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Truth Becomes The Greatest Enemy Of The State
based on a report by William Bowles. October 13, 2005
One of the deeper ironies of the state’s ‘war on terror’, which is, we are informed, to defend democracy and the ‘Western way of life’, has been the increasing encroachment of the state’s control over its citizens. The upshot, therefore, is of a state machine which claims greater and greater power and control over its citizens and, tellingly, not over their alleged criminal activities but over their day-to-day lives, whether it be their relations with their neighbours or their behavior in public.
By linking ‘organized crime’ and ‘terrorism’ to ‘anti-social behaviour’, the state creates an all-encompassing climate of fear. So by implication, ‘anti-social behaviour’ is treated as the first step on the road to ‘extremism’.
But when the slogans are unpacked, what we discover is a state that views its citizens as the enemy! And indeed, that is potentially what we are, for it reveals a political class that lives in fear – in fear of its own citizens. Worse still, it reveals a state that no longer trusts its citizens to accept the dictates or the rationale for its actions, hence the need to criminalize the thoughts of its citizens, for what else can a law that talks of making it a crime to ‘glorify terrorism’ be?
It is no accident therefore that as the occupation of Iraq disintegrates into chaos -- precisely because it is illegitimate, not to mention illegal -- the government has to repress dissent under the guise of preventing terrorism, for as Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels, Nazi minister of propaganda said, “It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.”
You have been reading excerpts from "Sleepwalking into slavery?" by William Bowles. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/a3wb6. Thanks to serendipity.li. We visit often and we hope you will too.
based on a report by William Bowles. October 13, 2005
One of the deeper ironies of the state’s ‘war on terror’, which is, we are informed, to defend democracy and the ‘Western way of life’, has been the increasing encroachment of the state’s control over its citizens. The upshot, therefore, is of a state machine which claims greater and greater power and control over its citizens and, tellingly, not over their alleged criminal activities but over their day-to-day lives, whether it be their relations with their neighbours or their behavior in public.
By linking ‘organized crime’ and ‘terrorism’ to ‘anti-social behaviour’, the state creates an all-encompassing climate of fear. So by implication, ‘anti-social behaviour’ is treated as the first step on the road to ‘extremism’.
But when the slogans are unpacked, what we discover is a state that views its citizens as the enemy! And indeed, that is potentially what we are, for it reveals a political class that lives in fear – in fear of its own citizens. Worse still, it reveals a state that no longer trusts its citizens to accept the dictates or the rationale for its actions, hence the need to criminalize the thoughts of its citizens, for what else can a law that talks of making it a crime to ‘glorify terrorism’ be?
It is no accident therefore that as the occupation of Iraq disintegrates into chaos -- precisely because it is illegitimate, not to mention illegal -- the government has to repress dissent under the guise of preventing terrorism, for as Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels, Nazi minister of propaganda said, “It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.”
You have been reading excerpts from "Sleepwalking into slavery?" by William Bowles. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/a3wb6. Thanks to serendipity.li. We visit often and we hope you will too.
