[extropy-chat] Tyranny in place

Russell Wallace russell.wallace at gmail.com
Mon Oct 2 05:04:07 UTC 2006


On 10/1/06, Joseph Bloch <transhumanist at goldenfuture.net> wrote:
>
> I hope, I truly hope, that you wake up from your Republican-hating ways
> to realize that this nation really does face an external threat of
> hitherto-unseen proportions. It's not about people in power in the U.S.
>

But this sort of thing isn't hitherto-unseen at all. Hitler and Mussolini
used the argument that they needed power to protect the people against
communism. Communism was a real threat (it killed tens of millions of
people, far more than the Islamic fundamentalists have) - but fascism was
not the answer. It isn't the answer to Islamic fundamentalism today either.

I think the threat of terrorism is greatly overstated, but I agree there is
a threat and it has to be fought. It does not at all follow that we in the
West should tolerate erosion of our civil liberties by our own governments.
It's not just that it's not necessary - _it's also not helpful_. If you have
a problem, and you try to solve it by surrendering your freedom, you now
have two problems.
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