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Shakespeare or
Julius Caesar Quote About
War And Personal Rights-Fiction!
Summary of the eRumor
A quote attributed to
Shakespeare or Julius Caesar warns about the seductive nature of war
and that citizens who get caught up in the emotions of it could lose
their rights as a result.
The Truth
The exact quote is below, but there
is no evidence that it originated in antiquity.
TruthOrFiction.com has searched the complete works of Shakespeare
and the writings of Julius Caesar as well as other historic texts
and has not found this quote in any of them. Some emails have
claimed that it is a quote from Julius Caesar's writings about THE
GALLIC WARS, but there is nothing of this nature in those
texts. We've also searched several collections of quotes
without success.
According to our records, this quote started appearing on the
Internet toward the end of 2001 and usually appeared in emails,
articles, or newsletters that dealt with the subject or war or the
risk of losing personal rights during a time of war. That was
a hot topic of discussion after the Attack on America and debate on
how to best deal with the threat of terrorism in the United States.
Update 10/1/02, entertainer Barbara Streisand admitted in the
Washington Post that she got duped by this circulated quote and used
it during a $6 million Democratic fund-raiser in Hollywood on
September 30, 2002. She later corrected it on her website and
said she learned a lesson from it.
We would suggest that the lesson is to check with TruthOrFiction.com
before using quotes from forwarded emails!
Last updated 10/1/02
A real example of the eRumor as it has
appeared on the Internet:
Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the
citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a
double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the
mind.
"And when the drums of war have reached a fever
pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader
will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the
citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up
all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
"How do I know? For this is what I have done. And
I am Ceaser [sic]."
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