What about a revolution in the West? Yes, we have free speech and the right to free assembly. No, our government is not routinely arresting and torturing citizens nor does it rule by fear and, compared to the ordinary people of the Middle East, living standards here are relatively good. We are a democracy, so what have we got to revolt about?
But it isn't about where we are, it's about where we are going. Democracy has certain safeguards that protect us from the worst excesses of dictatorship... and we are seeing these being slowly eroded. This is supposedly in the name of the so-called 'War on Terror'. The police are becoming more aggressive and we are seeing more incidents of police brutality and fewer incidents of successful prosecutions against police. This, we are told, is for our own protection. So, presumably, seeing police officers dragging a disabled student from his wheelchair and dragging him to a waiting police van is supposed to make us feel safer, is it? What was that about? It was not about terrorism and it was not even about dealing with the student protests. It was a show of power. It was a demonstration of what the police can get away with... and get away with it they did.
But we are not intended to feel safer by the extended powers and increasing brutality of our police. We are meant at first to be outraged and, as we become increasingly accustomed to it, to be cowed and intimidated. The police are being primed. Groomed, as it were, for the role that is planned for them in the envisioned and not-too-distant future. Giant corporations are showing themselves as the true leaders... or rather owners... of our societies. Small businesses are put out of business for transgressing Health & Safety regulations. They are prosecuted and fined. BP causes the biggest man-made ecological disaster in history and Obama has ordered the arrest and prosecution of... er... anyone caught gathering evidence of the true scale of the disaster. Banks go bust and are baled out by the taxpayers and then award themselves multi-billion pound bonuses while Cameron makes empty promises about stemming corporate greed. Has he? No. He has made equally empty promises about plugging the loopholes by which UK corporations avoid paying taxes. Has he actually done anything about it? No. This remains an aspiration.
Exactly how far do we need to travel before we realise we're on the wrong bus? While we are shuffling our feet and not wanting to make a scene, we are being led ever further into an Orwellian nightmare and, pretty soon the infrastructure will be in place to ensure that we cannot do anything about it. Here in Britain, the time and the circumstances are right for change brought about by the people. We have a weak, ineffectual Prime Minister, a crumbling economy, growing unemployment, rising crime levels, and a government so riddled with corruption that, if it were routed out, there would be nothing left but the scaffolding. What exactly is the cue we are waiting for, a trumpet blast?
Our leaders are now congratulating the people of Egypt yet, for the past 30 years, successive UK and US governments have courted, financed and supported a dictator that has kept the people in crushing poverty under a brutal and merciless regime. This is what our leaders euphemistically describe as "stability". Our leaders continue to support ruthless dictators with obscene affection while proclaiming that the Middle East is not yet "ready for democracy". Back home, the police powers continue to increase, police accountability continues to evaporate. If, as our leaders assure us, this is for our own good... to protect us from terrorism, why are they not actually nipping terrorism in the bud? Any meaningful attempt to eradicate the threat of terrorism must surely begin with our foreign policy. Terrorists are not mindless criminals. They are oppressed and disempowered people who are attempting to make some kind of stand against our support of the despotic dictators that reduce them to slavery. Yes, it is misguided to bomb public places and kill innocent civilians but they are trying to be heard.
If ever there was a time for revolution in the UK and certainly in the US, it is now!
No comments:
Post a Comment