Sigmoid Flexure Mundus

[Terrance]

Nations are in a measure represented by the States
which they have formed; these states, by the governments which
administer them. 
The individual in any given nation has in  war a terrible opportunity
to convince himself of what would occasionally strike him in
peace-time---that the state has forbidden to the individual the practice
of wrong-doing, not because it desired to abolish it, but because it
desires to monopolize it... The warring state permits itself every such
misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual
man. It practices not only the accepted stratagems,  but also deliberate
lying and deception... The state exacts the utmost degree of obedience
and sacrifice from its citizens, but at the same time treats them as
children by maintaining an excess of secrecy, and a censorship of news
and expressions of opinion that renders the spirits of those thus
intellectually oppressed defenseless against every unfavorable turn of
events and every sinister rumor. It absolves itself from guarantees and
contracts it had formed with other states, and makes unabashed
confession of its rapacity and lust for power, which the private
individual is then called upon to sanction in the name of patriotism. 


They say patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings
I will not raise my hammer in the name of gods  nor remove my hat in the
presence of kings. 

--The Carpter's Friend