History Literature / TheDeclineOfTheWest

* WeimarRepublic: Spengler didn't like it too much and pointed out that a few small altercations would be enough to give one leader unlimited power. And [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler who]] came to power in 1933? Exactly.

* WorldWarOne: Spengler wrote the book during it. Originally he had expected ImperialGermany to win.

'''The Decline of the West''' is a philosophical book by [[DichterUndDenker German philosopher]] Oswald Spengler. While the title suggests being mainly about the fate of western civilization, it actually covers a lot of topics - the history of the other great cultures (Chinese, Indian, Aztecs, Classical, Babylonian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Russian); the development of arts, science and religions; also, that of politics, economy, technics and war; and finally, tying everything together with "morphology", i.e. comparing the shapes of different cultures and find the equivalents of, let's say, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, in them [[note]]In the Greco-Roman culture, that would be Alexander the Great[[/note]]. Yes, Spengler was a bit of a RenaissanceMan in that.

* GenreSavvy: Spengler's work had the aim of finding out how the western world would develop in the future and thus be able to become this, if not DangerouslyGenreSavvy.

* HistoryRepeats: i.e. in every major culture: A culture emerges among the barbarian peoples and fuses them together to create nations. The great myths, art styles and religions develop. At the beginning, [[TheKingdom strong kings rule]], but their power soon is weakened by their noble vassals. A great movement reforms the religion. Meanwhile, in the cities a somewhat-privileged middle class has risen, replacing feudalism economy slowly but steadily by capitalism. By cooperating with them, the crown can weaken nobility and the church, forming an absolutist state. Science and capitalism develop further, and an enlightened philosophy spreads, weakening the hold of religion. Then, the middle class will decide to get rid of the old system, usually in the form of a revolution - which starts civilization. This marks the fall of the culture - wars will get worse and worse (NapoleonicWars -> UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar -> WorldWarOne -> WorldWarII), art will become more and more offensive, and capitalism runs rampant (not without provoking [[DirtyCommies counter movements]]). At the end, one state will conquer/control all other states, and one man will rise to the top of this state - voila, TheEmpire.

'''The Decline of the West''' is a philosophical book by [[DichterUndDenker German philosopher]] Oswald Spengler. While the title suggests being mainly about the fate of western civilization, it actually covers a lot of topics - the history of the other great cultures (Chinese, Indian, Aztecs, Classical, Babylonian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Russian); the development of arts, science and religions; also, that of politics, economy, technics and war; and finally, tying everything together with "morphology", i.e. comparing the shapes of different cultures and find the equivalents of, let's say, NapoleonBonaparte, in them [[note]]In the Greco-Roman culture, that would be Alexander the Great[[/note]]. Yes, Spengler was a bit of a RenaissanceMan in that.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: This is every major culture from the POV of most other major cultures.
** The Byzantine Empire e.g. was surprisingly free from racism; an Irishman and a black African woman had no problem marrying - as long as they had the same religion. If however a Monophysite man had wanted a Nestorian woman from the same Syrian village, things likely would have ended like ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', and by that we mean: Bad.

* [[AristocratsAreEvil Aristocracy Is Evil]]: While Spengler also was pretty critical of democracy (see below), he had no illusions that medieval life was all like {{Arcadia}}. As he wrote: "Hatred wells up out of the villages, contempt flashes back from the castles."

* [[MandatoryMotherhood Being Childless Is Decadent]]

* [[ChristianityIsCatholic (Western) Christianity Is Catholic]]: Protestantism was described by Spengler as a poor version of Christianity that abandoned all the appealing stuff (adorned churches) and, which he saw as most important, confession. Also note that he saw Catholic Christianity as something very different from Jesus' (or St Paul's) Christianity, which have mostly superficial things in common. (Although many people will become outraged at that suggestion.)

* [[ItsPopularNowItSucks True Art Is Not Popular]]: [[invoked]] Also said to be typical of the West.

* ForeignCultureFetish: Spengler stated that westerners essentially had this, for the classical Greco-Roman civilization, which is more different from us than many of us think. Our {{theater}} actors don't wear buskins and masks, and there's usually no GreekChorus either, DeusExMachina looks too much like AssPull to us, and our countries aren't governed by two consuls sharing the power, and there aren't annual elections for them either. (Thank God!)

* HistoryRepeats: i.e. in every major culture: A culture emerges among the barbarian peoples and fuses them together to create nations. The great myths, art styles and religions develop. At the beginning, [[TheKingdom strong kings rule]], but their power soon is weakened by their noble vassals. A great movement reforms the religion. Meanwhile, in the cities a somewhat-privileged middle class has risen, replacing feudalism economy slowly but steadily by capitalism. By cooperating with them, the crown can weaken nobility and the church, forming an absolutist state. Science and capitalism develop further, and an enlightened philosophy spreads, weakening the hold of religion. Then, the middle class will decide to get rid of the old system, usually in the form of a revolution - which starts civilization. This marks the fall of the culture - wars will get worse and worse (NapoleonicWars -> AmericanCivilWar -> WorldWarOne -> WorldWarII), art will become more and more offensive, and capitalism runs rampant (not without provoking [[DirtyCommies counter movements]]). At the end, one state will conquer/control all other states, and one man will rise to the top of this state - voila, TheEmpire.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Spengler criticized the Germans for being GenreBlind to this trope, and being completely ignorant of the US army's achievements (creating a million man army from scratch, using battleships and machine guns, amazing logistics) during the AmericanCivilWar.

