Note: This bit of propaganda, which London called "The Good Soldier canard" was, in fact, not written by Jack London. I thought it might be of interest to some folks so have included it here with his real stories. More information on the Good Soldier canard can be found here.

                      The "Good" Soldier   By Jack London
     Young men: The lowest aim in your life is to become a soldier. The good soldier never tries to distinguish right from wrong. He never thinks; never reasons; he only obeys. If he is ordered to fire on his fellow citizens, on his friends, on his neighbors, on his relatives, he obeys without hesitation. If he is ordered to fire down a crowded street when the poor are clamoring for bread, he obeys and sees the gray hairs of age stained with red and the life tide gushing from the breasts of women, feeling neither remorse nor sympathy. If he is ordered off as a firing squad to execute a hero or benefactor, he fires without hesitation, though he knows the bullet will pierce the noblest heart that ever beat in human breast.
     A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a man. He is not a brute, for brutes only kill in self defense. All that is human in him, all that is divine in him, all that constitutes the man has been sworn away when he took the enlistment roll. His mind, his conscience, aye, his very soul, are in the keeping of his officer.
     No man can fall lower than the solder—it is a depth beneath which we cannot go. Keep the boys out of the army. It is hell.
     Down with the army and the navy. We don't need killing institutions. We need life-giving institutions.
From the October, 1913 issue of The International Socialist Review magazine.

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