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Who did it?
* 23rd Sep, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Thanks to Leg Iron for this. We are falling into a Totalitarian state, bit by bit.
A commenter called 'exile', whose blog reveals little of his politics although his comments make them clear, says that nobody will save us. That we are on our own.
He is right. There is no masked man in a cape. No Batman, no Green Lantern, no V and no Watchmen. They are fiction. Entertainment for the masses. They represent the false hope that our governments ply us with: it'll all be okay, if the government go too far some masked man in a cape will appear and single-handedly bring them down. Those kind of stories are popular at the moment because people feel powerless. They hope for the return of some Robin Hood, they pray for Arthur to rise again, for Bran's head to be found and restored.
That will never happen. If people want change, people have to do it for themselves. As at the end of V's story, it was not, in the end, the masked man in a cape who dealt the final blow. It was people. Thousands of people. And all they did was change their minds.
As it was you - and me - who let this chaos arise, so it is up to you - and me - to put it back into the box and seal the lid for ever. Superman is not coming.
I do not advocate violent uprising. The creatures in charge are ready for that. They have prepared a force of fingermen and Righteous. They have given themselves the power to detain without charge, to hold inquests in secret, to presume guilt and to declare guilt in the absence of evidence. They have taken away our right to own any form of weaponry and can declare us a terrorist if we so much as hold information on weaponry. They can stop and search us in the street for no real reason at all. They can declare curfews as and when they please. Any uprising can be quelled in a matter of moments. It will not work.
I know many people out there are still happy with that. I know that the sense of order and security, of regular income, be it wages or dole, and of having a roof and all the trappings of modern life instils a sense of comfort and safety. You don't want to risk losing it all. Of course you don't. Speaking as someone who has experienced such loss, I don't want to lose what I have either.
And yet we are losing it. Bit by bit, it is being taken from us. Slice by slice, our rights to decide for ourselves are stripped away. It's slow, it's gentle and for the most part, we feel no great pain. Each new slice is so thin, so easy to miss, so insubstantial that we don’t notice its passing. When you take the time to look back, you can see how deep the slicer has already gone.
There are over four hundred reasons that a council official can use to enter your home, and you have no right to stop him. I'm not talking about the police here. I'm talking about the council. And I'm not talking about entering the homes of suspected bombers or insurgents. I'm talking about your home and mine.
If they suspect you of any form of rule breaking they can enter your home and check. I know you're thinking to yourself 'So what? I haven't broken any rules. If I have nothing to hide, what do I have to fear?'
Are you sure? There are so many laws now, and the government and councils are making up new ones by the hour. It is now possible for them to break into your home, arrest and charge you before you are even aware of the new law that allows them to do it.
Consider the government’s latest proposals: they intend to give every family £700 to buy a computer while simultaneously putting restrictions in place that will control what you can and cannot read on the screen. This will, they say, alleviate poverty. If you believe that, then I will state with confidence that you have never experienced poverty or anything near it. Poor people are concerned with food, warmth and shelter. No more than that. Computers just don’t figure in their priorities at all. Computers do not feed or clothe you. They won’t keep you warm or dry. So then, why does our Government think that giving out computers will alleviate poverty?
It won’t and they know it. Consider the way these policies are going. Computers for children here, in Africa, all over the world. For children who are in poverty. Nothing for their parents who are also in poverty. Just the children. It makes you feel good, I’m sure, because who but the most heartless could deny a child this wonderful new toy?
Those parents will want to sell the computer to buy clothes and food. Those, they will reason, are more likely to keep their child alive than a box with a screen on it. Yes, the child will be bitterly disappointed but they will be alive. Yet you will respond as you have been conditioned to respond. You will respond as the media direct. Can’t you just see the headlines now?
‘Parents steal Government-donated computer from own child. Parents sell child’s computer and deny him/her the chance of education.’ And so on.
Those parents will be deemed Guilty and many of you will accept that. You will rail against the injustice: the poverty-stricken child has been robbed by his own parents. You will not consider, for a moment, that a child in poverty – just like the parents – needs food and clothes rather more than a computer. You will be outraged and you will demand that something be done. And something will be done. Another slice of freedom will be taken away.
