Figura proroka zagłady w nowoczesności – wczoraj i dziś
Future of the Prophet of Doom in Modern Times – Yesterday and Today

Summary/Abstract: A portrayal of the contemporary prophet of doom created by referring to two examples: Count Wojciech Chojnicki, protagonist of Joseph Roth’s Radetzky March, and “the historian from the future”, narrator of the essay: The Collapse of Western Civilisation by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. Ominous prophets discover apocalyptic signs in the modern idea of progress, indicating the dark side of modernisation processes which, in accordance with the identification made by Oswald Spengler, caused the arrival of the stage of the twilight of Western man. In their capacity as prophets of doom they simultaneously become critics of modernity – the seer from the Roth novel announces: “As we speak, it’s falling apart, it’s already fallen apart!”. The figure of the prophet thus co-creates the topos of contemporary apocalypticism, here described, by following the example of Spengler, as a topos of viewing the world with open eyes, the illusion of belief in progress.

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