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Wizards of Ozymandias - EBOOK

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Refl ections on the Decline and Fall - Digital Book
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This professionally prepared ebook is an electronic edition of the book that is designed for reading on digital readers like iPad, Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, and other products including iPhone and Android smart phones. The text reflows depending on your font preferences and it contains links from navigation.

Western Civilization--the American version in particular--is in a very turbulent and, perhaps terminal condition. The sense of civility that helps give meaning to a "civilization" is in full retreat.

Butler Shaffer has, over the course of several years, written 51 wonderful essays observing the dissolution of Western culture and civilization. They have been assembled in the The Wizards of Ozymandias a captivating work full of entertaining epigrams and anecdotes, as well as enlightening commentary on current events, and historical episodes, that will keep you engaged and immersed from the first to last page. Shaffer's intellectual prowess and deep well of life experience enlightens and rouses introspection at every turn. It is immediately evident that the author has been writing on law, economics, and history for decades. This book will challenge you to more deeply contemplate the ideals of liberty. The title may be foreboding, but for all that, the book is an uplifting and gratifying read.

In his great poem "Ozymandias" Percy Shelley pictures for us the eponymous tyrant whose arrogance of power could not save him from historical oblivion. Ozymandias is a reminder of the fragile nature of every system—be it biological, institutional, or cosmic in character. As we are learning from the advanced course in history in which we seem now to be enrolled, this precariousness also applies to civilizations. It is difficult for intelligent minds to doubt that this current system is in the process of joining Ozymandias in the dust-bin of history.

Western culture has produced material and spiritual values that have done so much to humanize and civilize mankind. Unfortunately, it has also produced highly-structured institutions and practices that not only impede, but reverse these life-enhancing qualities. Is it possible for us to energize our intelligence in order to rediscover, in the debris of our dying civilization, the requisite components for a fundamentally transformed culture grounded in free, peaceful, and productive systems that sustain rather than diminish life?

In the introduction Shaffer describes how civilizations are created by individuals. In following chapters, he explains how they are destroyed by collectives which are good for little more than the destruction of what others have created. Seen in the sharp contrasts between market economies and state socialism; the fundamental struggles are between the creative energies unleashed by liberty, and the repressive forces of politics. Shaffer explores the impact that institutionalism may have on the decline of civilization.

Shaffer methodically takes the reader through the rise and decline of Western civilization using references that range from the construction of an Islamic cultural center a few blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center, to the BP disaster, to the 1951 motion picture, The Day the Earth Stood Stilland on to experiments in removing road signs and traffic lights.

What is likely to follow from this imminent “decline and fall?” Might the remnants of our terminal culture—like an estate bequeathed us by a rich benefactor—provide the foundations for a fundamentally transformed culture; one that does not cannibalize itself?

Can conditions of peace and liberty replace the wars, coercive regulation, and worship of violence that have combined to destroy our present civilization? The book ends with such questions, and invites the reader to contemplate how such a life-centered culture might arise.

If after reading this book you are not convinced that the fall of western civilization is upon us, don't grieve just yet! Shaffer is optimistic that such a collapse could be the turning point for a social transformation toward a society that embraces individual liberty and private property, and that is free from collectivism and institutionalization. Shaffer can already see the seeds of such a transformation.

"The new renaissance that seems to be emerging is fostered, in large part, by exponential increases in our capacities for communicating information to one another. Indeed, “information” may prove to be the “instrument of expansion” that will underlie a new culture."


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Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Ozymandias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv

  1. On the Decline and Fall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 1
  2. The Life and Death of Civilizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  3. Consuming Our Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .23
  4. A World Too Complex to be Managed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .33
  5. The Common Good = Collectivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .37
  6. The Dysfunctional Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
  7. The 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. The 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. The Wee Ones Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .89
  18. Resisting the Deadly Virus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .91
  19. Structuring the Instruments of Expansion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
  20. Why TSA, Wars, State Defi ned Diets, Seat-Belt Laws, the War on Drugs, Police Brutality, and Efforts 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 Through Violence?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
  26. When the World Went Bankrupt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
  27. Civilization in Free-Fall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
  28. Obama Revives a Tradition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 145
  29. The Irrelevance of the State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
  30. The 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. The Real World Order is Chaotic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
  36. Blogs or Blotto?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
  37. Bring Back Discrimination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
  38. Saving a Dying Corpse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
  39. The Slave Mentality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 203
  40. Running on Empty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
  41. A Black Hole on $10 Billion a Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 215
  42. The 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. The 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/Benefit Analysis of the Human Spirit:

The Luddites Revisited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 279

ISBN 9781610162524
eISBN 9781610165495
Publication Date 6/15/2012
Page Length 310

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