From Cultural Revolution to Cultural Revival: Spencer Klavan on ‘How to Save the West’

American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Times

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For decades, there has been an assault on the Western classical tradition and the core values, arts, and philosophy at the bedrock of Western civilization, says classicist Spencer Klavan.

Are we now witnessing a shift in this tide?

Klavan is the author of multiple books, including “How to Save the West: Ancient Wisdom for Five Modern Crises.”

He is also an associate editor at The Claremont Review of Books and host of the “Young Heretics” podcast.

“People are starting to realize that you can only scream and yell and tear down statues and set things on fire for so long,” Klavan says. “Now the energy seems to be in the direction of … recovering and rebuilding some of our most profound traditions, these wisdom traditions of Athens and Jerusalem.”

In this episode, we dive deep into questions of form and matter, beauty and truth, and the importance of finding spiritual meaning in our modern era.

“It’s often attributed to Werner Heisenberg that once you take one sip from the cup of science, you become an atheist. But when you drain it to the dregs, God is waiting for you there at the bottom,” he says.

What do the classics have to offer us? Why is classical art and literature important? And why does Klavan believe President Donald Trump’s executive order on restoring classical architecture is a major step forward?

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	People are starting to realize that you can only scream and yell and tear down statues and set things on fire for so long before things start to get really bad.
0:09.0	And now the energy seems to be in the direction of kind of recovering and rebuilding some of our most profound traditions.
0:18.0	These wisdom traditions of Athens and Jerusalem, you're starting to see
0:21.4	return to, if not traditional religion, to sort of spiritual ideas of something other than just
0:28.9	the raw materialism that has dominated for so long. Spencer Claven is an associate editor of the
0:35.2	Claremont Review of Books, host of The Young Heretics
0:38.0	podcast, and author of several books, including How to Save the West.
0:43.0	Trump's order to restore classical architecture.
0:47.0	I think that speaks to a certain instinct he has for people's hunger for them.
0:52.0	These reforms that have endured and survived for a reason
0:55.0	and that maintain their beauty because they connect with the eternal.
0:58.0	I mean, there's a reason why brutalism goes out of date.
1:01.0	And those classical buildings still look as beautiful as ever.
1:04.0	This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanya Kellick.
1:09.0	Spencer Claven, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.
1:13.0	Oh, yeah. It's a delight. Thank you for having me.
1:15.6	Well, so what really has happened to Western culture?
1:20.7	That's a big question. I think, broadly speaking, we are living at a turning point right now.
1:29.3	And for most of my life, if not all of my life, we have been in a period of really serious crisis and decline.
1:37.3	I think 2020 and the ensuing events were kind of the most dramatic form of this, but in many ways, as other
1:47.1	people have pointed out, the riots of 2020 and the disasters of the COVID pandemic and its
1:52.8	aftermath were just a final kind of explosion that had been building and boiling for decades and decades and decades.
	...

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