{"product_id":"2940015971491","title":"Aleta Dey","description":"PREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough the winds of popular caprice are almost as variable as those of nature it did not seem possible back in the dark days of military tyranny, when this book was written, that the day would come in the lifetime of any radical then living, when the tables would be turned over a large portion of a great continent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut so it is to-day, and with the radicals in the saddle in several European countries, we see the sorry spectacle of history repeating itself and the oppressed becoming the oppressor. My mind refuses to make any distinction between the tyranny of radicals and the tyranny of conservatives. As I see it, tyranny wears many wigs, but he has only one complexion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is neither excuse nor palliation of this tendency to suppress conservative opinion to say that they are only getting their own back. Revenge is the meagre dream of little minds. It is like the remembered table delights of our childhood, which when repeated in maturity are flat and unpalatable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps if the conservative mind would show that it had learned anything from this great upheaval the situation would be somewhat relieved. But regrettably it does not. It has not even sufficient honesty to face the fact that the anarchy it hates is the logical conclusion of the war which it loved.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe militarist felt that he had the pacifist in a difficult position when he asked him if he would stand by and see his mother murdered. And he had. It would have been conclusive were it not that the militarist was not one whit less willing to face the logical conclusion of war–which is that it is our duty to murder anyone whose conduct and opinions seem to us to be injurious to the state in which we live–that, indeed, we need only notify the Almighty that he is on our side to make it a religious obligation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe New York alderman who said he would not hesitate to murder traitors to the flag was at least partially consistent; to be fully so he would have to admit that it was the duty of any other citizen, who felt his opinions were injurious, to murder him. Likely as not he would boggle at that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd that is anarchy, if you please.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut as I did not believe in war, and the anarchistic methods of war governments, neither do I believe in revolution and the oppressive measures of revolutionary governments. It is not possible for any group of people in a country either to inspire or to feel the emotion of fear without spiritually degrading the whole. So it is imperative that the most rampant militarist, imperialist and royalist be protected in the right of every man to think his honest thoughts aloud, even if to insure this some of us, whom in their day of power they so ruthlessly suppressed have once again to take up the heavy burden of rowing against the tide of public opinion, sweeping along as furiously as before in the narrow channels of bigotry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut only so can we ourselves be free, for whether we like it or not, our spirits are chained to the most craven in the country and the limitation of their dreams contracts our own horizon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE AUTHOR.","brand":"OGB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47157837005040,"sku":"2940015971491","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015971491_p0.jpg?v=1763635666","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015971491","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}