Prognoses for the Twenty-first Century - Ernst Jünger

Part Five

Translated by Bruno Zimmer and Michael Halfpenny.

If the interim is regarded as an unveiled, and thus formative, rise of the Titans, then with it must be connected, above all, an earth change – as it announces itself already, and not in the least, by catastrophes. Human involvement and culpability are probably overestimated. Ex negativo, this can already be concluded from the fact that man ultimately proves himself to be impotent – if not adding fuel to the fire.

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For two hundred years we have been in the midst of a world revolution that is transforming nature and society, with technical impulses preceding social ones. Seen from a historical perspective, a situation repeats itself that has occurred many times before, through the invention of weapons and tools, wars, migrations, desertification of land which follows the exploitation of forests and pastures.

But the question is whether the historical perspective is sufficient, or whether we are not standing at the end, and already outside history. Many signs speak to the fact that an earth revolution encloses and determines the world revolution. This too will be a repetition, but in a larger cycle, in which measurement is not taken in historical epochs but in earth ages. This comes close to Hesiod in the mythical sense, and scientifically to Cuvier's system.

This perspective is becoming increasingly accepted, even popular. However, here it has to be questioned if we are correctly assessing the significance of major changes, such as those in the climate, the atmosphere, and birth rates. A respect for statistics and fear of large numbers is alien to the Titans.

We should expect not only losses but also shocks, such as new substances and forces in the inorganic, and new animal species in the organic world. Explorations of the unseen can outweigh the discovery of continents.

These are developments of natural forces, to which human assistance belongs as well. They are not to be confused with phenomena in the cultic sense. With them the interim ends.

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Even where the natural forces align with each other, it does not unfold without hierarchy. Herculean, Centaurian, and Promethean figures begin to emerge – their first one being that of the Worker. Technology is his uniform. As a world language, this frees the Triarians from drilling numbers and the alphabet, perhaps from compulsory schooling altogether. One learns through play and vision – existentially.

Not to be forgotten are the giants and chimeras; they appear where scientific research, as in nuclear and genetic engineering, reaches its limits and begins to exceed them.