Man is the only creature disposed to kill huge numbers of members of his own species, and his instrument is usually the state.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on humanity's unique tendency for internal conflict and mass violence, often facilitated by governmental power.
Joseph Sobran highlights the paradoxical nature of humanity; unlike any other species, humans have a propensity for violence against their own kind, frequently orchestrated through political mechanisms. This observation invites a deep reflection on the role of the state in facilitating such actions, suggesting that societal structures can both protect and endanger the very people they are meant to serve.
In practice
In a debate about the role of government during times of war, this quote can emphasize the darker aspects of state power.
There has never been a humane communist regime. Marxism is inherently totalitarian. It recognizes no moral limits on the state. Itβs the most convenient ideology for aspiring tyrants; it also retains its appeal for intellectuals, who have proved equally skillful at rationalizing abuses of power and at exculpating themselves.
The prospect of a government that treats all its citizens as criminal suspects is more terrifying than any terrorist. And even more frightening is a citizenry that can accept the surrender of its freedoms as the price of "freedom".
It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief.
The rise and fall of civilizations in the long, broad course of history can be seen to have been largely a function of the integrity and cogency of their supporting canons of myth; for not authority but aspiration is the motivator, builder, and transformer of civilization.
Long before you knew what death was you were wishing it on someone else.
The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought.
War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it. Dulce bellum inexpertis.
Anarchy: It is NOT bombs, disorder or chaos. It is NOT robbery and murder. It is NOT a war of each against all. It is NOT a return to barbarism or to the wild state of man. Anarchism is the very opposite of all that.
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