Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (1880-1936) was a German historian and philosopher best known for his 1918 book The Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes) in which he presents a cyclical theory of the rise and decline of civilizations."When the ordinary thought of a highly cultivated people begins to regard 'having children' as a question of pro's and con's, the great turning point has come."
~Oswald Spengler
9.05.2008
"The Great Turning Point"
Here is an interesting quote from the Phillip Longman article linked below:
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5 comments:
Erich,
Thanks for the reference here. I overlooked that in the Longman article. I'll have to get a copy of Spengler's book in English.
I just ordered both volumes and the abridged edition which reportedly has some helpful notes.
I have always respected Longman and have talked to him via e-mail several times.
Whilst there are many good qualities about Longman's The Return of Patriarchy, it has a glaring omission that I have actually looked at myself in a completely mental way.
The Return of Patriarchy looks very clearly and logically at the differences between hunter/gatherer and agricultural economies, but does not look at how an industrial economy might differ from either. I have tried to look at this myself, and come to a quite interesting conclusion: that children in industrial society can only be of value in the very few areas with abundant free land or metal ores. That is why women outside Australia and Red America have been so radically masculinised since the Industrial Revolution.
jpbenney,
I think you are on to something there. I have no doubt that since the advent of the industrial revolution, we have been creating an economy which is actually hostile to the family and new life. It was, after all, initially Rockefeller Republicans who advocated for legalizing contraception. Their apparent aims were eugenic and to free women to work in the factories, thus expanding the supply of labor and, as a consequence, lowering its cost. What they were not interested in was the best interest of those whom they thought should be using contraceptives.
In any event, an industrial economy and, at least as a matter of first impression, a service economy, are hostile environments for the traditional Christian family.
I am going to post the greater context of the Spengler quote in a new post.
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