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tion in order to know
what it is and to know whether
you are glad that you are living
in such a state or not.
After many years of scrutiny, I finally got down to the base of civilization and found that three little words are all that are necessary to define it. They are: SKIN ONE ANOTHER. You, the people, have been skinning one another ever since you were born. You are taught to skin one another in the schools. You are taught to skin one another in the colleges. You are taught to skin one another over the radio. You are taught to skin one another by shadow pictures on the screen. You are taught to skin one another by the newspapers and magazines. In fact, if you want to be “successful” in this world you are taught that you must skin one another to do so. Now, you know the savages used to skin one another, too, but not scientifically. They would kill a man and scalp him. That’s all they knew about skinning a man. He had to be dead first, and then they just took a little piece of skin off the top of his head and they thought they were doing pretty good. But civilized man is more scientific. He skins you alive. He doesn’t want you te die to skin you. He wants you to live so he can skin you once and twice and a hundred times. He keeps skinning you as long as you live, so he wants you to live a long time. Aiter he skins you alive, and you haven’t anything left, he signs you to a piece of paper which gives him the privilege of skinning you as long as you live and the right to skin your children as long as they live, and your grand-children as long as they live, and so on. That is the refined way that civilization skins you. They do it so smoothly that they make you like it. They skin you so it actually tickles you, and you rave over the skins as great dermatologists. So, that is the science and upkeep of civilization. SKIN ONE ANOTHER. You have outgrown barbarism and savagery. They were too slow. You had to get into speedier methods, where you can take live men and women and make them do all your work for you as long as they live and you can take the products that they bring forth to mankind. The big skins teach the little skins how to take the hides off of the people in the most elegant way. They tell the little skins to go out and find a widow whose husband died and left her a little piece of property and skin her out of it. So the little skins everywhere are kept busy hunting up widows whose husbands left something and skinning them out of it. Then after the little skins have taken the widow’s mite and the orphan’s heritage, then the big skin comes along and skins the little skins and takes it all away from them. So we find at the top of civilization nothing but big skins. The little skins do all the dirty work, and the big skins get all of the hides. So we find at the top of civilization nothing but big skins. The little skins do all the |