
The  State  is  the organized authority, domination, and power of
the   possessing  classes  over  the  masses the  most
flagrant,  the  most  cynical,  and the most complete negation of
humanity. It shatters the universal solidarity of all men on the
earth,  and  brings  some  of  them into association only for the
purpose   of   destroying,  conquering,  and  enslaving  all  the
rest.  This flagrant negation of humanity which constitutes
the  very  essence  of  the  State is, from the standpoint of the
State,  its  supreme  duty and its greatest virtue Thus, to
offend,  to  oppress,  to  despoil, to plunder, to assassinate or
enslave  one's  fellowman  is  ordinarily regarded as a crime. In
public   life,   on  the  other  hand,  from  the  standpoint  of
patriotism,  when  these things are done for the greater glory of
the State, for the preservation or the extension of its power, it
is  all  transformed into duty and virtue This explains why
the  entire  history  of  ancient  and  modern states is merely a
series  of  revolting  crimes;  why kings and ministers, past and
present,  of  all times and all countries---statesmen, diplomats,
bureaucrats,  and  warriors---if  judged  from  the standpoint of
simply  morality  and  human  justice, have a hundred, a thousand
times over earned their sentence to hard labor or to the gallows.
There  is  no  horror,  no  cruelty,  sacrilege,  or  perjury, no
imposture,  no  infamous transaction, no cynical robbery, no bold
plunder  or  shabby  betrayal  that  has not been or is not daily
being  perpetrated by the representatives of the states, under no
other  pretext than those elastic words, so convenient and yet so
terrible: ``for reasons of state.''
 
---Michael Bakunin, Federalism, Socialism, Anti-Theologism,
found  in  Noam  Chomsky,   For Reasons of State, Pantheon,
1973.

