"We cannot leave our topic without saying at least a word about the domestic tyranny that is the inevitable accompaniment of war. The great Randolph Bourne realized that "war is the health of the State." It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest. Society becomes an armed camp, with the values and the morale—as Albert Jay Nock once phrased it—of an "army on the march.""
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Anarchists from the United StatesEssayists from the United StatesAnti-war activistsPeople from New Jersey
Original Language: English
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Sources
Murray N. Rothbard, "War, Peace, and the State" The Standard (April 1963), republished as ch. 5 of Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, and Other Essays, 2nd ed., R. A. Childs, Jr., ed. (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000, orig. 1974), p. 131.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Randolph_Bourne
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Randolph Bourne
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