Decline of the West...

The final reading in this lecture series proposes a comparison between the epoch tables contained in Spengler's 'Decline of the West' and the general tone / message of John Lanchester's writing.

I will start with with describing the curiously titled 'epoch tables'. These three tables cover various contemporary states and their constituent 'epochs', namely spiritual, cultural and political. It it the right of the author to choose the start and end of these epochs which places a great deal of power in their hands. 

The very notion of the inevitable fall of every epoch is anathema to some. This fatalist attitude that Spengler projects is, I think, hard to argue against. This innate cyclical process is woven into the very fabric of everything. It does not, as some purport, suggest a divine conductor or indeed a hopelessness in the futility of everything. [or even a reckless abandon ] Does accepting the ultimate fate of the sun and the accompanying death of all life on our planet mean we should live with no regard for the future? Ridiculous. No? Does this belief make it an 'organic' process? To argue [in simple terms] about birth, gestation and death? And if so, I would see no negative connotation with the word organic.

We are not cats. We are more. But to think that we are the finished product is not only ignorant but is hugely naiive complaicent... This does not make me a subscriber to the enlightenment project. Marx believed in the continuity o


 I think it is weak and a little defeatist to only derive ....

I am very interested in physics and the basic idea that the universe and everything in it is subject to the same innate cycle of rise and fall, or bang and crunch. Who is to say this is not an infinately long process? Within everything there is pattern and cyclical behaviour.... for example, chaos theory can be used to understand [as previously explored] the behaviour of turbulence, the rise and fall of populations, behaviour of commodities prices and many more. A very basic understanding of chaos theory allows us to understand that even where there is no perceived periodicity, there can be some semblance of order.

Lanchester writes in opposition of Spengler. He is more positive and ultimately believes in the an enlightened path to emancipation. He writes in the Marxist vein of continued worthwhile struggle against the Capitalist system... or at least argues the worth in the struggle as a concept. That we have it at outr disposal to be progressive, and can place faith in technology and politics to progress along the right path.







I must say I am with Nietzche when it comes to this.