Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/273

 PATRIOTISM AND GOVERNMENT 257

' My neighbour in the ranks had his jaw broken by a bullet. The poor wretch went wild with pain. He ran like a madman, and in the scorching summer heat could not even get water to cool his horrible wound. Our commander, the Crown Prince (who was afterwards the noble Emperor Frederick), wrote in his diary : '^ War — is an irony on the Gospels." . . .'

People are beginning to understand the fraud of patriotism, in which all the Governments take such pains to keep them involved.

VIII.

' But,' it is usually asked, ' what will there be instead of Governments ?'

There will be nothing. Something that has long been useless, and therefore superfluous and bad, will be abolished. An organ that, being unnecessary, has become harmful, will be abolished.

' But/ people generally say, ' if there is no Govern- ment, people will violate and kill each other.'

Why.-* Why should the abolition of the organization which arose in consequence of violence, and which has been handed down from generation to generation to do violence — why should the abolition of such an organiza- tion, now devoid of use, cause people to outrage and kill one another } On the contrary, the presumption is that the abolition of the organ of violence would result in people ceasing to violate and kill one another.

Now, some men are specially educated and trained to kill and to do violence to other people — there are men who are supposed to have a right to use violence, and who make use of an organization which exists for that purpose. Such deeds of violence and such killing are considered good and worthy deeds.

But then, people will not be so brought up, and no one will have a right to use violence to others, and there will be no organization to do violence, and — as is natural to people of our time — violence and murder will always be considered bad actions, no matter who com- mits them.

R