PARIS IS US
What does the callous murder
of journalists and Jews in Paris have to do with Colorado business? Why should
we, so far away from what happened, care?
Let me answer these questions
by analogy, one that was famous in the 1950s and may have been forgotten by
now. It was a Protestant Pastor in Germany, Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), who
famously said (there are different versions):
“First 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 for me.”
What may seem remote at one
point, the singling out of one minority group, becomes extremely relevant and
personal at another. Lest we forget, there is some connectivity between all of
humanity, and more specifically, between all the social, economic, political,
and moral variables that guide us.
It’s inappropriate to compare
what happened in Nazi Germany to what happened in Paris to a small satirical
magazine with 60,000 circulation and to a kosher storefront. Unlike the German
government who persecuted Jews and gays, socialists and Catholics, and others,
the French government is sending police officers and troops to protect its
minorities.
But the reason so many marched
in Paris with signs that read “I am Charlie,” is that they didn’t simply want
to show solidarity, but more importantly, they demonstrated that when something
is morally objectionable, it cannot be contained; it spills over to every facet
of the community.
When Wall Street misbehaves,
Main Street is affected. When a so-called rogue trader throws off the balance
of trades or “corners the market” in oil futures, for example, it’s not
exclusively his affair.
His company’s reputation
suffers, and it may even incur some fines. Wall Street gets a black eye as well,
and regulators are seen as lax. Eventually, we can expect that the markets in
general will be affected. Why should we care what happens to the case of the
rogue trader, like the infamous “whale”?
As employees and employers, we
have money invested in the markets, in the virtual safes of Wall Street, either
through money market or pension funds. Likewise, interest rates—for cars and
homes, business loans and credit cards—somehow are still dependent on what the
giant Wall Street investment banks want us to pay. The Treasury Department
responds to Wall Street, after all, in case you ever forget who has been
heading it for decades.
In other words, “we are Wall
Street” just as much as “we are Charlie.” You can pretend that financial or
journalistic variables are separate from each other, but they are not! You can
even claim that you don’t read French and that except for French Fries, you
have no relation to France or its problems with extreme Muslims and their
journalistic and Jewish victims.
But what will you say when
this happens in New York? Still too far for you to identify with the problem
there, on the East Coast? When the office of the NAACP was bombed here not long
ago, was that close enough? Do you have to be African-American to be affected?
You may not care now, as
Pastor Niemöller reminds us, because you aren’t a Jew or a journalist, black or
financial maven, but when they come for you—who will speak out on your behalf?
When I see electricians
changing wall-pack bulbs in below-freezing temperatures and the drivers who
struggle in the snow to roll dumpsters to their truck for unloading—are they
me?
When the guys in overalls come
to empty 1,500 gallons of our grease-trap so early in the morning so as not to
upset neighbors with the noxious odors of their work—are they you?
When the line-cook prepares
your meal and the server brings it to your table—do you identify with their
work, their diligence, their prayer for a good tip because they pay their own
college tuition?
What the horrible incident in
Paris should remind us all is that when catastrophes happen elsewhere, it’s
only by random chance that they occur where and when they do. The idea that it
cannot happen to you is preposterous, even fool-hardy.
The solidarity shown in Paris
should remind us to feel sympathy and empathy with those around us, the people
who serve and work for us, who teach and protect us, who lead and entertain us,
and who might be victimized for no fault of their own.
Raphael
Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS. He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com See
previous articles at sassower.blogspot.com
[SG1]Care
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