The rhetoric of ruin: How fear and false crises are deployed against social progress

“ What are the claims of the people—the obvious, undoubted rights of common justice and humanity, forcibly withheld from them by pride, bigotry, and selfishness,—demanded for them, age after age, year after year, by the wisdom and virtue of the enlightened and disinterested part of mankind, and only grudgingly yielded up, with indecent, disgusting excuses, and sickening delays, when the burning shame of their refusal can be no longer concealed by fear or favour from the whole world. ”

“ It is in vain that you repeat that the days of fraternity are come; that Democracy, such as you establish it, puts an end to all hostilities or conflicts of classes, and assimilates and unites all orders of citizens. The truth, the terrible truth, gleams through these vain words. Interests, passions, pretensions, situations, and classes conflict on every side, with all the fury of boundless hopes and boundless fears. It is clear that the first acts of the Democratic Republic threaten to plunge herself and us into the chaos of social war. ”

“ Therefore we are bound to resist it face to face, everywhere and always, and do battle against the socialist idea—that is, the idea of destruction, disaster, and ruin. I impress upon you the necessity of, and claim your help in, a doctrinal resistance to this idea, a defence of all it attacks, an assertion of all it denies; a sturdy repetition of the credo of universal affirmation, and not only a repetition, but a publication, a triumphant challenge, to the socialist idea which embodies in itself a universal negation. ”

“ I will not insult the good sense or the dignity of mankind by dwelling on it longer. It is the degradation of man, and the destruction of society.
Not only of society as at present constituted, but of all human society whatsoever: for all society rests on foundations which it is the object of the Social Republic to overthrow. It is not a mere invasion of the social edifice by intruders, whether barbarian or not; it is the utter ruin of the edifice itself that is contemplated. ”

“ Will not better education cost money? Will not more efficient factory inspection cost money? Will not Free Feeding cost money? Does not almost every kind of social reform mean increased expenditure? It is significant that the demand for “retrenchment,” which is the Liberal cry in national affairs, is [Pg 166] in local affairs the cry of the “Moderates,” that is of the magnates and monopolists who wish to exploit the public. But Liberal or Moderate it is always a reactionary cry. If we are to do our duty by the people, we cannot retrench. ”

“ With the increase of social pressure on the individual, with the ever rising power of restriction of freedom of thought and expression, and loss of liberty of manifestation of originality and initiative due to an ever greater amount of legislation and regulation of the minutiae of individual life, true social progress diminishes, comes to a standstill, ending in decline, decay, and ruin. ”

“ That the incessant encroachment of the Government upon the rights of the individual will produce social decadence is a truth that most Americans have yet to learn. With a light heart they are constantly approving scheme after scheme for social regeneration that involves some restriction upon freedom, or an increase of taxation, or both. ”

“ It is a falsehood that emancipation has failed to improve the condition of the colored race. Throughout the West Indies, in every island, the condition of the people is incomparably superior to what it was in slavery. Some say if it has not ruined the laborers, it has ruined the planters. I deny that statement, as plainly as I deny the other. Emancipation proved a blessing, instead of a curse, to the proprietors. What I have told you concerning the prices of land are facts that speak volumes in regard to the sort of ruin brought upon British planters by emancipation. ”

“ A court may imply a lack of irreparable harm where there is no “speedy action” and a plaintiff sleeps on its rights. Lydo Enters. v. City of Las Vegas, 745 F.2d 1211, 1213 (9th Cir. 1984) .
Plaintiffs assert that the Mifepristone REMS Program imposes costs that are not compensable where the restriction of access to mifepristone causes patients to miss the window for medication abortion, leaving patients with procedural abortion or carrying a pregnancy to term, options that impose higher costs on Plaintiffs’ state-run health care programs. ”

“ In all those Colonies where the sugar estates have been partially abandoned, we must look to other causes than the indolence of the laborers. In all those Colonies, land is abundant and comparatively cheap; and I need not remind any one acquainted with the settlement of land in America, that where land is abundant and cheap, labor will be scarce and dear. The negroes in Guiana and Trinidad pursue the same course as poor Irish emigrants in Canada, or the United States; they endeavor to get land of their own, and to become proprietors instead of laborers. ”

