The Word for World Is Forest

by Ursula K. Le Guin

That oppression corrupts the oppressors is well enough known. That resistance to oppression can profoundly change those resisting, and for the worse, is less widely recognised – particularly among those who give that resistance their sympathy and solidarity. The ennobling aspect of resistance – of standing up, of fighting back, of driving the invader from the homeland – is seen and celebrated. The corrupting aspect – the hardening of the heart, the acceptance of casualty and atrocity, the replacement of the moral calculus with a cold-eyed calculation of advantage, of revenge and reprisal – is put out of mind, and sometimes for what seem the best of reasons. That too is part of the damage done.