The Degeneration of Modern Man: Quotes from Saint-Exupéry Written in 1943 that Perfectly Describe the Present

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All quotes are taken from Saint-Exupéry's Wartime Writings. What I found interesting (though not entirely surprising) was that a description of humanity nearly a century old holds just as true today.

Where is the United States heading...in this age of universal bureaucracy? Robot-man alternating between work on the conveyor belt and gin rummy--stripped of all creative power, incapable of creating, from the depths of the village, a new dance or a new song, spoon-fed with a ready-made, standardized culture as one feeds hay to cattle. That is what man is today.
Nowadays, men are kept quite by gin rummy or bridge, according to their social position. We are astonishingly emasculated. And so, we are finally free. Our arms and legs having been cut off, we're left free to walk. I hate this age, where, under a universal totalitarianism, people become as docile as cattle--polite and quiet. And that's supposed to represent moral progress!
Nothing remains but the robot-voice of the propaganda machine (forgive me). Two billion human beings hear only the robot, understand only the robot--become robots.
Two comrades have gone to sleep next to me in my room...Looking at them sleeping, I feel a sort of impotent pity; because although they are unaware of their unease, I feel it.

If all this has been true for nearly a century, when do you foresee things ever changing? And how? Or perhaps was mankind was always like this from the start?
 

Hugh Johnson

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I remember this book about permaculture. He was talking about these natives of Amazon, who would paddle the Amazon River, fish and travel. These people would read the river and note the still spots and countercurrents.

Even though the Amazon moves quite rapidly, it also creates currents that can take you upriver, with no effort at all.

Ray Peat Forum is one of those currents. There are many others, New Age communities, friendship circles that question the way things are, permaculture farms...

It may take some finesse to see, but not everyone is moving the same direction.
 

blob69

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All quotes are taken from Saint-Exupéry's Wartime Writings. What I found interesting (though not entirely surprising) was that a description of humanity nearly a century old holds just as true today.






If all this has been true for nearly a century, when do you foresee things ever changing? And how? Or perhaps was mankind was always like this from the start?
For answers to your questions, I would recommend reading René Guénon (i.e. Reign of Quantity) or Alain Daniélou (While the Gods Play). They explain very well the observations of de Saint-Exupéry, or rather, the ancient wisdom does. The short answer is no, mankind wasn't always like this, the current condition is an anomaly and extreme, but it has its place in the cycle and was destined and even predicted a long time ago. They all write about a calamity that will end the current cycle, but how and when exactly will it happen is not clear. What is clear is that the current situation cannot be maintained for much longer.
 

blob69

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I remember this book about permaculture. He was talking about these natives of Amazon, who would paddle the Amazon River, fish and travel. These people would read the river and note the still spots and countercurrents.

Even though the Amazon moves quite rapidly, it also creates currents that can take you upriver, with no effort at all.

Ray Peat Forum is one of those currents. There are many others, New Age communities, friendship circles that question the way things are, permaculture farms...

It may take some finesse to see, but not everyone is moving the same direction.
Beautifully said, thank you! I'm sure these currents can mitigate some of the severity of the situation we find ourselves in.
 
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sibyloftherhine
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For answers to your questions, I would recommend reading René Guénon (i.e. Reign of Quantity) or Alain Daniélou (While the Gods Play). They explain very well the observations of de Saint-Exupéry, or rather, the ancient wisdom does. The short answer is no, mankind wasn't always like this, the current condition is an anomaly and extreme, but it has its place in the cycle and was destined and even predicted a long time ago. They all write about a calamity that will end the current cycle, but how and when exactly will it happen is not clear. What is clear is that the current situation cannot be maintained for much longer.
Thanks for the reading suggestions! Will definitely check them out
 

Daniil

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It's good if nothing has changed, because I get the impression that humanity has degraded a lot over the past hundred years.
 
K

Kayaker

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It's good if nothing has changed, because I get the impression that humanity has degraded a lot over the past hundred years.
You must be very old. I get the impression that the internet has degraded a lot over the past two decades.
 
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sibyloftherhine
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You must be very old. I get the impression that the internet has degraded a lot over the past two decades.
Things have definitely been getting a lot worse recently, but I think things have been consistently bad at least since the 20th century. Current technology, which allows propaganda to travel at an insane rate, has just allowed things to degenerate even faster.
 
K

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Ahahha, no, I think I'm younger than you. How old are you? I'm 22. I have the same impression)
Older than you. ;) I first accessed the internet 16 or 17 years ago. I heard people were more cultured online back then, and my own experience validates that, though it could just be nostalgia bias. The internet was definitely cooler back then, like the Wild West.

Things have definitely been getting a lot worse recently, but I think things have been consistently bad at least since the 20th century. Current technology, which allows propaganda to travel at an insane rate, has just allowed things to degenerate even faster.
Apparently things were getting worse since 1971, and another major hit was 9/11. I was just a kid back then and didn't understand why everyone was panicking.
 
