What an immense mass of evil must result . . . from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen.

—Leo Tolstoy

In recent weeks—as the present administration and most of congress continue to propose the expansion of state power over people’s lives—more balloon juice has been released endeavoring to justify such programs on the grounds of fostering “the common good.” Any inquisitive mind should see, at once, that the idea of a “common good” is almost entirely that: an idea, a fiction.

Like the Titanic, the American ship-of-state has hit an iceberg, and it is not timely to ask the ship’s orchestra for an encore of “America the Beautiful!” A recurring theme in these articles is that the American branch of Western Civilization is in a state of complete collapse, and that only a fundamental change in our thinking about the nature and forms of social behavior can reverse our destructive course.

A few decades ago one could . . . still accept the expression “My Country right or wrong” as a proper expression of patriotism; today this standpoint can be regarded as lacking in moral responsibility.

—Konrad Lorenz

The other day, I received an alumni fund-raising letter from my old law school. It opened with a post-September 11th quote from a present faculty member who praised our current civilization, declaring that one of its most impressive accomplishments has been the development of a “legal order committed to resolving disputes between humans by reason and not by violence.”

The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.

—Gustave Le Bon

The late Arthur Koestler was of the view that mankind is an evolutionary mistake doomed to extinction. To have given a killer ape the capacity for intelligence was not, he reasoned, nature’s smartest strategy.

Why fight for a flag when you can buy one for a nickel.

—Ezra Pound

Orwell’s “doublespeak” is alive and well this morning. In a nationally-televised press conference, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz—the commander of the Multi-National Corps—kept referring to the Iraqi insurgents as “anti-Iraqi forces.” Since the United States is fighting these forces, this must make the Americans the “pro-Iraqi forces.” Nobody in the press called Metz on this. Corrupt systems are always preceded and maintained by the corruption of language.

I was in San Francisco on a recent Sunday, my visit coinciding with the U.S. Navy’s annual “Fleet Week” show of a portion of its arsenal of destructiveness. The most annoying part of this demonstration consisted of a prolonged buzzing of the city by at least five “Blue Angels” FA-18 fighter-bombers. This was not one of those common air-shows conducted at an airbase where Boobus Americanus could pay an admission fee for a show: in San Francisco, the entire city was the grandstand.