The Death Of Politics Karl Hess Karl Hess by Karl Hess instant download after payment.

In late 1969 the late Karl Hess wrote a classic essay on the future of America entitled “The Death of Politics. “That it was somewhat ahead of its time is evidenced by the fact that it appeared in Playboy rather than a public affairs magazine. Hess, one of the most astute political observers of our time, was convinced that the evidence of the failure of the political approach to solving societal ills had become so overwhelming as to absolutely confirm the theoretical case for civil society over political society. “Power and authority, as substitutes for performance and rational thought, are the specters that haunt the world today,” he wrote. “They are the ghosts of awed and superstitious yesterdays.”

But if the Establishment was bemused by Karl Hess’s audacity more than two decades ago, it isn’t laughing now. It seems clear that Americans have lost patience with and confidence in government to a degree we haven’t witnessed since — well, the Boston Tea Party comes to mind. And this mood shouldn’t be interpreted as evidence of a renewed enthusiasm for the Republican party, although the GOP will likely be its immediate beneficiary, due in part to its professed ideology but more substantially to the fact that it possesses fewer incumbents than the Democrats.

The evidence that was clear to Hess has continued to accumulate, and now it’s becoming clear to the vast majority of Americans. In fact, the growing sophistication about the limits of political society is a worldwide phenomenon. Voters in nations around the globe are turning out long‐​established parties in favor of political forces offering more open societies with less burdensome governments. Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and VaclavKlaus in the Czech Republic have much more ambitious programs for rolling back the state than did either Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan.