Today, as I was walking back to my dorm from class, I came upon the remnants of what appeared to be a flag burning outside the entrance to my hall. I arrived far too late to see the fun, apparently, for I found only a wash tub filled with ashes, a chair with a megaphone, and several couner-protesters being filmed by a local news crew. As I got closer, I could see that one was holding a Texas flag, upon which was written "Try burning this one, Assholes." Other counter protesters nearby carried signs saying "This is not UTA," and other things to the same effect. I later found out that this event had been orchestrated by three freshmen, and the flags had in fact been paper facsimiles, pasted onto cardboard, of the flags of Iran and North Korea, in addition to pictures of the leaders of those countries.
This is a rally against the enemies of the United States. In no way are we demonstrating against the people of these two nations. In 1939, would you have opposed me burning the flags of Nazi Germany and Japan?
(Abridged from the mouth of one Lance Kennedy).
Enemies, enemies, enemies! The drive to chase them to the ends of the earth is little diminished among the people who make the decisions these days, and it doesn't seem to make a difference whether they're marching on Kuwait or are ten years away from being able to make a nuke. Chants of "Islamofascism" and "appeasement" are only getting stronger in the run-up to the elections, as the Bush administration realizes the country is rejecting an increasingly chaotic war and that its argument that children can legally be tortured in front of their parents isn't going to fare well against a Democratic congress with Halliburton charging the U.S. Army 45 dollars for six-packs of Coca-Cola on the national backburner.
Politicians failed to bring about the Utopian visions they gave to the people in the last century. They lost power for a time, relegated to the position of simple managers of the social contract. Now they have a new power source, a new trump card. Security. Watching a recent documentary about the 7/7 attacks in London, I saw a London woman say I think we should give up Liberty for Freedom.
The documentarians asked her if she had meant to say that. Yes, she said, she thinks we should give up Liberty for Freedom. They also discussed the 'shoot to kill' policy incident which occurred not long after 7/7, in which a young Brazilian man was killed execution-style (11 bullets to the head) by a special police unit. Soon after the incident, it was revealed that he was not behaving as the police claimed he was afterwards, and that he was not wearing what they claimed he was (a light denim jacket to the official line of a bulky jacket with wires sticking out of it.) The woman said she felt sorry for the families of the police. No mention of the innocent man killed.
I'm not generalizing about Londoners. Nor do all Texans want to burn the flags of America's enemies in the streets. But the question remains: which will win the defining struggle of the 21st centruy—Liberty, or "Freedom"? Just remember, we will always be at war with Terror.
Update: Those guys got a lot of shit about that flag burning. I'm almost sorry a futuristic dystopia isn't necessarily around the corner.