Sheep Versus Goats

From a London Times article (praising the bravery of J.K. Rowling):

A friend believes people divide into sheep and goats. The sheep will never stray too far from their flock’s received wisdom because lone dissenters are picked off by wolves. Sheep are pleasant, biddable, placid, and panic when cornered. Sheep mainly aspire to a quiet life.

Goats are not nice: they’re cussed, belligerent, solitary. They scrabble and climb, cling to frozen rock faces. It’s not bravery that leads them far from low-hanging fruit and shelter into barren places with precipitous drops, or to ram their heads into hard objects and bigger foes. It’s their nature. They’re goats.

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The Story Behind the Iconic Photo of the Man Who Refused to Salute Hitler

I've seen this iconic photo periodically. It has always inspired me. I keep a copy of the image file on my desktop, and I periodically look at it and feel intense emotions.  Until today, however, I didn't know the story about the man refusing to salute Hitler.  I didn't know what happened to him.

[caption id="attachment_34346" align="aligncenter" width="792"] Employees of the shipyard Blohm und Vow from Hamburg gathered for the launch of the training ship 'Horst Wessel' and demonstrate the Nazi salute with the raised right arm. One worker in the right half of the picture denied it and crosses his arms in a defiant gesture - also a kind of resistance. The name of the worker is August Landmesser., 01.01.1936-31.12.1936[/caption]

Here is the opening paragraph of the story behind the photo from Wikipedia:

August Landmesser ([ˈaʊ̯ɡʊst ˈlantˌmɛsɐ]; 24 May 1910 – 17 October 1944) was a worker at the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany. He became known as the possible identity of a man appearing in a 1936 photograph, conspicuously refusing to perform the Nazi salute with the other workers.[2][3] Landmesser had run afoul of the Nazi Party over his unlawful relationship with Irma Eckler, a Jewish woman. Later he was imprisoned, and eventually drafted into penal military service, where he was killed in action.

The Wikipedia article continues on and it is a story that is jarring, inexcusable, horrid. This is what can happen when bullies bring terror up a group (or nation) of people, causing them to form a destructive tribe.  There are millions of stories of the Nazi regime, but August's photo allows him to visually inspire the rest of us.  If only most of us had the guts and integrity to stand up to 1% of the social pressure and the danger that he faced. I wonder whether this photo was used in the case against him, or if his sin of falling in love with a Jewish woman (Irma) was more than enough evidence for his persecutors. Bullies don't need much evidence.  Actually, they don't need any evidence.

August's non-salute proves that one can stand up to massive social pressure to succumb.  The salutes of everyone else in this photo is evidence of something else, what what?  Is it that most people are sheep?  Is it that most people stop thinking when under social pressure, thus acting out Hannah Arendt's idea of the banality of evil?  Or did most people, at some early glimpse of trouble, decide to stop thinking? Or did most people knowingly live hypocritical lives day after day, laying low, passively hoping that the entire thing would wash over and that they and their families would emerge intact, though compromised?

This photo of August Landmesser inspires me, reminding me that nothing I ever face will compare to what he faced.  If he could stand up to the Nazi's, I will never have any excuse for failing to speak what I believe to be truth, no matter how upset people around me are getting.  August Landmesser's photo is an excellent reason for being the first one in the room to stand up and tell the mob that you disagree with them. 

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished . . .

From the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a story where one of the heroes goes to prison:

A year on from the FinCEN Files investigation, the United States Treasury unit at the heart of the global exposé is now “working overtime” to implement major anti-money-laundering reforms, while the whistleblower whose leaked documents sparked the investigation languishes in prison.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed News and more than 100 media outlets published the FinCEN Files in September 2020, uncovering more than $2 trillion worth of suspicious transactions flowing through the global financial system, passing through U.S.-based banks with relatively few impediments.

. . .

While the FinCEN Files has been widely lauded and cited over the past year as a key driver for global money-laundering reform, the former FinCEN official-turned-whistleblower who originally provided the thousands of documents at the core of the investigation reported to prison earlier in September to serve six months for sending the confidential documents to a BuzzFeed News reporter.

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards was first arrested in 2018, more than two years before the FinCEN Files was published. After pleading guilty last year to sending highly secretive suspicious activity reports from FinCEN to a reporter, she was finally sentenced in June this year.

“I’m absolutely proud of what I did,” Edwards told BuzzFeed News in an interview before reporting to a federal women’s prison in West Virginia earlier this month. “My motive was accountability, and the American people had a right to know what was occurring within Treasury and that it was a national security issue and that American lives were in jeopardy.”

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Lee Fang: One Year Ago

Lee Fang is an excellent reporter with a stellar track record.

Here is the video he posted one year ago that resulted in Fang's co-worker at The Intercept and New York Times politics reporter Astead Herndonand (and many others) calling him a racist. Fang was left twisting in the wind. Click the image to view the two-minute statement. Those reporters on the left who were not piling on to the accusations against Fang were completely silent. If you watch this video, you will see a thoughtful and nuanced statement. Lee Fang was called a racist for reporting this man's views along with many other varied viewpoints. Here's the problem: Every statement--every single one--must fit the narrative.

While Fang is a real reporter, these reactions (and non-reactions) of other journalists is the new version of journalism.

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