If we were to identify a
vice that is characteristic of each epoch of human history, it would
certainly be the hypocrisy of the ruling class that would fit the
bill in the case of capitalism. The great Mongol conqueror, Genghis
Khan, amassed piles of skulls when he conquered towns that had not
submitted to him. But he never claimed to do it for the good of their
inhabitants. It took bourgeois capitalist democracy to teach us that
war is "humanitarian" and that it is necessary to bomb
civilian populations in order to bring… peace and freedom to these
very populations.