Slowly at first

Two axioms that I don’t blindly believe:

1. Any “slippery slope” hypothesis is a logical fallacy so can therefore be dismissed

2. Desperate times call for desperate measures

Neither statement is always wrong, but they are often inadequate philosophies when considering how the world works practically. An example…

It started slowly in the early 1920s. Germany experienced hyperinflation following its defeat in WWI. The country was in ruins. Adolf Hitler took power in the early 1930s on the promise that he’d change things. And he did.

In 1933, Germany burned books by Jewish authors and boycotted Jewish businesses. Bad, but not violent and somewhat tolerable. Germany had bigger issues to deal with, right? Surely this wasn’t one of those “slippery slopes.”

By 1935, anti-Jewish laws had been instituted. Censorship and discrimination became a part of the legal system. Later that year, they defined what a “Jew” was, ancestrally. But still, no bloodshed.

Over the three years leading up to 1938, Jewish doctors were barred from practicing medicine, concentration camps opened, Jews had to register with the state, and then…

Kristallnacht. Jewish business destroyed, synagogues burned, and Jewish men sent to concentration camps.

The rest is history. Over six million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered, as once-sane Germans became prison guards, soldiers, and Nazi informants.

It always happens slowly at first, and then suddenly. You give an inch now, and they’ll take an inch again tomorrow. Enough time passes and you’ve been moved to a place you no longer recognize.

Right now, the Western world is experiencing its highest inflation rates in decades. Political unrest and protests. Racial tensions. A controversial pandemic. War in Europe.

Canada is freezing funds intended to help peaceful protestors. California is continuing to mask little kids, while giving elitists a pass. Australia is forcing a vaccine with no long-term testing into the arms of its citizens. These are massively consequential moments. If you just read this paragraph and dismissed it as “just another day in our crazy world,” that is precisely the problem.

I think we can all agree that slopes can sometimes be slippery.

To compound the issue, “desperate times” are perfect power-grab opportunities for politicians, and a measure being “desperate” far from guarantees its success. As they say: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

It is when “desperate times” sit atop a “slippery slope” that we see the worst of humanity play out. We witnessed this in the early days of Nazi Germany’s restrictions on, and subsequent genocide of, its Jewish population. We’ve perhaps seen the beginnings of that here in the US in a Federal government that continues to sneak more into our lives, in ways visible and not.

Only a fool would have enough faith in humans to believe it – whatever disaster it is – couldn’t happen here.

Take your freedom for granted at your own peril. If you lose it, the process will happen slowly at first… and then suddenly.