Christianity and Patriotism
military officers, dressed up in their ludicrous costumes, seriously discussing with what guns and cannons they can best kill people, are fully convinced that their manoeuvres and reviews are of the greatest importance to the people.
The priests who preach patriotism, the journalists and writers of patriotic poems and school books, who get liberal remuneration for it, have the same conviction. And those who get up celebrations like the recent Franco-Russian ones, and are genuinely moved as they utter their patriotic speeches and toasts, have no doubt of it either. All these people do what they do unconsciously, because it is essential for them, or because they can do nothing else, since their whole life is built on this deception; and meanwhile these very actions call forth the sympathy and approval of all the people in the midst of whom they are performed. It is not merely that, being all connected together, they justify and approve the actions and doings of one another—Emperors and Kings of the doings of army officers, officials, and the clergy; and army officers, officials, and the clergy of the doings of Emperors and Kings: the crowd of simple people, especially the crowd of the town, seeing no sense intelligible to them in what is done by all these people, unconsciously ascribe a peculiar, almost supernatural significance to it. The crowd see, for instance, that triumphal arches are erected, that men are
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