WIBCI Post #114

WIBCI we were more COMPASSIONATE?

Recently I was speaking with someone whose politics I abhor but whose opinion I value. I was expressing my anxiety about the state of the world and the future for ‘us’. His advice to me was to stop worrying about other people and situations I cannot control and to focus on taking care of myself.

I thought about this and could not disagree more. I believe this narcissist, selfish attitude, referencing humanity with such lacksidazeicalness helped to get us in this shit sandwich to begin with.

It reminds me of the poem “First They Came“. Per Wikipedia this is: (German: Als sie kamen lit. ‘When they came‘, or Habe ich geschwiegen lit. ‘I did not speak out‘), is the poetic form of a 1946 post-war confessional prose piece by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller(1892–1984). It indirectly condemns complicity of German intellectuals and clergy following the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets.

Here is the best known English version:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

 

WIBCI history, in this instance, did not repeat itself?

Last Updated on 01/05/2026 by Death of Hypatia Inc.