The Logic Off Topic list

This is a piece written today by a close friend, and he really nails it.

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A Law Abiding Citizen

  Last week, Congress passed into law the anti-terrorism bill, also
known as
the patriot bill. It's now up to the Supreme Court to act as the last
override to Congress, and protection for the Constitution as this bill
seems
to be clearly against that Constitution. If I understand it correctly.

  From now on, the federal government can enter any home or office, and
search and seize anything they want. The local police can be used to
assist,
and you do not have to be present, or even notified that such a secret
search
took place. There doesn't have to be a probable cause warrant, other
than
"suspicion" of something.

  In theory, there's a four-year limit to the bill, in which case it
will be
re-evaluated.

  "But, if someone is acting suspiciously, isn't this good?" Sure, if
you
liked what happened during the Salem witch trials, or the anti-communist

congressional hearings of the 50s. McCarthyism used to be a disgusting
label.
The holocaust used to be a commonly accepted historical fact. Both these

things were held as memories so that they would never happen again.

  Who needs history?  Who cares about McCarthyism? How many young people

don't even "believe" the holocaust actually took place?  Nah...suspicion
is
fine. If it saves just one life, it's all worth it.

  Aside from the searches, if you're an immigrant...legal or
otherwise...your
Miranda rights have been removed. You can be held on suspicion, and for
questioning, and you do NOT have the right to have a lawyer present.

  Finally, the FBI is authorized to begin a process of creating central
Internet "nodes" in several regions of the country. All e-mail will be
processed through these central servers, along with all other Internet
traffic. The idea is that snooper software will be able to track
word-usage
and send an alarm.

  Put aside the probable bottlenecks and slowdowns of the system, and
forget
about such outmoded ideas such as rights to privacy, what about
mistakes? Any
knowledgeable computer expert will probably be able to crack into these
central servers. And what about power failures in those regions? Won't
that
bring down the entire Internet for that region?

  And remember when people discussing the advantages or disadvantages of

treatments involving "breast" cancer, were being fired for using illegal

words? How about Stagey's new Eudora? Right now, it only "suggests" that
he
not use swear words. But what happens when the local police kick down
his
door and haul away his equipment and even himself? Warrant? What
warrant!

  How many terrorists will actually write in an email, "The bomb is
hidden in
the White House and we are ready to use Flight 20022 as a weapon."

  There are two, primary arguments being used to finally move the United

States across the threshold into a police state. The first is the
representative statement, "But if it saves ONE life...." The second, is
represented by "Hey, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I have nothing to hide.
Why
not allow the FBI and CIA to do their jobs?"

  Taking apart the overt statements, you end up with two philosophic
premises. The first is that we should be able to legislate pain and
suffering
out of existence. We can see this sort of insanity in the constant
whining
about killing innocent civilians during our war efforts in Afghanistan.
It's
a war. Get over it.

  The second premise is much more dangerous, and has to do with the
translation between abstractions (concepts) and specific concretes. It
also
has to do with prioritization. "Why should I fight in World War 2? It's
Germany's problem, not mine. I'm just trying to live my life and get
along
with people."

  "I have nothing to hide, and I'm a law-abiding citizen. Why not get
rid of
the Constitution, if it'll help capture terrorists?"

  Freedom, privacy, liberty, justice, and many other concepts are all
examples of abstractions. The founding fathers of the United States
tried to
put into a moral code, what they considered to be the most natural state
for
human beings to thrive in, within a society. But that was all based on
philosphic abstractions and premises. A society is based on concepts and

abstractions, NOT specific examples of individual people!

  What do you think the Japanese prisoners who were put into the
interrment
camps said in the bus, on the way to the camps...here in the United
States?
When they lost their homes, land, possessions, and in some cases, their
lives, they all said, "Hey! I'm a law-abiding citizen!"

  What about the law-abiding German citizens who casually sat back while
the
Nazis demanded that all Jews put a yellow patch on their clothing?
Didn't
that make it easier to spot suspicious characters?  And what about when
Jews
were no longer allowed to own businesses?  When will we start doing that
to
the entire immigrant population? How will we define suspicious?

  "Law-abiding," merely means that a person is acting in accordance with

whatever laws are currently on the books. If the same goverment that
passed
last week's bill decides that from now on, you may not go outside after
10
o'clock at night, will you still be law-abiding if you go to the movies?


What about when that government passes a law that anyone who speaks out
in
public against anything should be arrested and held without bail?

  People complain about how slow AOL is, or the autocratic way the
company
treats customers. Same with the airline industry. But as long as it
doesn't
affect us personally, so what?  Same with this "law-abiding citizen"
rap.

  Terrorism, like plague, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires and so
forth,
simply exists. There's nothing we can do to prevent it, other than go
after
specific individuals. We can clean up the mess afterwords, and that mess

includes dead people.

  War is an all-out process of mayhem, death and destruction. The
military
exists for the purpose of defending OUR society, OUR morality, OUR laws,
and
to go out and break things and kill people during that process. We have
a
Constitution and legal system in place, to put some sort of restraints
on
that military. But to worry that some real people are getting killed in
a
war, is ludicrous.

  People die. That's a fact. People get killed in wars. That's also a
fact.
The United States has declared war on terrorism, and so we should expect
for
citizens here, and abroad to be killed. That's what war is all about.
We've
already had 5,000 innocent civilians killed here, during this war. That
war
was declared by the terrorists a long time ago, and the United States is
just
now getting around to noticing. In the interim, we've had a generation
of
political correctness to the point where a large population of our
neighbors
don't believe in reality anymore.

  Do we really want to become a police state, just so nobody will die?
At
what point, when the federal goverment enlists firing squads from local
neighborhoods, will all those "law-abiding" citizens with nothing to
hide and
nothing to worry about, be handed a gun and told to shoot the next door
neighbors? Will YOU shoot the next-door neighbor in order to be a
law-abiding
citizen?

  At what point does every individual have to ask themselves how they'll

prioritize philosphic abstractions?  When does a free society carry a
price
of action? When do we take responsibility for our own lives, rather than

handing those lives over to government supervision? America has been
around
for such a short time...only a couple of hundred years. Is it going to
be
that easy to destroy it?

  Why worry about the terrorists, when they're apparently winning. Our
own
Congress has struck a major blow to the essential basis of this country,
and,
apparently, a large percentage of our own citizens are gleefully
encouraged.
With friends like this, who needs enemies?

To  pragmatic people.  It isn't just "theoretical" anymore....

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...z


\ufffdThe greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men
of zeal,
well-meaning but without understanding\ufffd (Louis D. Brandeis) American
jurist
who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1916-1939)

Don't tolerate intolerance!  Support freedom and human rights!

L.G. "Zeek" Duff
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