I grew up during the height of anti-Communist hysteria. It was the era of Gene McCarthy and red-baiting and black-listing. In the fourth grade I would sit and look at the ten foot high windows along the side of the classroom and contemplate how the nuclear flash would look and whether or not I could get under my desk in time to avoid the flying glass from the blast wave after I had been blinded.
We would listen to Sister Mary Elephant, looking for all the world like Jake and Elwood's Penguin, explain to us about first Hitler and then Stalin. We got descriptions of how these dictatorial regimes maintained their iron fisted control. Core to the methodology was the enlistment of every one, but particularly children, to report to the government any indiscretions, disloyalties, or transgressions against the government. Children were rewarded for ratting out their parents and friends sought gain by turning in friends. The lesson was clear. Keep your privacy. Don't disclose what goes on at home, on the job, or in your social encounters.
What then to make of this:
See Something? Say Something!
Sorry, I'm not on board with that. I don't need a government program to know when something terrorist is before my eyes. I am apprehensive about a publicity campaign encouraging people to rush to the nearest Gestapo branch to describe what they saw that is in conflict with Big Sis' latest directives.
This is groundwork for a bleak future.
3 comments:
There is a hissing, venomous snake of a word that needs to go viral:
Stukach, Russian for state informers.
According to Urban Dictionary, "It is considered one of the foulest insults in the Russian language."
As it damn well should be. The Russians knew exactly what they were talking about.
"Stukach!"
Hissed at any reporter or speaker who talks approvingly of "see/tell".
"Stukach!" Scribbled or stickered on propaganda posters.
"Stukach!" Painted on the doors and cars of anyone who actually does this. Shunning is the very least they deserve.
Stukach. A bad word, but perhaps a necessary one.
(Note: We have a responsibility to report and testify against actual violent crimes -- muggings, rapes, murders, that sort of thing. That is being a good citizen, not a stukach.)
Amusing. I wonder if that is a tit for tat - Wal-mart plays along w/ DHS and maybe the lawsuits from the unions - er - concerned employees - will falter a bit.
I mean, as long as they eventually let the union in, of course.
Links in the chain...
When you dont treat spies as spies. Treat terrorists like muggers. Sue a state for trying to enforce imigration laws. Allow cities to act as sanctuaries to killers and drug dealers. Refuse to control a border. This is what you get, everyone inside the country living in fear because this administration, more than previous, have allowed this country to become the front lines in this war.
These failures need to be thrown out before something grave and deadly happens. If something does happen, it will be because they refuse to connect the dots. Playing defense means being right all the time. So far with the bloomer bomber we have been lucky. Wait until the boob-bombers slip through TSA.
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