Again from the radio today (the Mike Barnicle show, actually), was the phrase “necessary” security, and how now, with 9-11 so “far” in our past, we regard “necessary” security measures as an extreeme inconvinience.
The question is, what exactly IS necessary security? My concern, being as I am a very free-minded person (as you would expect; I’m a social outcast and a hacker), is that “necessary” security is just a fancy way of implementing a police state. Now, I know the intentions are good, but abuse of power is a very serious thing. It’s why we have 3 seperate branches of government – to keep any one branch from abusing its power (by abusing US, the people). Complaining about “necessary” security is not a bad thing, it’s a VERY good thing, because all “necessary” security SHOULD be closely scruitinized, and carefully monitored, lest we overstep the bounds of privacy and freedom and, in our paranoia, deprive ourselves of those things which we hold most dear (and, apparently, are trying to bring to other countries, even if they don’t want i).
How long will we have to live under this curtain of fear? How long will we remain afraid of our own shadows? How many times will we look the other way as basic rights are violated “for security reasons”? And how can we tell when the threat is gone, and we should dismantle our security, if those in power aren’t willing to tell us anything? It’s a tricky situation, to be sure. Fear is a powerful weapon, and the MAIN weapon of a “terrorist.” Go on, look up the meaning of the word “terrorist.” It doesn’t mean “middle eastern person trying to kill Americans,” it means a person who uses “terror” as a means of coercion. It is a means unto an end, and the more afraid we become, the more the “terrorist” win (if you look at it a certain way). They wanted to make us afraid, to use our fear to coerce us into doing things we would never do otherwise – and lo and behold, we’ve done exactly that. We screen ourselves before flying, we close down roads for a week in fear of attack, we close down post offices when white powder is found on the floor, and we allow ourselves to be monitored, tracked, IDed, and profiled – all things that we would have balked at not 5 years ago.
Are we at war with terror? No. We’re at war with radical religious fundamentalists, who use “terrorist” tactics to achieve their ends and as a way of making political statements. Keep that in mind whenever you hear the word “terrorist” from now on – and don’t let yourself live in fear. Question everything done to “protect” us, because it’s our duty to do so, lest we become – as I fear we are on our way to becoming – a police state, where “freedom” is reserved for the few privilaged people, and “privacy” is an abstract term, that has no real place in anyone’s closely monitored life anymore.
-Keithius
