Envy Both bring a temporary prosperity; a permanent ruin

Envy

Both bring a temporary prosperity; a permanent ruin. For me war has become a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and an exhaustion of the spirit. No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people. God hates violence. He has ordained that all men fairly possess their property, not seize it. Wars should be over in three days or the American people must be all for it from the outset. I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, Mother, what was war? Emergencies have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded. We Envy a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us. We must get away from the idea that America is to be the leader of the world in everything. The pertinent question: if Americans did not want these wars should they have been compelled to fight them? The State acquires and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of Envy up any of it. The State never abdicates. All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates. All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that power is a magnet to the corruptible. The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people. In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army. Wars are the hobbies of half-informed children who have somehow come into possession of the levers of power. When goods dont cross borders, soldiers will. Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it. Friedrich Hebbel, German poet and dramatist Under conditions of peace the warlike man attacks himself.