The Persistence of Tyranny

FEBRUARY 15, 2018 BY KEN WHITE

Seventy-five years ago this June, the United States Supreme Court corrected its own grave moral and legal error and ruled that the government could not compel Jehovah's Witnesses to salute the flag and take the Pledge of Allegiance at school. Justice Jackson's stirring words were a watershed moment in American recognition of individual liberty in the face of government demands for uniformity:

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.

A majority of the court thus retreated from its ignominious endorsement of thought control three years earlier:

A society which is dedicated to the preservation of these ultimate values of civilization may in self-protection utilize the educational process for inculcating those almost unconscious feelings which bind men together in a comprehending loyalty, whatever may be their lesser differences and difficulties.

These decisions came not in a vacuum, but in an era of brutal and largely forgotten persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in America, which I discussed in the first episode of the "Make No Law" Podcast. You could call this tyranny, but the persecution was not committed by an abstraction. The people who abused those Americans were their neighbors, their fellow citizens, their equals before the law. The men on the Supreme Court who initially endorsed — and arguably encouraged — the abuse were just men, a collection of individuals rather than icons.

This week, very nearly seventy-five years after the Supreme Court got it right, Colorado teacher Karen Smith was charged with assault for forcibly lifting a schoolchild by his jacket when he did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Smith disregarded not only three-quarters of a century of constitutional law but the school's own policy which correctly tells the students they may sit. This sort of thing — a student punished for exercising a right clearly established since FDR was President — happens remarkably often. For every American agreeing that it is wrong and that the school should be bound by the rule of law, you'll find an American applauding it and proclaiming it should happen more often: that the students are disrespectful, that they should be taught respect, that they ought to face official consequences for not joining in patriotic recitations, that failing to stand reflects values that those in authority ought to fight. I won't link to them. You know they're there. Read, if you must, the comments on any story about Karen Smith, or the fundraisers for her defense.

Tyranny is not an abstraction. Tyranny is not faceless government. Tyranny is not some anonymous end boss to be defeated once and then confidently forgotten. Tyranny is us. Tyranny is our inclination to punish and oppress the other. Tyranny is our willingness to abuse our neighbor for not being on "our team." Tyranny is mouthing platitudes about liberty while cheering its suppression. Tyranny is our capacity to rationalize exceptions to rights for our enemies. Tyranny is our willingness to dismiss violation of rights as unimportant or minimal. Tyranny sold you your morning coffee, greeted you warmly as you walked into the office, made lunch plans with you, and will wave goodbye to you at the end of the day. Tyranny can be you.