Today's topic will be civil liberties in times of national duress. At present, a lot of people in my 'sphere of influence' seem to be feeling a little repressed by our government vis-a-vis the various and sundry laws enacted under the guise of national security. Lately it seems like this invasion of privacy (See Bill of Rights Amendment V) and undue collection of information (ibid, Amendment IV) is becoming one enormous scare tactic. If you were an (to lampoon The Onion and quote Rick Steves) "unsavory element" named G. Had, intent on committing heinous crimes against humanity, would you even blink at the warning on the back of a credit card application stating that your information was being collected? Uh, no? Seriously people, we're talking about criminal masterminds, not 7th graders. So let's call a spade a spade and let people return to their pre-Patriot Act existence and hope that, behind the scenes, things get taken care of.
"It is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
-- Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall and Luftwaffe-Chief, during the Nuremberg trials
posted at 11:22 AM - comments
Tuesday, November 30, 2004