Are you a terrorist?
May. 19th, 2005 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonI pretty much figured this was coming:
FBI, ATF address domestic terrorism --Officials: Extremists pose serious threat
The Bush administration and law enforcement officials, having now spent in excess of $50 billion on "Homeland Defense" to "fight terrorism," particularly to modernize and tie together all of the national and local law enforcement agencies and databases, and thus protect us poor citizens from the big, bad world out there, is now starting to openly declare that the next big threat is...domestic terrorism. Specifically, environmental and animal-rights groups. Damn tree-hugging liberals, they're going to destroy us all! Clearly, every one of 'em should be pre-emptively locked up ('scuse, "indefinitely detained") in Guantanamo without access to that bastion of left-wing liberalism, the court system (and for anyone who hasn't yet had to deal with the "liberal courts," that was irony...)
Insane. On the one hand it's a transparently ludicrous attempt to continue to whip the American people into fear-induced frenzied giveaways of our freedoms and liberties in the name of "safety" and "security." And on the other hand, it's a deadly serious attempt to take advantage of sensational or unpopular causes to increasingly criminalize dissent and "bad behavior."
Bush & the neocons in congress are now trying to float more bills designed to stiffen the penalties for protest and other forms of "domestic terrorism." I got news for ya, bubbie -- he's not really aiming at a few wild-eyed SUV-burners (tho' I have sympathy for those as well)...no, we're talking about ordinary people like thee and me. I daresay most of the people reading this have either been on the "wrong side" of a police line, or know people who have.
So the process is simple. First, get the public to support "fighting terrorism" by inflaming fear and insecurity, in the same way that useful old bugaboo, the International Communist Menace, used to be trotted out and applied. Next, acquire the funding and tools to "fight terrorism," particularly to centralize information flow and control of domestic law enforcement as much as you can get away with. An efficient police force is an effective police force, and knowledge is power. It's no accident that so much money and effort has gone into making domestic surveillance legal and easy, and into centralizing law enforcement databases in the hands of the federal government. Lastly, declare anyone who opposes you as a "domestic terrorist," and use the tools you've developed against the "terrorists" until they're all in jail or merely too afraid to fight.
I used to think those people who compared the U.S. to the Weimar Republic, or who used the term "fascist" with respect to any aspect of U.S. government were being hysterically overdramatic, and perhaps should go live in a genuinely dictatorial or fascist-style government for a while to appreciate this country a little more. There's been a lot of room for improvement, but it seemed that the chance of actually descending into totalitarianism were minimal. We wouldn't let that happen here, we're not like that, our Founding Fathers carefully and with intention put many valuable checks and balances in place precisely to prevent dictatorial power-grabs by any one party or ideology. Paranoid people who see government conspiracy everywhere are ignoring the power of the people, and the fact that government is generally way too bureaucratically snafued to pull off anything so organized. Right?
As Bush & Co systematically, intentionally dismantle those checks and balances, and proceed with consolidating their power over all three branches of government, on both the national and state level (at least if you live in "red" states), for the first time it seems plausible to me that we could be seeing the beginning of the end of American democracy. The inevitably approaching energy price spikes and the economic disruptions that shift is likely to induce may just hasten this movement, as people look for a strong central government to save us from the chaos we've brought on ourselves, and return us to the "good old days" of artificially cheap energy and unsustainable consumption.
Maybe I've become one of those hysterical people screaming "fascism" at the drop of a hat. I wish that were true, and I hope I'm wrong. But the signs are there, the pieces seem to be in place for very ungood things to happen. Will it happen? Only if we let it.
The difference between "them" and "us," is that "we" (sometimes) tolerate dissent -- in fact, many of "us" actively value dissent and see diverse opinions as part of the richness and strength of the human condition. "They" don't tolerate dissent, and there is only one Truth, one opinion that matters, one way in which power flows -- from the top down. Divinity, grace, freedom, bread, all trickle down upon us from on high, and it's not our hands on the tap. To suggest that power, divinity, freedom, ever come from the bottom-up, from you and I, is purely, fundamentally heretical. Terroristic, even.
Practice your heresies while you can, and use your freedoms while you still have them. It's not too late to change the world. In fact, it's easy, it's natural and it's normal. It's not even a choice -- whatever you do will change the world, so you might as well make those changes count, use them to build the world in which you wish to live, in which you wish your children to live. You can do it, one day, one act, one choice at a time. Hold the intention of making a positive change, choose your acts with care, and know, really know, that dissent, hope, protest, knowledge and action are not terrorism. They're our birthright, and the tools we all are freely given by the divinity which lies inside each of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls. It's time to use them.
FBI, ATF address domestic terrorism --Officials: Extremists pose serious threat
The Bush administration and law enforcement officials, having now spent in excess of $50 billion on "Homeland Defense" to "fight terrorism," particularly to modernize and tie together all of the national and local law enforcement agencies and databases, and thus protect us poor citizens from the big, bad world out there, is now starting to openly declare that the next big threat is...domestic terrorism. Specifically, environmental and animal-rights groups. Damn tree-hugging liberals, they're going to destroy us all! Clearly, every one of 'em should be pre-emptively locked up ('scuse, "indefinitely detained") in Guantanamo without access to that bastion of left-wing liberalism, the court system (and for anyone who hasn't yet had to deal with the "liberal courts," that was irony...)
Insane. On the one hand it's a transparently ludicrous attempt to continue to whip the American people into fear-induced frenzied giveaways of our freedoms and liberties in the name of "safety" and "security." And on the other hand, it's a deadly serious attempt to take advantage of sensational or unpopular causes to increasingly criminalize dissent and "bad behavior."
