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This is addressed early on in the article. Maybe one of the problems with lack of genius is that we don't actually read anymore. Ponder that! Spengler bega

This is addressed early on in the article. Maybe one of the problems with lack of genius is that we don't actually read anymore. Ponder that! Spengler began writing Decline of the West in 1914. Tolstoy was only four years dead when Spengler started his book; Marx was only 30 years deceased. But Spengler could state, with the full expectation that his audience would not question him, that these men belonged in global pantheon of humanity’s greatest figures.

gmadsen 5y ago
not only "geniuses", I'm sure the widespread reduction in reading in the general population has had significant affects across all aspects of society
- adgjlsfhk1 5y ago
  do you have evidence for your claim? everything I can find suggests that literacy is about as high as ever, as are book sales.
  - waserwill 5y ago
    I'm not sure what sort of data could support this, but I'll just say this: there is a difference between reading quantity and quality. I'm merely echoing greater critics, but the quantity of books sold says little about their quality (markets see books as commodities and try to make make profit rather than spreading good literature, and this is understandable). Plus, judging by the number of unread books on my shelf, buying a book doesn't mean reading it. There is an aesthetic appeal to books, and though I want to read all I own, there will inevitably be books printed and sold but unread. There are high literacy rates, but this says little about whether material has been grasped and digested. References to classics (e.g. in the English tradition, Milton, Shakespeare, Dickens) or even religious texts (e.g. Exodus) are rarely recognized, in my experience. Given how freely great orators of the recent past drew from these (e.g. the speeches of MLK Jr.), this is surprising.
    - gmadsen 5y ago
      purely anecdotally to my own experience, but I firmly believe that not only social media, but the screen size of phones themselves incentivize fast context switching shallow low quality reading, which has detrimental effects on cognition. Sure everyone has the worlds knowledge in their pocket, but all incentives are to only consume the lowest quality of knowledge If I don't make it a daily habit, it becomes difficult to read a novel, I am unable to maintain the attention required, which phone scrolling im sure has exacerbated.
kixiQu 5y ago
I don't believe it's addressed well. Many from different intellectual lineages were then hailed whom we'd not recognize today. Many of the pseudo-quantitative takes pointed to are pretty ... flimsy. ("I couldn't find a list with both Kanye and Beethoven on it, so I made up my own!")

gmadsen 5y ago

not only "geniuses", I'm sure the widespread reduction in reading in the general population has had significant affects across all aspects of society

adgjlsfhk1 5y ago
do you have evidence for your claim? everything I can find suggests that literacy is about as high as ever, as are book sales.
- waserwill 5y ago
  I'm not sure what sort of data could support this, but I'll just say this: there is a difference between reading quantity and quality. I'm merely echoing greater critics, but the quantity of books sold says little about their quality (markets see books as commodities and try to make make profit rather than spreading good literature, and this is understandable). Plus, judging by the number of unread books on my shelf, buying a book doesn't mean reading it. There is an aesthetic appeal to books, and though I want to read all I own, there will inevitably be books printed and sold but unread. There are high literacy rates, but this says little about whether material has been grasped and digested. References to classics (e.g. in the English tradition, Milton, Shakespeare, Dickens) or even religious texts (e.g. Exodus) are rarely recognized, in my experience. Given how freely great orators of the recent past drew from these (e.g. the speeches of MLK Jr.), this is surprising.
  - gmadsen 5y ago
    purely anecdotally to my own experience, but I firmly believe that not only social media, but the screen size of phones themselves incentivize fast context switching shallow low quality reading, which has detrimental effects on cognition. Sure everyone has the worlds knowledge in their pocket, but all incentives are to only consume the lowest quality of knowledge If I don't make it a daily habit, it becomes difficult to read a novel, I am unable to maintain the attention required, which phone scrolling im sure has exacerbated.

kixiQu 5y ago

I don't believe it's addressed well. Many from different intellectual lineages were then hailed whom we'd not recognize today. Many of the pseudo-quantitative takes pointed to are pretty ... flimsy. ("I couldn't find a list with both Kanye and Beethoven on it, so I made up my own!")