Direct Action

[Carpman 0]

(Posted here because, to date, I am yet to find a community that matches this one in terms of members that respond thoughtfully and with relevance)

Let me tell you a little bit about dystopia. We read these books, we play these games, that depict dystopias as grey, hideous worlds where the military stalk the streets in black battle armour, and the world is generally pretty *****. We would love to think that, if the world were to change to this image, we would know and we would fight. We would be the gallant rebels, dodging through the metropolis, bandana fixed and rifles posed, and we would know we are in the right.

So why, when the evidence is all around us, have people not noticed? I will tell you why. Because the sky is still blue. Because the food is still fresh and the cars are still fast. We still have the material wants fulfilled in life, so we feel that somehow, the world can't be that bad. We ignore the stories. We ignore the peaceful protests that are broken up by a rain of rubber bullets. We ignore the secret prison camps and the abolition of a fair trial. We ignore the fact that we can be watched every hour of every day by cameras on every damn street corner. The most many can get around to doing is bleating some kind of vague disapproval, with the tutting wish that "somebody" should "do something", but with the overall opinion that it isn't their place or their job. We have been lulled into a political sleep, uncaring and disaffected from the world. At any hint of a kind of direct action, there will be cries of "with nothing to hide, we have nothing to fear!". Such was true in Orwell's 1984, and true in Stalin's lace>Russialace>. Simply play by the rules, and you had nothing to fear. But we have gone beyond the point where we can continue playing by the rules.

I read stories of this "Cleanfeed", an ISP-side content filtering system that will return a 404 whenever a site on a preset list is accessed. It will be a mandatory addition to all ISPs by the end of 2007. The implications of this I should not have to outline, but then, I should not have to be writing this in the first place. With this technology, the government could simply pretend a web site does not exist. It is a fantastic tool for the suppression of voices, in the place where they should be most free.

Slowly but surely, our freedoms have been removed. Few still realise that, the government willing, any one person could be detained without a trial and, especially if they are in lace>Americalace> (A nation most tellingly stricken with this cancer), possibly detained indefinitely at prison camps. I am not simply talking about the infamous lace>lacetype>Camplacetype> lacename>Deltalacename>lace>, but even the secret camps all over lace>Europelace>. Previously, there was a small, quiet outrage when these camps were being set up, in lace>Polandlace> and over European countries. But now they have been forgotten about, the media more concerned with the latest cat of a celebrity. Camps in lace>Polandlace>, where detainees are secretly and illegally flown to be held indefinitely. The biting parallels with one of this century's greatest atrocities should not have to be said.

The situation is apathy. I, too, have been apathetic before now. It has always been my opinion that the world could never get too bad. "Somebody" would stop it. How hopelessly naive of me, and how fooled I was. We have been deceived and will continue to be deceived. We will never realise. Whatever happens, it will eventually become "normal". The way things always were. I do not see anyone angry that the government always knows where your car is, do I? Of course not. Soon that will be the case with your body. The case studies are coming thick and fast...RFID chips, for instance, another case where the initial public outcry was there, but faded...no persistence in this world. The view of the public is that if it can't be fixed in five minutes, it is not worth fixing. Now, the chips are everywhere. The latest blows against the public are "flying cameras". In Merseyside, police are using cameras that fly 500m above the ground and can see what is in the palm of your hand. A police drone. Look at any hack job of a science fiction and it will tell you that this is an oppressive government.

The mantra of the western world has become "nothing to hide, nothing to fear". The sky is blue and the water clear. So nobody speaks. People are free to go along with their lives so long as they feel not hatred towards anybody else (Note that displaying any kind of hatred towards a group is now classified as "racial hatred" and is illegal, as well as eligible for being blocked by Websense), obey the government, and above all keep our views to blogs and pamphlets. The irony here should not escape you.

At this point, this is all I can do. Write a forgettable, short blog about how the world is going to pieces. Part of me hopes that with this, I can spark new anger. Anger that has been long forgotten in the world. But I know it won't happen. I only ask this. Do something, before it is too late. Even if it is only writing to your damn MP, and participating in marches, do something. Because if we don't, I can promise you I know where it is going to go.

If nobody does something, one day the dam will burst. One day we shall come, and we shall be armed. We shall be angry. And either you will march alongside us, or you are our enemy. If the Western world wants the future to be marked by bloody revolution, it is headed the right way.

[Deever 23]

Someone's been watching too much V for Vendetta. . .

You are aware that this issue won't go away like a light switch no matter how many people are concerned right? Expressing hatred and anger over the problem is one thing, trying to do something about it is another.

