Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder.... The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one anothers throats for the profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.... ~Eugene V. Debs (1918), Speech at Canton, Ohio, IN Michael P. Johnson, ed., Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Vol. II (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998), 124-128. us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/pdocs/debs_war.pdf
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 09:48:07 +0000
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