We can rail and shout at the politicians all we want, but the truth is that we did it. They didn’t steal our freedoms. We handed them over, slice by slice. Oh, they manipulated us into doing it, but we allowed that manipulation to happen.
When guns were banned on the basis of a few isolated shootings, we said nothing. I’m not throwing blame around here. Since I had no gun and no wish to own one, I said nothing either. Now, shootings happen at a rate of a few a week and that was entirely predictable. The criminals didn't hand theirs in and they know for certain that the rest of us don't have one. So the cry goes out ‘Something must be done’. Knives are banned and yet there are more stabbings than ever. Once more the cry goes out ‘Something must be done’.
And something is always done, isn’t it? Councils are given ever greater powers in the name of combating terrorists, stopping gun and knife crime and making sure everything is put into recycling bins. And yet gun and knife crime continues to rise. So the councils get more powers. And we see children involved in this, as victim and perpetrator, and cry ‘Something must be done’. And something is done. Officials become more powerful. We lose more freedom and we accept it in the name of safety. The shootings and the stabbings and the cries for something to be done continue in a circle and will continue until everything has been done. Until there are no freedoms. Until everything you do, eat, say or think is controlled and monitored in the name of security. Then it will be too late for you to do anything for yourself.
We cannot have absolute security unless we have no freedom at all. We cannot have absolute freedom unless we have no security at all. Neither situation is good. Security and freedom are like night and day. Each denies the other. And yet the extinction of either would lead to our destruction. We need both, in balance.
Our government are striving for absolute security. Some of you will think ‘Great’, some will be horrified. They are not, however, striving for your security or mine. We are less safe in our own homes than we have ever been. Government officials can enter as they please. If you tackle an intruder, he will sue and you will lose. The government are looking after themselves, and nobody else. We cannot have freedom in any measure because that would mean we might defy them. We might answer back. We might even vote for someone else. Security means control. Absolute security means absolute control.
We are controlled primarily through children and guilt. It’s easy, so easy to tear down someone who objects to anything that claims to ‘help the children’. Nobody dares to stand beside anyone who would oppose measures which appear to protect children from attack, even where those measures are mainly used to silence opposition and demonise the innocent. If a hundred innocent people have their lives ruined, who would dare object if it meant one child abuser was caught?
The computers I mentioned above are the latest setup for the children/guilt/reaction game our government is playing. It is inevitable that the money will not be entirely spent on computers. It has been set up to be inevitable by the simple expedient of offering twice the current cost of a computer. Some parents will use all the money to buy food and clothes for the child, to pay for heating in the winter, to offset the charges levied by the education system. Some will take the £700 and buy a computer in Tesco for £300, and keep the rest to ensure their child eats.
The press will turn this into ‘demon parents steal from children’ and then what will you say? Will you think ‘well, the parents need to feed the child more than they need to give them access to the Web’?
Or will you be out there, screaming ‘Something must be done’?
Because if you do, then something most certainly will be done. And you can rest assured that our politicians have already prepared the measures they will implement when you ask for them. Have you never, ever wondered why, when you ask for something to be done, it is done within hours?
The laws are already written. All they need is your request. Ask them to take your freedoms away and they will oblige with a smile.
Just try asking for one of those freedoms back and see where it gets you.
If you still think Big Brother loves you then please, go about your business and ignore all I have said.
If you're waiting for me, or someone else, to don a cape and dash to the rescue, then you will be disappointed. This mess can only be fixed by the people who made it. The first step is to look into a mirror and recognise the culprit. All you need to do is change your mind.
If you can take that step, if you can be honest with yourself, you have started the process of breaking your conditioning. It won't be easy and it certainly won't be painless, but it will be worth it in the end. There is one crumb of comfort in all this, one hope to cling to while you wonder how it all came about and whether we, just by sitting back and allowing it to happen, can be held in any way responsible.
You're not the only one.
Food for thought.
