oppressed and deluded humanity

Despite Percy Bysshe Shelley?s deep-rooted social consciousness, as evidenced in The Mask of Anarchy, his discussions on the subject of history seem rooted in a curious sense of?practicality which seems bizarre when attributed to, of all things, a Romantic. Although clearly in favor of the tremendous work of the authors who instigated reformation, Shelley?s view, that if they were to have been stricken from history by some belligerent editor, there?d just be a few more dead people, whereas the elimination of a Dante or Shakespeare would have untold moral damages upon the world at large, rings with a certain utilitarianism that defies subject matter. This gives insight into Shelley conception of the world, as both grandiose and slightly detached. Inhumanities come and go, it?s the real philosophical ontology which bears interest.