“ When Louis Philippe sent Commissioners to the British West Indies, to inquire into the state of things, with a view to emancipation in the French Colonies, they published a Report, from which I translate the following extract: "In Guiana, some planters declare the impossibility of getting along with the existing system. Others, on the contrary, assure us that they never want for laborers; they praise the assiduity of the blacks, and say they produce as much as under the former system. ”

“ In view of these facts, is it not unjust and irrational to persist in calling immediate emancipation a "fanatical" idea? Leaving the obvious considerations of justice and humanity entirely out of the question, I ask whether experience has not proved it to be a measure of plain, practical good sense, and sound policy. The trouble in forming a correct estimate on this subject arises mainly from our proneness to forget that negroes are men, and, consequently, governed by the same laws of human nature, which govern all men. Compulsion always excites resistance; reward always stimulates exertion. ”

“ That proprietors have confidence in the future is evinced by the expensive repair of buildings on various estates, the enlargement of works, and the high prices given for land, which would scarcely have commanded a purchaser at any price, during slavery. In my district, the apprentices are invariably willing to work on the estates for hire, during their own time. In no community in the world, is crime less prevalent. ”

“ Of course, it requires no little energy and self-denial for a negro, upon such wages, to lay up enough to purchase a little estate; but if he does get one, he never parts with it, except for a larger or better one. ”

“ Many proprietors give land for schools and chapels; also subscriptions to a large amount. Had the negroes been entirely emancipated in 1834, they would have been much further advanced in 1840, than they can be at the end of the apprenticeship, through which both masters and servants are laboring heavily. That the negroes will work, if moderately compensated, no candid man can doubt. Their endurance for the sake of a very little gain is quite amazing; and they are very desirous to procure for themselves and families as large a share as possible of the comforts and decencies of life. ”

“ If the tenant has notice to quit, while his crops are growing, he is obliged to take for them whatever price the proprietor appraises them at. If the tenant himself gives notice of intention to leave, he is obliged to sacrifice his crops altogether. The obvious tendency of this is to drive laborers from sugar cultivation to places where they can get land of their own. If I were proprietor of a sugar estate, I would devote one-fourth, or one-third, of the cane land on the estate to the laborers. ”

“ To my utter surprise, I learned that the wages of men on the sugar and coffee plantations ranged from eighteen to twenty-four cents a day; and proportionably less for women and children. Out of these wages the laborers have to board themselves. Now, when it is considered that flour is eighteen dollars a barrel, eggs from three to five cents a piece, and ham twenty-five cents a pound, does not this cry of high wages appear absurd? Was the wolf's complaint of the lamb, for muddying the stream below him, more unreasonable? Are wages lower in any quarter of the civilized world? ”

“ Bigelow, "the planter's candle was burning at both ends." If there was a hurricane, or a severe drought, or an insurrection of the slaves, which caused a failure of the crops, the proprietor was obliged to mortgage his lands to get the necessary supply of money. Thus a great many of the estates passed into the hands of British merchants, and had a heavy interest to pay in addition to other expenses.
Such was the state of things, when the British people, ignorant of this financial chaos, and actuated solely by motives of justice and humanity, started the idea of abolishing slavery. ”

“ The West Indies soon began to rise from the severe but temporary pressure, occasioned by the repeal of the Tariff. In some cases property passed out of the fettered hands of bankrupts to those, who being unincumbered, could take a fair start; while some of the old proprietors learned wisdom from experience, and managed more judiciously. Even Jamaica is coming in for her share in these beneficial changes. ”

“ The Jamaica negro gives as much labor, even to the sugar estates, as he consistently can, and it is no fault of his if he cannot give enough. They are a peaceable, law-abiding peasantry, with whom the remembrance of past wrongs has had so little weight that, from the day of emancipation until now, they have never dreamed of a hostile combination, either against their old masters, or the government under which they live; though in the time of slavery, insurrections were numerous and terrible. ”

