Hi Jack,
I hear you there. John Stuart Mill puts it very well.
My concern is what this could potentially lead to. Hitler was democratically elected. He wrote 'Mein Kampf', which by the way is still banned and censored today in many countries. A ban I do not agree with, but hey, we all know what they are scared of right...
I am gonna take a few short cuts here, so bare with me.
Hitler claimed that the unemployment was caused by the Jews. He claimed that Arians were the only good and pure race. He claimed that violence in order to achieve the solution for this was justified. We all know the end result....
Now this did of course not happen over night. The foundation for this was laid by the German defeat in the Great War. He wrote 'Mein Kampf' while in prison. He rose in the Nazi Party. And it was not until 1933 (If I'm not mistaken) that he got elected. It than took an other 6 years until WW II started. And yet an other 6 years later we could start writing the history books and start doing the math. And the math ended with a total of 60,000,000 people under the ground.
Now when I look at what is going on in the world today (NOT just in the US!), I get scared. I strongly believe we should look forward. But I also believe we should learn from the past. And when I look at todays society, I get scared and I worry. I see an analogy to what has happened in the past.
I am 100% sure that you do not want a repeat of what happened to the Jews during WW II. But when do we say; Stop. Enough is enough. When? Where should we have stopped Hitler? Or should we not have stopped him and is the war justified because he was just expressing his opinion? That doesn't sound right to me, sorry. And I am pretty sure that this is not what you have in mind either.
Now I am taking it to the extreme here. And it may not be a likely scenario. But at the same time it is hard to deny that it is a possibility. And in the light of this possibility, however small, we should do something to avoid this from becoming a reality. And I think that curtailing some of the rights we have fought for so hard in the past may need a bit of a 'rethink'.
I am not saying that Trump is trying to do just this. But I see a lot of behavior from him that is very typical behavior for dictators. And where is this leading us. Can every body always say what he wants? Really?
I strongly believe that problems should be solved when they become big issues. When a problem arises it is best to address it as early as possible. The longer you wait the more effort it will take to solve the issue.
Joey
