Manufacturing fear to undermine our freedoms

I've been quietly (OK, LOUDLY) fuming for years about the increased efforts by a variety of organisations and governments to make us all feel so unsafe we would accept any level of infringement on our privacy and other human rights to feel safer. I know I'm not alone in my concern over the 'patriot' laws enacted in many countries, including our own, over the more recent past (mainly post-911). In fact, these laws and policies have succeeded in making me feel very unsafe and somewhat afraid - not of terrorist threats but of those charged with protecting me.

I also resent this trend because it forces me into common cause with many right-wingers and I'm never comfortable in that territory :(.

I've been listening to an interesting podcast series - The Suspect Society - that brings a lot of what's happened in (mainly) the USA into focus and thought others might find it thought-provoking and educative, not to mention validating, to listen to these as well. It is presented in Parts 1, 2 and 3 (which is apparently no longer accessible online unfortunately).

It's worth a wander through the CBC podcast website if you're into social issues and podcasts.

Don't ya just love 'em?

"AS YOU might expect from a nation that refers to the winners of its domestic sporting competitions as "world champions", American athletes generally possess the global vision of an earthworm with cataracts." The Age

I don't think I need to comment further on this one :).

Health Insurance - state mandated theft

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080229-What-do-you-think-were-running-here-Medicare.html

A commentator after most - if not all - of our hearts :).

As a 'refuser', I deeply resent the cost of not being a member of a private fund (i.e., my tax 'fine' for exercising free choice not to further enrich insurance companies).

The introduction of a system that has failed to deliver health equity outcomes or budget savings in the USA is not, in my view, likely to save us here. The previous government's continuous attempts to force us to buy a product that delivers higher health costs and lower health benefits, demonstrates that their purpose was to serve other than human entities - especially when you consider that no one actually 'owns' these companies.

How peculiar is it that all these benefits flow to 'virtual' entities - i.e., businesses that exist without 'base' ownership in the human world. They have 'shareholders' and their boards and executives change/rotate/stagnate over time, without anyone with a real relationship to the 'service' to keep them in line. The 'powers' within the companies just come in, 'stick their snouts in the trough', then move on to another trough, to which they have as little commitment or personal investment. Meantime, we get the unenviable job of filling those troughs and carting off the waste when the feeders are through.

If in doubt, just look at the current ABC (the child care centres, not the media outlet) scandal. A business, with control over arguably the most precious of our species, run by and for the profit-makers. They get the benefit of government rebates to those who need childcare, while pushing up their prices to well beyond government subsidy levels for enrichment of their shareholders and the top dogs get to sell their own shares 5 minutes before the bottom drops out of the share price. Never mind the question of how the price can go down on this 'gold mine' growth industry, where ABC is the dominant player (and, incidentally, where those who do the real work of caring for our children are among the lowest paid of workers, with a very high level of responsibility and risk).

Too late to say "don't get me started", I think, LOL; but you get the point.