Quote of the Week
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
I’ve already heard those words spoken from the pulpit before. Ministers of many faiths
have repeated them for the lessons held within them. Kurt
Note several very important things – that the Nazis could not silence Niemoller, nor erase him, nor were even brave enough to kill him – he died in 1984. Only a great tyranny, a huge dictatorship, a massive concentration of power can truly understand that massive power of the human voice among humans. It is irrepressible – they cannot make guns fast enough to silence it.
A worthy civilization fosters and protects the humanity within. It understands that the force of civilization itself derives utterly from the humans that make up its membership. A civilization which itself acts righteously, makes its members prosper. Those which frighten, disparage and control the humans within its population begin the relentless twilight into obsolescence. When a society become co-opted and obedient to an external, non-human power, it becomes a society on life-support – whether being kept alive by a party, an ideology, or a government that attempts to regulate human vitality completely.
A fellow long ago remarked about American government as an expression of American society…
“this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man.
This is the issue […] whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down—[up] man’s old—old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course. ” Ronald Reagan, A TIME FOR CHOOSING, October 27, 1964
One baleful Jeremiah warned America: “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, …is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”
It is something to notice that our discussions run not to – “what’s wrong with medical care and how shold the next President fix it?” but rather to a childish “I want Hillary!” “I like Rand Paul!” “How about Scott Walker?” “Yay, go Donald Trump!” We seek a brilliant and clever Master who will but own us gently and think kindly of us.’ In the winter, they will come to Listen and Promise and get down at the Lunch Counters with Homies. Then they will go Away and do what they Damn Well Feel Like. The last guy was George Washington, and he was right.
Ain’t nobody can say we didn’t see this coming. We had the scorecard from long ago.