This is my final essay for Composition I:
Boiling Frogs
If you place a frog in room temperature water and slowly increase the temperature of the water, the frog will not notice the change in his environment. If you continue to raise the temperature, the frog will remain in the water until it dies from the heat. The change has to be slow so that the changes are barely perceptible to the frog. Our nation has become that frog.
Since the start of party politics in our nations legislation, the partisan era (1830 1900), the peoples rights and freedoms became a lesser priority than the need for a political party to win. The legislation process became a civilized version of tribal warfare. The casualties of this kind of war were not the participants, but the bystanders, our nations people. No one was killed outright, but our rights and freedoms were slowly whittling away. Party politics served the interests of those invested in the parties. In contemporary times, these entities would invest in more than just one party because the goals have shifted away from the economic and social goals of the parties to ultimate power and control over the nation.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently fighting a rash of laws passed by many states that are disguised as voter fraud deterrents. The truth is that the laws passed are a form of voter suppression to prevent or make difficult to vote for certain demographic groups that struggle with the new requirements. Despite this frenzy of state legislation to counteract so-called voter fraud and to protect the integrity of our elections, proponents of such voter suppression legislation have failed to show that voter fraud is a problem anywhere in the country. (American Civil Liberties Union)
If you give it some thought, voter fraud deterrents dont sound so bad. In my opinion, I believe those that involve themselves in the voting process should at least have some working knowledge of the constitution and the issues at hand. I would love to see that as a voting requirement. The problem I have with this law is that it addresses a non-issue. Voter fraud was never a significant problem in our nation, unless you count the 2000 presidential election in Florida. Even then, the law should be effective in preventing voter fraud. The laws passed are not effective and address a rare, if existent, issue.
Large tech and online companies are currently fighting two laws Congress is attempting to pass. PROTECT IP and SOPA. Both of these acts are attempts by the media industry to address copyright infringement. The problem is that the media industrys careless attempts to protect their intellectual property are allowing the government more power to encroach on our constitutional rights. The acts give the government power to shutdown websites without warning; in essence, uninhibited censorship. SOPA takes away all due process, shuts down any site it deems to be against the law without trial, without notification, without due process. (Gold) The acts also give greater power to the government to invade our privacy. Because of the complexity of the technology, some of the proposals will force internet service providers (ISPs) to monitor their internet traffic which is basically spying on our citizens. An aide to the House Judiciary committee -- chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), SOPA's principal sponsor -- did not dispute that IP address blocking and deep packet inspection could be required... Deep packet inspection is the only way to block data from specific Web pages, or URLs... That looks a lot like wiretapping, and a bipartisan group of House members soundly condemned it when a company named NebuAd tried it in 2008. (McCullagh)
This kind of power leads to big brother states. Do we really want to invite the possibility of being monitored and censored at the whim of the government? Our government jumped on the opportunity to introduce the PATRIOT Act in the name of War on Terrorism. PROTECT IP and SOPA will just embolden them. If we continue down this road, well eventually give up our rights to privacy and free speech simply by the slow erosion of our constitution. How much freedom do we need to continue to give up for financial stability or security? Is our music industry that important? Does our need to get off on a few tunes worth giving up our rights? So far, voter suppression, censorship, and loss of privacy in our nation are starting to resemble a regime like Iran.
I know what youre saying. Our government doesnt do barbaric things like Iran; such as keeping political prisoners. I think were well on our way to establish a base for authoritarianism. Barack Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on December 31, 2011. A portion of the act introduces the ability to arrest US citizens apprehended anywhere in the world, even within our borders, by the military and detain them indefinitely. What is scary about this act is that indefinite detention can be used under the guise of War on Terrorism. A person can be detained "under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities", the bill states. The hostility in question here is the "war on terror", and at the moment, it seems to have no end. (Parvaz) Well now, I think Ive painted a pretty stark picture of our future in America.
What is stopping a belligerent leader from taking the presidency and abusing these powers? The military. Our oath of enlistment has bestowed upon us the burden of safeguarding our constitution and the nation from enemies, foreign and domestic. 2012 NDAA has put the military in a precarious position. We now can choose to be the belligerents or the guardians of this nation. We can choose to obey the officers appointed over us, with the commander-in-chief as our supreme leader, or we can remove those from office who threaten our constitution and nation. We will become our nations last hope.
