You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
-Bob Dylan
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 17, 1916
From The Masses: “The Instigators” by Art Young
Thomas Paine from Rights of Man:
As war is the system of Government on the old construction, the animosity which Nations reciprocally entertain, is nothing more than what the policy of their Governments excites, to keep up the spirit of the system. Each Government accuses the other of perfidy, intrigue, and ambition, as a means of heating the imagination of their respective Nations, and incensing them to hostilities. Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of Kings, the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such Governments; and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of a Nation should apply itself to reform the system.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The Masses
(New York, New York)
-December 1916
http://dlib.nyu.edu/themasses/books/masses068
Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s
Attack on the French Revolution, Volume 1
-by Thomas Paine
London, 1817
https://archive.org/stream/rightsofman00painiala#page/n5/mode/2up
“As war is the system of Government…”
https://archive.org/stream/rightsofman00painiala#page/n109/mode/2up
IMAGE
“The Instigators” by Art Young
http://dlib.nyu.edu/themasses/books/masses068/9