"Doctrinaire Rubbish"

The review of the book about Teddy Roosevelt appears in the Mencken Chrestomathy. He wrote: "For one thing, a man devoted professionally to patriotism and the wisdom of the fathers is very apt to come to a resigned sort of acquiescence in all the doctrinaire rubbish that lies beneath the national scheme of things --- to believe, let us say, if not that the plain people are gifted with an infallible sagacity, then at least that they have an inalienable right to see their follies executed."

We are all familiar with the idea of men "devoted professionally to patriotism." That sort of identifying by officeholders with patriotism is what has caused so many US citizens to think that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. It wouldn't be unreasonable to characterize as "doctrinaire rubbish" the idea that the events of 9/11 justify the US occupation of Iraq. It wouldn't be unreasonable to characterize as "doctrinaire rubbish" the idea that the events of 9/11 justify shredding citizens' Constitutional rights in the name of a war powers against a few thousand terrorists.