On not speaking out: an letter to an editor.

[caladri]

I am writing in reply to an opinion piece published in your paper recently which culminated with:
They have come for the trade-unionists; what is to stop them from coming for me?
The writer of this piece is ghoulishly appropriating the struggles of trade-unionists to glorify his own life. Of course nobody is going to come for him, he's in such a

Comments

[kaph]

I totally lack the context for his last sentence - that is, I do not know what issue he was addressing in this opinion piece - but the line you quote is a version of a line from Martin Niemoller's speeches against the political apathy that let Hitler rise to power. Maybe this makes no difference at all, but I thought I'd put it out there. :p

[caladri]

Indeed, this was my attempt to ironically use the exclusivism and separatism to attack a Niemöller who made the mistake of speaking out, rather than remaining silent and hoping that they wouldn't come for him. I had wrongly assumed that the referent was so obvious that I needed to offer no explanation

[kaph]

Well, it may just be that, not having any idea what the original column was about, I failed to make the right connections. :)

[caladri]

Nono, no original column, just my fictitious framing of a response to a hypothetical Niemöller.

[twoeleven]

Oh! Um...

[kaph]

Aha!

Though I am now confused in another way. Am I to assume you are speaking in another's voice, a snarky we-don't-want-your-help voice? Or do you indeed believe Niemoller should not have spoken out on behalf of those being targeted, and thus be arrested and sent to a concentration camp? Is solidarity with the oppressed a form of self-interest? (And if this is truly your voice, then what, may I ask, do you make of Simone Weil?)

[caladri]

Another's voice, a we-don't-want-your-help voice, or something very close to it. The implication I most often encounter, though, is that it isn't actually help, just appropriation of someone else's struggles.

[kaph]

Thanks for the clarification. My brain isn't entirely up to snuff these days.

Yes, often "speaking out" is done from a place of safety, even anonymity. On the other hand, this was not the case for Niemoller. I've always appreciated his grasping that oppression of some people or groups of people, if unresisted by the larger populace, often paves the way for broader and broader oppressive measures. Witness the Patriot Act . . .

[anemone]

A failed attempt, it would seem :)

Not completely failed, because I think I got the impression you were intending to create.