** He used "civilization" for a time of decline and decadence following the ''real'' culture, during which art becomes more and more offensive and/or primitive, and politics steered either by the capitalists or the army (in his definition, this time started with TheFrenchRevolution).

* WeimarRepublic: Spengler didn't like it too much and pointed out that a few small altercations would be enough to give one leader unlimited power. And [[AdolfHitler who]] came to power in 1933? Exactly.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Spengler mentions Swedish king Charles XII, who was a big fan of Alexander the Great, tried to follow his example, thus made war on the Russia of Peter the Great, only to have his army destroyed at the battle of Poltava, which effectively ended Sweden's time as a great power.

'''The Decline of the West''' is a philosophical book by [[DichterUndDenker German philosopher]] Oswald Spengler. While the title suggests being mainly about the fate of western civilization, it actually covers a lot of topics - the history of the other great cultures (Chinese, Indian, Aztecs, Classical, Babylonian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Russian); the development of arts, science and religions; also, that of politics, economy, technics and war; and finally, tying everything together with "morphology", i.e. comparing the shapes of different cultures and find the equivalents of, let's say, NapoleonBonaparte, in them [[hottip:* :In the Greco-Roman culture, that would be Alexander the Great]]. Yes, Spengler was a bit of a RenaissanceMan in that.

* TrueArtIsNotPopular: [[invoked]] Also said to be typical of the West.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Spengler himself did this with several historical characters. For example, in his opinion EmperorAugustus wasn't really a great man and rather lead by his soldiers (GaiusJuliusCaesar's veterans) than the other way round.
** Also for Spengler himself.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Spengler himself did this with several historical characters. For example, in his opinion CaesarAugustus wasn't really a great man and rather lead by his soldiers (GaiusJuliusCaesar's veterans) than the other way round.

** The Byzantine Empire e.g. was surprisingly free from racism; an Irishman and a black African woman had no problem marrying - as long as they had the same religion. If however a Monophysite man had wanted a Nestorian woman from the same Syrian village, things likely would have ended like ''Theatre/RomeoAndJulia'', and by that we mean: Bad.

* [[MandatoryMotherhood Being Childless Is Decadent]]

* CorruptChurch: Spengler seperates religion (which is about a higher truth that is not from this world) and churches (which are by necessity worldly organizations, and which leaders are NotSoDifferent from purely worldly rulers)

* ForeignCultureFetish: Spengler stated that westerners essentially had this, for the classical Greco-Roman civilization, which is more different from us than many of us think. Our {{theater}} actors don't wear buskins and masks, and there's usually no chorus either, DeusExMachina looks too much like AssPull to us, and our countries aren't governed by two consuls sharing the power, and there aren't annual elections for them either. (Thank God!)

'''The Decline of the West''' is a philosophical book by German Oswald Spengler. While the title suggests being mainly about the fate of western civilization, it actually covers a lot of topics - the history of the other great cultures (Chinese, Indian, Aztecs, Classical, Babylonian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Russian); the development of arts, science and religions; also, that of politics, economy, technics and war; and finally, tying everything together with "morphology", i.e. comparing the shapes of different cultures and find the equivalents of, let's say, NapoleonBonaparte, in them [[hottip:* :In the Greco-Roman culture, that would be Alexander the Great]]. Yes, Spengler was a bit of a RenaissanceMan in that.

* IWantGrandkids: Spengler gives the justification for this trope: Someone who has children and grandchildren, won't die completely.

* [[ChristianityIsCatholic Western Christianity Is Catholic]]: Protestantism was described by Spengler as a poor version of Christianity that abandoned all the appealing stuff (adorned churches) and, which he saw as most important, confession. Also note that he saw Catholic Christianity as something very different from Jesus' (or St Paul's) Christianity, which have mostly superficial things in common. (Although many people will become outraged at that suggestion.)

* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche: Spengler was a big fan of Nietzsche. However, he criticized that Nietzsche was only speaking clearly when he protested the decadence of his time - while being very vague about what to replace it with (the {{Ubermensch}} thing).

* XanatosGambit: Spengler claimed that [[CorruptCorporateExecutive "the money"]] was using [[DirtyCommies communist movements]] for their own interests. Which would probably be the explanation for why they didn't use brute force to suppress communism even if they could.

* WeimarRepublic: Spengler didn't like it too much and pointed out that a few little decisions would be enough to give one leader unlimited power. And [[AdolfHitler who]] came to power in 1933? Exactly.

* FriedrichNietzsche: Spengler was a big fan of Nietzsche. However, he criticized that Nietzsche was only speaking clearly when he protested the decadence of his time - while being very vague about what to replace it with (the {{Ubermensch}} thing).

