We trained hard - but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we were reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
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I've been to war, and it's not easy to kill. It's bloody and messy and totally horrifying, and the consequences read more
I've been to war, and it's not easy to kill. It's bloody and messy and totally horrifying, and the consequences are serious.
Chinks in America's egalitarian armor are not hard to find. Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.
Chinks in America's egalitarian armor are not hard to find. Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism.
War: a wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.
War: a wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization.
Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation read more
Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom.
Even a cursory glance at history should convince one that individual crimes committed for selfish motives play a quite insignificant read more
Even a cursory glance at history should convince one that individual crimes committed for selfish motives play a quite insignificant part in the human tragedy, compared to the numbers massacred in unselfish loyalty to one's tribe, nation, dynasty, church, or political ideology, ad majorem gloriam dei. The emphasis is on unselfish. Excepting a small minority of mercenary or sadistic disposition, wars are not fought for personal gain, but out of loyalty and devotion to king, country or cause. Homicide committed for personal reasons is a statistical rarity in all cultures, including our own. Homicide for unselfish reasons, at the risk of one's own life, is the dominant phenomenon of history.
There is perhaps no better way of measuring the natural endowment of a soul than by its ability to transmute read more
There is perhaps no better way of measuring the natural endowment of a soul than by its ability to transmute dissatisfaction into a creative impulse. The genuine artist is as much a dissatisfied person as the revolutionary, yet how diametrically opposed are the products each distills from his dissatisfaction.
Free institutions are not the property of any majority. They do not confer upon majorities unlimited powers. The rights of read more
Free institutions are not the property of any majority. They do not confer upon majorities unlimited powers. The rights of the majority are limited rights. They are limited not only by the constitutional guarantees but by the moral principle implied in those guarantees. That principle is that men may not use the facilities of liberty to impair them. No man may invoke a right in order to destroy it.
The incestuous relationship between government and big business thrives in the dark.
The incestuous relationship between government and big business thrives in the dark.
We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.
We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.
