On War

"'I'm for my country, right or wrong' may have had its uses in centuries past-but it hasn't now, unless our civilization is imaginary. The biggest coward is the man who does most of the fighting and carries the biggest gun. There is enough physical bravery in the world-what we need is more of the other kind.

"For about the 179^th time during the last 179 days I have had to listen to this remark: 'These are interesting times-do you realize history is being made now,' etc., etc….If watching a boy grind an axe all day so he can try it on his foot at night is interesting, then this war is interesting-this war started by rich degenerates fought for rich degenerates but fought by the people against the people-people who the stupider they act the braver they are called.

"When a man says he hates war, but believes it's got to come, he's a coward-the kind that makes war possible. He says you must be practical-you mustn't-as soon as you're practical you're a coward. The stupidity of politicians is the only cause of war. And property, in the name of efficiency, is trying to get control of the war machinery and so more effectively establish itself in control of this country."

-Charles Ives, composer and insurance executive

"And once again the little editorial fellows in the London collars, and the underwear unchanged for weeks, are hawking the alarm on every newsstand that only by napalm and thunder-jet may the American way of life be saved. That no man may now call himself loyal who will not pledge allegiance to the commander of the closest American Legion Post and to that mob-mindedness for which he stands. That by placing economic boycotts on dissenters we thereby ensure the liberties of conformists. That what is good for Jake Margarine is good for the country. That by hobbling our scientists and teachers we guarantee academic freedom. That if we can but build a space platform before anyone else we shall thus ensure national contentment for keeps. And that in its capacity to wage technological warfare across another people's soil lies proof of any nation's greatness. Babbitt has risen from the dust of the Twenties, his finger fit the levers of power and the lid is off on the price of non-conformity."

-Nelson Algren, author of "The Man With The Golden Arm"