“ A despatch from Sir Charles Metcalfe, read in the House of Commons, 1842, declares: "The present condition of the peasantry of Jamaica is very striking. They are much improved in their habits, and are generally well-ordered and free from crime. They subscribe for their respective churches, and are constant in their attendance on divine worship, wearing good clothes, and many of them riding on horses. They send their children to school, and pay for their schooling." "It appears wonderful how so much has been accomplished in the island, in building, planting, digging, and making fences. ”

“ Crimes of any heinous nature are very rare among the laborers. I may venture to say that petty thefts, breaking sugar canes to eat, and offences of the like description, principally swell the calendars of our Quarterly Courts of Sessions. In general, the laborers are peaceable, orderly, and civil; not only to those who move in higher spheres of life, but also to each other. ”

“ It is amazing how few material breaches of the law occur in so extraordinary a community. Occasionally, there are a few cases of crime; but when it is considered that the population of this island is nearly as dense as that of any part of China, and wholly uneducated, either by precept or example, this absence of frequent crime excites our wonder, and is highly creditable to the negroes. I do not hesitate to say that perfect tranquillity exists in this Colony, though passing through one of the most momentous changes, that ever took place in any age, or country ”

“ Crime was rare in the West Indies—he meant crime which brought men to the courts of law. He found from the published returns, that the number of men in prison during 1854 was 908, whilst the number in prison at one time in 1858 was only 600. That was not a very considerable number for so large a population. The people were very fond of cutlasses, and there was hardly a man who had not got one, but yet one scarcely ever heard of a cutlass being used to the injury of another man. ”

“ As for the great bulk of the people, making allowance for climate, no peasantry in the world can display more cheerful and persevering industry. In the time of slavery, unrestrained licentiousness was the order of the day. Every estate and every negro hut was a [Pg 75] brothel. Now, marriage is the rule and concubinage the exception. Although every trifling infraction of the laws (contrary to former usage) is now publicly known and punished by magistrates, empty jails, and the absence of serious offences from the calendar of the courts, are sufficient evidence of the general decrease of crime. ”

“ It is not denied by anybody in the West Indies that the good results of emancipation on the social condition of the people have been very great. In Barbadoes, the progress has been especially marked. I know of no people of the laboring class anywhere, who have done so much for the education of their children, as the people of Barbadoes ”

“ Wherever you look, you see the forests giving place to gardens and cornfields, and numbers of comfortable houses growing up under the hand [Pg 73] of industry and perseverance. Many villages have been built up entirely since freedom by those who were formerly slaves. A spirit of improvement has been called forth. Roads and streets are being McAdamized; there are many new markets in different parts of the country. Agricultural Societies are forming ”

“ Slavery unavoidably renders labor a degradation, and consequently, it is a matter of pride with them to live in idleness. Extravagance and dissipation follow of course. All, who have examined into the subject, are aware that intemperance, licentiousness, and gambling, are fearfully prevalent in slave-holding countries. One hint will suffice to suggest the immoral condition of the West Indies, during slavery. It is a well-known fact that the white subordinates employed by planters were very liable to lose their situations if they married ”

“ That abortions, even when criminally induced, may sometimes be safely borne by the system, is of little avail to disprove the evidence of numberless cases to the contrary. We have instanced death. Pelvic cellulitis, on the other hand; fistulæ, vesical, uterine, or between the organs alluded to; adhesions of the os or vagina, rendering liable subsequent rupture of the womb, during labor or from retained menses, or, in the latter case, discharge of the secretion through a Fallopian tube and consequent peritonitis; diseases and degenerations, inflammatory or malignant, of both uterus and ovary ”

“ Considering FDA’s 2021 decision to permit “mail-in” chemical abortion, many women and girls will consume mifepristone without physician supervision. And in maternity-care “deserts,” women may not have ready access to emergency care. In sum, there are fewer safety restrictions for women and girls today than ever before. Plaintiffs have good reasons to believe their alleged injuries will continue in the future, and possibly with greater frequency than in the past. ”

“ Studies show that women are thirty percent more likely to die from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy while seeking abortions if the condition remains undiagnosed. [53] A woman may interpret the warning signs of an ectopic pregnancy — cramping and severe bleeding — as side effects of mifepristone. In reality, the symptoms indicate her life is in danger. [54] Another study revealed that of 5,619 chemical abortion visits, 452 patients had a pregnancy of “unknown location” and 31 were treated for ectopic pregnancy — including 4 that were ruptured. ”

