Today, many world events are recapitulating the events of the 20th century, by virtue of the same originating cause — the continuation of materialism beyond the 19th century.
In "Spiritual materialism", zeitgeist of the 20th century, I present the case that the aspiration towards universality was the natural product of the expiry of the materialistic age, but appeared in the form of totalitarianism because materialism itself was not abandoned.
So while the end of totalitarianism may have seemed like the defeat of evil, materialism would continue to define the following decades, particularly with regard to the relationship between the East and the West.
The greatest and most real problems of the present, and of the immediate future, concern the relationship of the East and West. [1]
After WWII and the fall of the Soviet bloc in the Cold War, the United States and its allies emerged victorious as the new world superpowers.
Totalitarianism in the form of autocracy and “the state as God”, was superseded by "American world leadership.” The century also saw the covert rule of financiers replace that of ideologues.
From one angle, the forces of materialism simply regrouped and continued onwards into the century in a different form. But, there is also an esoteric undercurrent expressing itself in the desire for the West to spread its influence over the whole world, that justifies its leadership on the world stage.
The intellectuality of the West could not only offer economic and political benefits to the world, but also a renewal of the ancient spirituality in the East.
Asia possesses the heritage of an ancient spiritual life, which for her is above all else. This spiritual life will burst into mighty flame if, from the West, conditions are created such as cannot satisfy it.
The West wishes for peace and quiet to achieve her economic ends and these the East will never understand unless the West has something Spiritual to impart.
In the West there is the potentiality of a living, spiritual development. From the treasures she has collected by her natural-scientific and technical mode of thought, the West has power to draw forth a spiritual conception of the world, though what she has drawn forth in the past has led her only to a mechanistic and materialistic conception. [1]
The intellect, which arises from the head-organization, is a reflection of the whole Cosmos, thus, the intellectuality of the West is suited towards the cosmopolitan mission of the age.
Our head points more to our extra-earthly origin…something formed by the macrocosm. [2]
What lives in man's thought life is cosmic in its origin. Starting from the thought-life, the nerves and senses organisation in which he naturally lives, the Western man must find a conscious relation to the spiritual universe. [1]
The task of the theosophical movement and its offshoots, notably the anthroposophical movement, in the early 20th century, was to introduce to the West an intellectual framework for understanding the spiritual worlds.
But their scope remained limited; they did not become influential in broader society or politics as was required for humanity not to be led to eventual ruin.
Ultimately, though the West has a natural and rightful place as a world leader, its failure to unify intellectuality with spirituality, in other words, unify science with religion,
would result in humanity not meeting its evolutionary goals.
As of yet, that task remains unfulfilled.
On the redemption of spiritual values in the West it will depend, whether mankind will overcome the chaos of today or wander in it helplessly. [1]
What happened in its place was a rise in America’s technological dominance in the world over the decades, yet another materialistic experiment that would meet the same fate as all the others preceding it.
America's military strength has only been possible with its advanced defense industry, which is a type of exploit of its intellectual capacity.
This has allowed the US to achieve “absolute security” while enforcing economic and political stability in the world through submission to Western, specifically US, interests “Pax Americana.” In other words, unity through submission.
This is essentially a Luciferic-Ahrimanic worldview, borne out of a failure to accept spiritual science.
Abstract political theories, however nice they may sound, have no basis in reality and cannot promote real understanding of human activity, therefore those who adopt them must ultimately resort to dominance and force to achieve their ends.
Operation Desert Storm, 1991
This has been done in tandem with the export of purely materialistic, consumerist values globally, constituting the “universal ideology” by which humanity could be bonded.
We, in the West, are carrying our industrial civilisation farther and farther, more and more intensely, to the East. We are accustoming the Eastern peoples to deal with us in the forms in which we are familiar both as regards political and economic intercourse. [1]
Consumerist values have been taken in error as the basis for common understanding between Eastern and Western humanity, when this basis can only be found through spiritual exchange.
When the peoples in the East hear that the West has fresh knowledge on those very subjects of which their ancient traditions tell, and for the renewal of which they themselves are darkly striving, then will the way be open for mutual understanding and co-operation.
The individual man—be he a member of East, Middle, or West—who has, through Spiritual Science, begun to learn and to understand the nations, has an impulse of love and harmony implanted in him—an impulse far more powerful, more lasting, and effective than was ever possible by the mere recognition of an abstract ideal of internationalism.
It is here that the necessary union of all three sections of mankind must set in, essentially a spiritual union, not founded, like racial kinship, on ties of blood, but founded on a common spiritual understanding. [1]
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The failure of the West to adopt spiritual science has had disastrous effects on account of its intellectuality continuing on a descending curve of evolution, rather than an ascending.
This devolution has been seen in the explosion of artificial intelligence in society; every innovation made in AI signifies a spiritual debt.
In November 2025, the White House announced its AI-led initiative, the Genesis Mission, an omen of events that would shortly follow.
Today, America is in a race for global technology dominance in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), an important frontier of scientific discovery and economic growth. [3]
This was the final admission that “the next frontier” in America's future would be pursued on the basis of a failure to raise intelligence higher than materialism, which describes the very conditions that have been unacceptable to the East for decades because it dooms them to materialism as well.
The declining trajectory of Western thought and morality has always run parallel to the East’s challenge of the Western power.
Western scientific civilisation, with its commerce and industrialism, must expand. Its inner impulse is to expand over the earth; moreover, it has apparently the outward power so to do. But the East is not meeting this expansion passively.
On the contrary, there is every sign that the East is awakening to take a very active part in determining the forms and conditions under which this expansion shall take place.
