Line #76 Literature/TheDeclineOfTheWest


1	[[quoteright:317:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_decline_of_the_west.jpg]]
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3	''The Decline of the West'' is a philosophical book by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker 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, Aztec, Babylonian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian); 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.
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5	The book influenced people from Henry Kissinger to [[TheHerosJourney Joseph Campbell]], and even a thinker critical of Spengler as Theodore Adorno conceded that Spengler's insights were often more profound than those of his more liberal contemporaries, and his predictions more far-reaching.
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7	Spengler's works are in the public domain (at least in Germany), and you can read them on the internet for free. Here are links to [[http://www.archive.org/stream/declineofwest01spenuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Part 1]] and [[http://www.archive.org/stream/declineofwest02spenuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Part 2]] (both in English).
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10	!!Provides examples / considers the topics of:
11	* 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 UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar.
12	* AwfulTruth: "Optimism is cowardice."
13	* BigScrewedUpFamily: He did not like "unfruitful" people, but mentioned that these families also exist. "The hate for the brother is always bigger than the hate for the stranger."
14	* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The Magian (Middle Eastern) religions and sects (Greek Orthodox Christianity, Talmudic Judaism, Islam, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, Nestorianism, Monophysitism) share this.
15	* BothSidesHaveAPoint: As said, Spengler was relativist and wrote about the worldly and the spiritual side having a point - of course, not without mentioning that ''both'' think they're right.
16	* BurnTheWitch: He writes how during the medieval ages, many women even turned themselves in because they feared they might be possessed.
17	* ChristianityIsCatholic: 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.)
18	* ConflictingLoyalty: Do you want a worldly life (represented by government, firms, the military, the judges, farms, general real work, technics, and/or founding a family) or escape it (science, arts, religion, philosophy, ideologies, spirituality, love, sex, drugs)?
19	* CorruptChurch: Spengler separates religion (which is about a higher truth that is not from this world) and churches (which are by necessity worldly organizations, and whose leaders are no different from purely worldly rulers)
20	* CreativeSterility: When a culture has explored all possible art forms (first the aesthetic ones, later the offensive ones), they end up reviving old styles or copying exotic cultures (or mixing both).
21	* CultureClash: Every major culture is seen as alien 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.
22	* CulturePolice: Spengler suspected that in Ancient China, Confucianist thinkers destroyed all sources of the old Chinese religion. While this is hard to impossible to prove, it makes sense that Confucianism didn't just emerge finished and polished from nothing.
23	* 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.
24	* DefectorFromDecadence: It's probably a safe bet that Spengler saw himself as this.
25	* DemocracyIsBad: Spengler describes democracy as a tool of money and materialism, and a stage in the decay of a civilization, which will be followed by TheEmpire.
26	* DistaffCounterpart / SpearCounterpart: Interestingly, he wrote that life has two sides: The "sword side", everything that's traditionally considered business for men, like politics, war and the big economy; and the "spindle side", essentially raising families. Not spear and distaff, but close.
27	* {{Doorstopper}}: The German version has more than 1000 pages, in small print.
28	* TheEmpire: What every culture/civilization will end in.
29	* TheFatalist: Spengler thought that the western world had to create an empire - or perish. "Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling."
30	* 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[[note]]the possible exception to this bit being UsefulNotes/SanMarino, which is led by two Captains Regent, or prime ministers, being not much different from old Roman consuls[[/note]], and there aren't annual elections for them either. (Thank God!)
31	* FullCircleRevolution: He commented on the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions Russian Revolution]] that there were only two possibilities: either the factory workers would learn how to run a society (in which case nothing would really change) or not (in which case, everything would break down). As we know, reality was a mixture of 1 and 2.
32	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Oh so much. There are Gratuitous Hebrew, Gratuitous Arab, Gratuitous Russian, Gratuitous Hindi/Sanskrit(?), Gratuitous Chinese, Gratuitous Latin and Gratuitous Old Greek (often, even with Greek letters). Mostly used for concepts which are genuine of one culture and would be misunderstood if a common but incorrect translation was used.
33	* HardOnSoftScience: Especially on philosophy, starting with Kant. And that's saying something. He is arguably even harder on hard science though, seeing even physics as a pure expression of deep cultural ideas in which objective truth is purely accidental.
34	* 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, 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 (UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars -> UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar -> UsefulNotes/WorldWarI -> UsefulNotes/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.
35	* IHaveManyNames: He pointed out how people (as in, Germans, Romans, Americans...) can have different names, which makes work difficult for historians. Point: the Germans were called "Allemands" by the French in 1813, "Prussiens" in 1870 and "boches" in 1914. But does that make them three different people?
36	* InterfaithSmoothie: Syncretism, which appears in every civilization once it has reached the phase of caesarism.
37	* ItsPopularNowItSucks: [[invoked]] Also said to be typical of the West.
38	* IWantGrandkids: Spengler gives the justification for this trope: "He does not entirely die who lives on in sons and nephews."
39	* JustTheFirstCitizen: He wrote that titles like this are typical for revolutionary governments, whether in western Europe ("head of the Committee of Public Safety") or ancient Egypt.
