Not in YBQ

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Oct 12 15:01:56 UTC 2011


Despite *two million* Google hits and *seventeen thousand* at GB.

1918 Randolph Bourne _Untimely Papers_ (N.Y.: B. W. Huebsch, 1919)
193: War is the health of the State, and it is during war that one
best understands the nature of that institution."

Bourne (1886-1918) was *against* both war and the state. The first
seven words have been a staple of pacifist and radical groups ever
since. ( War remains *unhealthy* for children and other living
things.)

Bourne's line is also attributed (probably erroneously)  to Nietzsche.
It does, however, sum up social-Darwinist thought of about 1870-1914,
particularly the thinking of gung-ho Prussian intellectuals like
Treitschke and Bernhardi.

Who were *in favor* of both war and the state.


JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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