ABSTRACT
The diagnosis of the crisis of our age which is given in this chapter was written in 1934. Gigantic catastrophies that have occurred since that year are not included here; however, they strikingly confirm and develop the diagnosis. The crisis is far greater than the ordinary; its depth is unfathomable, its end not yet in sight, and the whole of the Western society is involved in it. At one moment the Spanish crisis is on the front page; at another, the French or Austrian; and all accompanied by news of the shakiness of the English pound, or the American dollar, or the French franc, or the German mark. The great crisis of sensate culture is here in all its stark reality. If it does not die in our lifetime, it can hardly recover from the exhaustion of its creative forces and from the wounds of self-destruction.
