I feel more concern for our freedom every time our political masters proclaim at every opportunity that we must protect our freedom. The government undermines our civil liberties.
We live in a climate of more and more state control. There is a slow, gradual and systematic erosion of freedom as the alliance of government makes deeper and deeper penetration in the daily life of citizens.
In the UK, we live in state controlled by millions upon millions of CCTV cameras – offices, streets, shopping malls, shops. There is a national data carrying millions of fingerprints of citizens – tens of thousands have never been involved in any kind of criminal activity, tracking devices for motorists, use of microchips and every effort being made for citizens to agree to carrying of an identity card which will contain a whole range of information about ourselves. Local governments in the UK sell copies of the entire electoral register to companies so they can besiege every household with junk mails.
You may be one of more than 4,000,000 citizens on the DNA list. You would probably end up on the list for smoking a joint.
We are repeatedly told all this surveillance and tracking of our activities is for our own good, our own protection. “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear” is the rhetoric of the authoritarian state. We are told that if we are law abiding citizens then we have nothing to worry about. Every state has told its citizens this to get them to submit to surveillance, arrest and lengthy questioning, if not worse, of those who look or behave suspiciously.
. The Government has shown no regard for international law and the rights of the individuals, often on the flimsy of circumstances, arrested, imprisoned and subjected to forms of torture, pyschological, physical or both, by the American army. The British Government has remained largely mute on the abuse of human rights at Guantanamo Bay The British Government has failed to condemn rendition thus enabling suspects to be secretly taken to countries where they could be held without charge and tortured. They remain in obscene prisons and torture chambers for years or simply disappear for good.
Detention of a suspect is 48 hours in many civilized countries while Britain has passed legislation to increase detention without charge to 42 days. The police have powers to bug our home and our car. The Home Secretary can sanction the opening of our mail and the interception of our e-mails.
An authentic liberation in life is often hard earned through the diligence and determination of individuals and groups. Our government is not the guardian of freedom, as it claims, but an instrument for its erosion, for undermining our liberty through more and more control over our daily lives.
When are we going to wake up?