The Open Free Press

( As originally published HERE )

-START-

Of course, civilization is a really strange word for the construct we live in. One of the men in the know, being asked what he thought of Western Civilization, once famously answered it sounds like a good idea.

And one of his compatriots added: “It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”

Today I came across another quote, just after reading about a story on Argusoog about janitors of apartment buildings now being trained in the Netherlands to spot domestic violence. This story, showing once more how far the invasion by Big Brother of our private domain has already come, is aggravated by personal experience: only a few weeks ago I got implicitly threatened by a doctor to report me to the Dutch ‘Child Protection’ Agency, after not allowing my one year old son to be inoculated with Prednison.

The quote I’m referring to is by Edward Gibbon:

“The Five Causes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society;
2. Higher and higher taxes: the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace;
3. The mad craze for pleasure, with sports and plays becoming more exciting, more brutal and more immoral;
4. The building of great armaments when the real enemy was within — the decay of individual responsibility;
5. The decay of religion, whose leaders lost their touch with life, and their power to guide the people.”

The story about janitors spying on people for signs of abuse and the first item on Gibbons list is of course what made me connect them.

Read the rest of this entry →