Remi Cornwall wrote:
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance".
I just want to stop this simplistic notion GOP/Tory = bad, Labour/Democrat =
Good, more government = good. There are false prophets.
I do not think anyone here has made such a simplistic assertion. We
have all read history books, I trust.
In the UK we live in a surveillance state which is becoming a police state.
On average 300 cameras will catch your image a day. Then there's RIPA giving
anyone in government (even a nosy local council worker) to look at your bank
balance, tap your phone, monitor your movements and go through your bin.
Indeed. Just because personal freedom increased in the last several
decades that does not mean the change is permanent. The tide can flow
the other way -- as it has. Repressive new laws will always be
passed. New technologies such as the ability to capture DNA will be
used in repressive ways. New laws governing the Internet and other
new technology will sometimes be unfair.
It is complicated. Some of these repressive laws are probably needed.
We must also give corporations great power over our lives. In order
to stop credit card fraud, we must give credit card companies minute
to minute information about where we are and what we are doing. Is it
worth the tradeoff, and the threat to liberty? It is hard to say.
- Jed
