It is all too easy to pretend that people have no say in the actions of their commonwealth, and much too difficult to believe that patriotism, pacifism, idealism, and conservatism each have something important to say.
The quote is fine as long as you don't take as an absolute statement of the only way things can be. It is a fact that the outlined strategy is almost always effective.
Thanks, that's what I meant by including it this discussion.
Personally, I would hope we could raise the general level of skepticism and equip ourselves with a Sagan-like "Baloney Detection Kit" so that everyone is aware of this technique for motivating populations towards conflict and that this hopefully makes us all more immune to it.
I am unimpressed with your cynicism.