My thanks to Leg iron for this piece. underdogs bite upwards
* 23rd Sep, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Thanks to Leg Iron for this. We are falling into a Totalitarian state, bit by bit.
A commenter called 'exile', whose blog reveals little of his politics although his comments make them clear, says that nobody will save us. That we are on our own.
He is right. There is no masked man in a cape. No Batman, no Green Lantern, no V and no Watchmen. They are fiction. Entertainment for the masses. They represent the false hope that our governments ply us with: it'll all be okay, if the government go too far some masked man in a cape will appear and single-handedly bring them down. Those kind of stories are popular at the moment because people feel powerless. They hope for the return of some Robin Hood, they pray for Arthur to rise again, for Bran's head to be found and restored.
That will never happen. If people want change, people have to do it for themselves. As at the end of V's story, it was not, in the end, the masked man in a cape who dealt the final blow. It was people. Thousands of people. And all they did was change their minds.
As it was you - and me - who let this chaos arise, so it is up to you - and me - to put it back into the box and seal the lid for ever. Superman is not coming.
I do not advocate violent uprising. The creatures in charge are ready for that. They have prepared a force of fingermen and Righteous. They have given themselves the power to detain without charge, to hold inquests in secret, to presume guilt and to declare guilt in the absence of evidence. They have taken away our right to own any form of weaponry and can declare us a terrorist if we so much as hold information on weaponry. They can stop and search us in the street for no real reason at all. They can declare curfews as and when they please. Any uprising can be quelled in a matter of moments. It will not work.
I know many people out there are still happy with that. I know that the sense of order and security, of regular income, be it wages or dole, and of having a roof and all the trappings of modern life instils a sense of comfort and safety. You don't want to risk losing it all. Of course you don't. Speaking as someone who has experienced such loss, I don't want to lose what I have either.
And yet we are losing it. Bit by bit, it is being taken from us. Slice by slice, our rights to decide for ourselves are stripped away. It's slow, it's gentle and for the most part, we feel no great pain. Each new slice is so thin, so easy to miss, so insubstantial that we don’t notice its passing. When you take the time to look back, you can see how deep the slicer has already gone.
There are over four hundred reasons that a council official can use to enter your home, and you have no right to stop him. I'm not talking about the police here. I'm talking about the council. And I'm not talking about entering the homes of suspected bombers or insurgents. I'm talking about your home and mine.
If they suspect you of any form of rule breaking they can enter your home and check. I know you're thinking to yourself 'So what? I haven't broken any rules. If I have nothing to hide, what do I have to fear?'
Are you sure? There are so many laws now, and the government and councils are making up new ones by the hour. It is now possible for them to break into your home, arrest and charge you before you are even aware of the new law that allows them to do it.
Consider the government’s latest proposals: they intend to give every family £700 to buy a computer while simultaneously putting restrictions in place that will control what you can and cannot read on the screen. This will, they say, alleviate poverty. If you believe that, then I will state with confidence that you have never experienced poverty or anything near it. Poor people are concerned with food, warmth and shelter. No more than that. Computers just don’t figure in their priorities at all. Computers do not feed or clothe you. They won’t keep you warm or dry. So then, why does our Government think that giving out computers will alleviate poverty?
It won’t and they know it. Consider the way these policies are going. Computers for children here, in Africa, all over the world. For children who are in poverty. Nothing for their parents who are also in poverty. Just the children. It makes you feel good, I’m sure, because who but the most heartless could deny a child this wonderful new toy?
Those parents will want to sell the computer to buy clothes and food. Those, they will reason, are more likely to keep their child alive than a box with a screen on it. Yes, the child will be bitterly disappointed but they will be alive. Yet you will respond as you have been conditioned to respond. You will respond as the media direct. Can’t you just see the headlines now?
‘Parents steal Government-donated computer from own child. Parents sell child’s computer and deny him/her the chance of education.’ And so on.
Those parents will be deemed Guilty and many of you will accept that. You will rail against the injustice: the poverty-stricken child has been robbed by his own parents. You will not consider, for a moment, that a child in poverty – just like the parents – needs food and clothes rather more than a computer. You will be outraged and you will demand that something be done. And something will be done. Another slice of freedom will be taken away.
