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The Wizards of Ozymandias.Pdf The Wizards of Ozymandias The Wizards of Ozymandias Refl ections on the Decline and Fall B UTLER SHAFFER MISES INSTITUTE AUBURN, ALABAMA Copyright © 2012 Butler Shaff er. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given. Published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832 mises.org ISBN: 978-1-610160-252-4 Dedication To the memory and spirit of Sophie and Hans Scholl and the White Rose, who reminded us what it means to be civilized. Table of Contents Preface. ix Ozymandias . xiii Introduction. .xv 1. On the Decline and Fall. 1 2. Th e Life and Death of Civilizations . .11 3. Consuming Our Capital . .23 4. A World Too Complex to be Managed . .33 5. Th e Common Good = Collectivism . .37 6. Th e Dysfunctional Society . .43 7. Th e Silence of Institutions. .49 8. Law as “Reason” or as “Violence”? . .53 9. Lest We Forget . .59 10. We’re Going Away!. .63 11. Fighting for Freedom. .69 12. Orwell Lives!. .73 13. Th e Siege of San Francisco . .75 14. Suicide and the Insanity of War . .79 15. Vonnegut on War . .83 16. How We Lost Our Souls . .85 17. Th e Wee Ones Revisited . .89 18. Resisting the Deadly Virus . .91 19. Structuring the Instruments of Expansion. .97 vii viii · Th e Wizards of Ozymandias 20. Why TSA, Wars, State Defi ned Diets, Seat-Belt Laws, the War on Drugs, Police Brutality, and Eff orts to Control the Internet, are Essential to the State . 101 21. Saving Our Brave, New World . 107 22. “Klaatu barada nikto!”. 111 23. “Support the Shopping Mall Killers” . 117 24. Politics and War as Entertainment . 121 25. Can Liberty Be Advanced Th rough Violence?. 127 26. When the World Went Bankrupt. 133 27. Civilization in Free-Fall. 139 28. Obama Revives a Tradition. 145 29. Th e Irrelevance of the State. 147 30. Th e Hitler Test . 155 31. Impeach the American People! . 159 32. What Did bin Laden “Deserve”? . 165 33. Wind Power . 171 34. Life is Destroying the Planet! . 175 35. Th e Real World Order is Chaotic. 181 36. Blogs or Blotto?. 185 37. Bring Back Discrimination. 191 38. Saving a Dying Corpse . 197 39. Th e Slave Mentality . 203 40. Running on Empty. 209 41. A Black Hole on $10 Billion a Day . 215 42. Th e New Geometry and the New Math . 219 43. What Is Anarchy?. 225 44. Anarchy in the Streets . 231 45. An Outbreak of Order in NYC. 235 46. Th e Virtues of Smallness . 241 47. Increase Your Carbon Footprint . 247 48. Overcoming Barriers to Killing . 253 49. What is to Become of the State?. 259 50. Civilization Collapsing, or Transforming? . 265 51. A Cost/Benefi t Analysis of the Human Spirit: Th e Luddites Revisited. 271 Index . 279 Preface hen I fi rst decided to chronicle the collapse of Western Civilization, I assumed I would have a suffi cient amount of time to observe and comment upon the transformations Wtaking place. I shared T.S. Eliot’s sentiment that: “Th is is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.”1 Surely a vibrant culture that took centuries to develop would have to experience a prolonged demise. I could not imagine that its downfall would be as pre- cipitous as it has proven to be. Because of the complexities involved, it is diffi cult to identify a specifi c date or period when the descent began. Suf- fi ce it to say that the process was well underway by the time Henry Kiss- inger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! Th e sense of civility that helps give meaning to a “civilization” is in full retreat. Our institutionalized social behavior has reverted to its reac- tive, reptilian origins; our thinking has become dominated by the politi- cal imperative that all of life is to be subjected to the exercise of collec- tive power. Indeed, the formal systems through which we have organized and identifi ed ourselves could be described as being in an ever-escalating war with life itself. As the creators of sophisticated technologies, we have made ourselves increasingly machine-like; robotic servants of institutional 1 T.S. Eliot, Th e Hollow Men, 1925. ix x · Th e Wizards of Ozymandias systems we have been conditioned to revere, whose purposes we neither understand nor control, and of which we are afraid to ask questions. Our corporate-state world plunders, enslaves, controls and destroys us, all in the name of advancing our liberty and material well-being. Most of us are dominated by an unfocused fear of uncertainty, a longing