Chapter 12

CONCLUSION--REPENT YE, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND.

1. Chance Meeting with a Train Carrying Soldiers to Restore Order
Among the Famishing Peasants--Reason of the Expedition--How the
Decisions of the Higher Authorities are Enforced in Cases of
Insubordination on Part of the Peasants--What Happened at Orel, as
an Example of How the Rights of the Propertied Classes are
Maintained by Murder and Torture--All the Privileges of the
Wealthy are Based on Similar Acts of Violence.

2. The Elements that Made up the Force Sent to Toula, and the
Conduct of the Men Composing it--How these Men Could Carry Out
such Acts--The Explanation is Not to be Found in Ignorance,
Conviction, Cruelty, Heartlessness, or Want of Moral Sense--They
do these Things Because they are Necessary to Support the Existing
Order, which they Consider it Every Man's Duty to Support--The
Basis of this Conviction that the Existing Order is Necessary and
Inevitable--In the Upper Classes this Conviction is Based on the
Advantages of the Existing Order for Themselves--But what Forces
Men of the Lower Classes to Believe in the Immutability of the
Existing Order, from which they Derive no Advantage, and which
they Aid in Maintaining, Facts Contrary to their Conscience?--This
is the Result of the Lower Classes being Deluded by the Upper,
Both as to the Inevitability of the Existing Order and the
Lawfulness of the Acts of Violence Needed to Maintain it--
Deception in General--Special Form of Deception in Regard to
Military Service--Conscription.

3. How can Men Allow that Murder is Permissible while they Preach
Principles of Morality, and How can they Allow of the Existence in
their Midst of a Military Organization of Physical Force which is
a Constant Menace to Public Security?--It is only Allowed by the
Upper Classes, who Profit by this Organization, Because their
Privileges are Maintained by it--The Upper Classes Allow it, and
the Lower Classes Carry it into Effect in Spite of their
Consciousness of the Immorality of the Deeds of Violence, the More
Readily Because Through the Arrangements of the Government the
Moral Responsibility for such Deeds is Divided among a Great
Number of Participants in it, and Everyone Throws the
Responsibility on Someone Else--Moreover, the Sense of Moral
Responsibility is Lost through the Delusion of Inequality, and the
Consequent Intoxication of Power on the Part of Superiors, and
Servility on the Part of Inferiors--The Condition of these Men,
Acting against the Dictates of their Conscience, is Like that of
Hypnotized Subjects Acting by Suggestion--The Difference between
this Obedience to Government Suggestion, and Obedience to Public
Opinion, and to the Guidance of Men of a Higher Moral