The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

EDMUND A. OPITZas to make us humanMOST PEOPLE live lives of quietdesperation, Henry David Thoreautold us. If there was truth in thatobservation, in the pleasant, spaciousold New England of Thoreau'sday, how much more truthis packed into those words in thesemelancholy days! Events have gottenout of hand and the worldlurches into chaos.Things have fallen apart tasterthan any of us would have daredpredict, and we are seized bypangs of guilt and self-doubt. Somany promising experiments havegone sour, from the New Freedomof Woodrow Wilson to the latestukase of the present administration.The statesmen of this eratalked peace and sought to outlawwar, but they let the twentiethThe Reverend Mr. Opitz is a member of thestaff of the Foundation for Economic Education,a seminar lecturer,and author of thebook, Religion and Capitalism: AWes NotEnemies.century break down into thebloodiest period of all the twentyfivehundred years of warfarestudied by Pitirim Sorokin. "Welive," wrote this great scholar, "inan age unique for the unrestraineduse of brute force in internationalrelations."The threat of protracted internationalconflict is bad enough, butthere is also the well-founded fearof domestic violence and crime.And even if we are lucky enoughto escape actual robbery, we knowthat inflation is steadily drainingour wealth. We've seen the raceissue go from integration to BlackNationalism; we've witnessed theemergence· of the sex and' drugcult, the rise of astrology, witchcraftand voodooism; V.D. hasreached epidemic proportionsamong the young ; and then thereis abortion, homosexuality, thecampus crisis, the environmental