The Witchhunt Tendency
Thursday, 29 September, 2005 - 06:50
Watching Scorsese's biopic of Bob Dylan, 'No Direction Home', one thing stuck out was the fact that guidelines issued to the FBI on recognising communists was that they might be carrying guitars.
This pattern - that a person's use of technologies of communication sifgnifies their nefarious intent - is repeated endlessly, most recently in the case of a man with an interest computers and telecoms who became a suspected terrorist.
And today I hear that a man who heckled Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, at the Labour Party conference, was held under the Terrorism Act.
Guitars, amateur radio kit, and now your very voice, are all weapons of dissent which you may want to think about twice before using.
Comments
He got publicity because the Labour party's behaviour back-fired on them horribly. Nanny-states do more than simply publish information broadcasts - they try to control their citizenry. Their attempts to do so may be inept and amusing, but that's not to say that in the future, what seems ludicrous today may be far more sinister when you can be locked up without charge for 90 days under anti-terrorism laws...
I reckon that guy did pretty well out of it in the end. He got loads of publicity, a perfect protest! So how much free speech should we have? It's no longer the Nanny state of our childhood is it - remember all those public service broadcasts about crossing the road, telephone wires, AIDS etc etc. I can't remember the last time I saw anything like that on TV.
Author: CatherineBond Sent: 2005-10-04 17:45:44