If you look at the people in Congress who have backed these laws, you will find that they span both the democrats and republicans. As I said before, there is an esoteric entity that has been influencing our party politics for quite some time now. Its not a conspiracy. Its not a New World Order nor any of those organizations commonly associated with such. It is plain greed. Rival businessmen and politicians swear allegiance to the same entity to have power over others. There is nothing more natural in human nature than to feed our fears and vanity; to feed the greed of wealth and power. Greed is such a powerful force, it is now an amorphous entity taking shape in our government, a humble organization that was supposed to serve the people of our nation. Instead, it is slowly becoming an authoritarian state.
We have forgotten the most important aspect of our political compass, the guide that reminds us of whats important in our government. Our political compass also has a north & south axis, authoritarianism and libertarianism/anarchy. Our nation has been so focused on the political left and right, which is only supposed to be a means to an economic way of life, that we have lost sight of maintaining a social order balanced on the north/south axis. If you ask most people what they think of libertarians, they would assume it was another left/right axis party. Completely wrong! Libertarians are the ones in society, found in both the left and right, who help us to guard against tyranny.
Libertarians are not and should not be party affiliated. Dont shun them out of your party politics though, or else you are guilty of siding with tyranny. Embrace your libertarians and include them in your politics and policy-making. They are the only ones that can help guide you to preserving our constitution and nation. They are your true freedom fighters.
Bibliography
American Civil Liberties Union. Voter Suppression in America. 19 January 2012. 19 January 2012 <http://www.aclu.org/voter-suppression-america>.
Gold, Mike. Steve Niles' Courageous Act. 20 January 2012. 20 January 2012 <http://www.comicmix.com/columns/2012/01/04/mike-gold-steve-niles%e2%80%99-courageous-act/>.
McCullagh, Declan. SOPA's latest threat: IP blocking, privacy-busting packet inspection. 20 January 2012. 20 January 2012 <http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57328045-281/sopas-latest-threat-ip-blocking-privacy-busting-packet-inspection/>.
Parvaz, D. US lawmakers legalize indefinite detention. 20 January 2012. 20 January 2012 <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/201112773810926474.html>.
Boiling Frogs
If you place a frog in room temperature water and slowly increase the temperature of the water, the frog will not notice the change in his environment. If you continue to raise the temperature, the frog will remain in the water until it dies from the heat. The change has to be slow so that the changes are barely perceptible to the frog. Our nation has become that frog.
Since the start of party politics in our nations legislation, the partisan era (1830 1900), the peoples rights and freedoms became a lesser priority than the need for a political party to win. The legislation process became a civilized version of tribal warfare. The casualties of this kind of war were not the participants, but the bystanders, our nations people. No one was killed outright, but our rights and freedoms were slowly whittling away. Party politics served the interests of those invested in the parties. In contemporary times, these entities would invest in more than just one party because the goals have shifted away from the economic and social goals of the parties to ultimate power and control over the nation.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently fighting a rash of laws passed by many states that are disguised as voter fraud deterrents. The truth is that the laws passed are a form of voter suppression to prevent or make difficult to vote for certain demographic groups that struggle with the new requirements. Despite this frenzy of state legislation to counteract so-called voter fraud and to protect the integrity of our elections, proponents of such voter suppression legislation have failed to show that voter fraud is a problem anywhere in the country. (American Civil Liberties Union)
If you give it some thought, voter fraud deterrents dont sound so bad. In my opinion, I believe those that involve themselves in the voting process should at least have some working knowledge of the constitution and the issues at hand. I would love to see that as a voting requirement. The problem I have with this law is that it addresses a non-issue. Voter fraud was never a significant problem in our nation, unless you count the 2000 presidential election in Florida. Even then, the law should be effective in preventing voter fraud. The laws passed are not effective and address a rare, if existent, issue.
