The Boiling Frog Syndrome

If one tolerates the taking of "small" freedoms, when the large freedoms are taken (life, liberty, property), it is too late to resist.

We cannot allow ourselves to be set in cold water that slowly heats and boils us, like the fabled frog.  Though the metaphor is not based on fact, the sentiment is valid. 

I watched Schindler's List, directed by Steven Spielberg, for the first time recently.  I have personally visited the memorial constructed on the grounds of the former Dachau Concentration Camp and read Man's Search for Meaning by survivor Victor Frankl.   I am by no means an expert on WWII or the Holocaust, but I still have very strong feelings about the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-N0827-318,_KZ_Auschwitz,_Ankunft_ungarischer_Juden.jpg

Though certainly not the only example of mass genocide, the horror and efficiency of the Holocaust makes it without a doubt one of the most heinous crimes against human beings in history.  I think, as members of the modern world, owe it to the memory of those murdered to learn from history and never allow it to happen again.  Nothing can justify the evil and inhumanity displayed by the SS, and mass of bystanders.  There were indeed some stunning acts of courage and deep compassion displayed by Germans and Jews alike despite personal risk, including Oskar Schindler and others.  Though the actions of Schindler were nothing short of heroic, the point at which he acted allowed him to save only a small fraction of the Polish Jews affected by Nazi control.  They all had to wait for a large outside force of selfless soldiers from the Allied forces to liberate them.

I can't help but think of Patrick Henry's famed speech, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"  The key is to identify the point at which surrendering small freedoms to the state is at it's tipping point.  It must be recognized at the moment when it's happening, not retrospectively.  Such loss of freedom is a slippery slope that reinforces the need for the Constitution's Second Amendment.  Though I would like everyone in the world to lay down arms and live in peace, my realism and practicality will not allow me to naively believe that pacifism and giving up my own power will make that happen.  There will always be those in the world who are happy to take advantage of the weak in trivial or world-changing ways.  Is it not better to take up arms when small freedoms are threatened and be called a little overzealous, than to stand idle and be powerless to defend ourselves against future evils?

Read more: One point of view about the Boiling Frog Syndrome.