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I agree. The aspect of this that confuses me is the fact that multiple pundits are stating that
Britain is going to become a police state while they are not claiming that China or other growingly
dominant nations are not.
Britain without doubt is not creating major controversies as China is. And Britain simply doesn't
have the mass growth of China, both economically and military-wise.
However, a majority of experts lean towards America as a current police state and the nation that
will remain the police state for several years to come. |
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The Brits are already disarmed and are already "subjects" rather than citizens. |
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Under the Blair and Bush regimes, both Britain and America, but particularly America, have seen the
legal infrastructure of a police state put in place. When you have a situation when the government
can simply grab a citizen off the street, throw him into a dungeon without charging him with a crime
or presenting any evidence against him, indeed without legal process of any kind; without even
notifying his relatives; then you have a police state already created. That is what exists now in
America.
Whether the powers of the police state are fully utilised or not is another matter. But once you
agreed to let the infrastructure be put in place, then you are dependent on the goodwill of the
people in power. One of the noble principles articulated by America's Founding Fathers was that the
country should have a "government of laws, not of men", meaning that the rules of conduct, and the
limitations on them, should be expressly defined; that citizens should not be dependent on the whims
of those in power and should not have to hope that the rulers would be good and just. That they
would sometimes not be good and just should be assumed and, therefore, their proper conduct should
be assured by a system of institutional checks and balances which would limit abuses of power and
bring them to light.
American right-wingers are often happy to sign these principles away. They say, well I'm not a
terrorist and I don't believe our gubmint would abuse its powers, so if Bush wants to spy on our
phone calls without any checks or balances, that's alright with me.
In Britain, we have seen the institution of "thought crimes". The offence of "glorifying terrorism"
was introduced. A girl was charged with writing poetry about suicide bombers. Many historical events
still celebrated today could be construed as terrorism. Take American's July 4 independence day
celebrations, for example. The American rebels could have been construed as terrorists once. Many
modern nations came into being through violence that could be construed as terrorism. Should we
arrest all these foreign nationals in Britain when they celebrate the independence of their
countries? |
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21 Jun 2008 20:01
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