“ Defendants broaden the regulation on accelerated approval of new drugs farther than the text of the regulation would ever suggest. Therefore, FDA’s approval of chemical abortion drugs under Subpart H exceeded its authority under the regulation’s first requirement.
c. Chemical Abortion Drugs do not provide a “Meaningful Therapeutic Benefit” FDA also exceeded its authority under the second requirement of Subpart H. In addition to treating a serious or life-threatening illness, chemical abortion drugs must also provide a “meaningful therapeutic benefit” to patients over surgical abortion. ”

“ Unlike the crucial studies FDA relied upon to extend the maximum gestational age, change the dosing regimen, and authorize a repeat dose of misoprostol, the labeling approved by FDA in 2016 did not require: (1) an ultrasound; (2) an in-person follow-up exam; or (3) the ability of abortionists to personally perform a surgical abortion if necessary. Id. Simply put, FDA built on its already-suspect 2000 Approval by removing even more restrictions related to chemical abortion drugs that were present during the final phase of the investigation. ”

“ Christopher Tietze, a recognized expert on abortion, explained at trial that in 1981 all out-of-hospital abortion clinics in the United States performed abortions up to 10 weeks gestational age, 90 per cent of clinics performed abortions up to 12 weeks, 50 per cent of clinics up to 14 weeks and 20 per cent accepted patients up to 16 weeks. ”

“ Here, the U.S. trials FDA relied upon when approving mifepristone required that: (1) each woman receive an ultrasound to confirm gestational age and exclude an ectopic pregnancy; [47] (2) physicians have experience in performing surgical abortions and admitting privileges at medical facilities that provide emergency care; (3) all patients be within one hour of emergency facilities or the facilities of the principal investigator; and (4) women be monitored for four hours to check for adverse events after taking misoprostol. ”

“ After the first trimester, the compelling state interest in the mother's health permits it to adopt reasonable regulations in order to promote safe abortions -- but requiring abortions to be performed in hospitals, or only after approval of another doctor or committee in addition to the woman's physician, is impermissible, as is requiring that the abortion procedure employ a technique that, however preferable from a medical perspective, is not widely available. ”

“ See James Studnicki et al., A Post Hoc Exploratory Analysis: Induced Complications Mistaken for Miscarriage in the Emergency Room are a Risk Factor for Hospitalization, 9 Health Serv. Rsch. Mgmt. Epidemiology 1, 1 (2022) ; see also ECF No. 1-8 at 7 (describing Plaintiffs’ difficulty in submitting adverse event reports to mifepristone manufacturer Danco) . Other data sources such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Abortion Surveillance Reports are “profoundly flawed” because state reporting “is voluntary, with many states reporting intermittently and some not at all.” ”

“ A very slight acquaintance with the advertisements of quack medicines is enough to show that a knowledge of the causes of the disease for which a cure is promised is in no wise necessary for the composition of either the medicine or the advertisement, in fact, it is impossible to believe that the extravagant claims and absurd statements made could be put forward by persons having any knowledge of disease. ”

“ But with other proprietary medicines it is quite clear that the makers cannot in the slightest degree believe in the claims they make; the “remedy” in these cases is some substance or mixture devoid of medicinal activity, or possessing some slight therapeutic property having no relation to the disease for which the nostrum is put forward as a cure. It is often, indeed, for inert preparations that the most extravagant and emphatic claims are made ”

“ There is no other treatment, drug, or medicine advertised in Great Britain to-day to cure Consumption, the ingredients of which are not known to every doctor and chemist in the world, and if you cannot obtain relief from these under the care of your own Medical Adviser, how can you be cured by using them on the advice of an American Quack. ”

“ A tame acquiescence in every encroachment of power or exertion of undue influence, a disposition to assert our own rights or those of others no further than fear or interest permit, a habit of looking on the welfare of our country or the rights of mankind as secondary considerations, no further to be regarded than as they are 20connected with our own danger or convenience, these are not the symptoms of the durable greatness and independence of a people. The causes of the ruin of states have been almost always laid in the relaxation of their moral habits and political prejudices. ”

