Friday, January 8, 2010

Straightarrow's challenge

In comments to this post University of Iowa Threat team Straightarrow asks, "So, I ask again, how big a threat are these people?"

Having been in that PC hell-hole for a number of years, I was looking at it from the perspective of this being another feel-good, doing something without really doing something program. A couple of people nosing around and getting into your business.

But his words made me rethink this.

Some of the worst policies implemented in this country have been pushed by academics. Look at cabinet secretaries in the past several administrations, both republican and democrat.

I figured that as long as they don't have any authority these "Threat Teams" could only make noise and maybe ruin some guy's reputation, at most.

But add a little power, and next they will have their own show-trials to be suspending students from school or get people fired. The next step would be to send their perceived "threats" for psych evaluations and involuntary, re-educational lockup. After that, would be jail time.

A couple of administrations later and these little "people commissars" will be in every neighborhood looking into our windows and bank accounts finding threats everywhere.

And they will find threats, because if they don't, they have no reason to exist.

So, to answer your question SA: Yes, they are a threat. The whole concept is a threat.

Free men don't need anyone watching over them.

Thanks, SA.

3 comments:

straightarrow said...

With all respect, I submit that most people fall into a trap that is most cunningly devised by the enemies of liberty and that you fell into it. You have displayed an adroitness in avoiding their traps, but fell for their most cunning, as most do.

The thing to remember is that crap like this is not static. It does not stand still,so what seems innocuous today is, in fact, only a first step in leading the unwary to believe these iterations of extended power are innocuous when in reality they are depending on being dismissed as ineffectual until their position is cemented and they have real power to wield.

Enemies of liberty are content to be considered ineffectual until their secretly gained illegitimate power cannot be successfully challenged because it is a fait accompli.

I really do not mean to be disrespectful and I certainly hope you don't see this as such. But many very intelligent people have fallen for this trap. They, myself included, have been guilty of being fooled because we could see how silly the idea was. Unfortunately we failed to understand the dynamic nature of the seemingly silly policies and procedures and by dismissing them as silly we ignored them until too late to stop them.

I offer the RICO statutes as evidence of how we didn't take action when we should have, and now we can't carry cash without fear of robbery by the police and the courts. For example, obeying the law can cause charges to be levied against one for "evading the law". That is not a fantasy. People have been charged and convicted for evading the law for banking in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid all the reporting requirements. The law was obeyed, yet people went to jail for following its strictures.

There are many other examples, some more pertinent, but every one of them incorporated and relied upon our inability to see the progression the abusers had in mind as a necessary tenet of their strategy. And our failings have cost us dearly in lost liberty.

strandediniowa said...

SA,
Because this team no longer directly affects me (yet), I did not take it seriously enough.

Give me credit for at least pointing it out and bringing it to peoples' attention ;-) (you did, just kidding)

I knew something was hinkey about this and you forced me to examine it further, not just read it and blurt out an opinion.

We're good, SA. I appreciate your encouragement and the occasional whack on the back of the head (figuratively, of course).

straightarrow said...

I would never whack you, especially since I am guilty also of falling into that trap. Took more than once for me to realize it was a strategy and not coincidence.