Re: Newb question (OT sig correction)
Re: Newb question (OT sig correction)
- Subject: Re: Newb question (OT sig correction)
- From: bill fancher <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 19:22:40 -0700
This is WAY OT, but in the interest of accuracy...
On Monday, September 2, 2002, at 05:38 PM, John C. Welch wrote:
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that
nothing is
worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing
to
fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety,
is a
miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and
kept so
by the exertions of better men than himself."
- John Stuart Mill
Both context and text have been quietly omitted to convey a subtly
twisted meaning (I'm NOT saying John did this. Having no reason to
think otherwise, I believe he found the "quote" as he posted it. It
turns up in this form in various places.) The full quote (regarding the
U.S. Civil War), along with a bit of context:
"I am not blind to the possibility that it may require a long war to
lower the arrogance and tame the aggressive ambition of the
slave-owners, to the point of either returning to the Union, or
consenting to remain out of it with their present limits. But war, in a
good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War is
an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded
state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war,
is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing
cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish
purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect
other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory
to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war,
carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice--is often the
means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing
to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his
personal safety, is a miserable creature, who has no chance of being
free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than
himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their
ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human
beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against
the other." - John Stewart Mill - The Contest in America
I fear that it is war "in the service and for the selfish purposes of a
master" that we are now contemplating.
One reason I always advise against even vaguely political/religious
sigs on tech lists is that there's always some idiot like me who's
going to respond and the next thing you know, you've got an OT
flamewar. Better to leave that stuff for more appropriate fora. But as
long as we're at it, just to keep things "fair and balanced"...
--
bill
"The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an
energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average
share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to
fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on
the one hand and terrorism on the other..." -- Bertrand Russell
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