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Article: The Idea of Decline in Western History.
- Article from:
- The National Interest
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 The National Interest, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Is the west doomed to go the way of all other civilizations - into history's bin? This question has preoccupied intellectuals, often in the form of a meditation on the fall of Rome, ever since the eighteenth century. More recently, it has become an instrument for claiming political power; those who understand the causes of decline must be given the power to avert it. Such understanding becomes a revelation, a kind of gnosis, marking off an elect from those sunk in quotidian triviality. Fascist doctrines obviously follow this model; more egalitarian forms of salvation merely cover their tracks by pretending that the elect act for the masses. But it takes a vanguard of ...