Getting it about the war on terror, UK style

Our friends in the UK Libertarian Party have opened up a new blog for business, and if the first week or so is any indication, it will be a must-read.

In Jenkins Nails It, there is a comprehensive (and absolutely correct) discussion of the War on Terror having devolved almost completely into a mechanism for social control.

Excerpts:

Under the guise of 'security', freedoms and liberties gained over the centuries are being consigned to the dustbin of history in our country. The main political parties, and a complicit mass media (who know that 'fear sells', regardless of how overblown and ridiculous the supposed threat -- avian flu, anyone?) are telling us that there is no alternative, that only by giving up our basic rights to the state will we be safe.

But surely we know that the threat is both real and grave? After all, every time that television programmes run a story about Islam or Al-Qaeda, they serve us up some demented Muslim cleric -- undoubtedly pledging death to the infidels -- as a representative of the 'Muslim community'.

As the British-Iranian comic Omid Djalili points out, that's rather like Al Jazeera wheeling out the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan as a representative of the white, Christian community.

So, if not to keep us safe, why are our liberties being taken away and the threat of terrorism so overstated? Sadly, the answer is simply that a fearful and controlled public is a docile and compliant public. The government doesn't think of us as individuals; we're merely 'units of production' in Brown's next Five-Year Plan. And it's not just the government -- all of the Westminster parties constantly harp on about 'hard-working families', as if anyone that has other priorities in life -- like actually spending time with their family, and enjoying their life, or anyone who isn't actively involved in producing the next crop of willing state workers, is irrelevant.

Well, we're not irrelevant. The right to live your life as you best see fit is a core tenet of Libertarianism. For some, that might mean engagement in entrepreneurial activity that benefits the wider economy. For others, quality family time may be their priority. We are all individuals, and the state has no right to try to engineer our lives -- those lives are ours to lead as we see fit.

Libertarians will always oppose unnecessary state interference in people's lives, of which the ongoing 'security' related measures are but the latest sad example.

Worth checking every few days.