War is just that absolute situation which is its own end and its own means, and which speedily outstrips the power of intelligent and creative control. As long as you are out of war, events remain to some degree malleable. But clamp down the psychic pattern of war on the nation, and you have precipitated an abso lute where mastery becomes a mockery. Mere conscientious objection in wartime is not so uncreative or unintelligent as Mr. I Dewey represents it. No social machinery exists to make dissent effective.
Alternative ends are illusory.
You can only accept, or rebel, or remain apathetic. This is not true of other social situations. It is true of war. If you are skeptical of the technique of war, or of the professed aims, a negative attitude is the only possible one. It may not be noble to concentrate on your own integrity, but it is perhaps better than to be a hypocrite or a martyr.