Friday, May 01, 2026

How Many?

This is a quote from Adin Ballou's pamphlet "How many Men are Necessary to Change a Crime into a Virtue?" as it appears in Constance Garnett's translation of Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God Is Within You”:
"One man may not kill. If he kills a fellow-creature, he is a murderer. If two, ten, a hundred men do so, they, too, are murderers. But a government or a nation may kill as many men as it chooses, and that will not be murder, but a great and noble action. Only gather the people together on a large scale, and a battle of ten thousand men becomes an innocent action. But precisely how many people must there be to make it so?—that is the question. One man cannot plunder and pillage, but a whole nation can. But precisely how many are needed to make it permissible? Why is it that one man, ten, a hundred, may not break the law of God, but a great number may?" 

Tolstoy was not a fan of the so-called just war theory. His pupils Gandhi and MLK carried forward his beliefs.in non-violence. The GOAT for non-resistance to evil by force is Jesus. Of course, if that guy shows up again, we will have to burn him at the stake as explained by the Grand Inquisitor.

_______________________________