The Failure of Western Civilization
The present Western mechanical civilization has reached the end of its development and has failed, definitively and visibly, to organize the life of contemporary human society. The clearest indication of this failure is that the post-World War II society has not enjoyed the stability experienced by the post-World War I society. During the aftermath of the First World War, Western civilization still had the resources and creativity to address the problems of that era. The victors of the First World War were also victors in peace, enabling them to organize global society in some manner - despite its flaws, it was sufficient to ensure disarmament to some extent and for some time, and to establish a form of stability. However, the victors of the Second World War, particularly Britain, found themselves defeated in the peace that followed. To be precise, one could argue that there were no true victors or vanquished in the Second World War. Instead, all parties found themselves in the same boat, engulfed in confusion and uncertainty. More than twenty years have passed since the end of the war, and humanity remains in a state of fear of war. It talks of peace but spends many times more on armaments than on reconstruction. And that is only because it knows no path to peace except one based on frightening the enemy with the consequences of risking the ignition of war.
The reason for the failure of the present mechanized Western civilization to organize contemporary society is that it has reached the end of its purely material development at this critical stage in the transformations of modern human society. It now lacks a new element to complement and fertilize its old element - thereby increasing its capacity for development and enhancing its ability to keep pace with, and guide, the vitality of modern society.
As Russia faces failure today in achieving socialism - let alone communism - and retreats to measures that resemble capitalism more than socialism, it offers the clearest evidence that Western civilization has reached the end of its purely material trajectory and now stands at a dead end. It will be compelled to return to a crossroads, where it must embark on a new path - one that the fervor of revolution had blinded it to half a century ago.
China will not have the long period of experimentation that Russia enjoyed, for time is running out. The stark contrast between the energy of modern society and the shortcoming of Western civilization becomes clearer each day. China has begun to sense this huge contradiction but has not found a constructive outlet for it. Instead, it has resorted to a frantic response labeled ironically as the "Cultural Revolution." This movement involves adolescents taking to the streets and public spaces to rebel against university professors and scholars, aiming, among other objectives, to deify Mao Tse-tung and elevate his writings to the sole source of culture and wisdom, beyond which no other opinion is valid.
It is unnecessary to discuss the capitalist West here, as the contradictions of Western civilization are better exemplified by communism in Russia and China than by the West itself. The capitalist West offers no new perspective on Western civilization; rather, it clings to its old system, making minor adjustments prompted by the extremism of the communist revolution. These adjustments represent an attempt to meet communism halfway in order to preserve its outdated system in the face of the sweeping revolutionary tide.
Thus, the failure of present-day Western mechanical civilization lies in its inability to complement its material and technological advancements with moral progress. It has failed to recalibrate its value systems to place machines in their proper role as servants of humanity rather than its masters. Material progress has not aligned or synchronized with spiritual progress.
In contemporary social thought, as previously noted, the loaf of bread receives more consideration than freedom. This phenomenon applies to socialist ideologies as much as it does to capitalism. In truth, communism differs from capitalism only in degree, not in kind. Both are fundamentally materialistic in essence, though communism is more efficient at achieving material abundance and equitable distribution. We should not be misled by the apparent hostility between communism and capitalism, for it is akin to the animosity between different sects within a single religion. Such hostility does not indicate different origins but rather a shared foundation on which these conflicting factions stand.
If we want to pinpoint the cause of the failure of modern mechanical Western civilization precisely, we must conclude that the fundamentals of this failure lie in its inability to answer two questions - questions that have remained unanswered throughout the past eras of human history, and answering them has become an unavoidable necessity. These two questions are:
What is the true relationship between the individual and society?
What is the true relationship between the individual and the universe?
