In The Spiritual Crisis of Man, I put forward some arguments in defense of older nations, peoples, or races who preferred a simpler life to the technological civilization of the modern world--and especially the modern Western world. This did not mean--as I hope was made clear in the book--that we, too, should revert to their attitude and become, as it were, disciples of Mahatma Gandhi. No, I have always advocated that we take what is useful from the past, what is wise and practicable for us, and leave the rest. In short, I spoke more than once in favour of an East-West civilization. I agreed with René Guénon that we had given too much weight to a utilitarian civilization and too little to the higher forms of culture, by which I mean philosophical, mystical, and the basic foundations of religion. Indeed, I criticized the ascetic regimes and asceticism generally when pushed to extreme, and pleaded for the conveniences and comforts brought in by modern ideas. But it is the extreme unbalanced one-sided forms of either the simple life or the materialistic life which I opposed. A sensible balance which enables us or rather helps us to keep mental and emotional equilibrium, inner calm, is the desirable thing.
-- Notebooks Category 13: Human Experience > Chapter 4 : World Crisis > # 90
