
Here is a translation of a 1961 article by Miguel Serrano (author of C.G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships), describing a brief interview he had with Jung shortly before he died. In relation to our topic of “Jung in the 21st Century” there is this:
MS: What will happen to mankind in the coming technological supercivilization? Do you think that, in twenty years, anyone will care about the spirit of symbols, in the midst of the era of interplanetary journeys, with the Sputniks, the Gagarins, and the Shephards? Will not the spirit come to appear passé?
Dr. Jung smiles cunningly and states:
“Sooner or later man will have to return to himself, even if from the stars. All this that is happening now is an extreme form of escapism, because it is easier to reach Mars than to find oneself. If man doesn’t find himself, then he faces the greatest of dangers: his own annihilation. On journeys into outer space there is also an unconscious attempt to solve the gravest of all problems that man will have to face in the future: overpopulation.”
[Posted on the website Counter-Currents Publishing.]