for the security of emptiness. Th e reasoned intelligence and spiritual inspiration that would other- wise power life energies, remain suppressed within us. Our current art, music, and literature largely entertain and amuse us (“amuse” being a way of distracting us from the meditative infl uences provided by the muses). What we refer to as “classical music” was oft en the popular music of earlier centuries. A century or two from now, which “rock” musician is likely to stand alongside Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and Mahler as expressions of the inner spirit of mankind? What modern writers will be compared to Shakespeare, Dante, Emily Dickinson, or Walt Whitman? If there is one period in Western history that I think refl ects what we have become, it would be the French Revolution. What could be a more fi tting symbol for that period of collective madness, destruction, and inhu- manity than the guillotine, ever busy searching for new victims? Whatever visions of mankind in society have been off ered by the numerous creators of Western Civilization are being lost as the culture, itself, disappears into history’s “black hole.” My oldest daughter, Bretigne, may have most suc- cinctly encapsulated the changes occurring during her lifetime when she wrote: “I don’t know who the people around me are anymore.”2 Long before having children of my own, I embraced the idea that one had a moral obligation not to allow his or her children to live under tyr- anny. I continue to hold to this principle, even as I acknowledge my failure to accomplish that end. I continue in my eff orts, insisting upon such peace- ful means as writing, speaking, and teaching, for there are no shortcuts to the transformation of consciousness upon which such a task depends. My current writing is directed to a select audience of fi ve people: my grand- children. I share Albert Jay Nock’s purpose of writing for the benefi t of the Remnant, to whom will be left the task of helping to restore civilized soci- ety aft er the end of our destructive one. Still, my own eff orts are motivated more by the presence of these fi ve people, in the hope that they—and all the other children and grandchildren of the world—can walk away from 2 Bretigne Shaff er, “Mere Anarchy Loosed Upon the World,” in Why Peace, Marc Guttman, ed. (Marc Guttman: East Lyme, Conn., 2012), pp. 118–26, at 124. Preface · xi the organized bondage others have planned for them; that they can live in a truly civilized civilization based upon the self-directed, self-serving, creative, free, and peaceful behavior that it is their nature to enjoy as hu- man beings. Is it possible that the world my generation will leave to the next can be transformed; that society can become decent and supportive of life? Can conditions of peace and liberty replace the wars, coercive regulation, and worship of violence that have combined to destroy our present civilization? Th e book ends with such questions, and invites the reader to contemplate how such a life-centered culture might arise. It is inherent in all writing that the author of a work bears the respon- sibility for its substantive content. It is also the case that a book does not get into print without a great deal of help from others. Th is work is no exception to this fact. Among those who provided me with such assistance were Spencer and Emalie MacCallum and David Gordon, three friends who were kind enough to review and provide constructive criticism of the manuscript. Judy Th ommesen, Chad Parish, and Lew Rockwell at the Mises Institute also provided invaluable assistance in bringing the book to publication. Above all, I must thank my editor-in-chief, Jane Shaff er, for her page-by-page eff orts—including her questions and suggestions—while the writing was still in progress. I suppose I could also thank the politi- cians, government offi cials, and other defenders of statism for their actions that provided me with endless material; but that might be pushing the ac- knowledgments too far. Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, Th e hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare Th e lone and level sands stretch far away.” —Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817) Introduction Civilizations begin, fl ourish, decline, and disappear—or linger on as stagnant pools left by once life-giving streams.
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