The Future of Big Cities—as Predicted in 'The Decline of the West' (1922)

100 years ago, Oswald Spengler announced the 'Decline of the West' and made predictions about cities in the 21st Century. Was he correct?

“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future” (attributed to Yogi Berra).

______________________

I’m a sucker for prognostications—whether concocted by scientists, professional oddsmakers, or even just storefront fortune tellers. I listen with rapt attention, although it’s hard to take their statements seriously. Our narratives about the future are usually driven by present-day hopes and anxieties, and tell us very little about the world to come. If you doubt it, just read the award-winning sci-fi books of the past, which typically miss the mark 99% of the time.

But I do sit up and take notice when a visionary somehow manages to get things right. I’ve written in the past about the insightful predictions of José Ortega y Gasset and J.G. Ballard—who both demonstrated an uncanny ability to anticipate major cultural and technological shifts decades before they happened. Today I turn my attention on the more complicated legacy of Oswald Spengler.