How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
The War Department is a bit like prostitution: it cleanses the community. If we didn't exist, a great deal of nastiness would bubble up in the State. We're the mother-of-pearl, you see. The ruffians, the perverts, the death-wishers: you don't want those in the civil community. So long as there's an army there'll never be a police state, no more greyboys or rubber truncheons or thumbscrews or rifle squads an inconveniently early hours. The final problems of the body politic have been solved.
Although he protests against the British Army major's logic, does Tristram offer any real opposition? Are the working classes right to believe that they have been betrayed by "intellectuals" like Tristram?