"It's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in advance"
About this Quote
Smith’s move here is a neatly sprung trap: he opens with a familiar antiwar proverb, then calls it a “lie” not to defend war, but to accuse the proverb itself of being too comforting. “The first casualty of war is the truth” lets everyone off easy. It frames deception as an unfortunate byproduct of conflict, like rationing or mud. Smith’s twist argues the opposite: truth isn’t killed by war; war is made possible by a prior, deliberate killing of truth.
The intent is less elegy than indictment. He’s pointing a finger at the prewar ecosystem - officials, media, intellectuals, voters - that must accept a curated reality before the shooting starts. The subtext is that wars require consent, and consent requires a story clean enough to repeat at dinner. By shifting the “casualty” timeline backward, Smith relocates moral responsibility. The front line isn’t the battlefield; it’s the narrative supply chain that sanitizes motives, inflates threats, and turns complexity into slogans.
Rhetorically, the line works because it weaponizes the reader’s recognition. You think you’re entering a shared truth, then he pulls the rug: the proverb’s popularity is evidence of our appetite for tidy cynicism. It’s a quote about propaganda that performs propaganda’s core move in reverse - revealing how the lie precedes the event it’s said to explain.
Context matters: Smith, a libertarian science-fiction writer shaped by late Cold War distrust of state power, is circling a recurring pattern in modern conflict - not just battlefield fog, but years of narrative construction that makes war feel inevitable, even virtuous.
The intent is less elegy than indictment. He’s pointing a finger at the prewar ecosystem - officials, media, intellectuals, voters - that must accept a curated reality before the shooting starts. The subtext is that wars require consent, and consent requires a story clean enough to repeat at dinner. By shifting the “casualty” timeline backward, Smith relocates moral responsibility. The front line isn’t the battlefield; it’s the narrative supply chain that sanitizes motives, inflates threats, and turns complexity into slogans.
Rhetorically, the line works because it weaponizes the reader’s recognition. You think you’re entering a shared truth, then he pulls the rug: the proverb’s popularity is evidence of our appetite for tidy cynicism. It’s a quote about propaganda that performs propaganda’s core move in reverse - revealing how the lie precedes the event it’s said to explain.
Context matters: Smith, a libertarian science-fiction writer shaped by late Cold War distrust of state power, is circling a recurring pattern in modern conflict - not just battlefield fog, but years of narrative construction that makes war feel inevitable, even virtuous.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|
More Quotes by Neil Smith
Add to List
