-By Daniel Bier
Something interesting occurred to me the other day. As you are possibly aware since 9/11 the terror threat level has not dropped below yellow. The United States Federal government would not give willing give up the surveillance powers it grabbed in the USA Patriot Act. With this in mind we can know that their undefeatable argument will be that the sacrifice civil liberties will protect you from the terrorists. BUT just when will all possible terrorists BE gone? Recently, on Larry King Live, Larry was interviewing President Bush he asked him, “[Isn’t this a war we can’t win? Couldn’t there be a terrorist being born this second]?” Without killing every Arab, Islam extremist, taking over every other government in the world where a terrorist might sneak into, still can we be certain that they aren't planning to nuke the Chrysler building? No. With killing everyone, there is no safety. This sounds like a gross overstatement but it really isn’t. Just analyze it. Without killing or imprisoning everyone in the world we cannot lower the terror threat level to green. So since their argument is that to protect you from terrorists you must surrender your privacy, you can see now that we were duped. Since there will never be zero terrorists in the world then we sold our souls for an eternity. It’s simple math. Terrorists = Government Control; Permanent Terrorists = Permanent Government Control. And if we’re talking numbers then we should mention that instead of decreasing our risk from Iraq by invading it, we increased it by doubling the number of the world’s terrorists and it helped to make us one of the most resented countries in the world. Face it people; the government can not protect you from everything. What if it so happens you fall down and you break your neck getting out of bed in the morning? A "Matrix" like environment is the only place where you are truly safe. Living, itself is a risk to you. It’s an I’Robot and Matrix philosophy blended together.
But it’s just a game. Obviously we can't take over the world and turn it into an Orwellish nightmare and that increases your risk. The fact is we will never get our privacy back, we can’t. It's a tried and tested fact; laws aren’t taken away, laws lead to laws and more laws, etc. It truly is a "Slippery Slope" Fact. Whether or not you like that argument anywhere else is irrelevant. What is more saddening is that we are bleeding from a self-inflicted wound. We elect people who aren't going to help us get back what we foolishly sold away for a pot of stew (you know, Easaw, the birthright, yadda, ydadda, yadda?); they are going to feed the menacing monster that we have created (obligatory Dr. Frankenstein reference.) For our bad choices in the past we will suffer in the future. It was Pogo who said: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
And you may walk up every November and say loudly to the old ladies taking down voters names, "I am a regestered Libertarian and I am voting third party!" and you can march into that voting booth and pull that third lever and watch your vote be flushed down a large toilet with not more than a million and a half to keep it company. You can walk out of there with a self-righteous smirk and think, "I am a good American. I did the right thing!" And you'd be perfectly right but it wouldn't do anything to help America until someone finds out the secret of how to undo ignorant people's belief in their team's system.
I recently created this web site and posted some articles that are Libertarian in nature so, as you would expect, were of anti-Bush sentiment and one of my friends said to me "[So you like Kerry, huh]?" Nothing here had even come close to mentioning Kerry! But people think there are only two choices as Jack so insightfully pointed out. I had a conversation with my die-hard Republican car pool and they asked me "So you'd vote for [Kerry] in November, right?" As if there were no other choice! But I answered, "No, I'm a Libertarian." And she snorted. And I can be quite sure that she was, at least subconsciously, thinking, " Bah! Third Party! They never get any votes." And she will keep on thinking that since no one ever votes for them that it's okay to vote for someone that doesn't have America's interest, your interest (whether you know it or not) at heart because, really, he is the lesser of two evils.
To contest them is to pin the label "Disloyal, Godless, America Hating, Liberal" on yourself. And liberals and war protesters are nailed down as disloyal now, but to whom are we being disloyal? to what? A system corrupt and damaging? No, we will never be safe, we never could have been. Bush and the rest don’t want you to know or remember that there was a time when we were safe from these terrorists. They want you, need you, to believe that the terrorists who so vehemently hate America hate us because we are rich and prosperous and we live an American lifestyle. Of course the way we live is against their principals to an exent but that is not why 3,000+ Americans died one September. No, my friends they hate us because we invaded the world. We station troops in the Persian Gulf and meddle in their affairs. How would you like it if Iran just decided to post troops in Mt. Holly? Do you really think that we would stand by and let the doctrine of planting troops in every country in the world as a means of reducing and controlling terrorism go into effect if we knew that for this very reason we were attacked in the first place? By saying that the terrorists hate us for who we are Bush implies that since America has almost always been one of the most prosperous countries in the world that they have always hated us. They want us to see that the way to keep us safe is to conquer the world not to stay in the U.S. mind our own affairs and not try to rule the world. If we saw that as the way out then we would not favor the agenda that is currently in place that serves to create enormous power at home and afar. By meddling afar we caused an attack at home thus granting them power here and then using that back as a way of generating support to create control afar. I do not suggest that that was planned but merely that that was the way it happened. So if we do not see that a past mistake caused our present crisis then we are left only with the solution that is on the table now. It scares and surprises me how few people question that we were attacked because we are, purely because Bush said so. We have our own little Ministry of Truth. “This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed.” –George Orwell
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
-Hermann Goering, at the Nazi Nuremberg trials
"You see... loyalty [is] loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its [Presidents.] The country is the real thing, the substantial, the eternal; it is the thing to watch over, to care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags… that is loyalty of unreason…”
-Mark Twain
