When Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) wrote THE DECLINE OF THE WEST in 1918, followed by a revision and second volume in 1923, it was taken in high regard by the post-World War I public, especially in Germany. It's message of gradual, phased but continuous decline of Western culture and civilization since about the thirteenth century seemed to resonate with people at that time.

Basically he compares Western society, which he calls 'Faustian' culture, to classic Greco-Roman society ('Apollonian') and Arabian society ('Magian'), as well as others. In each of these he sees politico-cultural characteristics arising from tribal society, which he sees as having "no State", through eight distinct phases of statehood, and development of arts, architecture and even mathematics; finally to dissolve into again tribal society. Apollonian culture of course completed its phases many centuries ago, and Magian completed its with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.But Western (Faustian) culture is in its sixth phase of "contending states" since 1815, and Spengler predicted that it would enter its seventh phase of "Caesarism", or a world imperium, about 2000.

After World War II Spengler's theories fell into unpopularity. To his readers, Hitler seemed to be his 'Caesar' and the Third Reich his 'imperium'; but it catastrophically fell, to be replaced with democratic institutions in Germany and Japan, and eventually Spain. And many saw Spengler's Caesarism in Stalin's despotism and in subsequent history of the Soviet Union, only for that to suddenly fall. Spengler, having written in German, had used "untergang" by which he meant 'decline', but it could also mean 'downfall' and that was the way people in the post-World War II era took it.

However Spengler's prophetic suggestion that his seventh phase of 'caesarism' might begin about 2000, along with 9/11 in 2001, motivate us to take another look at his theory and predictions in the light of recent world events.

World traumatic events tend to signal the transition from phase to phase in Spengler's model, such as the beginning of the French Revolution for phase 4 to 5, and possibly 9/11 for phase 6 to 7. But it is the beginning of his process, the transition from tribal society to phase 1, that had and has the greatest traumatic effect on the human psyche, albeit not immediately or catastrophically. In religion, tribal societies were generally not polytheistic; they believed in a 'Great Spirit' over all. But in early statehood large, pampered priesthoods consolidated political power in many ways; by having people believe in several gods they would be divided personally and psychically, and so be easier to manipulate and rule. So it was in the pagan agricultural societies of classical times; and in the later Middle Ages - earlier Faustian times - the Church, albeit preaching one God, consolidated all the hegemony that the ancient agricultural priesthoods had. Early statehood in its concepts of governance differed from tribal societies in many ways; accountability-driven politics was replaced by agenda-driven politics; consensus rule, at least at local levels, was replaced by autocratic rule that sometimes was made to look like majority rule. Deep-seated social changes happened as art the product of a community was replaced with art the product of an individual with his concern with copyright issues; and the bottom-up socio-political order was replaced with a top-down order.

Spengler was concerned with cultures and their political systems, not tribal societies, and tended to look down upon the latter. He saw the early phases of cultural change, which he called 'spiritual spring', as filled with a culture's vitality, vision, and sense of itself, which he called 'blood'. The later stages were all a decline from this golden age or spiritual spring. In the fifth stage or 'napoleonism', a new leader creates state structure outside earlier tradition and outside what is 'self-evident' from a tribal society point of view. The new structure is accidental and relies not on maintaining tradition but in selection of a successor. In the seventh stage or 'caesarism' decline has processed further; governance is the personal power exercised by a dictator; government is formless and although there may be traditional institutions, they are titular and have no real power. The sixth stage, which we have been in, might take about two centuries. Called 'contending states', it is characterized by power of money dominating over power of 'blood'; volunteer armies replace conscription armies; they are used not for deterrence but for waging war; and gradually smaller states are disposed of.

We have seen many of these things come to pass in the twentieth century. In America volunteer armies exist for the Iraq-Afghanistan war and for the Gulf War before it; Vietnam was the last war using conscription armies. Spengler predicted that this would be possible because of government propaganda through the media, financed by money; and so it is. Indeed, the media supported by money interests have become a government propaganda machine in the true Machiavellian-Orwellian sense of allowing government to "change the institutions" but having ordinary people not believe significant changes have been made. The free-speech and listener-supported media are trying to counter this but so far their impact has been quite limited.

Spengler maintains that in the seventh phase of culture there will be an 'imperium' and that force-politics will dominate over money. How close we are to this remains to be seen.

At TCM and SPT we maintain values of tribal society such as consensus politics, accountability-driven politics and relationships, and art the product of a community. We believe Spengler's 'spiritual spring' was in fact the afterglow of tribal society values on the newly-conquered tribes incorporated into statehood. In the succeeding phases of statehood, that glow, the vision of values that Spengler called 'blood', continued to fade, and so provided the decline he saw.

Living in a declining culture

By "untergang" Spengler meant decline, not catastrophic downfall. But meaning decline of cultural vision, hopes and dreams because of government oppression of various kinds. To tribal society, government was synonymous with accountability of the leader to everyone in the tribe, and so the first oppression was being subjugated to a top-down regime. Decline took place as governance became ever more oppressive and the visions ever more distant.

What with cyberspace, Twitter and free-speech media, people today are more able than ever to stand up and resist the continuing slide of Spengler's cycle of decline. The values of tribal society include many things that persons can practice on a daily basis. Accountability-driven relationships are a logical starting place. We can identify ways that agenda-driven politics tempt us to form agenda-driven relationships; we can stand up to that by making accountability-driven relationships.

To understand what that might look like, note that in agenda-driven relationships the other person is typically the OBJECT of the agenda. In accountability-driven relationships the other person is the SUBJECT - the other side of the relationship, to what you are accountable for.

As we approach what would be Anne Frank's 80th birthday had she lived, we can appreciate the way that in her family, the way they were accountable to one another, enabled her to maintain great vision even in the environment of the most extreme oppression of top-down governance.