Yabbdabbadoo terror laws

[Winmar]

Things are quiet around here, so I'm just gonna post a ripper of a letter sent to The Age the other day:


There's an elephant on the road

Our yabbadabbadoo terror laws are like the trick I used to play on my children when they were squabbling on long car trips. To distract them, I'd suddenly sound the horn: "What was that for that, Dad?"

"To get the elephant off the road."

"What elephant? There's no elephant on the road!"

"See, it works, doesn't it?"

The crazy logic was unanswerable. Car horns do keep elephants off the road and distract kids, momentarily, from their bickering. Anti-terror laws do distract citizens (from many other important issues) while intimating that their leaders are doing their utmost to protect us.

Our politicians will always be able to claim that the laws worked as deterrents, even if there is no terrorist attack in Australia ever: "See, I told you they'd work!"

Hans Colla, Highton

 

[Goreripper]

That reminds me of a reply I made on another board to a thread about Iraq:

--

The whole idea of a "War on Terror" is just a tool to control the masses through fear. It takes the tangibility of an enemy entity away and replaces it with a bogeyman. No longer does the enemy wear battleship gray, or speak Japanese, or Korean. No longer are they "over there". Suddenly, no one knows who the enemy is. They could be anyone. It could be the guy on the plane next to you. Did that woman leave that box on the subway station because she's merely forgetful, or is it a bomb? There's an Arab-looking guy on the bus who's always looking out the window, at his watch, shifting in his seat. Is he nervous because he's new in town, doesn't speak the language and wants to make sure he doesn't miss his stop, or is he agitated because he's a suicide bomber? This is the sort of paranoia and fear that declaring "war" on an intangible concept like "terror" creates. And the war never ends, because if you stamp out one kind of terror, something else will spring up that you can call "terror" to replace it, and keep control over the masses forever. It's exactly what Orwell predicted, but it's come to pass twenty years later than he envisaged. There is no War on Terror. It's merely a war, and don't expect it to end anytime soon.

--

 

[Stonewall]

This whole "controlling the masses" idea is really very funny and silly.

In reality, it is the way our economy works that really controls us. For example, the paranoia created by various government tactics don't really last all that long, but the daily 9-5 grind lasts until you are considered too old and decrepit to continue. Everyone wants to escape it. Few can.

 

[Mark]

The 9-5 grind doesn't influence how people vote, though. Making them afraid of terrorists, and saying your opponents are 'soft on terror' does.

 

[Winmar]

What makes it worse is that the federal opposition and states all jump in just so they can avoid being accused of being soft on terror. It's pathetic. I assume there's a similar situation in the UK?

 

[Stonewall]

But it is only an influence, and if that translates to control fine, but it is only temporary.

I'm sure I will still be slaving away 9-5 long after Howard is dead and buried. The pressure and expectation towards living that life is pervasive and approaching absolute, and the hints of despair I feel at such an outcome is far more potent than any fear I have of being blown up.

Perhaps I feel this way because not much that comes out of Canberra affects the way I think and thus vote, whereas, despite myself, I today felt a touch of excitement at receiving a job interview, at the thought of once again being accepted into a way of life I find it all too easy to despise, yet not fully to hate. For to hate it would be to reject what it has done for me, both personally and through my parents and grandparents before me.

So to me, this whole war on terror thing is very much like a doughnut, whether its centre contains delicious jam or not is really neither here nor there, because it will always be a doughnut.

 

[Shannow]

Talk at the rifle range on Sunday was about the "thoughening up" of gun laws under the new regs. (of the safest organised sport in the country).

Lucky we missed that elephant.

 

[TinMan666]

you think you've got freedom now, that's how they hold you down.

The thing about this whole "war on terror" is.... remember little Johnny telling us all "don't worry, siding with the yanks in an illegal invasion of an Arabic nation won't make us more of a target for terrorists" ? How could that logic possibly stand up?

 

[Spiff]

I've been thinking about that line quite a lot recently, Tinny. Blaze is such a good writer of lyrics, even if all of his songs are about how They hold you down and stuff.

 

[Southy]

I don't consider working part of the daily grind, but that could be because I have always made sure I am working in something that I enjoy, if I have to do it 80% of my life it may as well be fun

 

[TinMan666]

All I do at work is surf the internet anyway... which is the same as I do on my day off, so I'm not fussed about having to work to support my millionaire lifestyle down here at New Quay

 

[MeKaChrOme]

I hate it how the government keeps going on about how "they" hate us and everything we stand for and all that crap. That was after the latest bombs in Bali, and the bombings have huge effects on the locals, who suffer casualties as well... It reminds me of a futurama quote where Zap Branigan goes "you can be sure they stand for everything that we don't stand for" or something to that effect.

 

[Spiff]

I hate it how Australia measures the severity of a disaster by how many Australians get killed.

 

[MeKaChrOme]

I hate it how Australia measures the severity of a disaster by how many Australians get killed.

that's exactly what i'm talking about!

 

[Blitzkrieg]

you think you've got freedom now, that's how they hold you down.

I love that line. Great song. Blaze is fantastic.

I am looking forward to a 9 to 5 lifestyle. I want to be able to reap the benefits from being a working man, and don't expect things to come my way unless I am. Finding a career I enjoy will make it so much easier, so I should probably get on top of that.

 

[Shannow]

Right, that's it...we all pool our resources, and buy an island of our own.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=imaginarium&vi=pictures&img=14#more-pictures

 

[Winmar]

Hahaha how awesome is Playmobil?!