particles of a huge machine—the army—which will be under our absolute control. On entering this army you will cease to be men with wills of your own; you will simply do what we require of you. But what we wish, above all else, is to exercise dominion; the means by which we dominate is killing, therefore we will instruct you to kill."
Notwithstanding the obvious absurdity of the assertion that people are in danger of being attacked by the governments of other States; who, in their turn, affirm that they—in spite of all their desire for peace—find themselves in precisely the same danger; notwithstanding the humiliation of that slavery to which men subject themselves by entering the army; notwithstanding the cruelty of the work to which they are summoned, men nevertheless submit to this fraud, give their money to be used for their own subjugation, and themselves help to enslave others.
But now there come people who say, "What you tell us about the danger threatening us, and about your anxiety to guard us against it, is a fraud. All the States are assuring us that they desire peace, and yet at the same time all are arming themselves against the others. Moreover, according to that law, which you yourselves recognise, all men are brothers, and it makes no difference whether one belongs to this State or to that; therefore the idea of our being attacked by other nations,
