About…
…taking our freedoms back
Many people have long looked to Britain as a beacon of freedom and openness in a world that so often seems to be the playground of tyrants, dictators, and repressive regimes.
Human rights abuses, imprisonment (and often worse) for political opinions, censorship, extreme poverty and deprivation… all these and much more are things that have so frequently driven refugees here, seeking sanctuary. Seeking asylum, seeking security, but above all else seeking freedom.
And so many of us living here, Britons through and through, have been justifiably proud of our historic tradition of freedom, democracy, and the Rule of Law, hard-won over so many centuries of bloody struggle.
Such that any suggestion, any hint whatsoever, that things may not be quite as they seem, is frequently met with scorn, derision, scepticism… sometimes even just plain ignored.
For the fact is that the further one descends the class ladder (yes, like it or not, the class system is still well and truly alive here, in one form or another) the less common such things as freedom, political representation, and the benefit of the Rule of Law become.
Class-related issues aside though, even dissent (in whatever sphere) has all too often attracted State-sanctioned repression… and still does!
A favourite ploy for those of the “mainstream” is to utter some facile remark along the lines “Well, at least you’re still free to [dissent, protest, voice an opinion.... insert whatever you like here]. You wouldn’t get away with that in [insert the country of your choice here].”
Yes. That may be so. But that is no reason or justification for being complacent about the relative or apparent freedoms we still enjoy. If anything, it should be a goad to us all to not just cherish the few freedoms we have left, but expand upon them and seek to become a “beacon of freedom and openness” in reality as well as in myth.
For the sad truth is that whilst our politicians still loudly hail Britain as a symbol of freedom and democracy our real freedoms are being eroded almost by the minute, and our “democracy” is little more than a mockery.
We have allowed our freedoms to be taken from us, have voluntarily surrendered them, in our well-intentioned but ultimately misguided quest for peace, security, and “comfortable living”.
Liberty- and privacy- encroaching “anti-terrorist laws”, expanding centralised monitoring (and subsequent control) of the population, pettifogging and bureaucratic micromanagement by local government, the growth of the “Nanny State” and “Big Brother” syndromes, the stifling of free expression under the guise of incitement to this or that, increasing levels of poverty and deprivation… the list is almost endless.
And this is to say nothing of the more sinister aspects of our society… the infiltration by State security agencies of groups advocating social and political activism, the deliberate misuses and often outright flouting of the law by the police in their dealings with protesters and the like, and so on.
All these things have eroded our few remaining freedoms, and continue so to do.
Yet “Freedom” is a curious concept. It isn’t something that can be given, for in the giving the giver will always be superior to the recipient.
It is something that must be seized and, having been seized, must be cherished and guarded assiduously.
One has to ask whether those who can be so casual about such a precious possession deserve to have it anyway. If they choose to forfeit it for some illusory and oftentimes temporary alleviation from the inherent uncertainties and insecurities that constitute Life then perhaps they don’t really deserve it after all.
But are we of that ilk? Are you of that ilk?
We should not be petitioning a “superior body” (be that the Government, or the Courts, or whomever) to “give us our freedoms back”, for in so doing we are surrendering even more of our freedom as autonomous living human beings to another agency… we are giving them the right to dispose of our freedoms as they see fit.
Rather, we should be taking our freedoms back by whatever means within our ability, and loudly proclaiming that we will not accept any encroachment on those freedoms by those supposedly charged with the task of administering the affairs of State as our representatives.
And if all we are able to do in the struggle to take our freedoms back is to give voice to the intent, and is to draw attention to all the things that seek to encroach on those freedoms, then let us at least do that.
Which is of course the rationale behind this area of Tilting at Windmills.
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