When they manipulated the stock market,On the Road from Samaria, Jesse
I remained silent;
I was making money and felt superior to the crowd.
When they silenced their critics,
I remained silent;
I was self-righteous and felt they got what they deserved.
When they came for the blue collar workers,
I did not speak out;
I enjoyed my superior social status and the cheap consumer goods.
When they came for my neighbor's possessions
I remained silent;
I was afraid and jealous and glad to see him brought down.
When they grew richer and more powerful
I accepted their lies in silence;
I wanted to gain their favor and be one of them.
When they came for me,
and sent me to a camp as a useless eater
I reaped what I had sown.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” Marcus Tullius Cicero