“We can’t go back. We can’t go back to the savages: not a stride. We can be in sympathy with them. We can take a great curve in their direction, onwards. But we cannot turn the current of our life backwards, back towards their soft warm twilight and uncreate mud. Not for a moment. If we do it for a moment, it makes us sick.
In 1945, the tone of ideological debate was set by the victorious ideologies. We could choose American liberalism (the ideology of Mr. Babbitt) or Marxism, an allegedly de-bourgeoisfied version of the metanarrative. Read more …
The wise old Faust in FAUST (1926), directed by F. W. Murnau
1,760 words
Part 1 of 3
Translated by Greg Johnson
In Oswald Spengler’s terms, our European culture is the product of a “pseudomorphosis,” i.e., of the grafting of an alien mentality upon our indigenous, original, and innate mentality. Read more …
The Uniqueness of Western Civilization, Part 3
Hegel & the Struggle for Recognition
G. W. F. Hegel, 1770-1831
4,986 words
Part 3 of 5
Ricardo Duchesne
The Uniqueness of Western Civilization
Leiden: Brill, 2011
7. Hegel and the Struggle for Recognition
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