Ernst Jünger, DIE SCHERE #53. Text Die außerordentlichen Veränderungen, die uns das 20. Jahrhundert eingetragen hat, gründen sich auf die geistige und mechanische Vorarbeit von Professoren und Technikern des vorangegangen Jahrhunderts --- Professoren wie Röntgen, Technikern wie Lilienthal [1]. In seinen letzten Jahrzehnten, von 1880 an, haben sich weithintragende Leistungen akkumuliert. Das deutet auf einen wachsenden Expansionsdruck hin, auf Gewitter sogar. Für das 21. Jahrhundert, das schon Nietzsche als seine geistige Heimat betrachtete, künden sich neue Überraschungen an. In Nietzsches Sicht war die Moral seit der Renaissance hinter der Entwicklung zurückgeblieben, eine Umwertung war notwendig. Heut scheint es eher, daß die Entwicklung gebremst werden müßte --- nur fragt sich, ob das, während die Räder zu glühen beginnen [2], noch möglich ist. Immerhin werden der Forschung eine Reihe von Tabus auferlegt --- jetzt nicht nur von der inzwischen zahm gewordenen Kirche, sondern auch vom Allgemeinbewußtsein und der Justiz. Eine der Konsequenzen ist die Abzweigung eines neuen Alchimistentums. Wer weiß, was heute in Kellern und auf Böden, in Urwäldern oder auch unter dem Mantel offizieller Laboratorien gebraut und gebastelt wird? Vermutlich sind sie dort schon weiter, als man zu ahnen wagt. Ernst Jünger, DIE SCHERE # 53: Rough translation The extraordinary changes the 20th century has thrust upon us are based on the intellectual and mechanical groundwork by professors and engineers of the preceding century --- professors like Röntgen, engineers like Lilienthal [1]. In its last decades, from 1880 onwards, far-reaching achievements accumulated. This indicates a mounting pressure of expansion, even thunderstorms. For the 21st century, which already Nietzsche regarded as his spiritual home, new surprises are in the offing. >From Nietzsche's point of view morality had fallen behind the development ever since the Renaissance, a revaluation was necessary. Today it rather seems that the development has to be slowed down --- but it is the question whether this is still possible while the wheels begin to glow [2]. To be sure, a number of taboos is imposed on research --- not not only by the Church, having become tame in the meantime, but also by the general opinion and by the law. One of the consequences is the branching-off of a new alchemy. Who knows what is being brewed and tinkered today in basements and attics, in rain forstes or even under the cover of official labs. Supposedly, there they have advanced farther than we dare to surmise. DIE SCHERE #53: Notes [1] Otto Lilienthal, b. May 23, 1848, Anklam, Prussia [now in Germany] d. Aug. 10, 1896, Berlin German aeronautical pioneer on whose work such later engineers as Octave Chanute and the Wright brothers drew heavily. After graduation from the trade school at Potsdam and the Berlin Trade Academy, Lilienthal experimented with flying models with flapping wings and wing gliders. His book Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst (1889; "The Flight of Birds as the Basis of the Art of Flying") and his essays on flying machines (1894) were recognized as basic works in aeronautics. From an artificial hill near Lichterfelde, he made more than 2,000 flights in monoplane and biplane gliders he designed. He died after his craft crashed in flight at Stölln near Rhinow, Ger. [Copyright © 1994-2000 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.] [2] This is an allusion to an image found elsewhere in EJ's writings in more graphic detail. Modern humanity, once embarked on the train of scientific and technological progress, finds itself racing towards the abyss of a final catastrophe. Even for those few who have not only realized the danger but are willing to start a new life style it would be suicide to try to get off the speeding train whose wheels are getting red hot.
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