Popular Science Monthly/Volume 54/March 1899/Politics as a Form
of Civil War  From Wikisource Jump to: navigation, search
" WHY is it that, in spite of exhortation and execration, the
disinclination of people in all the great democracies of the
world to take part in politics is becoming greater and greater?
Why is it that persons of fine character, scholarly tastes, and
noble aims, in particular, seek in other ways than association
and co-operation with politicians to better the lot of their
fellows? Why is it, finally, that with the enormous extension of
political rights and privileges during the past fifty years,
there has occurred a social, political, and industrial
degeneration that fills with alarm the thoughtful minds of all
countries? Aside from the demoralization due to the destructive
wars fought since the Crimean, the answer to these questions is
to be found in the fact that at bottom politics is a form of
civil war, that politicians are a species of condottieri, and
that to both may be traced all