Why can’t the Australian government make it a crime to pay people smugglers for passage to Australia? In that case the law could be overlooked in the case of the very few genuine and desperate boat arrivals and the rest could simply be deported without access to endless court appeals. It is beyond reasonable doubt that illegal boat arrival people would have paid people smugglers for their passage!
Privacy, Freedom and Security?
Since the recent whistle-blowing of Edward Snowden there has been a huge interest in the USA and elsewhere on the questions of Privacy, Freedom and Security and the price for each. The fact that these questions are even being asked reflects poorly on the intelligence and education of the common man. Privacy, Freedom and Security are all very relative concepts. In absolute terms there is no real freedom in the world and never has been. The freedom of everyone of us has always been constrained by natural limitations and the freedoms of others. Our freedom is always limited by the freedom of others. No-one and nothing is ever really free!
As to Security, no-one and nothing is ever really secure and never has been. We can all be struck down at any moment by a huge number of unpleasant possibilities. It is very relative. The question is the possibility of disaster v the probability of the same. This is the area of security v relative freedom trade-offs.
As to Privacy, that may once have existed to a considerable extent but anyone in the modern world who believes that we have any serious degree of privacy is a fool. It is possible to find out almost anything about anyone. Many politicians and famous people have learned this to their detriment. It was different in the times of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. In the contemporary world the technological sophistication of spying techniques is such that none of us have any real privacy anyway. At present, at least our thoughts are private but how long that will last is anyone’s guess. It may well be that George Orwell merely got the date wrong in his novel, “1984.”
In times past, world leaders gaily looked after themselves and their cohorts with a blissfully ignorant public. Now, scepticism has become the norm rather than the exception. Throughout human society it has become painfully obvious that deception and dishonesty are so rife that it is difficult for anyone to trust anything. Even once sacred objects such as religious leaders and the medical profession are now open to disbelief and mistrust. Where do where turn other than to rely on our own view of the world and resources?
The idea of justice has bemused mankind for millennia. However, the results always seem to be very similar. Justice (if there is such a thing) is the handmaiden of power. The powerful and wealthy elites of just about any country, if brought to book for serious crimes, seem to continually get off or receive rather lenient sentences whilst the common man, if convicted of the same felony, is likely to rot in jail for a very long time or worse!
Miserable though it is, one sometimes watches the news on the TV. Typically there is ten minutes of news and endless sports news and stories. It is useless to change channels. The result is the same. Marx said, in the 19th century, that religion was the opiate of the people. In the 2st century sport is the opiate of the people! It would seem that the media and the world powers don’t want people to think but simply have their minds fixed on trivial things. If the masses actually thought deeply they would be terrified about the future.
It may well be that miracles are not unscientific. They may well be just events that scientists have yet to discover a scientific explanation for!
The islamist president of Turkey recently described peaceful demonstrators as terrorists. It would seem that any leader or dictator who face people who are opposed to their actions can describe them as terrorists. What has the world, and political correctness, come to?
cassandradoom 