Clearing The Air

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up....

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

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 Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

"First they came…" is a famous statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group....

Of course the modern incarnation in society today would start:

They came first for the smokers, (by enacting smoking bans)
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a smoker.

Then they tried to limit calorie intake, by banning foi gras, sodium, sugar, fat.....and Happy Meals which easily became law because by that time no one was left to speak up.

The sad fact remains though, that the only reason any of these bans occur today is because corporate special interests fund the pro-ban lobbyists for their own rent seeking, profit motive which typically is a lucrative pharmaceutical product, meant to replace the inexpensive consumer product now banned. IE. Johnson & Johnson manufactures Splenda, in order to increase demand for this expensive sugar substitute, J & J's partner Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provides hundreds of millions of dollars to lobbyists who promote bans and tax increases on soda drinks at schools etc.

Similarly, Johnson & Johnson manufactures Nicoderm, Nicorette, Nicotrol, etc. in order to increase demand for these expensive pharmaceutical nicotine substitutes, J & J's partner, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), provides hundreds of millions of dollars to lobbyists who promote government enforced smoking bans.

Am I saying that the special interest, pro-ban lobbyist groups are Nazi's?.....you'd have to admit the similarities are eerily familiar.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 7:38 PM