Adam Smith on popular conformity to war

Dear Sirs and Madams,

I would like to briefly exalt the genius of Adam Smith. His commentary on the relationship between society and government still has great relevance to our society today despite being written more than two centuries ago. I found this quote in the Wealth of Nations and I thought I would share it here.

In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war.

- Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter 3

Just as in Vietnam, where the death of middle class adolescents sparked the anti-war movement, the reversal of popular sentiments on the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan may require a more close-to-home impact for the middle class, suburban Americans. It's a sad reality, yet one that needs to be engrved in our memories as our new president prepares to jump further into the mountains of Hindu Kush.

Best,
Yong Kwon