Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/111

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MEANS AND EFFECTS
79

serves capitalism with that spirit in all other directions, apart from the purely military, for instance, by creating and promoting proletarian docility in face of economic, social and political exploitation and by thwarting as much as possible the struggle for the liberation of the working class. We shall have to deal with this later on.

SEMI-OFFICIAL AND SEMI-MILITARY ORGANIZA-
TION OF THE CIVIL POPULATION.

Militarism also seeks to influence those persons who do not yet or who no longer belong to the active army, to as large an extent, for as long a period and as strongly as possible. It attempts to accomplish its purpose in the first place by arrogating to itself the greatest possible authority over those persons, for instance, by a system of control, by largely extending the military jurisdiction, the procedure by the military courts of honor (which is even employed against retired officers) and even the competence of the military command. This method is characterized with