Kafka, Orwell and the Patriot Act

Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 6 months ago to Culture
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When certain men and/or women wearing modestly priced suits and shiny shoes quote the Patriot Act to you and ask you questions you might be tempted to not answer. But take my advice, if you value your time, you'll answer, because as they will explain to you that under the Patriot Act most of your rights as a private citizen are diminished or no longer there.. Under such interrogation, what is happening to you may seem strangely familiar, because if you have read any Orwell or Kafka or Lee Child the proceedings come out of the nightmare that exists when rationality no longer is a part of interrogation but interpretation and you are subjected to what the authors only imagined and you are living through. And, you may well ask yourself, "Hold on, whatever happened to America? How could an American congress pass a law so anti- Constitutional and actually put it into practice?" Has fear caused us to give up our freedom? Are we no longer the home of the Brave, but the land of the Fraidy-Cats? So now, when I see up on the screen the portrayal of true American heroes, should I question their realyty, or should I espouse my credibility to comic book super heroes?. It ooks as if superheroes, those larger than life characters in spandex and capes are the delusional answers, hens Donald Trump the closest thing to a superhero is President sans the spandex.

Mamn, I love The Gulch. Anywhere else and I'd likely be laughed off onto Facebook. Just think, for about 50 of my 83 years I believed all the things I learned about the founders, and the history and I was with Reagan 100% and his shining city on the hill, but it's shut down by a bunch of "Patriots."


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  • Posted by 7 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I find it interesting how various "acts" are touted to be for our best interests but in reality are just another variation on limiting our freedom. I'm getting to the point where I need to settle for anything that veers to the right instead of openly pushing us left.. There is no doubt that Objectivists and a few others are little Dutch boys with their fingers in the dike, holding back the whole ocean of leftist ideology being promoted by the media, by politics,and by entertainment .. By the way media people as well as certain politicians don't seem to realize that they are the harbingers of their own destruction.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 7 years, 6 months ago
    Yeah...I think about this often. Frankly, I think that enough Americans simply don't get it. By "enough" I mean "a vast majority". They're soft, naive, addled to the point of not even comprehending true freedom. Many like having their freedoms taken.
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  • Posted by rbroberg 7 years, 6 months ago
    Herb, before I discovered Objectivism, I thought I was liberal or libertarian. I protested the war in Iraq in 2002 and was an outspoken critic of the Patriot Act before anyone I knew decided it was a big problem. I guess when I realized the Democrats were just as bad as the Republicans, I decided I was libertarian. I guess when I realized Objectivism was an integrated philosophy, in 2004, I haven't changed since.

    The Patriot Act provisions are directly from Orwell or Kafka indeed. At the time it was passed, I feel the Act was worse than AR makes the Sherman Act out to be - which is also not very good, to say the least. The Patriot Act signaled the end of American ideals more than the falling of the twin towers, in my opinion. And for everyone reading, I do not take that statement lightly.

    From information sharing between previously distinct agencies, to roving wiretaps, to record access, to foreign wiretaps, to sneak and peak, these are all a slaps in the faces of due process and sovereignty, whether individual or national. This bill is actually how the terrorists of 911 really inflicted their damage, with our government's consent. From the Patriot Act forward, I could not trust either major party.
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  • Posted by 7 years, 6 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You're not a hero if you can't be killed or tortured. You've got no skin in the game, as some of my gangster pals would have said.Or -- the worse your loved ones are in peril There is no one who wouldn't do anything to save their child from pain or death
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  • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 6 months ago
    You probably only get replies from oldsters who remember what freedom felt like.
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  • Posted by Dobrien 7 years, 6 months ago
    With the Kennedy assasination it has pretty much been the Bushes Clinton ballgame. Now it is part of the uncivil war.
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  • Posted by 7 years, 6 months ago
    Please excuse the typos. When I get excited, I go all dyslexic.
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