PATRIOTISM AND GOVERNMENT 259
peoples to die of hunger ? Even that is already begin- ning- in Russia_, in Italy, and in India. Or are the women as well as the men to go to be soldiers ? In the Transvaal even that has begun.
So that even if the absence of Government really meant Anarchy in the negative, disorderly sense of that word — which is far from being the case — even then no anarchical disorder could be worse than the position to which Governments have already led their peoples, and to which they are leading them.
And therefore emancipation from patriotism, and the destruction of the despotism of Government that rests upon it, cannot but be beneficial to mankind.
Men, recollect yourselves ! For the sake of your well-being, physical and spiritual, for the sake of your brothers and sisters, pause, consider, and think of what you are doing !
Reflect, and you will understand that your foes are not the Boers, or the English, or the French, or the Germans, or the Finns, or the Russians, but that your foes — your only foes — are you yourselves, who by your patriotism maintain the Governments that oppress you and make you unhappy.
They have undertaken to protect you from danger, and they have brought that pseudo-protection to such a point that you have all become soldiers — slaves, and are all ruined, or are being ruined more and more, and at any moment may and should expect that the tight- stretched cord will snap, and a horrible slaughter of you and your children will commence.
And however great that slaughter may be, and how- ever that conflict may end, the same state of things will continue. In the same way, and with yet greater intensity, the Governments will arm, and ruin, and pervert you and your children, and no one will help you to stop it or to prevent it, if you do not help your- selves.
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