I used to be proud of this country because, unlike so many others we didn't have a department devoted to internal policing. Hoover's FBI was bad enough, but it was pretty limited, and the CIA, at least in theory, did its dirty deeds offshore. All that changed after 9/11 although the idea of having some sort of American security departm…
I used to be proud of this country because, unlike so many others we didn't have a department devoted to internal policing. Hoover's FBI was bad enough, but it was pretty limited, and the CIA, at least in theory, did its dirty deeds offshore. All that changed after 9/11 although the idea of having some sort of American security department was in the works before that. But bin Laden correctly saw how the damage he planned would keep reverberating through our country, both economically and socially. Perhaps somewhat as the 20th was Hitler's century, this will be his.
The problem of course is that Americans don't see this, and why should they? They accept that the good old USA is now a "Homeland"; Thom has noted the origins of this disgusting term, which is now so widespread. They line up for body scanners thinking they're not giving up rights that previous generations would have been horrified to lose. My very quick check of corporate interlockings and the history of the approval of these chambers of horror indicate that from Obama down into Congress people were given "campaign contributions" if not outright investment returns for them. But the point is that if they are meekly accepted then it's no surprise that armed "men in black" going after "agitators" will be shrugged off too. And governments rise to take all the power they can. It's an old, old story.
I have no answer except to keep fighting. Here and there a school will teach real civics, someone will realize that a pathological liar is running for president again, or a person will just connect the dots and say, "enough!" Maybe none of this is actually enough, but what else can we do? And sometimes things do shift when enough people want a paradigm to change. It's hopeful that every year non-Hispanic whites compose a smaller majority of this country, and from what I've seen plenty of young people are concerned about the future. If a real change happens it could be fast. May it be soon.
I used to be proud of this country because, unlike so many others we didn't have a department devoted to internal policing. Hoover's FBI was bad enough, but it was pretty limited, and the CIA, at least in theory, did its dirty deeds offshore. All that changed after 9/11 although the idea of having some sort of American security department was in the works before that. But bin Laden correctly saw how the damage he planned would keep reverberating through our country, both economically and socially. Perhaps somewhat as the 20th was Hitler's century, this will be his.
The problem of course is that Americans don't see this, and why should they? They accept that the good old USA is now a "Homeland"; Thom has noted the origins of this disgusting term, which is now so widespread. They line up for body scanners thinking they're not giving up rights that previous generations would have been horrified to lose. My very quick check of corporate interlockings and the history of the approval of these chambers of horror indicate that from Obama down into Congress people were given "campaign contributions" if not outright investment returns for them. But the point is that if they are meekly accepted then it's no surprise that armed "men in black" going after "agitators" will be shrugged off too. And governments rise to take all the power they can. It's an old, old story.
I have no answer except to keep fighting. Here and there a school will teach real civics, someone will realize that a pathological liar is running for president again, or a person will just connect the dots and say, "enough!" Maybe none of this is actually enough, but what else can we do? And sometimes things do shift when enough people want a paradigm to change. It's hopeful that every year non-Hispanic whites compose a smaller majority of this country, and from what I've seen plenty of young people are concerned about the future. If a real change happens it could be fast. May it be soon.