You're right. The speed at which rights are being eroded in the face of what is a relatively minor threat is actually rather sinister. There really is no excuse for it. In the past the country has faced anarchist bombers, blackshirts, Fifth Columnists and the IRA without such overreaction. If we change to meet the terrorists you are giving them the satifaction of making them feel important. They know they can't win the big battles, but they have the satisfaction of hurting the society they're attacking.
A.C. Grayling says we should "go on living as if the moral cretins don't exist. If we change our lives, our laws, our open societies, our habits of civilised freedom and mutual trust because there are a few terrorists in the world who will anyway manage to kill a tiny percentage of us from time to time, no matter what we do, then we will have surrendered the victory to them. What they want is for us to share their bleak and impoverished world view. We should refuse, no matter what they do."
I used to be a member of the Labour Party, back when it had some connection with, well, labour. These days it's stolen Tory clothes and dyed them an even deeper blue: it is not only representing corporate power rather than the people of this country, but also eroding values and freedoms hard won by members of the party whose name it bears. I feel betreyed on their behalf.
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The Relic
Richard Dawkins for Pope. |