The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America PDF
Preview The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America
The Present Age RobertNisbet The Present Age Progress and Anarchy in Modern America Robert Nisbet amagi Liberty Fund Indianapolis AmagibooksarepublishedbyLibertyFund,Inc., afoundationestablishedtoencouragestudyofthe idealofasocietyoffreeandresponsibleindividuals. Thecuneiforminscriptionthatappearsinthelogoand servesasadesignelementinallLibertyFundbooksisthe earliest-knownwrittenappearanceoftheword‘‘freedom’’ (amagi),or‘‘liberty.’’Itistakenfromaclaydocumentwritten about..intheSumeriancity-stateofLagash. ©byLibertyFund,Inc. ThisbookwasfirstpublishedbyHarper&Row,Publishers Allrightsreserved FrontispiececourtesyoftheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities. PhotographbyNoraStewart. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Nisbet,RobertA. Thepresentage:progressandanarchyinmodernAmerica/ RobertNisbet. p. cm. Originallypublished:NewYork:Harper&Row,. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ---(pbk.:alk.paper) . UnitedStates—Defenses—Economicaspects—History— thcentury. . Bureaucracy—UnitedStates—History—th century. . Federalgovernment—UnitedStates—History— thcentury. . State,The. . Worldpolitics—–. . UnitedStates—Foreignrelations—thcentury. . United States—Socialconditions. I. Title. . '.—dc ,., AllisonPointeTrail,Suite Indianapolis,Indiana- Contents Foreword vii . ThePrevalenceof War . TheNewAbsolutism . TheLooseIndividual Epilogue Index , Foreword ItistemptinginthisyearofthebicentennialoftheConstitutiontospeculate ontheprobablereactionsoftheFramerstotheproductoftheirlaborsand aspirationsasitstandstodayintheworldtwofullcenturiesafteritsincep- tion.Suchspeculationneednotbealtogetherfanciful.Someconstitutional lawyers speak of recovering the ‘‘original intent’’ of the Framers, a not im- possible feat given the clarity of the document itself and the abundance of ancillarysourcesoftheFramers’viewsongovernment.Iforiginalintentcan bereasonablyretrievedaftertwohundredyears,whynotprobablereaction tothepresentageinAmerica? What would the Framers be most struck by in America today? I mean aftertheyhadrecoveredfromtheshockofseeingclean,strong,whiteteeth insteadofdecayedyellowstumpsinthemouthsoftheirdescendants;after they had assimilated the fact of the astounding number of Americans who wereneithercrippled,disease-wasted,norpockmarkedfromsmallpox;and, of course, after they had taken rapt eyes off the high-speed vehicles on the streets?Aftertheseastonishments,whatreactionsmighttherebetothepo- liticalandculturalscene? ThreeaspectsofthepresentageinAmericawouldsurelydrawtheirim- mediate,concerned,andperhapsincredulousattention. First, the prominence of war in American life since , amounting to a virtual Seventy-Five Years War, and with this the staggering size of the AmericanmilitaryestablishmentsinceWorldWarII.TheFramershadre- liedontwobroadoceansforthelicensetodraftthemostnonmilitarycon- stitutionimaginable. Second,theLeviathan-likepresenceofthenationalgovernmentintheaf- fairsofstates,towns,andcities,andinthelives,cradletograve,ofindividu- als.TheFramershadworkedmostdiligentlytopreventanyfuturehypertro- phyofthefederalgovernment.Theyhadparticularlydislikedthesprawling bureaucraciesof Europeintheirday. Third, the number of Americans who seem only loosely attached to [viii] Foreword groupsandvaluessuchaskinship,community,andproperty,andwhoselives aresoplainlygovernedbythecashnexus. In the pages following, I have enlarged upon these three aspects of the presentsceneinAmerica. Since this book contains in adapted form my Jefferson Lecture in Washington,D.C.,IwishtoexpressmydeepappreciationtotheNational CouncilofHumanitiesforinvitingmetodeliverthelectureandmythanks toDr.LynneV.Cheney,ChairmanoftheNationalEndowmentoftheHu- manities, for her kind interest and aid in the presentation of the lecture. I thankalsoHughVanDusen,SeniorEditoratHarper&Row,forhisspecial helpandencouragement. The Present Age
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