We can rail and shout at the politicians all we want, but the truth is that we did it. They didn’t steal our freedoms. We handed them over, slice by slice. Oh, they manipulated us into doing it, but we allowed that manipulation to happen.
When guns were banned on the basis of a few isolated shootings, we said nothing. I’m not throwing blame around here. Since I had no gun and no wish to own one, I said nothing either. Now, shootings happen at a rate of a few a week and that was entirely predictable. The criminals didn't hand theirs in and they know for certain that the rest of us don't have one. So the cry goes out ‘Something must be done’. Knives are banned and yet there are more stabbings than ever. Once more the cry goes out ‘Something must be done’.
And something is always done, isn’t it? Councils are given ever greater powers in the name of combating terrorists, stopping gun and knife crime and making sure everything is put into recycling bins. And yet gun and knife crime continues to rise. So the councils get more powers. And we see children involved in this, as victim and perpetrator, and cry ‘Something must be done’. And something is done. Officials become more powerful. We lose more freedom and we accept it in the name of safety. The shootings and the stabbings and the cries for something to be done continue in a circle and will continue until everything has been done. Until there are no freedoms. Until everything you do, eat, say or think is controlled and monitored in the name of security. Then it will be too late for you to do anything for yourself.
We cannot have absolute security unless we have no freedom at all. We cannot have absolute freedom unless we have no security at all. Neither situation is good. Security and freedom are like night and day. Each denies the other. And yet the extinction of either would lead to our destruction. We need both, in balance.
Our government are striving for absolute security. Some of you will think ‘Great’, some will be horrified. They are not, however, striving for your security or mine. We are less safe in our own homes than we have ever been. Government officials can enter as they please. If you tackle an intruder, he will sue and you will lose. The government are looking after themselves, and nobody else. We cannot have freedom in any measure because that would mean we might defy them. We might answer back. We might even vote for someone else. Security means control. Absolute security means absolute control.
We are controlled primarily through children and guilt. It’s easy, so easy to tear down someone who objects to anything that claims to ‘help the children’. Nobody dares to stand beside anyone who would oppose measures which appear to protect children from attack, even where those measures are mainly used to silence opposition and demonise the innocent. If a hundred innocent people have their lives ruined, who would dare object if it meant one child abuser was caught?
The computers I mentioned above are the latest setup for the children/guilt/reaction game our government is playing. It is inevitable that the money will not be entirely spent on computers. It has been set up to be inevitable by the simple expedient of offering twice the current cost of a computer. Some parents will use all the money to buy food and clothes for the child, to pay for heating in the winter, to offset the charges levied by the education system. Some will take the £700 and buy a computer in Tesco for £300, and keep the rest to ensure their child eats.
The press will turn this into ‘demon parents steal from children’ and then what will you say? Will you think ‘well, the parents need to feed the child more than they need to give them access to the Web’?
Or will you be out there, screaming ‘Something must be done’?
Because if you do, then something most certainly will be done. And you can rest assured that our politicians have already prepared the measures they will implement when you ask for them. Have you never, ever wondered why, when you ask for something to be done, it is done within hours?
The laws are already written. All they need is your request. Ask them to take your freedoms away and they will oblige with a smile.
Just try asking for one of those freedoms back and see where it gets you.
If you still think Big Brother loves you then please, go about your business and ignore all I have said.
If you're waiting for me, or someone else, to don a cape and dash to the rescue, then you will be disappointed. This mess can only be fixed by the people who made it. The first step is to look into a mirror and recognise the culprit. All you need to do is change your mind.
If you can take that step, if you can be honest with yourself, you have started the process of breaking your conditioning. It won't be easy and it certainly won't be painless, but it will be worth it in the end. There is one crumb of comfort in all this, one hope to cling to while you wonder how it all came about and whether we, just by sitting back and allowing it to happen, can be held in any way responsible.
You're not the only one.
Food for thought.
My thanks to Leg iron for this piece. underdogs bite upwards
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