40	* LanguageEqualsThought: Subverted - Spengler proposed a theory that different cultures have different world views which also reflect in their language. He e.g. pointed out that the Romans used to say "fecisti" (one word) instead of "I have done" / "ich habe getan" / "j'ai fait" / "ego habeo factum" (three words), which led him to the conclusion that the Romans saw "doing something" more as a concrete action (leading to a world view centered on concrete, rather than abstract, entities), while Western Europeans emphasize that there's a subject actively doing something (leading to a world view emphasizing active work and subjects as centers of power). He also pointed out the difference that in western languages, the word "spirit" / "geist" / "esprit" sounds uplifting (from the speech melody), while the Russian word "Дух" (pronounced "dookh") is rather depressing in comparison. Why a subversion? Because he didn't believe that language formed thoughts, but instead both were shaped by the landscape their creators live in - since Western Europeans, Russians and Romans (and so on) live in very different landscapes respectively, you should expect that they also have very different languages (and philosophies).
41	* MagnificentBastard: [[invoked]] Like many, Spengler was fascinated by them, and stated that there's barely if anything comparable to the satisfaction than that you feel if all the pieces of a great combination fall into place, JustAsPlanned.
42	%%* MandatoryMotherhood
43	* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Spengler pointed out how (roughly) until 1800, having many children was seen as a great luck (as still described by Goethe in ''Werther''), while afterwards, big families either were [[PlayedForLaughs a gag for comedies]] or [[PlayedForDrama big drama because the parents can't cope with so many children]]. Quite a paradigm change.
44	* MenActWomenAre: "The man makes history.[[note]]As a soldier and politician[[/note]] The woman[[note]]As in, the woman as mother[[/note]] ''is'' history."
45	* MisaimedFandom: [[invoked]] He mentions how the French revolutionaries revered Brutus - who in RealLife [[LoanShark lent out money for high interest]] and was one of the most important speculators in Rome.
46	* NeverTrustATitle: Spengler wasn't completely happy with the title (which seemed to imply that the western world had to fall, like the Roman Rmpire) and commented that he could've changed the title to "The Fulfillment of the West", which would be closer to his intention - i.e. the West transforming to a stable but stagnant empire in the end. The fact that many fans only knew the title and didn't care to actually read the book didn't help.
47	* OneWorldOrder: He thought the western civilization might create this at the end.
48	* ThePlan: 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.
49	* PropagandaMachine:
50	** Spengler accused [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Harmsworth,_1st_Viscount_Northcliffe Northcliffe]] of having used his press conglomerate to manipulate the readers (and thus, their countries) until they wanted UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
51	** Also, he wrote that journalists... well, suck. How much? Don't read if you're a journalist and easily offended: [[spoiler:Spengler wrote that journalists are intellectual whores, who will sell their intellectual abilities to whoever needs them, and support whatever cause he wants.]]
52	* RealityIsUnrealistic: Spengler commented that some historical events, like the death of Alexander, seem like they were written by a bad author.
53	* ReligionIsRight: Spengler had a relativist stance and brought the example of Pilate asking "What is Truth?" in contrast with UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} asking "What is Reality?". As he said, both were right from their POV.
54	* SacredLanguage: Spengler speculated that in the Stone Age, language (as in, speaking) may have been restricted to the priests, just as was the case with writing in some cultures.
55	* ShamCeremony: Monarchy in the age of democracy, parliamentarianism in the age of TheEmpire.
56	* SillyReasonForWar: Spengler pointed out that many wars in RealLife were started like this - more than one, apparently, because some courtier wanted to break up the developing relationship between some general and his wife.
57	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Definitely not at the idealistic end.
58	* TheSocialDarwinist: Spengler remarked that one (well, he at least) gets the impression in a forest that all the trees are only standing there because they won the fight for water, sunlight and nutrients against the other trees that died prematurely. So even trees are social darwinists!
59	* StarvingArtist: Spengler himself for some time during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI
60	* SuicidalPacifism: One of the most horrifying things for Spengler - the preference of slavery over death. As he explained: At the battle of Cannae, 50,000 Roman soldiers died. When the Mongols overran the metropolises of China and the Muslim world, the population didn't want to fight them, and ''hundreds of thousands'' of people died. Per metropolis, that is.
61	* TakeThat: Spengler spares almost nobody. Particularly notable: how he dismissed racist theories on the "purity of blood".
62	* 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.
63	* TrueArtIsAncient: [[invoked]] Something very typical of western civilization.
64	* ViceCity: All the metropolises. But there's a glint of hope, so to speak - these cities may disappear and become ruins, as Angkor, Pataliputra (and for some time, Rome) did.
65	* WarIsGlorious: ...but scarcity will destroy everything, and a long peace will ruin people more thoroughly than a long war.
66	* WorldBuilding: Spengler did it in his youth, inventing the country of Afrikasien (Africasia) with its government and going so far to decide how much of an income the ministers should receive.
67	* WritersCannotDoMath: Relatedly, Spengler stated that while earlier philosophers (Pascal, Descartes, Leibniz) also were great mathematicians, later ones were... not. This explicitly included Nietzsche.
68	* WrongGenreSavvy: Spengler mentions Swedish king [[UsefulNotes/CarolusRex 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.

Context Literature / TheDeclineOfTheWest