Big Think

Carny Buckboard commented on The Preventative State on January 21, 2008, 1:52 AM

Dershowitz reveals himself as one of the most dangerous men in the world."Particularly if the crime is a nuclear attack, a terrorist attack with biological weapons, with chemical weapons. Sexual predators running rampant. Drunken drivers killing people on our streets."The last two examples belong with the first, why? Is there evidence that post-9/11 more and more drunk drivers are crashing or more sexual predators are running rampant? No. Perhaps these two examples are seeds to grow into populist campaigns to force through measures against the first example.Dershowitz wants to punish people for what they have not done and call this pre-emption or proactive or preventive. Fine, call it what you want. I call it fascism. If somebody who is punished for what they have not done then does not do what you punished them for, is that success? Even if that person was not going to do it anyway?We move from better let 10 go free than find an innocent guilty to "Better punish everybody rather than anyone go free."This philosophy, such as it is, is the end of innocence, it is an attempt to manipulate human consciousness into a full embrace of the state as the sole regulator of mental hygiene. It is the logic of sacrificing all personal freedoms in order to receive the state-provided service of 'being kept alive' as Mitt Romney so elegantly formulated it.I would, however, agree that applying preventive measures to POTUS 43 may have been an excellent idea, given the death and destruction that has arisen from his tenure.Oh no, wait, this is for those 'enemies of the state' who are not part of the state apparatus itself. This is the thinking that will bring us The Party.

Carny Buckboard commented on The Preventative State on January 20, 2008, 8:52 PM

Dershowitz reveals himself as one of the most dangerous men in the world. "Particularly if the crime is a nuclear attack, a terrorist attack with biological weapons, with chemical weapons. Sexual predators running rampant. Drunken drivers killing people on our streets." The last two examples belong with the first, why? Is there evidence that post-9/11 more and more drunk drivers are crashing or more sexual predators are running rampant? No. Perhaps these two examples are seeds to grow into populist campaigns to force through measures against the first example. Dershowitz wants to punish people for what they have not done and call this pre-emption or proactive or preventive. Fine, call it what you want. I call it fascism. If somebody who is punished for what they have not done then does not do what you punished them for, is that success? Even if that person was not going to do it anyway? We move from better let 10 go free than find an innocent guilty to "Better punish everybody rather than anyone go free." This philosophy, such as it is, is the end of innocence, it is an attempt to manipulate human consciousness into a full embrace of the state as the sole regulator of mental hygiene. It is the logic of sacrificing all personal freedoms in order to receive the state-provided service of 'being kept alive' as Mitt Romney so elegantly formulated it. I would, however, agree that applying preventive measures to POTUS 43 may have been an excellent idea, given the death and destruction that has arisen from his tenure. Oh no, wait, this is for those 'enemies of the state' who are not part of the state apparatus itself. This is the thinking that will bring us The Party.