"There never has been a just one, never an honorable one-on the
part of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead and this
rule will never change in so many as half a dozen instances. The loud
little handful-as usual-will shout for the war. The pulpit will-
warily and cautiously-object-at first; the great big, dull bulk of the
nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there
should be a war and will say, earnestly and indignantly, 'It is unjust
and dishonorable and there is no necessity for it.
Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other
side will argue and reason against the war with speech
and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded,
but it will not last long; those others will outshout them,
and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose
popularity. Before long you will see this eurious thing: the
speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by
hordes of furious men who in their secret hearts are still
at one with those stoned speakers-as earlier
but do not dare to say so. And now the whole nation-
pulpit and all-will take up the war-cry and shout
itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures
to open his mouth and presently suech mouths will
cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap
lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is
attacked, and every man will be glad of those
conscience-soothing falsities and will diligently
study them, and refuse to examine any refutations
of them, and thus he will by and by convince
himself that the war is just and will thank God
for the better sleep he enjoys after this
process of grotesque self-deception."
from "The Mysterious Stranger" by Mark Twain
Bon Shak
