“Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin
and hysterical; especially under democracy
it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes;
the whole aim of practical politics
is to keep the populace alarmed
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety)
by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
H. L. Mencken’s
In Defense of Women (1918).