Bush & the neocons in congress are now trying to float more bills designed to stiffen the penalties for protest and other forms of "domestic terrorism." I got news for ya, bubbie -- he's not really aiming at a few wild-eyed SUV-burners (tho' I have sympathy for those as well)...no, we're talking about ordinary people like thee and me. I daresay most of the people reading this have either been on the "wrong side" of a police line, or know people who have.
So the process is simple. First, get the public to support "fighting terrorism" by inflaming fear and insecurity, in the same way that useful old bugaboo, the International Communist Menace, used to be trotted out and applied. Next, acquire the funding and tools to "fight terrorism," particularly to centralize information flow and control of domestic law enforcement as much as you can get away with. An efficient police force is an effective police force, and knowledge is power. It's no accident that so much money and effort has gone into making domestic surveillance legal and easy, and into centralizing law enforcement databases in the hands of the federal government. Lastly, declare anyone who opposes you as a "domestic terrorist," and use the tools you've developed against the "terrorists" until they're all in jail or merely too afraid to fight.
I used to think those people who compared the U.S. to the Weimar Republic, or who used the term "fascist" with respect to any aspect of U.S. government were being hysterically overdramatic, and perhaps should go live in a genuinely dictatorial or fascist-style government for a while to appreciate this country a little more. There's been a lot of room for improvement, but it seemed that the chance of actually descending into totalitarianism were minimal. We wouldn't let that happen here, we're not like that, our Founding Fathers carefully and with intention put many valuable checks and balances in place precisely to prevent dictatorial power-grabs by any one party or ideology. Paranoid people who see government conspiracy everywhere are ignoring the power of the people, and the fact that government is generally way too bureaucratically snafued to pull off anything so organized. Right?
As Bush & Co systematically, intentionally dismantle those checks and balances, and proceed with consolidating their power over all three branches of government, on both the national and state level (at least if you live in "red" states), for the first time it seems plausible to me that we could be seeing the beginning of the end of American democracy. The inevitably approaching energy price spikes and the economic disruptions that shift is likely to induce may just hasten this movement, as people look for a strong central government to save us from the chaos we've brought on ourselves, and return us to the "good old days" of artificially cheap energy and unsustainable consumption.
Maybe I've become one of those hysterical people screaming "fascism" at the drop of a hat. I wish that were true, and I hope I'm wrong. But the signs are there, the pieces seem to be in place for very ungood things to happen. Will it happen? Only if we let it.
The difference between "them" and "us," is that "we" (sometimes) tolerate dissent -- in fact, many of "us" actively value dissent and see diverse opinions as part of the richness and strength of the human condition. "They" don't tolerate dissent, and there is only one Truth, one opinion that matters, one way in which power flows -- from the top down. Divinity, grace, freedom, bread, all trickle down upon us from on high, and it's not our hands on the tap. To suggest that power, divinity, freedom, ever come from the bottom-up, from you and I, is purely, fundamentally heretical. Terroristic, even.
Practice your heresies while you can, and use your freedoms while you still have them. It's not too late to change the world. In fact, it's easy, it's natural and it's normal. It's not even a choice -- whatever you do will change the world, so you might as well make those changes count, use them to build the world in which you wish to live, in which you wish your children to live. You can do it, one day, one act, one choice at a time. Hold the intention of making a positive change, choose your acts with care, and know, really know, that dissent, hope, protest, knowledge and action are not terrorism. They're our birthright, and the tools we all are freely given by the divinity which lies inside each of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls. It's time to use them.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-05-19 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-19 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-19 04:08 pm (UTC)I know my birthrights, and I delight in showing others that they have them too. That is so much what "Defense Against the Dark Arts" at camp will be about. What I don't know how to bear is my fear that others will be so brainwashed and so afraid that it will be so much harder than it already is to show those birthrights to people. To nurture them and love them and grow them. To incite them to rise up like plants through the cracks in the sidewalk, like large roots breaking through the concrete. To show others the beauty and delight and integrity and .... And there's a line for me. A place where oppression could be so severe that those birthrights are actually blocked at some level, because its not all about how we see it and know it, part of it is how we do it.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-19 07:01 pm (UTC)art imitating life?
Date: 2005-05-19 08:06 pm (UTC)Incidentally, I posted an interesting little W/Palpatine comparison just moments ago, and then read this! Brilliant timing, chel!
no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 03:09 pm (UTC)David Neiwert is a smart, serious journalist who has been covering the right-wing "Patriot" (aka militia) movement for years. He maintains one of the best blogs on the web, Orcinus (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/), where he covers whacko right-wing organizations and rhetoric --- and all too often traces their connection to the Bush administration.
Notably, he writes about the administration consistently (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003_12_28_dneiwert_archive.html#107257032555368697) ignoring (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003/12/why-domestic-terrorism-matters.html) domestic terrorism, except (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2005/03/priorities_28.html), as you say, when they think they can pin "terrorist" on folks on the left.
He's written two long essays that are very instructive about whether and how the term "fascism" applies to our current situation.
The first, Rush, Newspeak, and Fascism makes a deep examination of the meaning of the word "fascism," talks about how its early-stage manifestations have bubbled up in American politics for a long time, and then examines how the current situation suggests the possibility that it could progress to its more frightening later stages soon. HTML (http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php) PDF (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/Rush%20Newspeak%20%20Fascism.pdf)
The second, The Rise of Pseudo-Fascism, discusses how the contemporary Conservative Movement does and does not resemble fascism as we understand it. Neiwert concludes that what we are seeing is not classical fascism, but a mutation that may be just as dangerous. PDF (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/The%20Rise%20Of%20Pseudo%20Fascism.pdf) HTML (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004/10/rise-of-pseudo-fascism.html)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 04:04 pm (UTC)Thanks again -- what a gift.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 05:59 pm (UTC)