"As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are ‘only doing their duty’, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil." ― George Orwell, England Your England
The same man, George Orwell also wrote: People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
Think about it. They
don’t necessarily contradict each other.
They are words from two different people with different eyes because of
the positions they currently occupy. One
view is from the bomb’s recipient. The
other view is from the person benefiting from the bombs.
Orwell wrote the second quote in his essay "The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius." These two seemingly different opinions aren't Orwell's. He is describing people. I think Orwell recognizes that patriotism is a religion. It even takes precedence over Christianity or any other religion, because a Christian or other, doesn't recognize patriotism as a religion. He can be both. God and country aren't the same, so loyalty to each wouldn't be the same. But they get confused and patriotism comes ahead. Hitler and Mussolini knew this and rose to power on it. Putin tells his people that the noble Russians are freeing the Ukrainians. The Russians are the good guys liberating Ukraine.
People are fickle. How they sleep depends on what country they are in.
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