"The individual in any given nation has in this war a terrible opportunity to convince himself

of what would occasionally strike him in peacetime ― that the state has forbidden to the individual the practice of wrong-doing, not because it desired to abolish the practice of wrong-doing, not because it desires to it, but because it desires to monopolize it like salt [oil] and tobacco. The warring state permits itself every misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual man. It practices not only the accepted stratagems, but also deliberate lying and deception against the enemy; and this, too, in a measure which appears to surpass the usage of former wars. The state exacts the utmost degree of obedience and sacrifice from its citizens, but at the same time treats them as children by maintaining an excess of secrecy, and a censorship of news and expression of opinion that renders the spirits of those thus intellectually oppressed defenseless against every unfavourable turn of events and every sinister rumour. It absolves itself from guarantees and contracts it had formed with other states, and makes unabashed confession of the rapacity and lust for power, which the private individual is then called upon to sanction in the name of patriotism." Sigmund Freud, On War, Sex, and Neurosis