next 200-400 years look like Fallout New Vegas for the West.

Caesar's Legion is a very accurate depiction, the NCR will still be clutching to the hope and romanticism of the Old World.

What the hope for the birth of a new civilization? A, 'Brotherhood' of Knighthood and Steel?

[jenniferspengler]

With the world crumbling as it is today, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I decided to FINALLY REALLY DIVE IN to Oswald Spengler's works and ideas... And through my research I have found this channel, of course. It is blowing me away what he knew, what he saw, and how he could put it into words, albeit the words I've read are transcribed into English. It is most certainly going to continue to be a very cold winter. Somehow, though, the pessimism I carry seems a bit optimistic, if that makes any sense....
(And, yes, my last name is Spengler. It is my maiden name, as I've never been married.)

[FunOfTheChase]

After having read Nietzsche many times over the years, I've learned to stop quoting him, and just "keep him to myself". The only bit of Nietzsche I'd ever speak to publicly, was in Ecce Homo, when he proudly claimed the title of the greatest contradictor.

Coincides much with his desires in Zarathustra to never have anyone be a "Nietzschean", to always question even his perspective.

As for Spengler, still always a joy to read. I'm still getting over the perspective I gained after reading Man and Technics. I look at all of this madness, smartphones in every hand, everyone holding up their smartphone camera the second they see something interesting, I CAN'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY!.... yak... it's just more chains. It's very hard to speak to these points to most people, because instantly the layman will think "you're a luddite!"; of course, that is wrong, so one must avoid even this. The only "will to power" all of this has served is an unprecedented will to power in the form of a surveillance-world for those who hold the reigns of power; and unfortunately, those are the people who are bitterly full of hate toward the west.

... well, these sentiments are also influenced by Klages. I'm curious if the editor of these videos is familiar with Ludwig Klages. I would think so since Spengler thought so highly of him.

BTW, loved the use of Thomas Cole's Course of Empire. Couldn't think of a better choice. One of my absolute favorite series of paintings.

Also, at 7:55, "Autumn", the bit about music, reminds me of Nietzsche talking about Richard Wagner, how the tired degenerates need something loud and chaotic to get enough strength to stand up. I suppose it's not far off from your average modern gym rat who is in there trying to pump more iron from their heavy metal screaming music playlist, or worse yet, the lifelessness of this modern electronic music, dubstep, and all of the other monstrosities, that help the coffee-sipping robots grind their gears long enough to get through their miserable day as a slave in the capitalist system; oops, now I'm borrowing from Goebbels.

[Karmalumination]

I wish you'd run this slower.  I like to absorb what I'm reading, not feel like I have to rush through it before the next slide transition.  

[YksiSuomalainen]

If we continue on this current course then yes our people will die out and our Civilization will collapse, but history shows that after periods of decadence and decline a revitalization or even a total renaissance can happen. There are peoples and civilizations what have survived for all of written history. They have gone through multiple periods of decline and revitalization.

As the situation gets worse it will become exponentially easier to wake up even more people. If everyone of us starts to actively wake up even more people then we can easily wake up enough people that we can win political power in our own provincial governments and effectively peacefully secede and start re-industrializing and revitalizing our areas well before the big collapse.

The lemmings who can't be woken up will continue following the lying controlled media and politicians straight off the cliff, but they aren't our responsibility. We just have to make sure we have won control of the local governments in the areas where our awakened people are the majority and re-industrialized and prepared our areas well in advance. If/When we achieve that then waking up people will become even easier as we can show that our policies work while the criminal Elitist's policies only scam, rob, bankrupt and destroy.

After the big collapse the most important question will be should we accept the lemmings who caused the collapse by staying asleep like total fucking morons and voting the same corrupt Elitist criminal parties into power again and again and again ? Would accepting them back in sow the seeds of our next downfall generations in the future ? There has to be a point after what we have to accept that they really don't want to be part of our people anymore. That they knowingly choose to betray our people. Knowing we would never again accept them back in.