* {{Johann Wolfgang von Goethe}}: Spengler's other idol, so to speak. Goethe's works about science are often mentioned in this work.

* ThoseWackyNazis: When Spengler finished the book (1922), the Nazis were still a pretty insignificant political movement and not worth mentioning. The Nazis eventually ''did'' try to co-opt Spengler's work; yet Spengler, who met Hitler in 1933, distanced himself from Nazism and said about Hitler that [Germany doesn't need a] "heroic tenor but a real hero." Spengler went on to write another book in 1933, ''Years of Decision'', which contained open criticism of the Nazis, and was later banned; though, still considered as a luminary of the right wing, Spengler was ignored rather than persecuted by the regime. When he died unexpectedly in 1936, he had been preparing another book called ''Germany in Peril''. Spengler did openly admire Mussolini, though.

** To Spengler, UsefulNotes/{{socialism}} is very different from Communism/Marxism, but on the other hand somewhat related to the politics of Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I, or Ancient Egypt. In this, Spengler was influenced by the terminology of the 19th century, as prior to the [[RedOctober Russian Revolution]], "socialism" had carried a much wider spectrum of connotations.
** He used "civilization" for a time of decline and decadence following the ''real'' culture, during which art becomes more and more offensive and/or primitive, and politics steered either by the capitalists or the army (in his definition, this time started with TheFrenchRevolution).
** Also, his names for cultures (Faustian = Western Europe; Apollinian = Classic civilizations; Magian = Middle Eastern).

* [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Russians Love Oswald Spengler]]: There's a small group of people (but consider that nowadays few people read Spengler in general) in Russia who like Spengler because he predicted that in the future, a new culture might develop in Russia (and probably bring the country to greatness).

* CuteKitten: "A peacock is indubitably speaking when he spreads his tail, but a kitten playing with a cotton-reel also speaks to us, unconsciously, through the quaint charm of its movements." Yes, this book really covers a lot of topics.

* HistoryRepeats: i.e. in every major culture: A culture emerges among the barbarian peoples and fuses them together to create nations. The great myths, art styles and religions develop. At the beginning, [[TheKingdom strong kings rule]], but their power soon is weakened by their noble vassals. A great movement reforms the religion. Meanwhile, in the cities a somewhat-privileged middle class has risen, replacing feudalism economy slowly but steadily by capitalism. By cooperating with them, the crown can weaken nobility and the church, forming an absolutist state. Science and capitalism develop further, and an enlightened philosophy spreads, weakening the hold of religion. Then, the middle class will decide to get rid of the old system, usually in the form of a revolution - which starts civilization. This marks the fall of the culture - wars will get worse and worse (NapoleonicWars -> AmericanCivilWar -> WorldWarOne -> WorldWarII), art will become more and more [[TrueArtIsOffensive offensive]], and capitalism runs rampant (not without provoking [[DirtyCommies counter movements]]). At the end, one state will conquer/control all other states, and one man will rise to the top of this state - voila, TheEmpire.

The book influenced people from Henry Kissinger to JosephCampbell, and even a thinker critical of Spengler as Adorno conceded that Spengler's insights were often more profound than those of his more liberal contemporaries, and his predictions more far-reaching.

* FairForItsDay: In a time, when antisemites would spread the craziest conspiracy theories about the eeeevul Jews, Spengler pretty much only said "they have a very different culture than us, we can't really understand each other (with very few exceptions), and messing around with each other will only lead to problems".

* MagnumOpus

* ThoseWackyNazis: Averted - when he finished the book (1922), they were still a pretty insignificant political movement and not worth mentioning. Now if he had written the book a few years later...
** The Nazis eventually ''did'' try to co-opt Spengler's work, given their shared German nationalism. Spengler even met Hitler in 1933...and was unimpressed, stating that [Germany doesn't need a] "heroic tenor but a real hero." He went on to write another book, ''Years of Decision'', which contained open criticism of the Nazis, and was later banned.

** TrueArtIsNotPopular: Also said to be typical of the West.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Spengler used many... original definitions, often giving existing words a very different meaning. Just one example: To Spengler, Socialism is very different from Communism/Marxism, but on the other hand somewhat related to the politics of Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I, or Ancient Egypt. Also, he used "civilization" for a time of decline and decadence following the ''real'' culture, during which art becomes more and more [[TrueArtIsOffensive offensive]] and/or primitive, and politics steered either by the capitalists or the army. (In his definition, this time started with TheFrenchRevolution.) Also, his names for cultures (Faustian = Western Europe; Apollinian = Classic civilizations; Magian = Middle Eastern). Finally (for now), his definition of "race", which had nothing at all to do with skin colors or the shape of human skulls.
** On the particular point of his use of the word "socialism" that [[HaveaGayOldTime word carried many different connotations]] during much of the 19th century to the era prior to [[RedOctober The Russian Revolution]]. It could once be properly applied to many different political ideologies that were quite divergent from one another, from moderate progressive ideals, to what we would now thing of as something vaguely nationalist, to people advocating a return to a feudal system, to anarchists.