Democracy and Freedom

As the world takes small, Zeno-esque steps towards freedom on all fronts, certain countries are taking giant leaps backwards.

The British government has quietly adopted a new plan to extend warrantless "remote searches" by the police of PCs anywhere in the UK. More importantly, this is taking place across the EU for which it's called "warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property" and European police can instruct the British (and one presumes vice-versa) to conduct intelligence-gathering on their citizens. This is all nothing more than flowery language for hacking. 1984 is only 15 years late.

Not to be out-done, the incoming US administration is constructing an economic stimulus bill which may contain "buy American" provisions "that could favor U.S. companies over foreign competitors". This only a few months after Obama voted 'yes' on a bill extending warrantless wire-tapping of the very citizens whose votes he was trying to win.

This is what we have come to after years of freedom: society over citizen, citizen over foreigner. Both are immensely mis-guided in their efforts. There is no protection gained in the evisceration of the freedom of individuals in the guise of security and there is no economic benefit gained by subverting market processes and the freedom of trade in the name of patriotism. 

The sad fact is that the ordinary voter would have no major issue with either policy as politicians are adept at selling these abhorrent ideas as beneficial to their electorate and the ordinary voter has no idea why it's not. Even sadder is that we cannot expect government to fail in carrying out these plans. As Sir Humphrey Appleby once said, "[w]ell, almost all government policy is wrong, but...frightfully well carried out."