That was the order of the three signs in Tiki Room last night, and it summed it up perfectly. Our society seems content to allow others to tell us what we can and cannot do with our bodies and in our places or revelry, and for that, we should all feel a deep and burning shame. I wish a deep and burning case of syphillis on the people that proposed, wrote, voted on, and did not fight hard enough against this legislation, also. Since I dont vote, this is about all I can say at the moment.
Whether you smoke or not, whether you dance or not — these are not the issues. The issues are that you are no longer free to do those things in the places that need them most. Ridiculous. Benjamin Franklin was a wise man (albeit a drunk one) when he said that a nation that was willing to sacrifice freedom for security deserves neither.
Fucking smoking ban. Ugh–it just makes me ill thinking about the world I live in in which this sort of thing is okay. The Patriot Act, the TIA act, the smoking ban, the cell phone ban, etc, etc, etc.
Someday, we might wake from our complacency just long enough to realize that weve driven ourselves right back to an absolute dictatorship where our every move and indeed our every thought is mandated before we make it and just before the thought police come and take us out. You think the Matrix is cool because youre actively willing it into existence – the machines arent going to do it to us, were bringing it upon ourselves every time we vote away our freedoms.
I hate to think I might agree with Alexander Tyler, who, in 1778 finished his central thesis on The Cycle of Democracy this way: “These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.” When I see us making laws like this, choosing to lose our freedom, willing away our free will, I almost give in to the compelling point that hes making. Where do you think we are in this cycle? If you cant see that this trajectory (outlined in 1778, even) fits our countrys history perfectly, youre either lying to yourself or youre a fool.
Anyway, enough passionate political bullshit from me. Ill be dead before we get out of the dependency phase, even if we speed up our exit from apathy. Really, what the hell do I care? Ill just encrypt all my communication, keep my eyes open, and try not to get caught thinking. Since no one else seems to be doing it, its probably against the law.
