Culture and Civilization - the living body of a soul and the mummy of it. For Western existence the distinction lies at about the year 1800 - on the one side of that frontier life in fullness and sureness of itself, formed by growth from within, in one great uninterrupted evolution from Gothic childhood to Goethe and Napoleon, and on the other the autumnal, artificial, rootless life of our great cities, under forms fashioned by the intellect ... He who does not understand that this outcome is obligatory and insusceptible of modification must forgo all desire to comprehend history.
I read this in "The Lessons of History" but find it hard to comprehend it.
This is essentially a shortened rephrasing of his remarks in "The Decline of the West", in which he defines what he perceives as the "problem of Civilization". This is an integral part of Spengler's idea of (world) history as something following discernible (and even predictable) patterns.
Spengler views civilization as the "organico-logical sequel, fulfilment and finale of a culture". He illustrates this by dubbing the Romans the successors of the Greeks, the civilization to their culture.
"Unspiritual, unphilosophical, devoid of art, clannish to the point of brutality, aiming relentlessly at tangible successes, they stand between the Hellenic Culture and nothingness"
He contrasts Culture and Civilization:
"In a word, Greek soul - Roman intellect; and this antithesis is the differentia between Culture and Civilization."
The contrast "Gothic childhood" to the "rootless life of our great cities" reflects the same sentiment. Spengler views what he calls "Western Civilization" as in a similar stage of development. Imperialism to him is "Civilization unadulterated" and therefore the final act in the pattern. The imaginative Culture is deemed to have developed (declined) into a wholly practical Civilization, that is no longer growing, but merely expanding, "for the brain-man there are only extensive possibilites." A Civilization in Spengler's view is unable to produce "romantics" such as Napoleon or great art such as that of Goethe. As he puts it:
"Of great painting or great music there can no longer be, for Western people, any question."
Spengler sees the Decline of the West as a necessity that cannot be changed. For Spengler the Culture phase of development is clearly over, with all its implications. And he sees this as so evident that in his view no scholar can comprehend history without accepting this as fact.
PS: I took the quotes from the abridged Oxford University Press edition of Decline of the West, since I have no other copy handy right now.
I'm studying this right now, and it sounds about as academic as the Deepak Chopra quote generator:
http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/
This line is the most aggravating:
"In place of a world, there is a city, a point, in which the whole life of broad regions is collecting while the rest dries up. In place of a type-true people, born of and grown on the soil, there is new sort of nomad, cohering unstably in fluid masses, the parasitical city dweller, traditionless, utterly matter-of-fact, religionless, clever, unfruitful, deeply contemptuous of the countryman and especially that highest form of countryman, the country gentleman" (Spengler).
Does anyone actually benefit from his writing anymore?