16th Contribution from _Die Schere_ by Bertil Haggman

[Bertil Haggman <bertil.haggman@helsingborg.se>]

202 (pp. 140-141)

"Es stellt sich die Frage: ob es ausserhalb des
Abendlandes Regionen gibt, in denen die Technik
nicht nur als Bewegung akzeptiert wurde, sondern
mit jenem Impuls, der mit der Gotik erwachte und
der den faustischen Geist kennzeichnet. Steht hier
mehr zu erwarten als Imitationen und Varianten von
Trittbrettfahrern - auch originale, dem Ursprung
gewachsene Kraft?

Oswald Spengler hat diese Frage verneint - besonders
lebhaft in einer Fussnote seines Hauptwerks, die dem
'Schicksal der Maschine' gewidmet ist. Er ruehmt sie als
'die stolzeste Erfindung des Buergertums', und zwar
'des Buergertums einer einzigen Kultur', wie folgt:"

Commentary

In # 203 follows the quote from O.S.

What is interesting in # 202 is the question of technology
in other regions, of originality. One can probably with some certainty
claim that the offspring of the Faustian culture, the
United States, provides the major part of technological
advance in the 1990s.

Spengler believed that by calling forth the spectacular
technical advancement Faustian man lost his bearings in
his culture. The proud technical inventions tire him
and he wants to return to a pastoral life. Non-Europeans fail
according to Spengler to appreciate the Western breakthroughs.
They are eager to appropriate the Euro/American "secret",
but just because they value Faustian technology in their
struggle against this most inventive civilizations of all.
But Spengler's prognosis (to use a favourite term of EJ)
is that there is no future for Western technology. It will
end with Faustian man - forgotten and destroyed.

The question is if this gloomy prognosis has a reality in
todays world when everything seems (or at least seemed until
1998) to be 'a long boom'. What about the Asian crisis? Is
this the first signal of decay? Japan started out as
'Trittbrettfahrer', excelled in Faustian technology and
now seems bound for decline. EJ certainly asked the right
questions already in 1990.

Greetings

Bertil Haggman