“ Today, I’m announcing several critical actions that my administration has taken to confront a problem that we have right here at home. We fight wars that are 6,000 miles away; wars that we should have never been in, in many cases. But we don’t control our own border.
So we’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border. And we’re going to do it one way or the other — we have to do it — not because it was a campaign promise, which it is. It was one of many, by the way; not my only one. We’re rebuilding the military, our economy is thriving like never before. ”

“ But, we look at the facts and our election was so corrupt that, in the history of this country, we've never seen anything like it. You can go all the way back.
You know, America is blessed with elections. All over the world they talk about our elections. You know what the world says about us now? They say we don't have free and fair elections. And you know what else? We don't have a free and fair press. Our media is not free, it's not fair, it suppresses thought, it suppresses speech, and it's become the enemy of the people. It's become the enemy of the people. ”

“ The general need and the increasingly difficult struggle for existence drive more and more women and girls into lives of degradation and ruin. Demoralization, brutality and crime increase, while the prisons, the penitentiaries and the so-called reformatories can hardly contain the mass of their inmates.
Crime is closely connected with social conditions. Society does not wish to admit this fact. ”

“ Let the old social Babylon crumble and decay, and from her fruitful ruins, if needful even watered with blood, let the new Jerusalem of society come forth. Social reform was the dream of our fathers; social transformation is but another dream, a generous fallacy, but still a fallacy, attempting impossibilities and ending in nothingness. A ruin cannot be reformed nor a crumbling shed transformed; we see only a building to pull down and a building to put up. What I will do is this: I will use the popular arm to destroy, and on the ruins of the past I will erect the edifice of the future. ”

“ The illness of our society is aggravated by agitators who would make us so enamored of equality that we would prefer to be equal in slavery rather than un­equal in freedom. But despite the demagogues and charlatans, the social unrest is so immensely real that nothing less than the restructuring of the social order is imperative beginning this year. ”

“ We all know the enormous influence which procrastination, inertness, love of ease, and prejudice in favor of what is established exert on individual lives; and even so is it with society. There is salvation for the individual at given moments, at special conjunctions, at certain partings of the ways; but, the favorable opportunity missed, the situation becomes more difficult and hopeless with every hour. In social matters the civilized world has been going wrong for years past, and is now threatened with a vast increase of the tyrannical legislation which it has been inviting. ”

“ To this end, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights in the light of changes in society, social progress and scientific and technological developments by making those rights more visible in a Charter. ”

“ This Charter reaffirms, with due regard for the powers and tasks of the Union and for the principle of subsidiarity, the rights as they result, in particular, from the constitutional traditions and international obligations common to the Member States, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Social Charters adopted by the Union and by the Council of Europe and the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the European Court of Human Rights. ”

“ Freedom of the press, subject only to liability for personal 324 injuries. This formidable censor of the public functionaries, by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peaceably, which must otherwise be done by revolution. It is also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral, and social being. ”

“ Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
2. No restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of these rights other than such as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. ”

“ and the civilized world seems at last to be proceeding to the conviction of that fundamental and manifest truth, that the powers of government are but a trust, and that they cannot be lawfully exercised but for the good of the community. As knowledge is more and more extended, this conviction becomes more and more general. Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams. ”

“ We are threatened by the dissolution of society as the termination of a historic career, whose sole aim is wealth; for a career of this sort contains the elements of its own destruction. Democracy in administration, fraternity in social relations, general education,—these will initiate the next, higher stage of society, toward which experience, reason and science are constantly leading us. It will be a resurrection, only in a higher form, of the liberty, equality and fraternity of the old gens. ”

“ The general social antagonism which has taken hold of our entire public life today, brought about through the force of opposing and contradictory interests, will crumble to pieces when the reorganization of our social life, based upon the principles of economic justice, shall have become a reality. ”

“ There must be a great change in the social condition to remove the social evils of mind. You will remove the barriers of progress, by removing the fears which repel investigation. The wrong of fear must be overcome. The slave of tyrannical rule must be set free from his chains. The mind [233] must be taught to respect its own rights, and disown the usurper’s pretensions. It must be taught that wisdom is not tyranny, and that nature will not justify submission. ”