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sibyloftherhine
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Older than you. ;) I first accessed the internet 16 or 17 years ago. I heard people were more cultured online back then, and my own experience validates that, though it could just be nostalgia bias. The internet was definitely cooler back then, like the Wild West.


Apparently things were getting worse since 1971, and another major hit was 9/11. I was just a kid back then and didn't understand why everyone was panicking.
Why 1971? Is that related to the death of the gold standard? If so, I definitely agree--though I think a necessary precursor to that was the USA's acceleration in power over the previous years.
 

Daniil

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It's easier for me to talk about Russia, but based on what I've seen and heard, Russia has significantly degraded since the collapse of the USSR. But the end of the 80s was definitely not the heyday, so it's been 50 years for sure... Of degradation.
 
K

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Why 1971? Is that related to the death of the gold standard? If so, I definitely agree--though I think a necessary precursor to that was the USA's acceleration in power over the previous years.
Not sure. I wasn't alive back then, so going by rumor.

It's easier for me to talk about Russia, but based on what I've seen and heard, Russia has significantly degraded since the collapse of the USSR. But the end of the 80s was definitely not the heyday, so it's been 50 years for sure... Of degradation.
So then this is true?

 

Daniil

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Not sure. I wasn't alive back then, so going by rumor.


So then this is true?

Hmmm, I don't think it's worth mixing the concepts of the level of development of the nation and the quality of life in the state. When I think about the first, I think more about such things as demography, economics, etc. Obliviously that the Soviet economy was much more self-sufficient, and the army was more powerful. The weight of Soviet science was greater than that of Russian science (even if you fold up all the CIS countries now). As for this farrowing, 92% is too much. But I think that's more than half for those who were born before 1980 (although it should be understood that many of them are old and will be nostalgic for the times when they were young). My grandfather would definitely want to come back. My mother, I think, too. My father definitely wouldn't want.
 

FoodForeal

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For answers to your questions, I would recommend reading René Guénon (i.e. Reign of Quantity) or Alain Daniélou (While the Gods Play). They explain very well the observations of de Saint-Exupéry, or rather, the ancient wisdom does. The short answer is no, mankind wasn't always like this, the current condition is an anomaly and extreme, but it has its place in the cycle and was destined and even predicted a long time ago. They all write about a calamity that will end the current cycle, but how and when exactly will it happen is not clear. What is clear is that the current situation cannot be maintained for much longer.
Why do you think the current situation can't be maintained for much longer? Is it because our property and freedom to enjoy it or use it to generate value is being slowly steadily subverted? There are people, the majority of people in fact, who do not care if they own anything or have freedom to use their property for what they want to use it for. Most people will be happy even if they own nothing. As long as they are fed, watered, housed, entertained, and possibly drugged they are happy. The only reason for owning things is because they have value to you and other people who may envy that thing and take it which then requires the social convention of ownership to know whether something has been stolen or not.

Very few people use their property to generate enough value to support even themselves let alone to sell to other people. Ownership is only required if there is scarcity of things that have value or can be used to produce value. If nobody has any reason to value things that have value in and of themselves or things that can be used to produce value because they have everything that they could want provided to them by corporations and government with stimulus checks and eventually CBDC UBI social credits, then there is no reason to own things. Why own things when you are fed, watered, housed, entertained, and possibly drugged? Owning things is outdated. Get with the times.

america self reliant sufficient not dependent.jpg

These useless eaters can be used to drown the self sufficient people because they will accept any conditions and laws as long as they have their bread and circus no matter whether those conditions and laws make living self sufficiently impossible. They will service the machine with a 9-5 job 40 hours a week until they get stuffed into a nursing home after blowing their paper stock investments that have no actual material value, only value that is decreed by federal reserve quantitative easing (buying stocks to make sure the prices don't drop) to make sure that they feel they have been paid fairly for wasting their life without gaining any real wealth. They lived in their apartment until they took a mortgage for their suburban house that would take most of their life to pay off while never increasing their ability to live independent of society. On top of it all, they neuter their children by sending them to public school where any already small desire to live free is stripped out of them. Most people do not want freedom, power, or wealth. Most people are cattle.

most people are cheeseburgers cattle.png
 

Herbie

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All my grandparents were born on grand farms on rich soil but they all abandoned the farms for modern life and lost all wealth and now my parents are empty nesters, divorced living in two separate houses and I live in a car, soon probably in a tent.
 

VitoScaletta

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It's easier for me to talk about Russia, but based on what I've seen and heard, Russia has significantly degraded since the collapse of the USSR. But the end of the 80s was definitely not the heyday, so it's been 50 years for sure... Of degradation.
Any improvements, in your eyes? Is Russia going to make it?
 
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