Americans in 2010: Benjamin Franklin's Nightmare

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Americans willing to sacrifice privacy for security: poll
Agence France Presse


Americans find US anti-terror policies too lax, and believe that the government should err toward increasing security over individual privacy, a new survey found Thursday.

"The use of a body scanner is demonstrated at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Americans find US anti-terror policies too lax, and believe that the government should err toward increasing security over individual privacy, a new survey found Thursday."More than six respondents in ten to a Quinnipiac University poll -- 63 percent to 25 percent -- said US anti-terror policies lean too far toward protecting civil rights rather than national security.

By 84 to 13 percent, respondents said they support greater use of airport body scanners, despite the privacy concerns voiced by some opponents. And by 86 percent to 11 percent, they said they would support new airport security measures even if it led to longer travel delays.

The poll also found that public support for the war in Afghanistan has risen and now is at 59 percent in favor and 41 percent against, measurably stronger than in just December when it was at 51 percent in favor and 41 percent against.

Respondents said they disagreed with President Barack Obama's plan to try suspected terrorists in civilian courts, expressing a preference for military tribunals by 59 to 34 percent.

But 48 to 44 percent, Americans polled said they support Obama's overall handling of terror. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rss/breaking_news/102646/americans_willing_to_sacrifice_privacy_for_security%3A_poll/

[ixion]

1. Ben's not alone... I've been living in the waking nightmare for years now

and there has been no 'change'

[atreides1]

2. I Laugh

Everytime someone tries to tell me how this is still "...the home of the brave."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. "The Land of the Free" is more than a little laughable too.

[tom_paine]

6. Yep. Such a contention is SO out of whack with what reality shows daily.

Not the least of which is our most recent frightened tizzy about Underpants Man.

Now THAT was laughable, as well as predictable.

Ultimately, the problem is that such cowardice combined with such astonishing gullibility (mix together and bake for 30 years at 350 degrees in the oven of advertising and PR manipulation) is, as I have always maintained since the 2000 Stolen Election and the fact that the Aristocracy doesn't even bother hiding it since then, that we are very much the psycholgical equivalent of 1933 Germans.

"Home of the brave" indeed! Just as 1933 Germany was similarly "brave".

But we WILL make great Camp Guards, Block Wardens, and Neighborhood Spies, make no mistake of that. In this way are cowards made to feel brave, by joining the Authoritarian Alphas. Plus a change, plus a la meme chose (the more things change the more they stay the same).

This thing that our Aristocracy has created to rule us, called "Inverted Totalitarianism" http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20080515_chalmers_johnson_on_our_managed_democracy/ can only be an intermediate step, I believe, to more Classical forms of Totalitarianism.

It is something of a "hothouse flower", made possible only by cheap energy and high technology. Now that the belt has begun to tighten and our Third World Future is ever closer, the hothouse flower begins to wilt.

Which is a lot to say just to say that you are so right and as we go further up the asshole of our Corporate Aristocracy's delusional, yet ever-successful mechanism of measured control and Managed Democracy, the fearful lunacy of our National Infantilized Mind & Dialog will grow ever more deatached from reality.

The more cowardly we are, the braver we will tell ourselves we are. The less free we are, the more free we will tell ourselves we are. Just like Nazi Germany and every other Totalitarian Nation, since long before "Totalitarianism" became a word.

[hootinholler]

7. That should be an OP sometime Mr Paine.

Perhaps expanded a tad, but I'm left with the dissatisfaction that I cannot recommend your reply.

-Hoot

[reggie the dog]

4. fucking scared sheep

I will be taking a TGV high speed train to Paris and back twice in March for my job. I could take a plane but even though the flight is only 2 hours from Nice to Paris, and the train is 4 1/2 hours from Les Arcs Draguignan it is still faster to take the train because I can get to the train station 10 minutes before the train and just get in. At the airport they want you early to search you and all that crap. The train has no metal detectors, nothing, you can even have a pipe and a gram of hash for you destination and will not set off any alarms. A terrorist could kill all of us, but I trust that the French military is actively working to prevent that. Why is it so different for planes? They could kill just as many, if not more if the train blew up....

[Gregorian]

5. Fear is an important survival mode. Sustained fear is a failure mode.

The authoritarians use our fear to control us. People of this country just don't seem to see that.

We never needed a seatbelt law. I remember that as one of my first indications of the beginning of the end. What we needed was an educated people. Anyone who knows about physics will not drive a car without a seatbelt.

It's time we turned this mess around. Put the emphasis on education. Turn that fear into intelligence.

I know I'm dreaming. The authoritarians do not want us smart.

[ThomWV]

8. Body scans in airports don't bother me a bit, tapping of every electronic communication does

In case anyone has forgotten nothing has ever changed on the wire tapping situation. What do I care of some Yahoo gets a photoscan of my naked old ass. Fer christ's sakes, if they ask I'd drop trow and prance around in the airport - I don't give a shit. That is a far lesser insult to my liberty than the collection, review, and analysis of every electronic communication of virtually everyone in the country.

[dysfunctional press]

9. plus- prostitution is illegal almost everywhere.

i wonder if the weather in nevada would agree with him...?

[dysfunctional press]

10. how do all these people feel about metal detectors in airports...?

is THAT 'sacrifice of privacy' somehow acceptable to those who would flout franklinisms...?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

11. You posting this just drips with irony.

[marmar]

12. You posting this reeks of bullshit, as usual.

nt

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. Says the man who wants to ban firearms. LOL.

[marmar]

14. The woman? Are you trying to be funny? Or are you just an....nevermind.

nt

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

16. My apologies. Honest mistake I'll edit.

[Joe the Liberal]

15. I'm willing to bet most people in this country have no idea who Benjamin Franklin even is...

Much less know any of his most famous quotes.

[treestar]

17. When it comes to these screeners, it's a bit of a different issue

It's not like the government having endless search and seizure and arrest powers.

It's just our attitude toward nudity or the human body - it's too private to be seen but that's cultural. We don't have a problem with retinal scanners or fingerprints. It's parts of the body that are deemed too private.

That's a cultural issue.

[kentauros]

18. It's too bad that when reporting poll results

that the exact wording of the poll-questions is not reported, too. I want to know the questions, not just the results.

[depakid]

19. Not sure when cowardice became ingrained in the national psyche

There have been periods in the past where it's been a strong inclination- though not so broadly, across the board.

The list is impressive:

Terra everywhere; domestic "bad guys" coming to get them; people who "act strange" or "look strange" nudity; breastfeeding! the gobernment; you name it- millions of people are running around obsessed with/afraid of it.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

20. It became ingrained in Australia in 1996 I believe.

[ncteechur]

21. Hell no-- BF would love him some Red Tube and You Porn

and you know its true