A friend sent me a link to a story on Yahoo about the amount of covert surveillance undertaken during the last administration in The US and which undoubtedly continues under the current administration. My friend was keen to make comparisons with the Will Smith film “Enemy of the state”. Frankly I can see where he is coming from here . We certainly do live in a world where every aspect of our lives is surveyed by someone. Now I can’t help but wonder how we can live our lives without fear under such circumstances.
However I can also understand the reasons that security agencies want to follow the activities of certain nutters so that they can be both prosecuted for the crimes they plan and prevented from carrying their plans to fruition. Strewth, that is a tricky thing to do in a time when failure to prevent an atrocity is the biggest boo boo that our police and security organisations fear.
My friends, of the Latte sipping variety, are very keen to get hot and bothered about the invasions of our privacy, notions of the correct and appropriate gathering of evidence for a prosecution, which is all well and good, should we be willing to accept that some of the plots actually coming to fruition. But, and this is a big” but”, what if the decision to wait means a successful atrocity?
Hmm Its a balancing act, and one that I would not care to be responsible for. So comrades where should we draw the line?
Understanding the problem is, sadly, far easier than finding a solution, so I am interested to hear where my readers would draw the boundaries on security service oversights of our lives and why they chose the positions they do.
Cheers Comrades
Enemies of the state
Filed under: Australian Politics, Canada, England, Ethical questions, Federal politics, Justice, Law, Leftism, Pakistan, Political Correctness, United States, human rights, international politics, the Law | Tagged: 9 /11, 9/11, Bali bombers, GUANTANAMO BAY, in the news, Latte Lefties
I had also seen this article, and wondered the same thing.
Where do we, in deed, draw the line ? Military spending around the world on surveillance (i.e. spying) they say, outweighs material, and personnel at least by three to one. That’s pretty scary.
I also laughed, to the extent of the movie Enemy of the State. UNTIL the penny dropped, after leaving the RAAF. This wasn’t my ‘trade’, but, it was not a massive jump to envisage.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for security, both domestic and foreign, but how far do we go ?
We have Russian hackers, bombarding not only military networks, but as in a previous post, just recently, even trying to steal foreign currency right from under our very noses ? We have an absolute “nutter” in north korea, with supposedly, his finger poised ‘on the button’.
William Congreve wrote :
Another from Paul Bowles
http://www.famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/security_quotes.html
There are a million of them.
All pretty scary stuff, if you stop and think about it for a minute or two ?
Of course the real fear is that we may all one day say “do it to Julia”….
or that we will end up in room 101
Rats have been gnawing at me for years ?
Ah well it must be time for some Victory Gin then David!
Need something way stronger than that ?
I’ve been very drunk indeed on neat gin David, had a whopper headache the next day though…
These days Its Earl Grey tea only for me though…
Good for you Jean-Luc ?
Make it so number one
Meanwhile, Socialism still equals Fascism in Obama’s Wonderful Hopey Changey Dreamworld:
http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/