They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
— Martin Niemoeller, Lutheran Pastor, Germany 1946
Then They Came for Me
This has to do with the centralized control of power. Authoritarian regimes tend to gravitate towards consolidation of power and control. We see this in every aspect of our lives, from the central banks like the federal reserve, to multinational corporations like Google, Walmart, and Amazon, to our government being bought out by powerful lobbies like AIPAC, to the expansion of the globalized empire jockeying for position on the world stage. As humans we need to respect the principle of freedom. If we become tyrannical and narcissistic, as we are seeing with the radical left, we leave destruction in our wake. The ultimate, logical progression of globalism is totalitarianism. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”—Lord Acton
Then They Came for Me
This reminds me of the movie Gladiator. Marcus Aurelius asks Maximus what he thinks about ruling after his death and he says “with all my heart no,” to which the emperor says “don’t you see Maximus? This is why it must be you.” Commodus is so ambitious that he “cheats” the system in order to advance as the new emperor. Everyone follows suit because they have been programmed to operate within the system in a particular way. People that lust for power are not good people. They are tyrants lying in wait. This is why social engineering is so insidious because it programs people into slavery. People like Maximus who can think critically are the only ones to reject the programming. Perhaps this is the message of Jesus Christ: if you want to overthrow tyranny and keep it at bay, justice requires a sacrifice of someone willing to defy the system in order to inspire others to take back control. In movies like Braveheart and Gladiator, the protagonist is sacrificed in order to win back freedom from the archetype, the Tyrant.
A beautiful analogy, and your thoughts remind me of something said by King George regarding George Washington’s relinquishing power and returning to his farm. Words something to the effect of, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
The Man Who Would Not Be King | Cato Institute
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/man-who-would-not-be-king
To give context to this discussion this is a continuation of some comments begun on YouTube 2-3 days ago. Thank you Aaron for continuing our dialogue here.
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I remember an audiobook I listened to a number of years ago, His Excellency: George Washington, or something like that. I may be wrong, but I seem to recall that he insisted on being addressed in this manner. Washington wasn’t exactly a humble man.