The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the SudanChurchill, Winston
History
The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan
Churchill, Winston
Sudan -- History -- 1881-1899
The part played by the second force is more obscure. Few facts are so
encouraging to the student of human development as the desire, which
most men and all communities manifest at all times, to associate with
their actions at least the appearance of moral right. However distorted
may be their conceptions of virtue, however feeble their efforts to
attain even to their own ideals, it is a pleasing feature and a hopeful
augury that they should wish to be justified. No community embarks on
a great enterprise without fortifying itself with the belief that from
some points of view its motives are lofty and disinterested. It is an
involuntary tribute, the humble tribute of imperfect beings, to the
eternal temples of Truth and Beauty. The sufferings of a people or a
class may be intolerable, but before they will take up arms and risk
their lives some unselfish and impersonal spirit must animate them. In
countries where there is education and mental activity or refinement,
this high motive is found in the pride of glorious traditions or in a
keen sympathy with surrounding misery. Ignorance deprives savage nations
of such incentives. Yet in the marvellous economy of nature this very
ignorance is a source of greater strength. It affords them the mighty
stimulus of fanaticism. The French Communists might plead that they
upheld the rights of man. The desert tribes proclaimed that they fought
for the glory of God. But although the force of fanatical passion is far
greater than that exerted by any philosophical belief, its sanction is
just the same. It gives men something which they think is sublime
to fight for, and this serves them as an excuse for wars which it is
desirable to begin for totally different reasons. Fanaticism is not a
cause of war. It is the means which helps savage peoples to fight. It is
the spirit which enables them to combine--the great common object before
which all personal or tribal disputes become insignificant. What the
horn is to the rhinoceros, what the sting is to the wasp, the Mohammedan
faith was to the Arabs of the Soudan--a faculty of offence or defence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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