The Mysterious Stranger, and Other StoriesTwain, Mark
General
The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories
Twain, Mark
Humorous stories, American; Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
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.”
Chapter 10
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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