CHAPTER 12
THE STATE1

All modern conceptions of state have one thing in common: material benefits have so obsessed the views of the civilized world that God and religion have been relegated to the corner of oblivion and the higher values of life are utterly neglected even in countries which nominally still owe allegiance to Christ and Christianity. The modern states may not be one in their lip professions so far as the supreme authority of God is concerned, but, strangely enough, they are one in worshipping the two new gods which Western civilization has created in place of the One God Whom it has dismissed as a thing of the past. The Nation and the State are the new idols before which the civilized man has fallen prostrate. And along with the old — perhaps the oldest-living — god Mammon, a new Trinity has emerged in place of the Trinity of the Church. The gain of economic advantages or the acquisition of wealth being the sole consideration of the civilized man, he is prepared to make any sacrifice that is required of him to gain this end, in the name of the State and for the love of the Nation. Wealth, Nation and State have thus the highest place of honour in the heart of the civilized man and he worships these idols. The desire to bow is there in human nature, and if men will not bow before their Maker, they must bow before things of their own making. Objects unworthy of worship have, however, always led humanity to ruin, and the worship of Mammon and its two associates, the Nation and the State is even now leading civilization to sure destruction. The State in the West whether it is labelled as a democracy or a Fascist or a Communist state, stands for expansion, aggression and exploiting the weak. It is not Machiavelli alone with whom “consideration of justice or injustice” carries no weight, and with whom “every scruple must be set aside” when the safety of the State is at stake. Even those who condemn him are following in his footsteps. With the gold of the world in their possession and with their bombs and bombers, they claim that they have an additional