. You must not
fatigue your mind by thinking; repeat your catechism!

"Are we not told that this catechism was freely agreed to by the
sovereign people?--A fine sovereignty, truly! Idiots, who puff out
your cheeks over the word Democracy! Democracy is the art of usurping
the people's place, of shearing their wool off closely, in this holy
name, for the benefit of some of Democracy's good apostles. In peace
times the people only know what goes on through the press, which is
bought and told what to say by those whose interest it is to hoodwink
the public, while the truth is kept under lock and key. In war time it
is even better, for then it is the people themselves who are locked
up. Allowing that they have ever known what they wanted, it is no
longer possible for them to speak above their breath. Obey. _Perinde
ac cadaver_.... Ten millions of corpses.... The living are hardly
better off, depressed as they are by four years of sham patriotism,
circus-parades, tom-toms, threats, braggings, hatreds, informers,
trials for treason, and summary executions. The demagogues have called
in all the reserves of obscurantism to extinguish the last gleams
of good sense that lingered in the people, and to reduce them to
imbecility.

"It is not enough to debase them; they must be so stupefied that they
wish to be debased. The formidable autocracies of Egypt, Persia, and
Syria, made playthings of the lives of millions of men; and the secret
of their power lay in the supernatural light of their pseudo-divinity.
From the extreme limit of the ages of credulity, every absolute
monarchy has been a theocracy. In our democracies, however, it
is impossible to believe in the divinity of humbugs, shaky and
discredited, like some of our moth-eaten Ministers; we are too close
to them, we know their dirty tricks, so they have invented the idea of
concealing God behind their drop-curtain; God means the Republic,
the Country, Justice, Civilisation; the names are painted up on
the outside. Each booth at the fair displays in huge many-coloured
posters, the picture of its Beautiful Giantess; millions crowd around
to see it, but they do not tell us what they think when they come out.
Perhaps they found it difficult to think at all! Some stay inside and
others have seen nothing. But those who stand in front of the stage
gaping, they know God is there for they have seen His picture. The
wish that we have to believe in Him--that is the god of each one of
u