Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/98

 HE power of Governments over the peoples has for many years now rested not upon force, as it did in the days when one nationality oppressed another and kept it in subjection by force of arms, or when the rulers in the midst of an unarmed people had masses of armed janissaries or special bodyguards. The power of Governments has for very many years now rested only on what is called public opinion.

There exists a public opinion that patriotism is a great moral sentiment, and that it is good and fitting to regard your own nation, your own state, as the best in the world; and this naturally leads to the public opinion that it is good and fitting to acknowledge and obey the authority of Governments, that it is good and fitting to serve in the army and submit to discipline, that it is good and fitting to give one's savings to the Government in the form of taxes, that it is good and fitting to submit to the decisions of judges, that it is good and fitting to believe without inquiry what is given out by members of the Government as divine truth.