"Empires communicate in two languages. One language is expressed in imperatives. It is the language of command and force. This militarized language disdains human life and celebrates harshness and brutality. It demands. It makes no attempt to justify the flagrant theft of natural resources and wealth or the use of indiscriminate violence.
The other language of empire is softer. It employs the vocabulary of ideals and lofty goals and insists that the power of empire is noble and benevolent. The language of beneficence is used to speak to those outside the centers of death and pillage, those who have not yet been totally broken, those who still must be seduced to hand over power to predators.
The road traveled to total disempowerment, however, ends at the same place. It is the language used to get there that is different."
Chris Hedges
"Let us then compose ourselves, and bear a firm and courageous heart. Let us feel what we really are,—sinners attempting great things, and succeeding at best only so far as to show that we do attempt them. Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may befall; whether it tend to elate us or to depress us, what is that to us? He can turn all things to our eternal good. He can bless and sanctify even our infirmities." J. H. Newman