An event so bad it can make a person turn against our civilization

An index of how terrible is the treatment of George Zimmerman, and what terrible things it says about our society, is seen in the reaction to it of the usually sanguine blogger Stogie:

Political Show Trial for George Zimmerman?

George Zimmerman has been arrested and will stand trial for second degree murder for killing Trayvon Martin in self-defense. I cannot help but believe that his arrest and the charges against him are politically motivated.

The leftist/liberal forces that control this society will make an example of Zimmerman. He will be given a show trial and, if possible, a phony conviction. His life will be sacrificed so Democrats can hang on to a key constituency.

When civil war finally comes to these United States, for me it will feel like relief. Then we can all stop pretending this thin veneer of civilization is anything but an illusion.

W. B. Yeats, in a similar mood of civilizational despair, or fed-upness, wrote in 1927:

Arise and bid me strike a match
And strike another till time catch;
Should the conflagration climb,
Run till all the sages know.
We the great gazebo built,
They convicted us of guilt;
Bid me strike a match and blow.

Yeats also wrote in the early 1930s:

Civilization is hooped together, brought
Under a rule, under the semblance of peace
By manifold illusion; but man’s life is thought,
And he, despite his terror, cannot cease
Ravening through century after century,
Ravening, raging, and uprooting that he may come
Into the desolation of reality:
Egypt and Greece, goodbye, and goodbye Rome!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 13, 2012 10:26 AM | Send