“The lowest standards of ethics of which a right-thinking man can possibly conceive is taught to the common soldier whose trade is to shoot his fellow men. In youth he may have learned the command, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ but the ruler takes the boy just as he enters manhood and teaches him that his highest duty is to shoot a bullet through his neighbor’s heart — and this, unmoved by passion or feeling or hatred, and without the least regard to right or wrong, but simply because his ruler gives the word.”
—Clarence Darrow, Resist Not Evil
“Discipline consists in this, that the men who undergo the instruction and have followed it for a certain time are completely deprived of everything which is precious to a man — of the chief human property, rational freedom — and become submissive, machine-like implements of murder in the hands of their organized hierarchic authorities.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Patriotism and Government
Considering the Talmud says Jews can kill non-Jews or goyim, I’m really surprised that there are not more (non-Israel) Jews signing up in the US and other places in order to kill goyim. I guess American Jews don’t read the Talmud much…
Toward the end of his life, London denied that the quote below was his. Some say he was pressured into that denial/threatened. I guess it caused quite a stir and he took a lot of heat for it. I mean we can’t have a popular and beloved author saying things like that. Anyhow, I believe he said it:
“YOUNG MEN: The lowest aim in your life is to become a soldier. The good soldier never tries to distinguish right from wrong. He never thinks; never reasons; he only obeys. If he is ordered to fire on his fellow citizens, on his friends, on his neighbors, on his relatives, he obeys without hesitation. If he is ordered to fire down a crowded street when the poor are clamoring for bread, he obeys and see the grey hairs of age stained with red and the life-tide gushing from the breasts of women, feeling neither remorse nor sympathy. If he is ordered off as a firing squad to execute a hero or benefactor, he fires without hesitation, though he knows the bullet will pierce the noblest heart that ever beat in human breast. A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a man. … All that is human in him, all that is divine in him, all that constitutes the man has been sworn away when he took the enlistment roll. His mind, his conscience, aye, his very soul, are in the keeping of his officer. No man can fall lower than a soldier—it is a depth beneath which we cannot go.”
— Jack London
Heart piercing quote filled with absolute truth. If all young men would read this and take to heart ,those that beat the war drums for mammon would have to suit up or find some other method to extract life and resources.
“The lowest standards of ethics of which a right-thinking man can possibly conceive is taught to the common soldier whose trade is to shoot his fellow men. In youth he may have learned the command, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ but the ruler takes the boy just as he enters manhood and teaches him that his highest duty is to shoot a bullet through his neighbor’s heart — and this, unmoved by passion or feeling or hatred, and without the least regard to right or wrong, but simply because his ruler gives the word.”
—Clarence Darrow, Resist Not Evil
“Discipline consists in this, that the men who undergo the instruction and have followed it for a certain time are completely deprived of everything which is precious to a man — of the chief human property, rational freedom — and become submissive, machine-like implements of murder in the hands of their organized hierarchic authorities.”
—Leo Tolstoy, Patriotism and Government
.
Considering the Talmud says Jews can kill non-Jews or goyim, I’m really surprised that there are not more (non-Israel) Jews signing up in the US and other places in order to kill goyim. I guess American Jews don’t read the Talmud much…
Perhaps it’s ’cause there’s higher pay elsewhere?
.
Toward the end of his life, London denied that the quote below was his. Some say he was pressured into that denial/threatened. I guess it caused quite a stir and he took a lot of heat for it. I mean we can’t have a popular and beloved author saying things like that. Anyhow, I believe he said it:
“YOUNG MEN: The lowest aim in your life is to become a soldier. The good soldier never tries to distinguish right from wrong. He never thinks; never reasons; he only obeys. If he is ordered to fire on his fellow citizens, on his friends, on his neighbors, on his relatives, he obeys without hesitation. If he is ordered to fire down a crowded street when the poor are clamoring for bread, he obeys and see the grey hairs of age stained with red and the life-tide gushing from the breasts of women, feeling neither remorse nor sympathy. If he is ordered off as a firing squad to execute a hero or benefactor, he fires without hesitation, though he knows the bullet will pierce the noblest heart that ever beat in human breast. A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a man. … All that is human in him, all that is divine in him, all that constitutes the man has been sworn away when he took the enlistment roll. His mind, his conscience, aye, his very soul, are in the keeping of his officer. No man can fall lower than a soldier—it is a depth beneath which we cannot go.”
— Jack London
.
Heart piercing quote filled with absolute truth. If all young men would read this and take to heart ,those that beat the war drums for mammon would have to suit up or find some other method to extract life and resources.
Yeah, Katie. It’s like those words free up all the common sense that’s been suppressed for millennia.
.