/lit/ - Literature

>>18422934

He is the Confucius of the West, and just like Confucius he was condemned because he was right - "When Confucius completed Spring and Autumn Annals" — the book in which he taught the State religion of his and in which he showed that the society of his time was doomed; when Confucius wrote that book, "the Jesuits and anarchists (lit. bandits) of his time, became afraid." (亂臣賊子懼). . . . The object of the book is to give the real moral causes which govern the rise and fall—the Spring and Autumn of nations. Confucius gave a résumé of the history of a false and decadent state of society and civilisation in which he traced all the suffering and misery of that false and decadent state of society and civilisation to its real cause. - Gu Hongming

Basically Spengler did not believe in progressive or universal history, only history of High Cultures that are born, mature, age and die. A High Culture comes into being from a Ur-symbol or Prime Symbol. It is a metaphysics intuition that gives birth to a new religious feeling, wanting to actualize itself in the world it expresses itself. However this expression eventually turns from inward to outward expression, where the sciences, numbers and ideas of a culture becomes increasing detached from its religious world view, this eventually lead to nihilism, questioning old honored traditions. You get irreligious, rational and materialistic men who question and sterilize everything by analyzing it, including themselves. With great cities and declining birthrate, the culture commits race suicide, to not forget wars get larger and more expensive, accelerating the decline. Eventually the culture becomes tired, and since their sciences cannot answer the needs of the people they return to second religiousness, which comes with Caesarism, strongmen who take the remnants of the High Culture as loot for themselves. The High Culture has now actualized itself and will now stay in a petrified form indefinitely, until out of it a new High Culture comes into being, often through rape of the old.

For Spengler Culture is the early period of a High Culture, Civilizations is the period of decline.

And just like Confucius people are as good to misreading him, but in regard to Spengler being pessimistic and realistic he would later call himself a brave pessimist where he called for the last heroes of the West to be like the Soldier of Pompeii, standing proud and hold his post until the end.

I recommend these channels to learn more about Spengler:

https://youtu.be/Zc2200Wh3Zw - Promethean Gnosis, Overall good introduction videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzwfs3DjSJg&list=PLA7E2840B724C6695 - John David Ebert's Video Series on Oswald Spengler, recommended watching this before reading Spengler. He the go to author for Oswald Spengler.