Samuel Clemens, 1910

Apparently Clemens' word is eternal, too.

Victory of the Loud Little Handful
by Mark Twain


The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for
the war. The pulpit will - warily and cautiously -
object... at first. The great, big, dull bulk of the
nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out
why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and
indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there
is no necessity for it."

Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on
the other side will argue and reason against the war
with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing
and be applauded, but it will not last long; those
others will outshout them, and presently the antiwar
audiences will thin out and lose popularity.

Before long, you will see this curious thing: the
speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech
strangled by hordes of furious men...

Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the
blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man
will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities,
and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine
any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by
convince himself that the war is just, and will thank
God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process
of grotesque self-deception.

Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)