Western civilization no doubt will crash and burn sometime. (By western I mean all those nations and civilizations that participated in the European Enlightenment of the late 17th and into the 18th century.) All civilizations do, since nothing human is permanent. Long ago, I read Oswald Spenglers The Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes), and I think most of it is overblown, over-argued, and over-stated. But Spengler did mention one thing that seems especially relevant now, at least vis a vis the United States. Spengler said that one of the signs of a civilization entering decadence is what he called the Second Religiousness: a seeming resurgence of religious sentiment that masquerades as a renewal of spirituality but that is, in reality, merely a power grab driven by fear and a kind of neo-Luddite distrust of rationality. I am reminded of the Second Religiousness every time I read one of those Pew surveys that show, e.g., 46% of the Republican Party does not believe in evolution (similar numbers for the Big Bang), that roughly half of Americans believe in things like angels, the imminent return of Christ, the literal truth of the Bible, the harmonic convergence (having to do with the Mayan long count calendar prophecy), etc. etc., etc. There are always people around who have subscribed to this kind of crackpot syncretism, but the US seems to be going through a period of the decline of rationality and gravitating more and more toward magical thinking. And were going through this time precisely during a period when we are debating the best way to reform education, especially STEM education... which conservative Republicans -- who dont even BELIEVE in science, judging by those numbers, profess to be competent to lead. JC
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 18:20:48 +0000
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