[extropy-chat] Tyranny in place

[Lee Corbin]

It seems to me that people's differences on this subject do not really
pertain to what is *currently* happening anywhere. On both sides
it's merely the perceived threats of future events that's causing the
heat.

Surely no one can deny, especially since 9/11, that a certain amount
of havoc is being or has been thrreatened by Al  Qaeda.  On the other
hand, no one can deny that the same thing that befell the Weimar
Republic could happen here, either gradually or suddenly.

Insofar as the actions of one particular government, that of the U.S.,
is in focus, it's noteworthy that there have been no serious attacks
inside the country for over five years. It may be true that no one
in the West knows exactly why, but it also may be because counter-
measures have been so far effective.

Samantha put it well, speaking of threats from our "protectors":

> The threat of hitherto-unseen proportions is much nearer than you
> think.  It is a common tactic in a country headed away from freedom
> to focus all attention on an external enemy.  If the enemy is elusive,
> everywhere and nowhere and can never really be defeated then all
> the better for the smokescreen behind which unanswerable nearly
> unstoppable power over its own people amasses. I hope that [those]
> who think likewise wake up before it is far too late.

That can be balanced from the other side by some of Joseph Bloch's
posts, or by the very nice Mark Steyn essay in the Wall Street Journal
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760

Just because the threatened actions (by Al Queda or the U.S. government)
are not actually occuring at present---despite vocal outcries that they are
---is of course no reason for complacency. But let's keep it in perspective:
Western governments *may* start declaring internal political enemies
to be "enemy combattants" or *may* start posing a physical threat to
a significant number of their citizens, and foreign terrorist organizations
*may* start blowing up Western cities or *may* begin waging biowar etc.

Lee