The future of the West is not a limitless tending upwards and onwards for all time
towards our presents ideals, but a single phenomenon of history, strictly limited and
defined as to form and duration, which covers a few centuries nd can be viewed and, in
essentials, calculated from available precedents. With this enters the age of gigantic
conflicts, in which we find ourselves today. It is the transition from Napoleonism to Caesarism, a general phase of evolution, which occupies at least two centuries
and can be shown to exist in all Cultures. The Chinese call it Shan-Kwo, the "period of the Contending States." In the Gracchan revolution, which was already
[133 B.C.] heralded by a first Servile War, the younger Scipio was secretly murdered and
C. Gracchus openly slain---the first who as Princeps and the first who as Tribune
were political centers in themselves amidst a world become formless. When, in 104 B.C. the
urban masses of Rome for the first time lawlessly and tumultuously invested a private
person, Marius, with Imperium, the deeper importance of the drama then enacted is
comparable with that of assumption of the mythic Emperor-title by the ruler of Ch'in in 288 B.C..
The place of the permanent armies as we know them will gradually be taken by
professional forces of volunteer war-keen soldiers; and from millions we shall revert to
hundreds of thousands. But ipso facto this second century will be one of actually Contending States. These armies are not substitutes for war---they are for war, and
they want war. Within two generations it will be they whose will prevails over all
the comfortables put together. In these wars of theirs for the heritage of the whole
world, continents will be staked---India, China, South Africa, Russia, Islam called out,
new technics and tactics played and counter-played.... The last race
to keep its form, the last living tradition, the last leaders who have both at their back,
will pass through and onward, victors.
The idealist of the early democracy regarded popular education as enlightenment pure
and simple---but it is precisely this that smooths the path for the coming Caesars of the
world. The last century [the 19th] was the winter of the West, the victory of materialism
and scepticism, of socialism, parliamentarianism, and money. But in this century blood and
instinct will regain their rights against the power of money and intellect. The era of
individualism, liberalism and democracy, of humanitarianism and freedom, is nearing its
end. The masses will accept with resignation the victory of the Caesars, the strong
men, and will obey them. Life will descend to a level of general uniformity, a new kind of
primitivism, and the world will be better for it.....
Source:
From: Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, 2 Vols., trans. Charles Francis
Atkinson, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922)
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton.
This text is part of the Internet
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© Paul Halsall, January 1999
