Key components of the Bill of Rights were essentially
eliminated. Bush administration memos don't hide the fact they considered the 4th
Amendment to be essentially dead in the domestic sphere. Other provisions
within the Patriot Act more or less eliminated key structural components of the
5th and 6th Amendments as well.
Basically the citizen's right to privacy, unreasonable
search and seizure and due process have been taken away. The government insists
they will only remove these civil rights in time of crisis and/or your
association with threats to national security.
But as the country devolves into a police state...something
very poignant in the recent Boston episode wherein the military took over
entire suburbs... who is a threat to national security?
I realize there was a manhunt going on but I didn't like
watching that. I don't like the precedent and the willingness on the part of
the public to embrace military occupation.
Was it necessary? I'm not so sure. The media has failed to
ask the right questions and there are some interesting gaps and anomalies in
the way the story unfolded.
Of course you can't even have reasonable discussions about
these things when the public's memory cannot seem to extend beyond a year or
two. Already the Right and especially the Christian Right have expressed
outrage at the recent revelation of NSA wiretapping.
But why? These are the very same things Bush was doing not
even a decade ago. And when it was revealed, those who broadcast it were called
traitors by the same people who are now so outraged. I remember conservatives
vigorously defending the administration and dismissing anyone who raised
Constitutional issues.
"If you're not doing anything then you don't have to
worry," was a constant refrain.
"National Security," was declared repeatedly.
Are any of these people aware of how many countries have
suspended constitutional law and live in a permanent state of emergency?
Ironically I'm not that worried about Obama attempting this.
This would be a Republican move. It will take a Bush or a McCain. I always
laugh when the Right tries to find pictures of Obama looking dictatorial and threatening.
He's too much like Jimmy Carter. They just don't have that kind of presence. For
some reason the Christian view of manhood is the cowboy, the John Wayne, the
Douglas MacArthur types. This is another byproduct of Sacralist thinking...the
celebration and sanctification of power.
I am not pleased with the Obama administration and the
continuation of these practices. But this is rank hypocrisy to condemn his
administration for so many things Bush was also guilty of. This is also true
with the harassment of the media and using the IRS to generate grief for
political enemies. These things are nothing new.
I'm happy to listen to the criticism but not from FOX News
and Christian media.
For the most part (and with but a few exceptions) our
leaders are evil megalomaniacal people that care nothing about the laws of the
land. This is about power and nothing else. Those criticizing Obama are no
different. The only difference is they have something with which to make some
political hay. Their outrage is a marketing ploy to gain a few political
points.
I expect lost people to be backbiting and scheming,
deceitful and manipulative. But why are the Christians no different? Could it
be they've embraced another worldview that has a different set of commitments
and ethics incompatible with Biblical Christianity?
When Bush was kidnapping people off the streets,
wiretapping, building secret prisons, waging secret war and assassination,
manipulating intelligence and the news media, leaking information, betraying
non-conformist intelligence agents and starting wars.... where were these
people?
Cheering him on.
What more could he have done before they would have turned
against him?
I don't want to see the country attacked but the answer
isn't to increase police powers and the military state. Why would anyone want
to attack America? That's the question no one is allowed to ask. They're evil
and they hate our freedom. That's what we're told and yet that's simply not the
case at all.
In fact the increase of the military footprint is playing no
small part in generating new enemies. America's economic policies are wed to
military might and with it come powerful weapons to wage covert war and to
spread propaganda. America has spread war and death in many lands and installs
and backs corrupt and violent rulers as proxies to support its policies. This
is why America is hated. America is hated for its bombs, its violent and
intolerable pride, and its hypocrisy. As I said in a comment the other day you
can only beat a dog for so long, eventually it will strike at you.
And yet despite all this the number of genuine attacks has
been few. We are barraged with reports of arrests and foiled terrorist plots.
But upon further investigation the vast majority of them are set-ups, agent
provocateurs entrapping poor fools in cyberspace. Egging them on, they
essentially are catching thought-crime...only after encouraging it. They get a
press conference, the public is kept on edge....and the police state seems to
grow.
Our airports have turned into virtual totalitarian zones. I
remember while growing up I thought the people in the Eastern bloc slaved in
factories, went home and sat shivering in dark rooms. I remember scratching my
head as I read about Black Sea vacations, coffee shops and was even more
surprised when the Iron Curtain came down and I ventured into what was
Yugoslavia and Hungary. Far from perfect societies they weren't what I had
imagined. People went about their lives. They vacationed, they ate out, and
they lived. They sometimes lacked consumer goods. Freedoms ebbed and flowed and
obviously party members did much better. But there was always fear. The surveillance
state, secret police and informers were a part of life.
