The dismal prediction sounded by Oswald Spengler in “The Decline of the West”, regarding the fall of civilization, is well on the road to realization, according to the opinion expressed by the German philosopher in his latest book, “Years of Decision”. Junius B. Wood, Berlin correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, in a recent dispatch, writes that Spengler bitterly assails the policies of the Reich government and the German masses for permitting themselves to be brutalized by these policies.
The new book which is described by the newspaperman as a “lighthouse in a drab sea of Nazi laudation”, is described as the literary sensation of the day in Germany.
“It is a small book with a depressing black cover,” writes Mr. Wood, “with its title in white letters, but talked about by everyone who can read and understand ###s level of thought. . . . That the censorship permits its sale alone would make it sought after.”
The writer continues:
“It might be expected that Spengler as an exponent of Caesarism and dictatorships would be whole-heartedly for Nazi-ism, which typifies his own ideals in Germany. He praised the Nazi revolution when it came, but now after eight months of power he soberly analyzes it as more of a promise than an accomplishment.”
Spengler, according to Wood, “still prophesies a world ruled by Caesars but fails to accept Adolf Hitler or any of the lesser lights of today’s Nazi-ism as Germany’s Caesar. One sees disillusionment in his fear that the present lords of the Third Reich may have passed on and been forgotten before the Caesars came to Germany.”
“There were no opponents,” Wood quotes Spengler as saying, “with cooling afterthoughts for his enthusiasm over the revolution.” The philosopher characterizes what has materialized since the revolution as “a mere promise of coming victories.”
The masses of people in Germany are described by Dr. Spengler as “clodhoppers of the field, square heads in white collars, plodding toilers in the mills class with the dumb ox.”
The volume “ridicules pacifism”, in this way concurring with a plank of the Nazi party, Mr. Wood writes. Spengler describes socialism as aristocracy of the masses, “capitalism of the lower classes.” The German author believes that women “are for breeding and men for cannon fodder”, and takes issue with Hitler’s views that labor is necessary.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
