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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
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Mark Twain
Member of the Anti-Imperialist League
From The Mysterious Stranger (posthumous)
I did not like to hear our race called sheep, and said I did not think they were.
“Still, it is true, lamb,” said Satan. “Look at you in war – what mutton you are, and how ridiculous!”
“In war? How?”
“There has never 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 curious 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 such 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.”
Yes, some things never change and Mark Twain’s assessment of the popular reaction to the cries for war is one of them. I imagine the only thing in the past 70 years that has prevented a war between the US and the then USSR followed by the Russian Federation, was the concept of MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. Those of us who grew up and matured under the shadow of this threat always had this in mind whenever a flareup occurred between the two nuclear powers, culminating in that week in October 1962 when the world came closest to annihilation. Kennedy and Khrushchev moved back from the brink because of the willingness to find a solution that allowed both leaders to save “face” and let the world breath a collective sigh of relief….even though there were voices from the JCS that advocated a nuclear “first strike” acknowledging we would lose millions but in the final assessment we would “win”!
Alarmingly, even today we have Senator Wicker of Mississippi who recently stated the US should give Putin a “bloody nose” and even advocated a nuclear “first strike”. Where does the US find people like this, people that are either utterly ignorant of the implications of what they are advocating or knowing what they are saying and are just evil souls?
We can only pray and hope wise men advise those in power and that the collective decision is made to seek peace.
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I think there is a chronic shortage of wise men in DC nowadays. Human psychology is a major stumbling block for the progress of civilization.
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