Critical Attitude toward the West and the Idea of Western Decadence

Abstract

The modern calamities that are leading to the deformation and decline of humanity may be placed under two main headings: (1) Social systems and (2) Intellectual systems. Within the two outwardly opposed social systems that have embraced the new man, or that invite him into their embrace, what is plainly felt is the tragic way that man, a primary and supra-material essence, has been forgotten. Both these social systems, capitalism and communism, though they differ in outward configuration, regard man as an economic animal; their differing contours reflect the issue of which of the two vvill provide more successfully for the needs of this animal.

Ali Shariati. “Modem Calamities.” In Marxism and Other Western Fallacies: An Islamic Critique. Translated by R. Campbell. Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1980, pp. 32–40,91–6.