1984(2008)
In the rhetoric of the last, oh, 6 years or so, I’ve heard the works of George Orwell (a.k.a. Eric Blair) referenced a lot. In particular, his novel 1984, in which a government uses the notion of a foreign war to enact total control over it’s citizens. The book was written in 1948, right around the beginning of the cold war.
If you haven’t read the book, I highly suggest you do. I’ve even given you a link to Amazon so you can purchase it. My copy was free. It was a stamp from my brother’s middle school library. Not sure what that’s all about.
I was reading this article on NPR’s website, and it seems extremely Big Brother (no, not that crappy reality show).
“American citizens must understand, clearly understand that there’s still a threat on the homeland. There’s still an enemy which would like to do us harm,” Bush said. “We’ve got to give our professionals the tools they need, to be able to figure out what the enemy is up to so we can stop it.”
“By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger of an attack,” he said.
To be clear, if you’re not up on it, the law the President wants in effect is a law that would protect telecoms from law suits. This is not in the interest of the people. It’s in the interest of big business, most assuredly used against the people. This is about control. This is a government that has brought us closer to 1984. They caught us sleeping, dreaming, wishing this hadn’t happened to us, and like a sexual predator, they attacked us when we were most vulnerable with the promise of safety, and it has come at the cost of freedom. But are we really safer? “By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.”