If, however, we persist in regarding the infusion of [spiritual] knowledge into public activity as a fantastic dream of the unpractical, then in the end the East will wage war upon the West, however much they may converse about the beauties of disarmament. [1]
It was to be expected that at this particular juncture, when materialism has completely taken over the West, this activity would accelerate and a break with the past would follow.
Previously, a correlation was seen in the rise of the technocrat class and the establishment of
non-Western alliances.
However, the apex of centralized power has already been seen in America's post-war unipolar moment. Nothing similar would take its place, because the time for consolidating global power has run its course.
What follows after, reverses previous trends completely. The American empire was the last experiment of its kind.
In a recent speech, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney declared the end of the rules-based order. Yet, U.S. unilateralism began accelerating in the 1980s, and much of the West complied so long as it remained beneficial. Today, that alignment no longer holds. [4]
The outset of this war has simultaneously exposed the
inconsistencies in America's military strength that preclude it from further sustaining a global empire, and hastened its reversion back to
mercantilism and
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As the US-led rules based order comes to a close, it has been challenged by other international agreements, such as China's
Belt and Road Initiative, “the New Silk Road.”
As previously stated, the institution of a global order through material means is counter-evolutionary, whether it takes the form of the military dominance of the West, or the economic dominance of the East, therefore it will likely fail as well.
The torch of internationalism was suited to the Western mentality’s strengths, though ultimately squandered by the West’s refusal to abandon materialism.
The Western man, living instinctively and naturally in the thought process with its cosmic origin, turns and finds an outlet in economic and industrial life. And with his economic greatness he expands his sphere of influence over the whole earth. By virtue of the cosmic quality, which is his, he becomes the ‘man of the world’ par excellence.
He comes in touch with all the different peoples, and inspires a certain respect and confidence wherever he goes. From his contact with the Eastern peoples, there is kindled in him a great longing for what he lacks—the ever-present sense of the spiritual and the divine in things. [1]
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However, under the influence of the East, internationalism suffers, already having produced catastrophic movements like Communism.
Any system that is based on “inanimate forces” is doomed to fail, which is why technocracy, flowing forth from sub-natural forces of the eighth sphere, offers an opportunity of “renewal” of previously failed experiments.
It can integrate into any pre-existing ideological framework, as seen by the ubiquity of “techno-”, “cyber-”, or “crypto-” prefixes.
Socialism can no longer be controlled with inanimate forces. The ideas of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, fraternity were the last ideas to flow out of the inanimate. Everything that still runs on that track is fruitless and doomed to die. [5]
In a previous post, I mentioned the danger of technocratic control merging with marxist systems, which facilitates more easily the control of individual wealth by the state and the restriction of freedom of expression, and its viability has already been demonstrated in China.
The downstream effect of the West's disinterest in a renewal of ancient spirituality has been the Luciferian East swinging to the Ahrimanic extreme.
The wider effect of a hyper-technological society is simply that it is destructive to the soul, though providing a false sense of security, puts it under the sedating influence of the eighth sphere.
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In
“the truth about technocracy”, I discussed how the soul’s registration to the divine Plan is necessary to avert the influence of technocracy, which applies to whether it is imposed overtly or whether it presents as
freedom — both lead to a disordered soul life.
People are apt to regard obedience as the carrying out of rules and orders, imposed upon them by some authoritative source.
This, as you well, know is not the case in any true hierarchical training. Obedience, for the disciple, is a quick spiritual reaction to the Plan as it emanates from the Hierarchy. [6]
Because America has intellectually devolved, it increasingly faces anarchy on account of its individualistic philosophy left unmoderated by any higher principle.
And without its global empire, it cannot guarantee economic security for itself, or its allies, leaving them both vulnerable.
Without a better educated public the United States will be unable to compete with foreign economies in the struggle for markets. This is an economic reason. The second is a political one. Lacking an educated public America will not be able to keep up its military strength. [7]
Facing less a guarantee of physical security, those who remain committed to the illusions of materialism will choose to come under the Eastern sphere of influence, though it will not be ideal for many.
In this sense, the East’s sphere of influence is guaranteed, not through expansion which it often fails at, but because its lawfulness is ensured by autocracy.
But those who have proven to recognize and understand
natural law, may evade this influence.
Civilised mankind must either establish the independence of the spiritual life or face collapse—with the inevitable result of an Asiatic influence taking effect in the future. [8]
Initiatives like the
IMEC corridor might provide temporary relief against China’s influence, but unless the West turns to spiritual truths, these reprieves will be short-lived.
In recent years, because of America’s declining empire, warding off of Eastern expansion has also been carried out through
sabotage, which comes with the possibility of a greater confrontation in the future.
This nexus of competing interests, which are the products of a vacillating Luciferic-Ahrimanic divide in humanity, might be the impetus for Western humanity to finally understand the damage of the irreligiosity it has practiced, and turn towards the reunification of its science with religion.
And with American society on the verge of either lawlessness or technocratic control, it also stands to resume an honest relationship with liberty where natural law presides, and revert back to its pre-20th century military status.
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1. GA 113 The East in the Light of the West, Introduction by Shirley Mark Kerr Gandell
2. GA 202, Bern, 14 December 1920: The Souls Progress through Repeated Earth Lives
3. Launching the Genesis Mission, November 24, 2025
4. From the U.S.-Led Rules-Based Order to Multipolar International Law
5. GA 93, Berlin, 2 January 1906: The Temple Legend III 20. The Royal Art in a New Form
6. Discipleship in the New Age, Vol. II, Section Four - Personal Instructions to Disciples - Part 7
7. GA 24, The Renewal of the Social Organism, Foreword by Joseph Weizenbaum
8. GA 191, Dornach, 2 November 1919: Lucifer and Ahriman, Lecture II
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