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Mark twain war VICTORY OF THE LOUD LITTLE HANDFUL
Reprinted September 20 in the Philadelphia Inquirer
from The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)
by Mark Twain
The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. The pulpit
will warily and dutiously - object... at first. The great, big, dull
bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why
there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is
unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it."
Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side
will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first
will have a hearing and be applauded, but it will not last long; those
others will outshout them, and presently the antiwar audiences will
thin
out and lose popularity.
Before long, you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from
the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men...Next
the statesmen will i nvent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation
that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those
conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and
refuse to examine any refutations of them.
Thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will
thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of
grotesque self-deception.
Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)
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