Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Fall (Part I) - Free Country vs. Police State

Free Country vs. Police State. The clash between these two philosophies was all over the headlines during the Cold War era of the past century. It was a war of ideology - the idea of a society that harnesses the creativity and freedom of thought versus a society that marginalizes and stifles it. Contrary to popular belief, the ideology battle, which defined the Cold War, was finally settled by economic means. Through oil price speculation, aggressive military spending and the space race the Soviet Union was pushed to the brink of a collapse. The consequences of internal corruption pushed it over the edge. That is how the Western World won the battle.

Nevertheless, it appears no lessons were learned by our people and now the same plagues which doomed the Soviet Union are manifesting themselves right here in the United States. First of which is an overbearing central government, which usurps the freedoms and rights of the people - the very same rights which our forefathers deemed inalienable. Second, the gigantic ever-growing military spending, most of which is obsolete, that devastates government budget and consistently runs our country's debt further into the red. Lastly, the widespread corruption within the government that allows the elite minority to raid the coffers of the taxpayers - money which pays to facilitate further corruption through lobbies.

A large portion of the public has no idea what a police state really means, except for the sensationalist remnants of the national propaganda machine that was designed to vilify the Soviet Union and everything it was associated with. Short of the History Channel documentaries about countries behind the "Iron Curtain" during the Cold War, the public at large regards a police state as something that was tied closely to Communism - something that couldn't possibly occur here in the United States. Well I have a surprise for you - it is happening right now as I write this post.

It all started with the Patriot Act, shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The Patriot Act is the first step toward taking personal privacy out of the equation. This legislation was masked as the means to combat terrorism by opening up all data available on the internet to be used by Intelligence and Law Enforcement authorities. However, the end result is that this act allowed the government to spy on any person in the United States without a valid court order. The Patriot Act is unconstitutional, as it infringes upon the Fourth Amendment, which protects the public from unreasonable search and seizure.

Fast forward to 2011, and we now are faced with SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). This legislation practically allows the government to silence internet content that is deemed inappropriate. What can our government deem inappropriate - criticism, dissent, exposure of corrupt practices and anything it wishes to file under such description. Therefore, SOPA is unconstitutional, because it infringes upon the First Amendment to our Constitution, which guarantees the Freedom of Speech.

Also in 2011, moving into 2012, we have the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), The verbiage of this legislation reads like the charter of a dictatorial state. If enacted, it will essentially allow our government to imprison any individual it deems to be harmful to the United States for an indefinite amount of time, without affording them the luxury of due process. Furthermore, the act is not limited to foreign nationals - it covers United States citizens as well. As such, it is in the direct violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments that guarantee no citizen shall be denied liberty without due process.

So if you put all three of these pieces of legislation together, you will come up with a horrifying realization - we have a government that can spy on us, silence us, and throw us into prison without affording us due process. The people who represent us in Congress and in the White House have pushed for this... This is exactly what KGB was designed to do in the Soviet Union - to spy, silence and incarcerate indefinitely. Remember that the abbreviation of KGB stood for (Committee for Government Safety). This, my fellow readers, is the true definition of a Police State.

To be continued... (In my next post, I will cover the aspect of Military Spending)

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