This is a very interesting essay, that I think is well worth peoples read, and at only 26 pages do not take long, but is packed with information. If you had any interest in the idea of cyclical history, or the suspicion of intellectualism, this is a very good intro and summary of the topic. Even if you don't agree with the arguments, this is a fairly strong and concise putting forward of what those arguments are.
Some samples from the work
Life Of Empires
XX The inadequacy of intellect
Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world. Even on the low level of practical affairs this is patently untrue. Any small human activity, the local bowls club or the ladies’ luncheon club, requires for its survival a measure of selfsacrifice and service on the part of the members. In a wider national sphere, the survival of the nation depends basically on the loyalty and self-sacrifice of the citizens. The impression that the situation can be saved by mental cleverness, without unselfishness or human self-dedication, can only lead to collapse.
Thus we see that the cultivation of the human intellect seems to be a magnificent ideal, but only on condition that it does not weaken unselfishness and human dedication to service. Yet this, judging by historical precedent, seems to be exactly what it does do. Perhaps it is not the intellectualism which destroys the spirit of self-sacrifice—the least we can say is that the two, intellectualism and the loss of a sense of duty, appear simultaneously in the life-story of the nation. Indeed it often appears in individuals, that the head and the heart are natural rivals. The brilliant but cynical intellectual appears at the opposite end of the spectrum from the emotional self-sacrifice of the hero or the martyr. Yet there are times when the perhaps unsophisticated self-dedication of the hero is more essential than the sarcasms of the clever.
Some samples from the work
Life Of Empires
The nation | Dates of rise and fall | Duration in years |
Assyria | 859-612 B.C. | 247 |
Persia | 538-330 B.C. | 208 |
Greece | 331-100 B.C. | 231 |
Roman Republic | 260-27 B.C. | 233 |
Roman Empire | 27 B.C.-A.D. 180 | 207 |
Arab Empire | A.D. 634-880 | 246 |
Mameluke Empire | 1250-1517 | 267 |
Ottoman Empire | 1320-1570 | 250 |
Spain | 1500-1750 | 250 |
Romanov Russia | 1682-1916 | 234 |
Britain | 1700-1950 | 250 |
XX The inadequacy of intellect
Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world. Even on the low level of practical affairs this is patently untrue. Any small human activity, the local bowls club or the ladies’ luncheon club, requires for its survival a measure of selfsacrifice and service on the part of the members. In a wider national sphere, the survival of the nation depends basically on the loyalty and self-sacrifice of the citizens. The impression that the situation can be saved by mental cleverness, without unselfishness or human self-dedication, can only lead to collapse.
Thus we see that the cultivation of the human intellect seems to be a magnificent ideal, but only on condition that it does not weaken unselfishness and human dedication to service. Yet this, judging by historical precedent, seems to be exactly what it does do. Perhaps it is not the intellectualism which destroys the spirit of self-sacrifice—the least we can say is that the two, intellectualism and the loss of a sense of duty, appear simultaneously in the life-story of the nation. Indeed it often appears in individuals, that the head and the heart are natural rivals. The brilliant but cynical intellectual appears at the opposite end of the spectrum from the emotional self-sacrifice of the hero or the martyr. Yet there are times when the perhaps unsophisticated self-dedication of the hero is more essential than the sarcasms of the clever.