Silence is cheaper than truth, institutions are gutted from within. Preference falsification failed American democracy everywhere, from Senate to voting booth.
Surgeon mistakenly removed a liver, thinking it was a spleen. They are in entirely different locations and look totally different. People working in OR realized but didn't speak up.
Dino, I especially appreciate your very specific reference to deliver Tocqueville's observation about us Americans. I'd like to get even more specific, because that particular section of Democracy in America is something I have committed to memory across nearly three generations, almost word for word - allowing for different translation versions from the original French. Here was his observation:
"I know of no other country in which there is so *little* independence of mind, and *real* freedom of discussion, as in America."
Really, Mr. Tocqueville?! I can hear the objections before anyone says a word (there's that deafening silence again). The freestyle country in the history of the world, some will say - and you're telling is there's LESS freedom of speech and of opinion than ANY other country? Well, on paper, yes, we're the freest ever (but ask any descendant of slaves, or any Native if it really ever existed...but I digress). The thing is, you don't have to be MAGA to actually believe that. But de Tocqueville didn't stop there.
"In Europe, there is no country under the control of any single power strong enough to crush dissent altogether. (Paraphrasing. What follows is, again, very nearly verbatim.)
"If [a dissenter] has the misfortune of living under an absolute monarchy, the people is upon his side. If his words stir up the populace, he may find refuge behind the authority of the throne, if he require one."
In that same section, he makes the exact point you mention, that in the past, the body was subdued in order to subdue the soul, but the soul survived the blows and rose stronger than ever. Today's tyrants no longer say "you shall think as I do, or die." In one groupthink voice they say, "you are free to think, speak your mind, and live as you please, but you are a stranger among your own people from now on...Go in peace! I have given you your life, but it is a fate worse than death."
Now, with the decades and some perspective, I have moderated that viewpoint for myself, but I found this part of the book to be far and away the most penetrating analysis, in a book full of them. Through it all, and for better or for worse, usually both, I've endeavored to stubbornly refuse this peer pressure and societal, peculiarly American pressure. (Having lived in Canada, I found there were similarities, as I'm sure exists in Europe and elsewhere, but in Canada it was just a little less intense, at least in certain circles.)
Hey, if enough of us have the courage to be a voice crying in the wilderness, or the one who assesses the risk, counts the cost, and still speaks up in the boardroom (church, town halls, civic meetings, or wherever)....
Pausing now.... to listen for any shaking in the walls...and/or hammers and drills signaling reconstruction...or whatever is needed in any particular moment.
Dino, “NOBODY SAID A WORD” was beyond excellent! Thank you.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-doctor-indicted-allegedly-removing-patients-liver-instead-sple-rcna331696
Surgeon mistakenly removed a liver, thinking it was a spleen. They are in entirely different locations and look totally different. People working in OR realized but didn't speak up.
Dino, I especially appreciate your very specific reference to deliver Tocqueville's observation about us Americans. I'd like to get even more specific, because that particular section of Democracy in America is something I have committed to memory across nearly three generations, almost word for word - allowing for different translation versions from the original French. Here was his observation:
"I know of no other country in which there is so *little* independence of mind, and *real* freedom of discussion, as in America."
Really, Mr. Tocqueville?! I can hear the objections before anyone says a word (there's that deafening silence again). The freestyle country in the history of the world, some will say - and you're telling is there's LESS freedom of speech and of opinion than ANY other country? Well, on paper, yes, we're the freest ever (but ask any descendant of slaves, or any Native if it really ever existed...but I digress). The thing is, you don't have to be MAGA to actually believe that. But de Tocqueville didn't stop there.
"In Europe, there is no country under the control of any single power strong enough to crush dissent altogether. (Paraphrasing. What follows is, again, very nearly verbatim.)
"If [a dissenter] has the misfortune of living under an absolute monarchy, the people is upon his side. If his words stir up the populace, he may find refuge behind the authority of the throne, if he require one."
In that same section, he makes the exact point you mention, that in the past, the body was subdued in order to subdue the soul, but the soul survived the blows and rose stronger than ever. Today's tyrants no longer say "you shall think as I do, or die." In one groupthink voice they say, "you are free to think, speak your mind, and live as you please, but you are a stranger among your own people from now on...Go in peace! I have given you your life, but it is a fate worse than death."
Now, with the decades and some perspective, I have moderated that viewpoint for myself, but I found this part of the book to be far and away the most penetrating analysis, in a book full of them. Through it all, and for better or for worse, usually both, I've endeavored to stubbornly refuse this peer pressure and societal, peculiarly American pressure. (Having lived in Canada, I found there were similarities, as I'm sure exists in Europe and elsewhere, but in Canada it was just a little less intense, at least in certain circles.)
Hey, if enough of us have the courage to be a voice crying in the wilderness, or the one who assesses the risk, counts the cost, and still speaks up in the boardroom (church, town halls, civic meetings, or wherever)....
Pausing now.... to listen for any shaking in the walls...and/or hammers and drills signaling reconstruction...or whatever is needed in any particular moment.
And damn that spell check!!! !@&$%#
"Freest" country in the world [in a pig's eye]. How spell check came up with "freestyle" is beyond me.
By the way, emphasis mine, on so *little* independence of mind, and *real* freedom of discussion.
Excellent Dino-thanks for the explanation grim tho it is. Is there any hope other than midterms?