Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius had all the wealth, power and comfort a man could hope for. As master of the offices, he was one of the most powerful men in the Roman Empire and had he turned a blind eye to the corruption in the Empire, he would likely have remained in this comfortable position for the rest of his life. But Boethius did not choose such a life. Instead, Boethius openly criticized the corruption and incompetence that ruled the court of Rome. This outspokenness costed him his life. He was accused of treason, thrown in prison and eventually executed in 524. It is a tragedy that the bravery to speak out against the established order came at such a high cost and one could only hope that in our modern civilised societies injustices like that would be something from the past.
Unfortunately, that is far from so. Even today, our world is filled with Boethiusses. Where are they , Well let’s take a simple look around us. Let us look at Edward Snowden, who exposed the systematic violation of our privacy by NSA surveillance and had to flee to Russia. Let us look at Julian Assange, who created a platform to expose government corruption and has to live a life on the run. Let us look at the witnesses that exposed Donald Trump’s corruption in his impeachment trial, but were fired soon after it. Let us look at all the other whistleblowers in our world that sacrificed their freedom to expose injustices.
The whistleblower is the modern Boethius. Just like Boethius he is willing to speak out against injustices and corruption in the established order. Just like Boethius he is treated like a criminal because of his bravery. And just like Saint Boethius, history will look with shame upon how these men are treated. We should not prosecute these men, we should applaud them for their bravery. For if it is not they that expose the corruption of the established order, who will?
David's medieval philosophy blog 