the war on problems that will never go away
I'm currently reading Brave New World Revisited, and in the chapter on over-population, Aldous Huxley writes that
Liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near-war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of the central government.Funny how he could sum up the problems with the War on Terror, Drugs, Whatever way back in the 50s. Funny how we haven't learned a thing since then and we're just skipping merrily along the path to dictatorship. It seems like our governments always tend towards dictatorship. Whether they start out as kingdoms or socialism or capitalist democracy, eventually someone seizes control of the money and the media, and we're stuck with King Bush for 8 years with dubious elections and people with indefinite imprisonment and no charges in Gitmo. People just disappear, the phone companies hand over all your "confidential" records to the CIA, anti-war demonstrations are limited by the government and accomplish NOTHING, and I wonder how long it will take for the masses to find this alarming. Sure, there are some people talking about it, but I don't have any sense that anyone knows how to fix this or where to go from here. Don't vote for Bush, sure, but it's not like you have any shining alternatives.
And I don't know how far down this path Canada has gone. I feel like we're not quite as bad, but then you see the government apologizing for the Maher Arar case, but not punishing anyone involved with sending him to be tortured, let alone firing anyone. People responsible for that have been promoted. And what can we do about it? I'm sure as elections approach we'll get lots of shiny promises, but that rarely translates into actual action.
I feel the responsibility to vote, but gosh would I ever like to feel like it meant something.
posted by Heather Ann @ 12:25 PM
7 Comments:
Heather Ann, I think you were in a class I taught a few years ago. I came across your blog doing a search on google and I wanted to write and thank you for putting my book on your list of ones you like. I hope all is well with you.
best,
Sandra Sabatini
I love how you say "we're stuck with King Bush" Funny I thought you lived in Canada.
Yeah, because Bush doesn't affect anyone outside of the US. That's the best joke I've heard all day.
Here's one possibility, just go extinct!
http://www.vhemt.org/
heather ann,
your anti war demonstrations remark hurt me. Espically since there is a big one this saturday I'm going to. And an anti-war demonstration DOES accomplish something. It's a great way to meet anti-war babes, and they put out!
I love how the troll comments are always anonymous cowards.
I think that protests, as conducted these days, are akin masturbation. It doesn't mean that jacking off is without purpose, you just have to be aware that you are in fact masturbating.
I'm not saying he doesn't affect anyone outside the US I just don't see how he affects you.
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