Oswald Spengler Would Understand My Affection For This Video

Spengler thought civilizations, and little bits of civilizations, had a trajectory. They’re not a ferris wheel. They’re a moonshot. They are born, mature, and wither. The withery generation blames kids these days for what’s going on, but it was always inevitable. Kids only live in the world we make for them.

These people are making music live in front of other people. Those sounds are coming out of Al Green’s mouth. The drummer doesn’t follow a metronome. No one even had an electronic tuner back then. Someone had an A440 tuning fork, struck it, listened to it, tuned their instrument to the tone, and then everyone else painstakingly tuned up to them. They’re all listening to each other and producing the sounds together. This is an artifact of the high summer of pop music made in this manner.

Spengler’s almost completely misunderstood, even by his devotees, and I’m sure I’ll be misunderstood, too, like I always am. He mostly said that the action in important affairs didn’t die, exactly; it moved to other arenas. Music might matter a lot for a while, but then it would go overripe, and everyone important would go and ruin architecture or something else next. I must admit that I haven’t got nearly as much idea where the action is right now, and in many arenas I just don’t give a fig, but I can assure you I have an intimate knowledge of nearly everyplace it isn’t happening.

Nostalgia for bad things makes you a Philistine and a reactionary. Affection for things that used to be better isn’t nostalgia; its the only refuge of a sensible person.