Creeping Tyranny, Vaccine Passports, and Near Occasions of Sin
Resisting evil is never easy. That is the only reason evil can survive at all.
I was listening to a rant (his word) by the superb Viva Frei the other day on the response he had gotten after he had to show his vaccine passport to take his kids bowling. Viva is vaccinated but strongly opposes vaccine passports and had previously taken a stand against presenting his documentation. Faced with having to explain to his kids that their fun day was ruined, he decided to submit.
I want to make clear that, whatever judgement you might read into the below, I can't say I wouldn't have done the same, either out of my own personal weakness or believing that it was the correct decision. It can often be lost in looking at hard choices, that knowing the right thing to do and doing the right thing are not the same thing, and it is not only cowards and hypocrites who fail to align their every action to their principles.
This incident did get me thinking about how we submit to tyranny though. It's not shocking to discover that tyranny rarely if ever comes all at once. We know that people give into it bit by bit, failing to stand up for the rights of others or for their own rights when its easier to just give in or it doesn't seem like that big a deal. Any student of history knows this. But seeing it play out in real time is eyeopening. And as rapidly as tyranny has advanced in the last 18 months, it has always been piecemeal. From staying at home for two weeks to wearing a mask and staying 6' apart to needing experimental medical treatments to keep your job or leave the country in 18 months can't be done all at once. It's always little steps that either seem reasonable at the time or seem too difficult to resist compared to what is being given up. After all, if resistance was easy, or the price of submission seemed too high, no one would ever submit.
And once you make that first submission, the next time is always easier. Anyone who has studied psychology certainly knows this. The people imposing these requirements certainly know it, and they are motivated to make submission to evil always and everywhere the easier option. The devil knows the same trick.
And that got me thinking about the idea of occasions of sin. For those unfamiliar, "Occasions of sin are external circumstances--whether of things or persons--which either because of their special nature or because of the frailty common to humanity or peculiar to some individual, incite or entice one to sin." Because the occasions lead to sin, we should avoid them. In particular, the faithful are called to avoid all near occasions of sin, those that inevitably result in sin.
For those who are not interested in discussions of sin, the logic still follows if you just consider things you shouldn't do but might be tempted to given the wrong situation. This is why recovering alcoholics avoid their old drinking buddies and throw away all the liquor in the house. Eliminating the temptation is the surest way to make sure you don't succumb.
In order to secure ourselves against near occasions of tyranny, we must be prepared to do the same. Because “I’ll just wear a mask this one time to not cause a fuss,” or “I didn’t know I’d have to show my papers, but I’ll do it this one time,” turns into “I’ll get one more booster to keep my job, but this is the last one,” and “I guess not letting the unvaccinated buy groceries is okay, as long as they are still allowed medical services.”
It’s going to be hard. The devil never makes evil look like the bad option. Tyrants always make submission look like the lesser of two evils. But evil is still evil. Every capitulation makes the next one more likely. Give the CDC an inch…
And so we have to be prepared to say “no” when we aren’t expecting to. Prepared to walk out of restaurants that ask you to wear a mask. Prepared to risk the wrath of OSHA by not forcing vaccines on employees. Prepared to walk away from employers who lack the courage to resist. Prepared to be ostracized by former friends who insist on standing 6’ away from you until you submit. Even prepared to disappoint your children when the teenager at the bowling alley asks to see your papers.
It’s hard. It’s almost unbearably hard. I pray I have the courage of my own convictions to follow through myself. But if it wasn’t hard, if living free from sin and tyranny were easy, they would never hold power over anyone.