The Washington herald., 1916-07-23
"In War, the State Is All,
The Individual Nothing
DR.. Max Nordau, War Prisoner, Denounces Fe-
itch, Which in Times of Strife Reduces
Man to Degraded Tool.

a mere thing OF which a superior power
disposes in an unlimited manner.
Not only must he be prepared for the
most extreme sacrifice, that of his life
in the battlefield. but even before he
faces at command the enemys weapons
he must renounce all his own in his
soul and heart; his most cherished in
clinations, his deepest convictions, his
right OF criticizing the nature and end
OF his proper acts and of those of others,
his capacity for distinguishing between
good and bad. He is forbidden to utter
his views, the censor prevents 1t. Coer-
Cion interferes with his very act of think
ing. A calculated suggestion emanating
from the government creates general de-
lusions. degenerating into a mass de-
lirium which bewilders everybody 5
mind. Truth is darkened, lies. are raised
to the status of a dogma. a fanaticism
takes hold of the body polite and SUBJ
jects everybody's opinion to violence.
Whoever dares. In spite OF this, to form
, a divergent Judgment and to maintain
1t. is stamped by common consent as a
criminal, traitor, an anarchist, an
enemy Of his nation whom it is a duty
and a merit to suppress.
War Suffers No IndividuaIism.
The humiliation of the Individual, his
drowning in the body polite, is fully JUS
AlAcN IL IL 10 ddlALlANCu lndl lne emu VI
the State Is war. War suffers no indi-
dIvualism. 1t did not suffeS-it even in
the remotest times when 1t dissolved it.
self into number Of picturesque or epic
single fights, for the single fighters also
had to agree among them as to the time
and place OF their acts OF prowess and
to obey a general plan IL the valor was
not to be stricken with baroness.
In our time of scientific warfare It is
unit mink ahla A single will
the whole national organism. a single
mind must think, judge. scheme for all,
a single executive must dispose of all re-
sources Of the whole nation.
A State, allowing its citizens individual
rights, respecting their personality, hesi-
tating to use them without regard, has
no chance in war against an adversary
who halts at no consideration for indi-
viduals and uses them like so many en-
gines.
But is war the end OF the State? /
deny 1t with my utmost energy. 1t is
the contention Of the mystics of State
| omnipotence. They drivel about will
for power" impulse to domination" l
do not know what mission to subject the
whole universe to their influence" about
imposing their mentality upon the entire
mankind, about fixing their territorial
frontiers according to their own wants.
about anneXing all foreign territories they
deem necessary or useful to them
These are revolving sophisms that do
not become moral because they take the
disguise Of patriotism. \ State has no
more moral right to fly at its neighbor
in pursuit OF its own profit than has an
individual to enter as a burglar the house
OF his fellowman or to pick his pocket
because he has good employ for his prop
erty or for the contents of his purse.
Whoever propounds the theory Of a
double morality. a public and private one,
or pretends that the State is not bound
by the ethical law. discloses his own deep
immortality and reveals himself as a GRIM
inal, in intention II not in deeds
CThe second and concluding article OF
: this series will be published next Sunday)