UK terrorists

[punkromance]

http://www.schneier.com/essay-087.html is quite interesting. Linked from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jun/05/news.terrorism

 

[Sparrow]

@Sparrow,
Sorry , I didn't mean to argue with you. It's just that I feel that the government will invent any excuse it likes to "protect" us.

It used to be that governments promised us good things, a bright future, good education and health care for all. Freedom and liberty. "A land fit for heroes."

Now they exaggerate (invent) threats and enemies from which they will "protect" us. War on terrorism, war on drugs, war on crime etc, etc.


edit, I never noticed a a war on homelessness though.

I think along the same lines, but overstating the case just muddies the waters, it allows lesser restrictions to become the norm in the public mind.

I shall take photos as I please and only stop when a law is enacted, and just ignore this propaganda for what it is.

 

[Ronald_H]

It's a shame because I love the landscape of this country and its humour and literature, its quirky bent on life etc. but its laws and legislators I find myself so diametrically opposed to.

Not British, but I love the humour, literature (if Douglas Adams counts as 'literature' 😀) and its quirky bent on life to death.

Let's see what happens the next time I visit the UK. The LAST time I brought a bag full of cameras and lenses to shoot an air show, including the latest British and American hardware. The French police at least waved me through after seeing my inflatable Spitfire 😀

 

[simonSE15]

the UK, a country I always considered to be free and democratic.

the current PM was intsalled without a contest within the party. he gives away Billions of taxpayers money to banks without a anyone having to vote on it. we have a public consultation on a further runway at Heathrow but dissenting voices are simply ignored. and the last bloke took us to war in Iraq on a lie. welcome to British democracy.

 

[bmattock]

Speaking of "Land of Hope and Glory"...

 

[Silva Lining]

The UK is not a democracy in any meaningful sense of the word. Its has no driving principles (such as the pursuit of happiness as in the US). No bill of rights. We are all subjects of a constitutional monarch who rules by divine right.

Sure you can vote, but the government of the country is decided by a very small fraction of the electorate in marginal constituencies.

The current state of things has suited those in power (visible and otherwise, since the end of WWII) and whilst it continues to do so it wont change.

Powers have always ruled through the use of fear - Fear of God, Fear the tribe next door, fear of the Germans, fear of the Soviets, fear of the bomb. The collapse of the Soviet Union required a new threat. Islamic Fundamentalism fits the bill. Its been around for centuries of course, under different names, but globalisation of travel and technology has made it easier for it to come to our shores.

The images and posters are alarming, if only in that most people appear to see them as benevolence.

 

[kevin m]

OMG, I have that LP! 😱😀 "Bed and Breakfast Man" is a fave.

As an American teenager, British culture often seemed a bracing antidote to American culture. The humor, in particular, was always a great sanity-check when something in America seemed to have jumped the rails.

But these posters....🙁 I thought our "Homeland Security" was Orwellian, but c'mon! I would wager people still actually read Orwell in his native land, do they not? 😕

 

[migtex]

Like Dr. House says... It Fits!! keep on shooting! keep on Posting!

 

[simonSE15]

oh and you can buy changes in the law if you pay a member of the House of Lords enough money, who in turn have bought their peerage by donating money to the Labour Paty.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5581547.ece

 

[simonSE15]

and in case y'all are thinking the US is any better:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/04/guantanamo-torture

 

[bmattock]

OMG, I have that LP! 😱😀 "Bed and Breakfast Man" is a fave.

Chipmunks are go!

More seriously, I always thought it would be Huxley, not Orwell, whose distopian worldview would come to fruition.

Oh well, it doesn't matter. I'll probably get hit by a car anyway.

 

[kevin m]

I'll probably get hit by a car anyway.

Probably by some un-employed, "Joe-the-Plumber" type speeding to get his Soma fix. 😉 😛

 

[Silva Lining]

I'll probably get hit by a car anyway.

Driven by an undercover law enforcement officer on his way to investigate a suspicious photographer no doubt....😉

 

[Matus]

It seems that fear of "invisible enemy" is much more effective in destroying structure of modern society than open violence or even war. Is our pure material existence really the most precious thing we posses? It sure is important, but not the only one ...

.. I am just too tired I guess.

 

[sojournerphoto]

I actually find that shocking - and it's supposed to make me feel secure?

 

[Lilserenity]

People do seem to have become the possessions and materials they have, rather than their sentient being itself...

But to use a trite cliché from Roosevelt, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

And as a mechanism to psychologically control behaviour, it's more effective...

That said, I won't let my life be ruled by fear. My time will be up when it's up and there is little I can do to change that fate but to walk towards it but on that journey live as much as I can - what will be will be...

 

[AJShepherd]

I blame Tony Blair - if he'd not crawled so deeply up George Bush's arse you need an endoscope to see him none of this might ever have happened.

 

[Sparrow]

I blame Tony Blair - if he'd not crawled so deeply up George Bush's arse you need an endoscope to see him none of this might ever have happened.

Ya but where would the peace process be now if he hadn’t taken over as special envoy for Middle East…….

 

[JohnL]

That poster covers half the students in the UK.

I would guess that at least 99% of the civilized world is in at least three of those five categories.

🙁

 

[JohnL]

We're all subjects of her majesty.
We have to pay a tax if we want to vote.

You have to pay even if you don't want to vote !!!