Fearing Freedom.
Issue:
France suffers a major attack on citizens of its capitol, Paris. The government responds with unprecedented violations and outright suspension of many civil rights.
Deception:
How times change. It was not too many years ago that a United States Congressional committee condemned France for its opposition to our invasion (and subsequent destabilization and destruction) of Iraq by changing the name of fried potatoes strips in the congressional cafeteria from "french fries" to "freedom fries", even as Congress instituted it own violations and outright suspension of our civil rights in response to attacks on our capitol of government, Washington, D.C. and our capitol of capitalism, New York City.
Reality:
Terror is real and criminal, whether inflicted by individuals, groups or nation-states. "Terrorism" is just a word, however, used to demarcate certain types of crime from others, regardless of the crime's purpose, logic, perpetrators, damage, costs, destruction, injuries or deaths. Despite any dictionary or poiltical attempts at definition, what one calls "terrorism" might be called "war" or "revolution" or "the cost of doing business" by another. It all depends on one's perspective and circumstances.
Out of this rancid stew of human capacity for attacking one's own species (as well as all other species on the planet), whether for territorial or financial gain, a redress of grievance or as punishment, a disturbing pattern is witnessed: we create injustice through our self-interested actions, injustice the victims feel compelled to counter or avenge. Whether the vengeance comes through peaceful, political or destructive action depends largely on the response of the perpetrator to the victims of the initial injustice.
The U.S. and its allies invade and destroy Afghanistan and Iraq. Within a few years these nations are stripped of any semblance of order, safety, political structure, structure and self-determination. Their citizens rebel; not now against their former oppressors but their self-identified liberators. The unrest spreads to other nations. As the world watches while an entire geo-political-religious region implodes, the response of the "liberators" is to further oppress the various populations, not just those of the aggrieved countries but their own as well.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., the government instituted wholesale violations of our Bill of Rights by passage of the mis-named "Patriot" Act and other poisonous legislation, and by outright suspension of many of our most cherished rights, rights that have so eloquently defined the democratic values of our nation's past: the right to free speech and assembly, the right to privacy and the right to due process being perhaps the most notable. As a nation we were derided for these actions, not just by many of our own citizens but by other nations, including France.
Today we stand silent as France does the same to its own people. Who needs a Nazi invasion when your own government, or to fret at the threat of Soviet/Russian domination, when nations are willing to inflict that oppression on themselves?
Related Essay: Terrorism.
Solution:
As has been written on this site time and again, military and financial and political force are ultimately no more effective than any other form of terrorism. The most they can accomplish is suppression of dissent but not its cause or expression. Light a fire under a kettle of water and cap it; eventually it will explode. The force is with us because we create it, and ultimately bears against us if not allowed release.
We must alter our approach to dealing with contention. Rather than confront it violently, whether through physical or political force, we must instead usher it through the many channels of redress afforded by our Constitution and its Bill of Rights, by our justice system and by our free-wheeling ability to communicate with one another in open and civil discourse.
The age of human combat should be long past, swept into the dustbin of the twentieth century and those preceding. It is our time, finally, for liberation from the primitive bonds of oppression, bondage and revenge that have governed much human interaction, from the personal to the global, since time immemorial. We possess the tools we need for this task, both intellectual and technological. If we are to leave any positive legacy its seed will be planted now, today, even as the largest threat we face, that of self-induced catastrophic climate change, looms so very large.
Essay published January 10, 2016
France suffers a major attack on citizens of its capitol, Paris. The government responds with unprecedented violations and outright suspension of many civil rights.
Deception:
How times change. It was not too many years ago that a United States Congressional committee condemned France for its opposition to our invasion (and subsequent destabilization and destruction) of Iraq by changing the name of fried potatoes strips in the congressional cafeteria from "french fries" to "freedom fries", even as Congress instituted it own violations and outright suspension of our civil rights in response to attacks on our capitol of government, Washington, D.C. and our capitol of capitalism, New York City.
Reality:
Terror is real and criminal, whether inflicted by individuals, groups or nation-states. "Terrorism" is just a word, however, used to demarcate certain types of crime from others, regardless of the crime's purpose, logic, perpetrators, damage, costs, destruction, injuries or deaths. Despite any dictionary or poiltical attempts at definition, what one calls "terrorism" might be called "war" or "revolution" or "the cost of doing business" by another. It all depends on one's perspective and circumstances.
Out of this rancid stew of human capacity for attacking one's own species (as well as all other species on the planet), whether for territorial or financial gain, a redress of grievance or as punishment, a disturbing pattern is witnessed: we create injustice through our self-interested actions, injustice the victims feel compelled to counter or avenge. Whether the vengeance comes through peaceful, political or destructive action depends largely on the response of the perpetrator to the victims of the initial injustice.
The U.S. and its allies invade and destroy Afghanistan and Iraq. Within a few years these nations are stripped of any semblance of order, safety, political structure, structure and self-determination. Their citizens rebel; not now against their former oppressors but their self-identified liberators. The unrest spreads to other nations. As the world watches while an entire geo-political-religious region implodes, the response of the "liberators" is to further oppress the various populations, not just those of the aggrieved countries but their own as well.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., the government instituted wholesale violations of our Bill of Rights by passage of the mis-named "Patriot" Act and other poisonous legislation, and by outright suspension of many of our most cherished rights, rights that have so eloquently defined the democratic values of our nation's past: the right to free speech and assembly, the right to privacy and the right to due process being perhaps the most notable. As a nation we were derided for these actions, not just by many of our own citizens but by other nations, including France.
Today we stand silent as France does the same to its own people. Who needs a Nazi invasion when your own government, or to fret at the threat of Soviet/Russian domination, when nations are willing to inflict that oppression on themselves?
Related Essay: Terrorism.
Solution:
As has been written on this site time and again, military and financial and political force are ultimately no more effective than any other form of terrorism. The most they can accomplish is suppression of dissent but not its cause or expression. Light a fire under a kettle of water and cap it; eventually it will explode. The force is with us because we create it, and ultimately bears against us if not allowed release.
We must alter our approach to dealing with contention. Rather than confront it violently, whether through physical or political force, we must instead usher it through the many channels of redress afforded by our Constitution and its Bill of Rights, by our justice system and by our free-wheeling ability to communicate with one another in open and civil discourse.
The age of human combat should be long past, swept into the dustbin of the twentieth century and those preceding. It is our time, finally, for liberation from the primitive bonds of oppression, bondage and revenge that have governed much human interaction, from the personal to the global, since time immemorial. We possess the tools we need for this task, both intellectual and technological. If we are to leave any positive legacy its seed will be planted now, today, even as the largest threat we face, that of self-induced catastrophic climate change, looms so very large.
Essay published January 10, 2016