The Return of the Exile

Get Out of Town

The ancient classical world had a punishment in its judicial menu which has long since been discarded and until recently had become part of a long discarded past.  The rise of nation states put paid to it.  We are thinking of the punishment of exile.  When nuisance-causing citizens, or citizens causing embarrassment to rulers, or general miscreants came before the courts in the ancient world, exile was often the sentence of choice (not for slaves, or non-citizens, of course, who usually lacked legal standing of any sort). 

In these days, exiling would mean delivering the miscreant to another nation state, which usually has its own strict border controls and which would refuse to admit the exile.  Hence, the punishment being no longer feasible.  However, given half a chance, it returns.  Most recently we have seen a variant of it with respect to Australia and New Zealand.  Citizens of the latter country who have chosen to live in Australia (often for many years) and who fall foul of the law are finding themselves being exiled back to New Zealand. Understandably, we in New Zealand are not amused.

Another modern manifestation of the punishment of exile has surfaced in the state and city of New York.
  In this case the exiling is not due to committing a crime but causing offence against the curent petty tyrant powers-that-be.  It is exile for ideological reasons.  Some views and opinions are just so extreme and odious that they disturb the general tranquillity of the body politic.  They risk corrupting good citizens and their morals.  People with such views have no place in the modern state or city. 

New York Governor, one Andrew Cuomo delivered a get-out-of-town edict--with all the imperiousness of a Roman emperor--against those whose opinions and political views were contrary to, well, his own.  Citizens who had become such extreme public nuisances are no longer worthy of "citizenship" in New York, according to the imperial governor.  His edicts have been endorsed by the new mayor of New York City, De Blasio.  When asked about the Governor's edict of exile, De Blasio breathed a fervent, "Amen."

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio emphatically backed New Governor Andrew Cuomo’s controversial remarks that “extreme” conservatives – which he defined as being pro-life, second amendment advocates, or supporters of traditional marriage – “have no place in the state of New York.”

 “I stand by that 100 percent,” de Blasio told reporters at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. “I agree with Governor Cuomo’s remarks. I interpret his remarks to say that an extremist attitude that continues the reality of violence in our communities or an extremist attitude that denies the rights of women does not represent the views of New York State,” he added. 

What a hoot.  Here are American political leaders sounding like ancient, primitive xenophobes and imperial autocrats.  If you are someone who opposes abortion, there is no place for you in New York state or city.  If you believe that marriage is only to be entered into by a male and a female and than anything else is a  perversion of marriage, get out.  Your views are "extremist" and have no place in the city-state of New York.  Exile for you.  And this in the supposed land of the free!  This, in a nation that regularly hectors other nations about liberty, freedom of conscience, and the rights of men. 

Who would have thought that in the land of the free, the spirit of imperial autocrat would once again emerge--at least in New York?  Who would have thought that the punishment of exile would once again emerge?  There is indeed nothing new under the sun.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.