Capitalists and the law

Let us not forget that the preposterous doctrine that war is the logical conclusion of politics is still valid today, and that this maxim has been created by well-paid theorists in the service of this capitalist society…

Recently—no; for as long as I can remember, large and powerful nations within the capitalist bloc have been ruled by people who according to accepted legal norms are simply criminals, who from a lust for power and financial gain have led their peoples into an abyss of egoism, self-indulgence and a view of life based entirely on materialism and ruthlessness toward their fellow human beings. Only in very few cases are such politicians punished, but the punishments are token and the guilty persons’ successors are guided by the same motives. I am perhaps the only person in this courtroom old enough to remember politicians like Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. Their actions have been condemned, but has there been any significant improvement since those days? We have lived through Hitler and Mussolini, Stroessner, Franco, Salazar, Chiang Kai-shek, Ian Smith, Vorster and Verwoerd, and the generals in Chile, men who, when they have not led their people to the edge of disaster, have in their own self-interest treated their own citizens in the manner of a military power oppressing an occupied country.

— Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, in The Terrorists, published in 1975

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