Alan Cook's Blog - Posts Tagged "government"
When Fiction Becomes Reality
I wrote Dangerous Wind partly as a cautionary tale. What will the heads of governments do to stop what they perceive as a threat to them? Government officials tell us, “You don’t have to worry (about our information gathering, searches, etc.) if you’re not doing anything wrong.” But what if the laws are written in such a way that every one of us is doing something wrong? Or even worse, what if government is defining what is right and wrong instead of we the people?
George Washington, the president I admire most, said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.”
Since my book was published, stories of malfeasance by the IRS and NSA and perhaps other alphabet agencies have come to light. (Love those initials.) Stories of groups being treated differently, depending on their beliefs; stories of reams of information being collected on everybody. Where has our privacy gone? Where have our rights gone?
Government officials say to trust them; they are collecting information to root out terrorists. How do we know this? They can’t tell us what they’re doing with this information because that would help the terrorists. Oh, I get it. In order to protect us you have to keep us in the dark. Keep us in a constant state of blind panic and we’ll let you do anything.
Dangerous Wind is the story of governments going after a man who they claim is trying to bring about their downfall. Is he doing anything illegal or is he just making governmental officials nervous because he’s uncovering weaknesses in the system? Weaknesses propagated by these same officials? Are they fearful they might be stripped of their power? Power, as Lord Acton told us, tends to corrupt people. Once they have power they will go to extremes to hang onto it.
Dangerous Wind is fiction, but is fiction becoming reality faster than I’d hoped it would? At the end of the Constitutional Convention Ben Franklin is supposed to have said, in answer to a question, that we have a republic rather than a monarchy—“…if you can keep it.” Can we keep it?
George Washington, the president I admire most, said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.”
Since my book was published, stories of malfeasance by the IRS and NSA and perhaps other alphabet agencies have come to light. (Love those initials.) Stories of groups being treated differently, depending on their beliefs; stories of reams of information being collected on everybody. Where has our privacy gone? Where have our rights gone?
Government officials say to trust them; they are collecting information to root out terrorists. How do we know this? They can’t tell us what they’re doing with this information because that would help the terrorists. Oh, I get it. In order to protect us you have to keep us in the dark. Keep us in a constant state of blind panic and we’ll let you do anything.
Dangerous Wind is the story of governments going after a man who they claim is trying to bring about their downfall. Is he doing anything illegal or is he just making governmental officials nervous because he’s uncovering weaknesses in the system? Weaknesses propagated by these same officials? Are they fearful they might be stripped of their power? Power, as Lord Acton told us, tends to corrupt people. Once they have power they will go to extremes to hang onto it.
Dangerous Wind is fiction, but is fiction becoming reality faster than I’d hoped it would? At the end of the Constitutional Convention Ben Franklin is supposed to have said, in answer to a question, that we have a republic rather than a monarchy—“…if you can keep it.” Can we keep it?
Authoritarianism
I published my book, Freedom’s Light: Quotations from History’s Champions of Freedom, many years ago, but it is, if anything, more relevant today than it ever was. (E-book version available free at Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.)
The leaders of our two main political parties have one thing in common. Most of them are authoritarians. Authoritarians are people who want to tell us what to do—and what not to do. We must not take a step without their permission. They are happiest when they are creating executive orders, taxes, laws and regulations that limit our ability to do as we wish.
Authoritarianism is the opposite of personal freedom, which is the right to do what we want to as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody else. The United States was conceived with the idea that its citizens have unalienable rights that can’t be taken away from them. Unfortunately, these rights have been eroded to the point where, instead of being the freest country in the world we are now well down the list.
People who support authoritarians are looking for a strong leader who can wave a magic sword and fix everything that’s wrong, but authoritarians see everything in black and white. They have no flexibility and want everybody to bow to them. Leaders like this end up making our world a whole lot worse. Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Big government promotes authoritarianism. George Washington, who was our first president but declined to be king, said, “Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.” How many of today’s leaders would decline a crown? How many act as if they already have one?
Authoritarians keep us in a constant panic by hammering us about “threats”—which may be from other countries, our own people or natural forces—and which must be countered with drastic measures, including unending warfare, higher taxes and the right for government organizations to spy on us. All of these reduce our personal freedom. Should we give in? Benjamin Franklin said it best: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Authoritarians don’t like aspects of our Constitution. They don’t like free speech when it means that people can criticize them. They don’t like other parts of the Bill of Rights if these rights limit their powers. They wish they could alter the Constitution to suit their own view of the world—and to give them more power.
We owe it to our descendants to fight against those who would grab unlimited power and reduce our personal freedom. If we don’t, our children and grandchildren will live in a world of confining walls instead of unlimited horizons.
The leaders of our two main political parties have one thing in common. Most of them are authoritarians. Authoritarians are people who want to tell us what to do—and what not to do. We must not take a step without their permission. They are happiest when they are creating executive orders, taxes, laws and regulations that limit our ability to do as we wish.
Authoritarianism is the opposite of personal freedom, which is the right to do what we want to as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody else. The United States was conceived with the idea that its citizens have unalienable rights that can’t be taken away from them. Unfortunately, these rights have been eroded to the point where, instead of being the freest country in the world we are now well down the list.
People who support authoritarians are looking for a strong leader who can wave a magic sword and fix everything that’s wrong, but authoritarians see everything in black and white. They have no flexibility and want everybody to bow to them. Leaders like this end up making our world a whole lot worse. Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Big government promotes authoritarianism. George Washington, who was our first president but declined to be king, said, “Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.” How many of today’s leaders would decline a crown? How many act as if they already have one?
Authoritarians keep us in a constant panic by hammering us about “threats”—which may be from other countries, our own people or natural forces—and which must be countered with drastic measures, including unending warfare, higher taxes and the right for government organizations to spy on us. All of these reduce our personal freedom. Should we give in? Benjamin Franklin said it best: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Authoritarians don’t like aspects of our Constitution. They don’t like free speech when it means that people can criticize them. They don’t like other parts of the Bill of Rights if these rights limit their powers. They wish they could alter the Constitution to suit their own view of the world—and to give them more power.
We owe it to our descendants to fight against those who would grab unlimited power and reduce our personal freedom. If we don’t, our children and grandchildren will live in a world of confining walls instead of unlimited horizons.
