A note what seems to be the noninterventionists’ favorite quote these days…

For your reference, I’ll reproduce a quote that I’ve seen and heard multiple times, especially in the time leading up to our most recent presidential election, and most recently from a friend’s recounting of a podcast rant:

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.

And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so.

How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

The problem is, It Just Ain’t So?. From About.com’s Urban Legends:

It’s odd, to say the least, to encounter a passage attributed to Julius Caesar which, as far as I can tell, never appeared in print before 2001. It’s equally odd that while the passage is cited in dozens of Internet discussions concerning post-9/11 political developments, it never turns up in articles on Julius Caesar himself. If it is to be found among his own writings, no one has yet been able to pinpoint where.

There’s more, including discussion of an equally bogus attribution of this quote to Shakespeare.

Remember, when using the Internet in all its myriad and wonderful forms, please make sure to keep your skeptic hat on at all times.