Silence Means Assent

Below is a thoughtful guest-essay from our German translator JLH.

Silence Means Assent
by JLH

I sometimes think of Martin Niemöller’s famous lines describing how Nazism stamped out a nation’s decent impulses through intimidation, lies and fear:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

And I wonder how we should describe what has happened to us… how the best characteristics of a culture can be destroyed by the enemies within, who yearn to control and intimidate. And this is what I think:

When they said we were war-mongers, I said nothing, because I knew we had not been war-mongers, and I thought everyone knew that.

When they said we were racists, I said nothing, because I knew we were not racists, and I thought everyone knew that.

When they said we were Nazis, I said nothing and even smiled a little, because I knew we were not Nazis, and I thought everyone knew that.

When they said we were selfish, I said nothing, because I knew we were the first truly generous nation in the history of the world, and I thought everyone knew that.

And when they said the Constitution was outdated, I said nothing, because I knew that it was timeless and newer than all the morally bankrupt tyrannies that have risen up before and since, and I thought everyone knew that.

And when I was done saying nothing, I found that I no longer had the freedom that had made me the luckiest citizen on the face of the earth.

And no one knew or cared.

10 thoughts on “Silence Means Assent

  1. Extremely well said. This is getting a place of honor in my bookmarks. Danke, Kamerad.

  2. Not warmongers? Undermining and attacking communist regimes (in Chile’s case, a properly elected one) by installing and supporting equally nasty right-wing military dictatorships is not a recipe for peace, especially as some communists, eg in Indochina, won support because people mostly just wanted the foreigners out.

    Many on this site have commented on the disastrous results of US & other Western intervention in Iraq and Libya, and now Syria.

    Not racists? My own country of Britain’s record on this is far from perfect, but we didn’t prevent black people from voting in any part of the UK before the 1960s.

    Selfish? No- Americans are indeed among the most generous of nations.

  3. Mark H. You’re missing the point of the essay focusing on the mind-set of the general population. The issues you poke at involve government-political decisions not necessarily supported by the majority of the population. You’re judging an entire nation bad because of the actions of a few bad leaders.

    Let’s not look at Britain’s efforts to conquer the globe in the not to distant past or its own racism against the Irish, etc.. But having said that the majority of British citizens are no more warmongers or racist than U.S. citizens.

    What you do reflect, however, is the uppity-arrogance of the old-world European mindset toward new-world nations. Sorry, but U.S. citizens are generally proud of their European or African heritages and interjecting your own prejudice in this discussion of prejudices doesn’t help.

  4. RE: “Many on this site have commented on the disastrous results of US & other Western intervention in Iraq and Libya, and now Syria.”

    Is it that the intervention wrong, or is it that the interventions are bungled?

    I support such intervention if the effort is properly prioritize, focused and executed.

    In these particular instance, however, with 20/20 hindsight I do not support how the government has bungled the effort.

    • Thanks, Lawrene. I hadn’t meant to imply any particular superiority on the part of the Old World, believe me; unlike many on the Left, I admire what the US stands (or stood?) for.

      I still don’t think the second invasion of Iraq could have turned out well, even with better planning; it just removed the regime that kept the lid on the Sunni-Shia civil war. And given the disasters in Libya and Syria, what quantity of American, and perhaps other, blood and treasure would it take to impose lasting peace?

      You’re right that citizens of Western democracies have too little influence over the leaders who claim to represent them.

  5. Lovely little essay; is the author, JHL, German or American?

    “…Nazism stamped out a nation’s decent impulses through intimidation, lies and fear…”

    ^^^ This is a quote which I will safe, I can already see it come in handy all over the place, all one has to do is to replace the word “Nazism”.

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