Have Sixties-era flower children, those free spirits who once believed in peace and “doing your own thing,” been so conquered by fear that they now embrace a zero-tolerance, Big Brother-ish national security state?
Sixties generation folks largely run the show these days.
Is it blinding fear of terrorism that convinced them to allow unconstitutional violations of civil liberties? Or to permit the peace-prize-winning president to launch assassination drone strikes from prepared “kill lists,” with admittedly no legal framework to check this new life-and-death power?
Now, after the Newtown school shooting, we again see fear driving the agenda, threatening further erosion of liberty and giving new powers to government.
As the White House announces its agenda to tackle so-called “gun violence,” expect President Obama to follow a 13-point legislative and executive action program* just released by a key progressive think tank, The Center for American Progress (CAP). CAP calls for super-sizing the National Instant Criminal Background Check database, by tying federal funds to states turning over more information on those deemed “mentally ill,” and by pushing all federal agencies to share data on known drug use, etc.
Yes, the new progressive solution to mass shootings is a federal database containing information on every American who has ever seen a shrink or is believed to have smoked weed.
Congress is also urged to pass legislation denying those “suspected” of terrorism their Second Amendment rights. No need for trials anymore.
Still feeling groovy?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Not to be confused with the 13-Point Program to Destroy America, an album by the punkish band Nation of Ulysses, album cover pictured above.
7 replies on “Protect Us, Big Brother”
I have often wondered what happened to all those 1960’s era anti-establishment citizens, too.
But fear is a powerful emotion used by governments for ages to manipulate the citizenry.
On the topic of the rights of the mentally ill, let us not overlook the fact that what defines a mental illness is determined by a small group of psychiatrists. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) has the potential to control more lives than most would believe. It describes clinical depression as being “characterized by the presence of a severely depressed mood that persists for at least two weeks”. The DSM goes further to include five Sub-Types to include melancholic, post-partum and seasonal affective disorder.
It’s enough to make one depressed. But don’t tell anyone, your constitutional rights can be infringed upon if you do.
We can demand the government give us total security but we will have to trade all our freedoms to get it. What a terrible life that will be.
While I will fight against any registration scheme of any kind, I would accept a background check, AS LONG as voter registration and candidates for office are subjected to exactly the same restrictions..
We have an attorney general who cares nothing at all for integrity or following the laws, who has encouraged non-citizens to register and fought to block even the most minimal of voter identification requirements. Let them reap as they sow.
Back in the late 1960’s, while the Flower Children were in bloom (pun intended) I was busy in the electronics industry, working for Hughes Aircraft and helping advance the state of the art in electronics engineering. Had the “hippies” been as self-sufficient, perhaps they would be more freedom-oriented.
I wonder, though, how it’ll be when the cocooned children of recent years grow up to be majority voters. The thought is chilling.
I wish that thing in the wh would go away, get taken by aliens, anything just go away I hate it.
Alot of nerve, it smoked weed.
Paul, I have been trying to articulate the subject of this commentary for YEARS. Today, these members of my “my generation” are infesting city halls, state houses,Congress and “The Bureaucracy.” For years, they have been boldly exposing themselves as the bolsiviks they were back then.
I am so thankful I’m not the only one who sees it.