Today our airports represent something of what it was like
to live behind the Iron Curtain. Sure you can sit in a bar and have a beer,
watch television, talk with your friends. But you had better watch what you
say, what you do and the words you use. You're being watched and if for a
second you even begin to question the authorities they come down very hard on
you and you'll find yourself detained with no civil rights whatsoever. The party
members (as it were) can walk carefree and cannot hide the disdain they have
for all those outside their circles. Members of the security forces (the police
state) are granted special privileges. They can expedite travel and are spared
all the petty humiliations which make no one safe...but do teach a forced
conformity and give the illusion of threat and the responsible due diligence in
response. "It's to make you safe."
That's right. Just keep saying it over and over again.
I often work in small rural towns and at times have to visit
local municipal offices....city hall. I venture into the building and zoning departments
and might even have to visit the parking authority to obtain a permit. These
are now totalitarian zones as well. Everyone is behind glass and seems to enjoy
watching you strain to shout under the two inch gap in the partition. Oh, how
they enjoy their petty torments. You can't wander the building. Someone might
attack the tax office or go on a rampage because they were overcharged for
their water bill. As a visitor I'm supposed to be escorted to the bathroom door
and to the exits of the building but the guys in the building department know
me and are a bit embarrassed about it all, so it's not enforced. Again this is
a small town, a county seat in the middle of nowhere.
Even the bureaucracy is subjected to propaganda from the
higher echelons. Even the agents of the state are taught to fear it. Anyone who
has been in the military should know this.
After Boston and then after the next incident this will only
increase. It's obvious our officials aren't willing to do anything about it and
frankly I think most of the public supports it. Large telecoms and other
corporations happily hand over information to the state. Why do they bother
sending me copies of their privacy policy?
In the end it doesn't matter what party holds the
presidency. It will be just more of the same. I highly recommend the Frontline
documentary called Top Secret America.
While I know PBS is reckoned liberal it may surprise some
conservatives to learn many of these 'liberals' are actually quite patriotic.
Their concerns are just a bit different. Regardless of their persuasion the
findings in this documentary cannot be dismissed.
And if patriotism is the line of demarcation, where does
that leave someone like me who rejects the very concept as incompatible with
Christian profession? If they're on the left then I'm completely outside the
circle.
If you take anything away from the video I hope you will see
how this mechanism which they call Top Secret America has taken on a life of
its own. Pardon the clichés, but follow the money and connect the dots. That's
the Establishment power of the United States. It's a relationship between
Corporate America, the Military and the industries tied to it and political
power. And yet money backs it all...which all leads back to the financial
sector. Should we be surprised? I seem to recall something about the love of
money being the root of all kinds of evil.
Is it conspiracy? I've addressed this before. Yes and no.
It's an open conspiracy. It's not backroom scheming though there is plenty of
that. It's simply a system that's right in front of our faces but it's
complicated and dynamic and hard to pin down. The powers that be won't discuss
their objectives. Why would they? Besides they all stab each other in the back
too. It's a dance but they're going to make sure they stay on the top and that
not only will you not get there, you won't even understand what's happening. Everything
is couched in ways palatable and marketable to the public.
On the one hand it sometimes seems as simple as profits but
it's more than that. What they're after is the integrity of the system. They
don't want to destroy America. They love America....that is to say, the love
the system that is America, the system that empowers and enriches them. What
they're afraid of are the people who live in it. Should they ever figure it all
out, then these power-elements would fear.
These people, by which I mean those atop the military world,
banking and finance, the insurance industry, the energy and petro-chemical
titans, and their political front men....are not interested in freedom, civil
rights, privacy or the integrity of the judiciary. They're interested in their
own agendas and a compliant public.
The 1990's taught them something. You need an enemy. You
need a certain level of angst and fear. This isn't going to change anytime
soon.
This ever growing ramped up security state will continue to
lead to civil unrest. I don't think this upsets them. It's hardly controversial
to say a politically polarized society cannot and will not unify. The
administrations can come and go...the permanent players can keep right on with
their agenda.
Nixon capitalized on the unrest to help get elected in 1968.
Chaos breeds fear and before long the public is demanding a police state.
It's something to keep in mind as we watch protestors on the
television. While some were energized by the 'Occupy' movement, many were put
off by it and had the situation grown more violent the average citizen would
not have protested jack boots and armoured vehicles coming down the street.
When that becomes a regular sight, then our civil society has collapsed.
What should the Church do? Right now the Church can't do
anything. Huge numbers of professing Christians are directly participating in
this expansion of state powers. They celebrate it and are happy enough to be on
the front lines implementing the policies that strip our freedoms and empower
the entities who seek their own goals. They will probably even ask the Lord's
blessing as they do it.