Randolph Bourne in 1917, explaining why progressives supported US entry into World War I:

"They have absorbed the secret of scientific method as applied to political administration. They are liberal, enlightened, aware. . . .

"They are touched with creative intelligence toward the solution of political and industrial problems. They are a wholly new force in American life. . . . Practically all this element, one would say, is lined up in service of the war-technique. . . .

"There seems to have been a peculiar congeniality between the war and these men. It is as if the war and they had been waiting for each other. . . . Wartime brings the ideal of the State out into very clear relief, and reveals attitudes and tendencies that were hidden. . . .

"In times of peace the sense of the State flags in a republic that is not militarized. For war is essentially the health of the State. The ideal of the State is that within its territory its power and influence should be universal. . . .

"As the Church is the medium for the spiritual salvation of men, so the State is thought of as the medium for his political salvation. Its idealism is a rich blood flowing to all the members of the body politic. . . .

"And it is precisely in war that the urgency for union seems greatest, and the necessity for universality seems most unquestioned. The State is the organization of the herd to act offensively or defensively against another herd similarly organized. . . .

The more terrifying the occasion for defense, the closer will become the organization and the more coercive the influence upon each member of the herd."

–Randolph Bourne, "Twilight of Idols," 1917