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<font size="+1">In former times the chief method of justifying the use
of violence and thereby infringing the law of love was by claiming a
divine right for the rulers: the Tsars, Sultans, Rajahs, Shahs, and
other heads of states. But the longer humanity lived the weaker grew
the belief in this peculiar, God-given right of the ruler. That belief
withered in the same way and almost simultaneously in the Christian and
the Brahman world, as well as in Buddhist and Confucian spheres, and in
recent times it has so faded away as to prevail no longer against man's
reasonable understanding and the true religious feeling. People saw
more and more clearly, and now the majority see quite clearly, the
senselessness and immorality of subordinating their wills to those of
other people just like themselves, when they are bidden to do what is
contrary not only to their interests but also to their moral sense. And
so one might suppose that having lost confidence in any religious
authority for a belief in the divinity of potentates of various kinds,
people would try to free themselves from subjection to it. But
unfortunately not only were the rulers, who were considered
supernatural beings, benefited by having the peoples in subjection, but
as a result of the belief in, and during the rule of, these
pseudodivine beings, ever larger and larger circles of people grouped
and established themselves around them, and under an appearance of
governing took advantage of the people. And when the old deception of a
supernatural and God-appointed authority had dwindled away these men
were only concerned to devise a new one which like its predecessor
should make it possible to hold the people in bondage to a limited
number of rulers.<br>
<br>
- Tolstoy (Letter to a Hindu [Gandhi])<br>
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