Guénon saw Western modernity as a unique materialist anomaly amid otherwise cyclical civilizations

Evidence

The West obviously differs from all other civilizations that have ever existed in that it has had an overwhelming impact on all other civilizations that have existed since 1500. It also inaugurated the processes of modernization and industrialization that have become worldwide, and as a result societies in all other civilizations have been attempting to catch up with the West in wealth and modernity. Do these characteristics of the West, however, mean that its evolution and dynamics as a civilization are fundamentally different from the patterns that have prevailed in all other civilizations? The evidence of history and the judgments of the scholars of the comparative history of civilizations suggest otherwise. The development of the West to date has not deviated significantly from the evolutionary patterns common to civilizations throughout history. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 831 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Guénon critiqued modernity from within non-Western traditions, not Western theory; Guénon traces Western materialism to the loss of a higher ordering principle — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 311; Guénon’s critique of modernity is deeper than Said’s — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 326 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Western civilization has not escaped universal civilizational evolutionary patterns #complicates (0.80) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 831