Large tech and online companies are currently fighting two laws Congress is attempting to pass. PROTECT IP and SOPA. Both of these acts are attempts by the media industry to address copyright infringement. The problem is that the media industrys careless attempts to protect their intellectual property are allowing the government more power to encroach on our constitutional rights. The acts give the government power to shutdown websites without warning; in essence, uninhibited censorship. SOPA takes away all due process, shuts down any site it deems to be against the law without trial, without notification, without due process. (Gold) The acts also give greater power to the government to invade our privacy. Because of the complexity of the technology, some of the proposals will force internet service providers (ISPs) to monitor their internet traffic which is basically spying on our citizens. An aide to the House Judiciary committee -- chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), SOPA's principal sponsor -- did not dispute that IP address blocking and deep packet inspection could be required... Deep packet inspection is the only way to block data from specific Web pages, or URLs... That looks a lot like wiretapping, and a bipartisan group of House members soundly condemned it when a company named NebuAd tried it in 2008. (McCullagh)
This kind of power leads to big brother states. Do we really want to invite the possibility of being monitored and censored at the whim of the government? Our government jumped on the opportunity to introduce the PATRIOT Act in the name of War on Terrorism. PROTECT IP and SOPA will just embolden them. If we continue down this road, well eventually give up our rights to privacy and free speech simply by the slow erosion of our constitution. How much freedom do we need to continue to give up for financial stability or security? Is our music industry that important? Does our need to get off on a few tunes worth giving up our rights? So far, voter suppression, censorship, and loss of privacy in our nation are starting to resemble a regime like Iran.
I know what youre saying. Our government doesnt do barbaric things like Iran; such as keeping political prisoners. I think were well on our way to establish a base for authoritarianism. Barack Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on December 31, 2011. A portion of the act introduces the ability to arrest US citizens apprehended anywhere in the world, even within our borders, by the military and detain them indefinitely. What is scary about this act is that indefinite detention can be used under the guise of War on Terrorism. A person can be detained "under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities", the bill states. The hostility in question here is the "war on terror", and at the moment, it seems to have no end. (Parvaz) Well now, I think Ive painted a pretty stark picture of our future in America.
What is stopping a belligerent leader from taking the presidency and abusing these powers? The military. Our oath of enlistment has bestowed upon us the burden of safeguarding our constitution and the nation from enemies, foreign and domestic. 2012 NDAA has put the military in a precarious position. We now can choose to be the belligerents or the guardians of this nation. We can choose to obey the officers appointed over us, with the commander-in-chief as our supreme leader, or we can remove those from office who threaten our constitution and nation. We will become our nations last hope.
If you look at the people in Congress who have backed these laws, you will find that they span both the democrats and republicans. As I said before, there is an esoteric entity that has been influencing our party politics for quite some time now. Its not a conspiracy. Its not a New World Order nor any of those organizations commonly associated with such. It is plain greed. Rival businessmen and politicians swear allegiance to the same entity to have power over others. There is nothing more natural in human nature than to feed our fears and vanity; to feed the greed of wealth and power. Greed is such a powerful force, it is now an amorphous entity taking shape in our government, a humble organization that was supposed to serve the people of our nation. Instead, it is slowly becoming an authoritarian state.
We have forgotten the most important aspect of our political compass, the guide that reminds us of whats important in our government. Our political compass also has a north & south axis, authoritarianism and libertarianism/anarchy. Our nation has been so focused on the political left and right, which is only supposed to be a means to an economic way of life, that we have lost sight of maintaining a social order balanced on the north/south axis. If you ask most people what they think of libertarians, they would assume it was another left/right axis party. Completely wrong! Libertarians are the ones in society, found in both the left and right, who help us to guard against tyranny.
Libertarians are not and should not be party affiliated. Dont shun them out of your party politics though, or else you are guilty of siding with tyranny. Embrace your libertarians and include them in your politics and policy-making. They are the only ones that can help guide you to preserving our constitution and nation. They are your true freedom fighters.
Bibliography
American Civil Liberties Union. Voter Suppression in America. 19 January 2012. 19 January 2012 <http://www.aclu.org/voter-suppression-america>.
Gold, Mike. Steve Niles' Courageous Act. 20 January 2012. 20 January 2012 <http://www.comicmix.com/columns/2012/01/04/mike-gold-steve-niles%e2%80%99-courageous-act/>.
McCullagh, Declan. SOPA's latest threat: IP blocking, privacy-busting packet inspection. 20 January 2012. 20 January 2012 <http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57328045-281/sopas-latest-threat-ip-blocking-privacy-busting-packet-inspection/>.
Parvaz, D. US lawmakers legalize indefinite detention. 20 January 2012. 20 January 2012 <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/201112773810926474.html>.
elye:
poor frogs that horrid, i didnt read anymore