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13488083 No.13488083 [Reply] [Original]

First Spengler General on /lit/. Share your thoughts, questions, challenges, and interpretations of the works of Oswald Spengler!

>Selected Works
-Man and Technics: http://fatuma.net/text/Spengler_Man-Technics.pdf
-Decline of the West: https://archive.org/stream/Decline-Of-The-West-Oswald-Spengler/Decline_Of_The_West_djvu.txt
-Prussianism and Socialism: http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/P%20Soc/Prussianism.Socialism.htm
-Spengler Collection Torrent: https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/7739183/Oswald_Spengler_book_pack

>FAQ:
Q: Who was Spengler? A: Spengler (1880-1936) is a philosopher of history who rose to popularity during the Weimar Republic with the release of his book "The Decline of the West". His works consider that any human culture is a superorganism and as all of these superorganisms are "bound" by being comprised of humans, they share comparable patterns.
Q: Was he a Nazi? A: He was not a National Socialist, but arguably enabled them. He did vote for Hitler in 1932, but was persona non grata with the party by 1933. He debated Rosenberg about his racial theories (though Spengler is most certainly a racialist), as a follower of Nietzsche he thought anti-semitism to be silly, and the only book he published during Nazi rule was banned. That said, his critiques of capitalism, marxist socialism, and liberalism were widely used by the Nazis and he was a member of the increasingly Nazi-influenced German Academy in 1933.
Q: Is Spengler cyclical history? A: This is a common phrase used to describe Spengler, but is incorrect. Neither the history, nor the culture/civilization itself are cyclical. Each culture/civilization is a unique and finite organism.
Q: Why should I read any of his works? A: If nothing else, to understand the worldview of a serious historical+philosophical heavyweight. There are plenty of great criticisms of Spengler's ideas, but his depth of knowledge of the minutiae of societies across the world is constantly impressing.

>> No.13488146

>>13488083
Can anyone give me some predictions, preferably specific predictions, that Spengler was absolutely right about, and also predictions that he was wrong about?

>> No.13488151

>no Kissinger thesis posted

>> No.13488172
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13488172

Is this edition good?

>> No.13488184

>>13488172
>an abridged edition

>> No.13488199

>>13488083
While Spengler is an incredible thinker, he's also pushed by the ONA to encourage pessimism and mindless destruction on chans and elsewhere.

>> No.13488202

>>13488199
>pessimism and mindless destruction
Exclusive.

>> No.13488204

>>/lit/thread/S4570057

>> No.13488209

What did Spengler say about Black Civilization?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQr80G4aq9I

>> No.13488215

>>13488209
>black
>civilization
Pick one.

>> No.13488229
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13488229

Recently acquired this, from 1934

>> No.13488232

>>13488209
Ethiopians? Malians? The ones we know nothing about? I don't recall him ever mentioning them, but he did take Aztecs, Incas and Mayans into account.

>> No.13488240

>>13488209
There's no such thing as "black civilization"

>> No.13488264

>>13488232
Yeah, he recognized 8 High Cultures:
>Babylonian
>Egyptiac (Ancient Egypt)
>Indic (Indian)
>Sinic (Chinese)
>Mesoamerican (Mayan/Aztec)
>Classical (Greek/Roman)
>Magian (Arabic/Islamic)
>Faustian or Western (European)

>> No.13488272

>>13488264
Egyptian is African by continent, not by race.
It's akin to comparing Byzantines to Turks.

>> No.13488289

>>13488272
Black=/=African. I never say they were btw, I was merely mentioning the cultures Spengler talked about.

>> No.13488326

>>13488204
Damn, we used to have quite a bit of redditry here in 2014. Glad we stamped that out.

>> No.13488336

>>13488326
We used to unironically have Harry Potter in the /lit/ top 100 lmao

>> No.13488539

>>13488289
Well, Egypt did have a great effect on the cultures and civilizations near it, including the black ones, such as Nubia/Ethiopia and the smaller ones.

>> No.13488927

>>13488209
Black Panther only came out in 2018, anon

>> No.13490017

i am a libcuck socdem cucky mccuckerson can i read spengler to open my mind without getting sucked in to muh redpill

>> No.13490784

>>13488204
this board was so liberal back in the day it was disgusting
t. didnt browse /lit/ for like 5 years because of it

>> No.13491274

>>13488146
https://web.archive.org/web/20190117075946/http://avery.morrow.name/blog/2014/10/oswald-spenglers-decline-of-the-west-the-100th-anniversary-update/

>> No.13491889

>>13490017
yes, altough I don't really understand what you're afraid of, shouldn't you want to challenge your beliefs and expand your intellectual horizon?

