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