What used to be called ‘whistleblowers’ are now sometimes termed ‘criminals’ I suppose it had to happen we live in a high-tech world where ‘sensitive’ information is often loosely available. The distinction is easily bandied about these days though at one time such ‘classifications’ could be more fatal.
I muse about this after reading again about the German Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It’s unusual reading for me as an avowed agnostic as Dietrich was a Pastor in 1930/40s Germany and he got in trouble with ‘the authorities’. He eventually secretly passed information on details of the pre-war euthanasia programme in that country to other countries and he spoke out against it and other later inquities.
He was arrested as a ‘criminal’ although all he had done was pass on information he felt was true – he was right. Bonhoeffer was executed just 14 days before the camp he was held in was liberated.
A famous quote of Bonhoeffer’s is:
“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
The Isle of Man its government and business community like to see themselves as ‘world’ players these days I wonder what ‘moral society’ their activities will ‘leave to its children’?
Image: Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bernard Moffatt
pp Celtic League
04/11/17
