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| So sayeth Voltaire |
"It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
(Voltaire). Massive killing is going on around the globe in "kill in large numbers" mode but as in his day, what really means something is a single killing (e.g. Charlie Kirk).
Even civilizations die in like manner according to a once most-often-quoted historian:
"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."
(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). And let's not forget that one inverse of that equation was spoken as:
“Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
(Friedrich Nietzsche). That observation is also quite perplexing when we look at more of Toynbee's studies and writings:
"In the Study Toynbee examined the rise and fall of 26 civilizations in the course of human history, and he concluded that they rose by responding successfully to challenges under the leadership of creative minorities composed of elite leaders. Civilizations declined when their leaders stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic minority.
(Encyclopedia Britannica, emphasis added). This fits in with some observations of leaders of the country Charlie Kirk was killed in:
“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison
War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.
The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
Those truths are well established." - James Madison
(quotes page). The father of psychoanalysis indicated that we must get a grip on this mental disease but also expressed some doubts about whether it is important to the powerful:
"I would not say that such an attempt to apply psychoanalysis to civilized society would be fanciful or doomed to fruitlessness." - Sigmund Freud
(ibid). And so it goes:
"Defense? Who needs 'defense' when 'war' is so much easier to spell? As few could have missed by now, the Trump administration has flipped the name of the Department of Defense back to the old Department of War. Hey, it’s really not such a big deal, though, is it? After all, who cares that name changes are going to have to be put in place at 700,000 facilities in all 50 states and 40 other countries (including those embossed napkins in military dining halls)? After all, in the Trump era, 'war' at least couldn’t be blunter."
(Tom Dispatch). Yep, doing the right thing is mass killing to the sound of trumpets while righteously flipping out to a single killing.