>> No.13492161

>>13488204
So that was the "golden time" of /lit/ some posters here are praising in threads they don't like?

>> No.13492221

>>13492161
There never was a /lit/ golden age
To quote oldfag wisdom "/b/ was never good"

>>13488204
I was there when that thread happened. It was glorious, they even resorted to posting about Jews to make op look like a loony.

>> No.13492239

>>13488204
What makes this thread so special? I cant be bothered to read through it all.

>> No.13492249
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13492249

>>13488204
>all those post-thread wehraboos whose vocabulary is limited to memespeak going "omg hes just like us, libtards nae naed" at the original spengleranon
im going to be sick in the mouth

>> No.13492250
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13492250

>>13488204
holy fucking shit the denialists got butt raped

>> No.13493932

bmup

>> No.13494090

The big concept to Western civ is the infinite space, Indian civ is "the world as dream", Magyar is "world as a cave".
In Decline that was all I could find, does anyone have a complete list of civs and their "origin concepts"?

>> No.13494131

Where do I start with Spengler? Is there anything I need to read beforehand to better understand his work?

>> No.13494204

>>13494090
Egyptian is "the cosmic path", they saw themselves as traveling down a narrow path ending in the judgement of the dead, when looked at in this way the pyramids are not buildings in the Western sense but interior corridors enclosed in a mountain of stone, and the upthrust of the pyramids and obelisks represent visible religious beacons that can be seen from miles around

>>13494131
>Is there anything I need to read beforehand to better understand his work?
Everything? The Decline covers the history of everything from art to politics to philosophy to economics. You should at least have a basic understanding of Greek/Roman history and Western history. Also you should have a basic understanding of Kant and Nietzsche.

>> No.13494864
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13494864

>>13491274
fuck

>> No.13495533

What would he say if he saw the situation in the West today?

>> No.13495550

>>13495533
We're right on schedule.

>> No.13495590

>>13495533
I often wonder this, how would people like Spengler or Evola react to the modern world, considering they spent so much of their time writing about the decline of their day. I don't even think men of their caliber could gain any fame as writers in the current honk honk political climate.

>> No.13495745

>>13495550
How, exactly? What is the future? Will there be a Caesar?

>> No.13495780

>>13495590
>>The decline of their day
Since when is the West in decadence? 1000 AD? 1350 ? 1500? 1789? 1900? 1914?
Is Decadence simultaneous in the Peripheral regions and the Core?

>> No.13495798

>>13490017
More knowledge is always a good thing

>> No.13495827

>>13495780
Both Spengler and Evola say that the French Revolution was a turning point in the Western Cultural spirit

>> No.13495883

>>13495745
see >>13494131

>> No.13495897

>>13491889
yes but im still trying to become a pc rather than npc

>> No.13495919
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13495919

>>13488240

>> No.13495941

>>13495919
They carved their way through the rock, and chiseled a house out of it, which must have taken ages to do. What fucking retards.

>> No.13496381

>>13488199
this man knows

>> No.13496391

>>13488151
its shit

>> No.13496503

>>13495919
Impossible to tell whether it was build by Arabs, Berbers or ethopeans

>> No.13497539

>>13488209
That's oxymoron

>> No.13498117

>>13495883
?

>> No.13498909

>>13494204
What about the Aztecs? What's their defining concept?

>> No.13499221
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13499221

>>13488083
Oh yeah, of course, THIS branch of historicism is worthwhile and definely right, at last, because it is "theory of everything" by le epic grim bald german guy now! and this time it is not another delusion of looking for patterns and stages in history for sure!

>> No.13499268

>>13488083
>Spengler
Cope.

>> No.13499285

>>13499221
He's written about other things than history to be fair, but yeah otherwise you're right
He's still based tho

>> No.13499577

>>13499221
Ebin.

>> No.13500971

>>13499268
piss off

>> No.13500979

>>13499221
Spengler doesnt really offer a theory of everything, but he does offer a theory of how the West developed and will continue to develop and unlike Marx, his predictions were mostly correct.

>> No.13500992

The only kind of historicism I like is the Hegelian/Kojevean/Fukuyaman type

>> No.13500998

>>13499221
His concept of the prime symbol and the uniformity of cultural expressions is objectively correct even if you disagree with his determinism.