Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: The Death of Western Civilization

  1. #1

    The Death of Western Civilization


    The Death of Western Civilization

    Butler Shaffer


    Those accustomed to looking only for superficial explanations of the violence in the world (i.e., those who limit their inquiries to what political figures, the mainstream media, and house-intellectuals have to say), might consider the deeper cultural factors that work to bring down civilizations. It might be instructive to be told that the name of the rock band performing at the concert hall that was the principal target of last-night’s well-organized slaughter of innocents in Paris is “Eagles of Death.” What is the mindset that attracts so many to an anti-life theme, and what thinking helps to produce it? How many young men and women would have attended a popular music concert performed by a band with the name “Spirit of Life?”

    9:59 am on November 14, 2015

    The Best of Butler Shaffer





    https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog...-civilization/
    Last edited by Ronin Truth; 11-16-2015 at 09:06 AM.



  2. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  3. #2

    “The Death of Western Civilization” – Continued

    Butler Shaffer

    I have received a few responses from readers who took issue with my earlier blog concerning the slaughter that took place in Paris last night. For some reason, they thought I was blaming the rock band – which different news media sources had named “Eagles of Death,” but whose full name is “Eagles of Death Metal” – for the violence that resulted in the deaths of scores of young people in attendance at the concert hall where this band was performing. Either the readers missed my point, or I failed to make it more clearly than I did. What I was saying – and what I have been saying for many decades – is that Western Civilization should be spoken of in the past tense; that its life-affirming conditions have been destroyed by the content of our thinking. I have written elsewhere that civilizations are created by individuals; they are destroyed by collectives.

    The thinking of most people has become thoroughly politicized, which is to say has become dominated by the use of organized coercion as the most effective means of accomplishing one’s ends. Whoever was responsible for yesterday’s mass-murders in Paris expressed this mindset. But their modus operandi was not a strategy dreamed up on their own.

    The attraction to violence has so permeated human thinking and behavior that we almost don’t notice it. It even reaches into what we like to think of as the field of entertainment. Being so pervasive, we should not be surprised to find its expression elsewhere as well. Computer games provide a means for children to learn to operate a joy-stick to kill off the “bad guys.” Does this skill prepare young men and women to become military drone-operators to bomb innocent people in foreign countries? College football teams dress in black uniforms (black being the color of death) to which American flags have been attached, and with games played while uniformed troops stand on the sidelines in battle-dress. Motion pictures and TV movies have become heavily influenced by death themes of vultures and zombies; while so much popular music – particularly rock bands – is performed by people in deathly costumes, accompanied by special effects of fire and explosions. As I asked in my earlier blog, would young people have been as attracted to a concert performed by a band called “Spirit of Life” as they were to one named “Eagles of Death Metal”?


    As the late Richard Weaver declared, “ideas have consequences.” Ideas grounded in the celebration of violence are likely to produce unintended, destructive consequences. Wars, genocides, police brutalities, economic dislocations, and other products of our minds can produce outcomes few of us like. The “Eagles of Death Metal” band was no more the cause of the deaths at their Paris concert than are the black-uniformed, flag-decorated football players for Boll Weevil State the cause of American wars. They do reflect a mindset that finds expression as violent attacks by some humans upon others.


    One reader informed me that bringing such matters to people’s attentions should not be done “when they are still mopping the blood off the floor.” This was the same appeal that was made during the Vietnam War; that people should await assessing government policies until after the war was over. I can think of no clearer evasion of one’s responsibilities than this. It is precisely when the destructive effects of our thinking are manifesting themselves that we ought to think and speak with one another.

    2:43 pm on November 14, 2015

    Email Butler Shaffer


    The Best of Butler Shaffer


    https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog...ion-continued/
    Last edited by Ronin Truth; 11-16-2015 at 09:01 AM.

  4. #3
    When asked by a reporter what he thought of western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi replied, "I think it would be a good idea".



Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •