An informed and regular commenter on this site is Hans Palmstierna. His most recent comment is worth highlighting, as is his website. Here is his commentary, with which I am in complete agreement, on Albert J. Nock’s great book:
Allow me to just say that “Our Enemy, The State” is one of the finest books ever written. Unfortunately, the inevitable ending that Nock saw coming may be closing in. Allow me to recite two short parts. Nock wrote the book for whatever “remnant” would exist that would understand what this meant.
”Conquest, confiscation, the erection of the State; then the sequences which we have traced in the course of our own civilization; then the shock of some irruption which the social structure was too far weakened to resist, and from which it was left too disorganized to recover; and then the end.”
(…)
“Our pride resents the thought that the great highways of New England will one day lie deep under layers of encroaching vegetation, as the more substantial Roman roads of Old England have lain for generations; and that only a group of heavily overgrown hillocks will be left to attract the archaeologist’s eye to the hidden debris of our collapsed skyscrapers.
Yet it is to just this, we know, that our civilization will come; and we know it because we know that there never has been, never is, and never will be, any disorder in nature – because we know that things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be.”
And here is Hans’ description of his own blog SaveCapitalism:
This blog will follow me through many incarnations. This about page will be updated accordingly. As I write this, I’m tired of all the bad things which I cannot let go. Instead of going on and on, I want to focus on the good things that will inevitably happen. After we descend into the economic unknowns for which we are surely headed, a few things will happen. First, there will be money again – real money. I cannot give you the time nor the place where it will first happen, but it will. Also, there will emerge a new class of people – or rather an old class of people. Those who do not care for politics nor the post-modern way of living. When inflation and the secular state-belief slowly ends, culture and civilization will re-emerge. I’m not saying the path there is straight nor that it will be easy. It most definitely will not be. But what is there but hope for a better world? What is there but the belief that we can make the best of the cards we are dealt, and try to stand tall for honesty, decency and volountary human interaction?
So, we all know that civilization has mostly already ended, and what remains may first have to go before we start anew. So be it, I hope we all prepare accordingly. As sure as we are heading into the dusk of our civilization, there will be a dawn afterwards. I do not know if I will still be alive when it happens, but I know it will happen.
If you still want to read 27 pages of my conclusions on the end of civilization, it is available here : The End of Civilization (PDF)
I am remiss in not referencing this website before. The philosophy and expectations are close to my own. Those of you who appreciate this site likely will also appreciate SaveCapitalism.
