"Now, number sixteen has no wife, no children, no friends, no old father and mother. Number sixteen is simply a number, and number sixteen is replaceable. Some other person will soon fill the gap and will become number sixteen. And the man who was behind the number sixteen is reduced, by and by, with subtle processes.

"The whole training of the army is that the person is made to do things which are irrational. In the beginning, his reason tries to assert. But his reason is punished, his disobedience is punished, his argumentativeness is punished. His obedience is rewarded. Soon, the person can see that he can only allow his reason to function, if he is to remain in continuous misery and punishment. Otherwise, he has just to follow whatever the order is. Even if the order is to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima, the person does it just like a robot, without considering that he is destroying 160,000 people within seconds.

"But he is not an individual, he no longer thinks. His thinking has been very scientifically destroyed. For hours in the morning, in the evening, for years he's been parading: turn right, turn left. He cannot even ask, 'What is the point?'

"It happened in the Second World War – because soldiers were needed, everybody from every profession was asked to sacrifice himself for the country. A professor in Germany was asked to join the army. He had no more students anyway; for three years nobody had entered into his post-graduate research work. He was sitting unnecessarily; he should go into the army. He said, 'There is no problem for me. I can go anywhere, but the army will find difficulties with me.'

"But he was not listened to. And when he was standing in line the first day and they said, 'Left turn,' everybody turned, except him. The commander asked him, 'Have you heard me or not?'

"He said, 'I have heard, but I don't see any reason why I should turn left. And these people will be ordered again and again, and they will finally come to the same position in which I am already standing.'

"'March forward!' And he would not."