Oswald Spengler. The Decline of the West. An abridged edition by
Helmut Werner. English abridged edition prepared by Arthur Helps
from the translation by Charles Francis Atkinson. New York:
oxford University Press c199 [1926, 1928, 1932]. xxxx,415, xvix
ORIGIN AND LANDSCAPE: THE GROUP OF THE HIGHER CULTURES [230-
244]
In the history, the genuine history, of higher men, The stake
fought for and the basis of the animal struggle to prevail is
ever--even when the driver and driven are completely unconscious
of the symbolic force of their doings, purposes and fortunes--the
actualization of something that is essentially spiritual, the
translation of an idea into a living historical form. This
applies equally to the struggle of big style-tendencies in art,
of philosophy, of political ideals and of economic forms. But
the post-history is void of all this. All that remains is the
struggle for mere power, for animal advantage per se.
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