Tag Archives: Police State

Police State: 

“A political unit characterized by repressive governmental control of political, economic, and social life usually by an arbitrary exercise of power by police and especially secret police in place of regular operation of administrative and judicial organs of the government according to publicly known legal procedures.” – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Why (George) Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens.

Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens.

“What [Orwell] illustrates, by his commitment to language as the partner of truth, is that “views” do not really count; that it matters not what you think, but how you think, and that politics are relatively unimportant, while principles have a way of enduring, as do the few irreducible individuals who maintain allegiance to them.” – Christopher Hitchens

In The News: Words From The Front Lines

“One of the best aspects of our community is that we have the freedom to control access”.

Quote 1 Comment

 

“One of the best aspects of our community is that we have the freedom to control access”.

The reference above is a most heady quote from an anonymous homeowner in a private, gated subdivision in western Colorado. His use of the words “control” and “freedom” in the same sentence gave me pause. Get all the doors of your home fixed and repaired with the help of the services from garage door repair belton, so that your privacy can be maintained and whatever happens inside the house stays inside the house.

It apparently had not occurred to this gentleman that control does not create freedom, nor community. Common sense and common history can tell us that. His line of reasoning simply escapes me, although it seems to be a common way of thinking  these days.

Why are so many of us so eager to assist in the creation of the pretty prisons of our own design?

I wish I had an easy answer. For now, my brain can only categorize his statement under the ever more popular category – “You can’t make this stuff up!”.

But I do know that the Freedom To Control and Regulate Is No Freedom At All.

You Might Also Like Sacred Ground or Fair Warning At The Altar of The Black Robe.

Other Voices

“Why Do You Hate Freedom So Much?”

Quote Leave a comment
The Gadsden Flag

 

“If I had one thing to say to the USDA and the FDA, I guess my question would be why do you hate freedom so much? What is it about freedom, whether it’s the consumer’s freedom to choose the food they want to drink, whether it’s me as a farmer choosing the customer who wants to buy my product, or how I want to make my product. What is it about freedom that is so horrendous to you that you are willing to take my property, take my life, take my customers, take my animals, take my land, that you are willing to do this in order for me to not have the freedom to even sell a porkchop to my neighbor?”.

From an interview with Joel Salatin contained in the movie Farmageddon: The Unseen War On American Family Farms by Kristin Kanty.

You Might Also Like: Bureaucrats and Other Pesky Critters

Other Voices

What Do You Fear?

Aside Leave a comment

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared we would become a captive audience. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared that we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate would ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

—Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985)

Other Voices

“The Only Change You Can Believe In”

Aside Leave a comment

For anything significant to change, people must stop playing “follow the leader.” But, if people stop following the leader, then who will lead them? The answer: No one! You must lead yourself.

But self-leadership cannot be bought, given, or imposed. It has to come from within. It begins with expecting nothing from your “leaders” and understanding that everything has to come from you. It means having the courage not to cower to power. The dignity to claim your rightful and sacred place on earth. To respect yourself, demand it of others and show respect to all who merit it … regardless of class or status. The integrity to keep and live by your word. And the passion to live a life of meaning and conviction; for your heart to feel what your mind knows.

This is not an “every man for himself,” manifesto. Rather it is a call for a cooperative of individuals with the courage, dignity, respect, integrity and passion to chart a future that is not dictated and imposed upon them by ruling political parties and the unprincipled and oppressive systems they represent.

There is no “We the People” until “I the Person” is willing to stand up and speak for himself or herself.

For the future to change, the individual must change. When enough individuals change, everything changes.

From Trends Journal, August 2012, by Gerald Celente