Ben Shahn Quotes
All art is based on nonconformity ... Without nonconformity we would have had no Bill of Rights or Magna Carta, no public education system, no nation upon this continent, no continent, no science at all, no philosophy, and considerably fewer religions.
Shahn, Ben. The Shape of Content. Harvard University Press, 1957.
This is not strictly true although it was in many cases in Mises career. However many of the great scientists, inventers, artists, entrepreneurs, and writers have been very positive about the government of the time. Many even credited the government for enabling or assisting their achievement. Even in Nazi Germany there were a few scientists who admired the Hitler government. However, in America, the educational system which gave so money contributors to humanity their start and preparation and in many cases government funding or previous research or facilities were recognized as instrumental in the development of the innovation. Many of the artists and writers of the 1940s-1960s credited the New Deal for their development and opportunity to create many of their great contributions. Internet entrepreneurs who changed the world in the late 20th century all acknowledge the Federal Government role in developing and deploying if the Internet. And there are few Nobel Prize winners who do not acknowledge Federal Scientific Research Grants and previous government funded and sometimes conducted (like the Human Genome) research that helped with or made the contribution. Even contributions like the telegraph and the railroad depended in initial government funding to make their contribution. Private capital could not be found to take the risk of financing these radically new ideas.
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.