But what should we do? Assemble an angry mob in front of the White House and inform the people in that building about their freedom-snatching rule? I have no idea. This problem is just to big for me, if you could consider it a problem.

"We didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning.

We didn't start the fire. Though we didn't light it but we tried to fight it."

[Carpman 0]

Never watched the whole thing through. Prefer the graphic novel.

Actually, reading about Cleanfeed sparked this. It's an absurd idea and a sign the British government if going the way of the US.

This is precisely the problem, sadly. The people have been conditioned in such a way to think that all the problems are just far too big for them to deal with. For the most part, they are right. Unless the people are organised. But sadly, large groups don't work...usually. The only way we can fight this is through mass action. Organised, and dare I say, violent if necessary. If we all just assume action will not work, we will wake up with nothing left.

My problem is less with the issue itself...people know the issues. They aren't new. My issue is with the intense apathy I'm feeling from those that claim to be concerned. The most I can do is write pamphlets, and distribute them in the city centre. At the moment. Although some will balk and brush people such as myself with "You are reading too much etc...", I am quite seriously of the opinion that the populace of the western world needs to consider direct and extensive attacks at the very infrastructure of government.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The world turns; governments come and go, the shift to the left is followed by the shift to the right. 

The Internet is a good thing, but too much of a good thing.  There are criminal minds out there on the net along with millions of regular folks.  There are persons who publish scenes of child abuse for the gratification of other virtual or real abusers.  There are kids who publish stuff in their face book or blog who will get to regret all this running off at the fingers in later years.  Busybodies are everywhere, and the Internet makes it easier.

We have to be on guard against criminals, but we also must make sure the people we pay to be watchdogs don't bite us.  The whole idea of a government requiring some unacceptable action by an ISP is tantamount to nationalizing the Internet.  The Germans have already done that, or tried to.

The United States is having a bad case of new McCarthyism just now.  They will get over it.  They always have. 

"The evil that men do lives after them.  The good is often interred with the bones.", seems an appropriate comment at this time.  This is evidence that right-wing demagogues die off just like the left-wing ones.  Tail chasing and minding other people's business is a human failing.  We all have it, or newspapers would go broke.

And so, what would you?  How many followers will you take with you to storm the White House.  You could easily get what Naoleon wanted to do with the people storming the Bastille.  (A little grape would clear this rabble.)

[hamsterTK 93]

I think the best action right now is backing the libertarian party in your particular area

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: hamsterTK I think the best action right now is backing the libertarian party in your particular areaquote>

Seconded.

[Cjah 15]

Personally...I been watching the rope being tied....

All of you wish for a just and god ruled existence...but then the government follows in the foot steps of God...

God can see all and now the goverment wants to follow suit...

....So the government follows suit...Camera's on the streets of London...

Anything negative about the goverment must be blocked...

So the protests in Hungary was forcefully broken up...almost half the city fought in that "protest"....a shame that technically it was our 3rd Revolution to be put down...

Anything negative you do thats against the government..it is wrong....

or thats what the goverment says....

I aint got guns...I don't steal and I aint hiding a meth lab....so why does the governemnt need to tap my phone...limit my access to guns..and ban drugs...

Guns protect the people from opressive goverments...

drugs can heal people...the opium and weed kills pain...

And about the wire tapping...I may be a communist,but damn it I aint planning a Revolution...

I don't know...is it just me...or does anyone else want to go out and start a revolution?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

cjah:  A lot of that came straight out of 1984 by Orwell.  Even if you haven't read it, the sentiments are there.

How do you feel about newspeak?  In newspeak, remember, war is peace, so the Ministry of Peace, and so on.

[DanWalker8 3]

People should invest in education. There is no problem that can long endure a persistant mind.

Everything is a trade off.

As for your feelings about laws and such, you elect your leaders. If you don't like what they do, convince fellow voters to throw them out and elect you. If you are willing to write to such extent on a forum, you should have no problem taking action. You live in a democracy, for now.

Your rant covers a lot of complex issues, and i stress that there are so many factors that affect decisions politicians - they will never please everyone.

[nealos101 20]

I will not stand and protest with persons that promote violence against other human beings.

I will not stand and protest with persons that promote death and destruction to deliver justice.

I will not stand and protest with persons that defy the interests of god.

I will not stand and protest with persons who feel oppressed becuase of thier lack of power.

I will not stand and protest with persons who find it important to overthrow control in order to achieve a different kind of control.

I will not stand and protest with people that dissagree with my interests.

I will stand with the government that makes my education important.

I will stand with the government that makes my health important.

I will stand with the government that makes my safety important.

I will stand with the government that takes some freedoms away in order to give some back.

And if all else fails, I shall stand with god.