Do the people in this country approve of this war?" {...}.
"Approve? You don't think we'd lie down and let the damned Thuvians walk all over us? Our status as a world power is at stake!"
"But I mean the people, not the government. The... the people who must fight."
"What's it to them? They're used to mass conscriptions. It's what they're for, my dear fellow! To fight for their country. And let me tell you, there's no better soldier on earth than the Ioti man of the ranks, once he's broken in to taking orders. In peacetime he may spout sentimental pacifism, but the grit's there, underneath. The common soldier hs always been our greatest resource as a nation. It's how we became the leader we are."
"By climbing up on a pile of dead children?" {...}.
"No,"{...} "you'll find the soul of the people true as steel, when the country's threatened. A few rabble-rousers in Nio and the mill towns make a big noise between wars, but it's grand to see how people close ranks when the flag's in danger. You're unwilling to believe that, I know. The trouble with Odonianism, {...}, is that it's womanish. It simply doesn't include the virile side of life. 'Blood and steel, battle's brightness,' as the old poet says. It doesn't understand courage--love of the flag."
{...} "That may be true, in part. At least, we have no flags.
"Approve? You don't think we'd lie down and let the damned Thuvians walk all over us? Our status as a world power is at stake!"
"But I mean the people, not the government. The... the people who must fight."
"What's it to them? They're used to mass conscriptions. It's what they're for, my dear fellow! To fight for their country. And let me tell you, there's no better soldier on earth than the Ioti man of the ranks, once he's broken in to taking orders. In peacetime he may spout sentimental pacifism, but the grit's there, underneath. The common soldier hs always been our greatest resource as a nation. It's how we became the leader we are."
"By climbing up on a pile of dead children?" {...}.
"No,"{...} "you'll find the soul of the people true as steel, when the country's threatened. A few rabble-rousers in Nio and the mill towns make a big noise between wars, but it's grand to see how people close ranks when the flag's in danger. You're unwilling to believe that, I know. The trouble with Odonianism, {...}, is that it's womanish. It simply doesn't include the virile side of life. 'Blood and steel, battle's brightness,' as the old poet says. It doesn't understand courage--love of the flag."
{...} "That may be true, in part. At least, we have no flags.
( Ursula K. Le Guin )
[ The Dispossessed ]
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