¶2 The very title of the present volume calls for some explanations that we must provide first of all, so that it may be clearly understood how we mean it and that there may be no ambiguity in this regard.1 That one can speak of a ‘crisis of the modern world’, taking the word ‘crisis’ in its most ordinary sense, is something that many no longer doubt, and, in this respect at least, a fairly noticeable change has occurred: under the very action of events, certain illusions are beginning to dissipate, and for our part we can only rejoice at this, for there is here, in spite of everything, a rather favourable symptom, an indication of a possibility of rectification of contemporary mentality, something that appears as a faint glimmer in the midst of the present chaos.2 Thus, the belief in an indefinite ‘progress’, which was still recently held as a sort of intangible and indisputable dogma, is no longer so generally accepted;3 some perceive more or less vaguely, more or less confusedly, that Western civilisation, instead of continuing always to develop in the same direction, might well one day reach a stopping point, or even sink entirely into some cataclysm.4 Perhaps these people do not see clearly where the danger lies, and the chimerical or puerile fears they sometimes manifest sufficiently prove the persistence of many errors in their minds; but after all, it is already something that they realise that there is a danger, even if they feel it more than they truly understand it, and that they manage to conceive that this civilisation of which the moderns are so infatuated does not occupy a privileged place in the history of the world, that it may share the same fate as so many others that have already disappeared at more or less remote epochs, and some of which have left behind them only infinitesimal traces, scarcely perceptible or difficult to recognise.5
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progresskali-yuga

Summary

The title requires explanation to avoid ambiguity. Guénon observes that many now accept the idea of a crisis in the modern world, marking a favourable change. Illusions are dissipating under the pressure of events, offering a faint glimmer of possible rectification. Belief in indefinite progress is no longer universal. Some vaguely perceive that Western civilisation might reach a stopping point or collapse. Although they do not clearly see the danger and still harbour errors, it is already progress that they recognise the existence of a danger and that their civilisation holds no privileged place in history.

General notes

  1. crise du monde moderne — Rendered as 'crisis of the modern world'. Guénon uses the word 'crisis' not in the sense of a mere passing difficulty or a historical accident, but in the etymological sense of 'judgment' or 'decision' (from the Greek krisis). The crisis of the modern world designates for him a moment of discernment when Western civilisation, having reached an extreme point of its materialist development, finds itself faced with a radical alternative: either a recovery (a return to traditional principles, at least partial), or a complete dissolution. This diagnosis is part of the cyclical doctrine of the ages: the Kali-Yuga is the Dark Age, but it is also that in which the accumulation of darkness can, paradoxically, make the contrast with light more visible, and in which a minority can still awaken. ↩︎
  2. faible lueur au milieu du chaos actuel — Rendered as 'faint glimmer in the midst of the present chaos'. Guénon here clearly distinguishes his position from that of a pessimist or a catastrophist. He does not rejoice in evil, but in the fact that the worsening of conditions makes the inadequacy of modern conceptions more manifest. The idea that Western civilisation is neither eternal nor privileged is beginning to penetrate a few minds. This is not yet a traditional understanding, but it is a breach in the wall of materialism and progressivism, and therefore a possibility, for those who seek, to encounter an authentic teaching. ↩︎
  3. croyance à un « progrès » indéfini — Rendered as 'belief in an indefinite 'progress''. Guénon places 'progress' in quotation marks to mark his critical distance. This is not about technical or scientific progress as such (which is an observable fact), but about the ideology according to which humanity necessarily and linearly moves towards ever greater perfection in all domains — an ideology which is, for Guénon, one of the characteristic superstitions of the modern world and an inversion of the traditional cyclical conception. In traditional doctrines (Hindu, Greco-Roman, etc.), the Golden Age is at the beginning, not at the end of history. ↩︎
  4. point d'arrêt … cataclysme — Rendered as 'stopping point … cataclysm'. Guénon does not predict the end of the world in the physical sense, but the possible end of Western civilisation as a historical entity. According to cyclical doctrine, every civilisation is born, grows, declines and dies, replaced by another. The idea of an absolute 'end of the world' does not belong to Guénonian tradition; what can end is a cyclical period, a phase of obscuration, before a new age (or a new humanity) begins. The 'cataclysm' evoked here is as much spiritual and intellectual as physical. ↩︎
  5. traces infimes, vestiges à peine perceptibles — Rendered as 'infinitesimal traces, scarcely perceptible vestiges'. Guénon alludes here to civilisations anterior to the 6th century BCE, whose material traces are rare or non-existent (wooden constructions, etc.). He inverts the modern archaeological argument: the absence of trace is not a proof of non-existence, but the consequence of different historical and cyclical conditions. A civilisation that left no stone monuments is not for that an inferior civilisation; it may even be spiritually higher, because its attention was not focused on material posterity. This argument is also a critique of the modern conception of history, which confuses what is historically documented (therefore recent and exceptional) with what existed. ↩︎