Go along to get along

The latest Adbusters issue has Intimidation discussing the Orwellian clampdown that is taking shape in Western society today.

“The supposedly immovable object called citizens’ rights met an irresistible force called “preventative justice.” And it got crushed. … The program isn’t to break bones, but to set limits − what we can say, endorse, speak up against”

More and more we hear the story of the man who was detained for hours or days because he made another person “nervous”. That nervous person notified the police and an impromptu terror investigation was played out. This is “preventative justice”. This is taking our rights away. This is guilty until proven innocent. This is not America. Is it?

You’ve got to be careful, don’t you? If you rock the boat, say, by not paying taxes this year because, god damn it, you haven’t seen a single friggin’ good thing with all of the god damned money you give them and you feel like this country is being run by that shadowy bunch of bullies from the playgrounds of yore and there isn’t an intelligent, reasoning person in sight, you could get in trouble. Is it worth screwing yourself fighting a system so deeply entrenched that it will chew you up without so much as a belch or even a rumble?

“…once your name has appeared on a government watch list, it doesn’t really matter if you’re telling the truth.”

Reasoned debate in the media died pretty quickly because, hey, who wants to rock the boat? The desire not to rock the boat and hope that everything works out is incredibly strong, though, isn’t it? It’s that strength that allows those in power to do whatever they like because they know that resistance will either never build in numbers or the building will be so slow that the force it becomes will easily be managed by the apparatus that is put in place in the meantime.

“And at what point is the state just being extraordinarily opportunistic while and because it can?”