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Today, it is a pleasure to present selections from “The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization” by the Reverend Dr. Albert Schweitzer (vegetarian). This work analyzes the importance of spiritual independence in the development of civilization and the benefits of ideas that unconditionally center on the progress of society as a whole. CHAPTER 2 HINDRANCES TO CIVILIZATION IN OUR ECONOMIC AND SPIRITUAL LIFE “The unfree economic position of the modern man. The undeveloped condition of the modern man. The modern man’s want of humanity. The lack of spiritual independence in the man of today. Even if the abdication of thought has been, as we have seen, the decisive factor in the collapse of our civilization, there are yet a number of other causes which combine with it to hinder our progress in this regard. They are to be found in the field of spiritual as well as in that of economic activity, and depend, above all, on the interaction between the two, an interaction which is unsatisfactory and continually becoming more so. The capacity of the modern man for progress in civilization is diminished because the circumstances in which he finds himself placed, injure him psychologically and stunt his personality. The development of civilization comes about – to put it quite generally – by individual men thinking out ideals which aim at the progress of the whole, and then so fitting them to the realities of life that they assume the shape in which they can influence most effectively the circumstances of the time. A man’s ability to be a pioneer of progress, that is, to understand what civilization is and to work for it, depends, therefore, on his being a thinker and on his being free. He must be the former if he is to be capable of comprehending his ideals and putting them into shape. He must be free in order to be in a position to launch his ideals out into the general life. The more completely his activities are taken up in any way by the struggle for existence, the more strongly will the impulse to improve his own condition find expression in the ideals of his thought. Ideals of self-interest then get mixed up with and spoil his ideals of civilization. Material and spiritual freedom are closely bound up with one another. Civilization presupposes free men, for only by free men can it be thought out and brought to realization. […]For two or three generations, numbers of individuals have been living as workers merely, not as human beings. Whatever can be said in a general way about the moral and spiritual significance of labor has no bearing on what they have to do. An excessive amount of labor is the rule today in every department of industry, with the result that the laborer’s spiritual element cannot possibly thrive. […]”
