Monday fear blogging

The Commons are voting on ID card bill, as amended by the Lords, today. Like most (all?) measures of their ilk, they’re neither designed nor destined to achieve what their spinners spin; they’ll do bugger all to prevent ID theft (indeed, they’ll do exactly the opposite). The only help they offer in “war on terror” is to further ramp up the climate of fear that the government wants us to live in, to allow easier and closer monitoring of the people they fear most: their citizens.

Here’s qwghlm with some historical context:

Which brings me to the current continual talk of “threats” to our way of life and (depending on the loony extremeness of whoever you’re talking to) the “clash of civilisations” and “our way of life is under threat” - it’s bunkum. The acts of a few fundamentalists and flag-burners seems quite tame compared to the prospect of London and Manchester being razed to the ground at the whim of the Soviet president - even the prospect of thousands of deaths is a lot more preferable than that of millions. Perhaps this is the one thing that bugged me about The Power of Nightmares - the modern “nightmare” posed by international terrorism is nowhere near as terrifying compared to what was feared in the past.

Perhaps this why there’s all this chatter of late about a nuclear Iran - never mind that they’re years off producing a nuclear test, let alone a functioning and robust battle-worthy weapon, let alone one that can be integrated and reliably flown on a ballistic missile, although the breathy rumours about war and scary-looking glossy graphic would want you to believe otherwise, it seems. Maybe we’ve begun to realise that even the bloodiest conventional terrorist attacks are no good at stoking permanent fear.

Oh, and go read pecunium‘s recent post on the same subject. Substitute UK for US and New Labour for Republicans, and it carries over here just fine.

Welcome to the days you’ve made. You’re welcome. Welcome.