IDOLATRY
The art of government is the organization of idolatry.
The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters.
The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.
The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone: the civilized man to idols of flesh and blood.
A limited monarchy is a device for combining the inertia of a wooden idol with the credibility of a flesh and blood one.
When the wooden idol does not answer the peasant's prayer, he beats it: when the flesh and blood idol does not satisfy the civilized man, he cuts its head off.
He who slays a king and he who dies for him are alike idolaters.