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joiwind:
UK Home Secretary Theresa May has warned that those opposing plans to let police monitor all internet use are "putting politics before people's lives".

The draft Communications Data Bill would mean internet providers having to retain records of all their customers' online activity for 12 months.

Mrs May told The Sun the powers would help police tackle serious organised crime, paedophiles, and terrorists.

Source


- Does anyone see anything odd in that extract ? I do, do you ?

eleman:
Well, here's is how I see the picture:

West is a hegemon in decline, and it knows it is in decline. To keep the hold on the world politics just a tad longer in the face of BRICS and such, Western governments seek initiatives to grant them stricter control over any discourse, and the ability to make people disappear under the label of terrorists, if they happen to criticize too much.

In a similar vein, to keep the hold on the world economics just a tad longer in the face of BRICS and such, Western governments reinforce intellectual property regimes, so that they can buy anything when they still have the riches collected over colony empires and printing 100 dollar banknotes. When those riches wither away (and they will, because Chinese are producing, and Americans are not), they will still earn some money through the monopolies imposed over pharmaceuticals, rectangles and such.

Yeah, I know, it's a far-fetched, hard to prove claim. And yes, you're free to call it a conspiracy theory.

tomos:
- Does anyone see anything odd in that extract ?-joiwind (December 03, 2012, 07:35 AM)
--- End quote ---

I dont see anything odd in it -
just the commonly used emotional blackmail approach to why-you-should-support-this.

I wouldnt mind, it almost sounds reasonable to me - they just want to see who you emailed, not what (content) you emailed. But when they start off with the emotional blackmail, alarm bells go off.

joiwind:
I agree with both of you but what I found odd - and amusing - is this : "Mrs May told The Sun ...".
Now in case you don't know it The Sun is a tabloid paper belonging to News International who were recently, and still are, accused of phone-tapping, hacking and so on (and worse)  in the UK.
Perhaps they are experts ?

40hz:
Yeah, I know, it's a far-fetched, hard to prove claim. And yes, you're free to call it a conspiracy theory.
-eleman (December 03, 2012, 07:46 AM)
--- End quote ---

I don't see it as either far fetched nor a conspiracy. I just see it as typical human behavior.

Those with an advantage wish to preserve their advantage.

Those in possession of something of value generally try to hold on to it - and ideally get more of it.

Humans generally prefer to associate with people that think and look much like themselves.

Humans generally prefer to do nice things for the people they like. And ignore, or do bad things, to those they don't.

The instinctive human responses to any threat are: Fight/Flight/Freeze.

Cooperation is not instinctive. Nor is morality. They are both learned behaviors subject to the interpretations of the community and the environment one grows up in.

So no need for fancy conspiracy theories. The West has it pretty good right now. Arguably better on the whole than any other society in human history all things being equal. And the West simply wants to keep it that way.

The problem lies in what may be considered an acceptable way to keep it so.

People have preferred approaches to problems based on previous experiences and successes. And they tend to repeat behaviors that have worked in the past - even when current realities indicate the old approaches are no longer workable.

People that are used to thinking in terms of police power and military responses tend to see people wearing uniforms and carrying guns as the optimal solution to otherwise insurmountable problems.

It's not always.

But try convincing somebody who believes in guns, and prisons, and all the other trappings of government coercion otherwise. Like Louis XIV so famously engraved on the barrels of his canons: Ultima Ratio Regum

Believe it. :-\

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