I get more than a little pissed off when some yahoo Bush worshipper calls me un-American because I don’t support the Bush administration or the one-party Republican government now in power. I find it bitterly ironic that such folks hear the march of freedom where I hear the strident goose-stepping of a fascism that has already caused untold destruction and threatens to be a great deal more destructive than Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. Who in hell do these numbskulls think they’re kidding?
’ve got a little secret for these halfwits. The terms “democracy,” “liberty” and “freedom” have a great deal to do with another little concept called “privacy.” Without privacy, it is simply impossible to have democracy. In the nosey, back-biting atmosphere of incipient fascism, where neighbors keep up with the Joneses by informing on neighbors, where an alphabet soup of NSAs, DIAs, CIAs, FBIs, and OSPs permeates every supermarket and coffee shop, one cannot have the kind of independent thought necessary for healthy democracy. With Bush’s thought police listening to our calls and peeking at our email, one must be quite courageous to think for oneself and actually put one’s thoughts into words that others can read or hear. This sort of courage should not be necessary in a democracy, where free and open discussion and criticism of government must be considered indispensable. In a real democracy one doesn’t have to be afraid to speak one’s mind.
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_815.shtml