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"War is the Health of the State."
- Thread starter KenH
- Start date
Ascetic X
Well-Known Member
Ben1445
Well-Known Member
That is hard to follow. The markup is not clearly defined and adds in WWII to something written with the Great War in mind.
I don’t have time to sort it out.
Would you mind giving me a summary?
Ascetic X
Well-Known Member
“War is the health of the state" is a famous aphorism from Randolph Bourne's unfinished 1918 essay, "The State," arguing that wartime causes government power to expand rapidly, suppressing dissent, and fostering blind patriotism. Bourne believed war turns the state into the central arbiter of life, forcing uniformity and uniting the "herd".
Key Aspects of Bourne's Argument:
- Expansion of Power: During peacetime, citizens may ignore the state, but in wartime, the state and government become identical, causing the state to flourish while individual freedoms shrink.
- Patriotism as Control: War triggers a "herd instinct," transforming the populace into a cohesive unit that supports the government, viewing opposition as disloyalty.
- The "Sacred" State:
Bourne, a progressive Marxist writer, wrote this to warn that war empowers the least democratic forces in American life. He felt to get rid of war, capitalism must be destroyed.
Context: The essay was written amid World War I and was found in his papers after his death in 1918.
KenH
Well-Known Member
I would question the classification of Bourne as a "Marxist", based on this quote:
“ Intellectual radicalism should not mean repeating stale dogmas of Marxism. It should not mean ‘the study of socialism.’ " - from "The Price of Radicalism"
Some more quotes by Bourne on war and also one on the presidency(which definitely fits with how the presidency has evolved during the 21st century in the United States):
"It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. The machinery of government sets and enforces the drastic penalties. … in general, the nation in wartime attains a uniformity of feeling, a hierarchy of values culminating at the undisputed apex of the State ideal, which could not possibly be produced through any other agency than war. Other values such as artistic creation, knowledge, reason, beauty, the enhancement of life, are instantly and almost unanimously sacrificed, and the significant classes who have constituted themselves the amateur agents of the State, are engaged not only in sacrificing these values for themselves but in coercing all other persons into sacrificing them." - from The State
"In your reaction to an imagined attack on your country or an insult to its government, you draw closer to the herd for protection, you conform in word and deed, and you act together. And you fix your adoring gaze upon the State, with a truly filial look, as upon the Father of the flock, the quasi-personal symbol of the strength of the herd, and the leader and determinant of your definite action and ideas." - from The State
"The President is an elected king, but the fact that he is elected has proved to be of far less significance in the course of political evolution than the fact that he is pragmatically a king." - from The State
“ Intellectual radicalism should not mean repeating stale dogmas of Marxism. It should not mean ‘the study of socialism.’ " - from "The Price of Radicalism"
Some more quotes by Bourne on war and also one on the presidency(which definitely fits with how the presidency has evolved during the 21st century in the United States):
"It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. The machinery of government sets and enforces the drastic penalties. … in general, the nation in wartime attains a uniformity of feeling, a hierarchy of values culminating at the undisputed apex of the State ideal, which could not possibly be produced through any other agency than war. Other values such as artistic creation, knowledge, reason, beauty, the enhancement of life, are instantly and almost unanimously sacrificed, and the significant classes who have constituted themselves the amateur agents of the State, are engaged not only in sacrificing these values for themselves but in coercing all other persons into sacrificing them." - from The State
"In your reaction to an imagined attack on your country or an insult to its government, you draw closer to the herd for protection, you conform in word and deed, and you act together. And you fix your adoring gaze upon the State, with a truly filial look, as upon the Father of the flock, the quasi-personal symbol of the strength of the herd, and the leader and determinant of your definite action and ideas." - from The State
"The President is an elected king, but the fact that he is elected has proved to be of far less significance in the course of political evolution than the fact that he is pragmatically a king." - from The State