...will be doomed to repeat it...

Just got through reading through a lot of Mark Twain's old quotes, because I happened to catch ADVISOR's sig and got in the mood to see what the famouse crotchety old writer had to say on things. I'd like to present a few quotes.

The loud little handful will shout for war. The pulpit will warily and cautiously protest at first…The great mass of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes, and will try to make out why there should be a war, and they will say earnestly and indignantly: "It is unjust and dishonorable and there is no need for war." Then the few will shout even louder…Before long you will see a curious thing: anti-war speakers will be stoned from the platform, and free speech will be strangled by hordes of furious men who still agree with the speakers but dare not admit it ... Next, statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting 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; and 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.

...and...

Against our traditions we are now entering upon an unjust and trivial war, a war against a helpless people, and for a base object — robbery. At first our citizens spoke out against this thing, by an impulse natural to their training. Today they have turned, and their voice is the other way. What caused the change? Merely a politician's trick — a high-sounding phrase, a blood-stirring phrase which turned their uncritical heads: Our Country, right or wrong! An empty phrase, a silly phrase. It was shouted by every newspaper, it was thundered from the pulpit, the Superintendent of Public Instruction placarded it in every schoolhouse in the land, the War Department inscribed it upon the flag. And every man who failed to shout it or who was silent, was proclaimed a traitor — none but those others were patriots. To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, "Our Country, right or wrong," and urge on the little war. Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation?

I realize that making a post with the majority consisting of quotes is generally frowned upon, and for that I apologize. This is not something I'm often known to do on ATS. I just felt that, for some reason, it was important to let people know that self-doubts as a nation, and conviction about the tyrrany of an overly vocal minority has changed very little over the last century.

Our nation, according to all the credible authors of each decade, has always been just on the brink of destruction by those from within and without. Somehow, we've always miraculously made it through, year after year, decade after decade, century after century...

i always forget how much of a visionary and a genius ol' sam clemens was.

we need more people like him these days, the grass roots intellectuals.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
i always forget how much of a visionary and a genius ol' sam clemens was.

we need more people like him these days, the grass roots intellectuals.

I think we have them in droves, but there's so many places to turn our attention to that few ever manage to get attention. Some of the best ones I've seen were authors on interview during the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Thank you for looking for that information.

Its amazing what insight some people had....

You know... since this sort of thing apparently happens each generation, I wonder if I could make a "book of prophesies" vaguely worded enough to come true...

Hmm.... new project, methinks.