Saturday 28 August 2010

Fidel knows

Not that i take advice from Fidel Castro much, but half of his latest ravings seem spot on to me.
The beardy one said Osama bin Laden is in the pay of the CIA and was summoned up whenever George W Bush needed to scare the world.
The CIA bit is obviously cuckoo, we all know America stopped funding and arming him after the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, but hyping bogeymen is exactly what Governments have always done and what Bush did with Bin Laden in order to launch his disastrous War on Terror.
As far back as i can remember, leaders have demonised others for their own agendas. Saddam got it when Iraq stopped being our friend and Ahmadinejad is the current bad guy threatening us. Further back in my youth it was the Soviets who had to be stopped so the truth is the Governments need a threat to keep us safe from and if they haven't got one, they hype up whoever is about at the time.
Probably because Fidel Castro said it, his words will be brushed off as the words of a crackpot but if you forget the part about the CIA still bankrolling him, he is right.
Ever since September 11th, the terrorism threat has been used to introduce new legislation such as the Patriot act in America and a whole swathe of new controversial laws over here. Why they were introduced now when nobody attacked us and not when the IRA were bombing our high streets i don't know, but Bin Laden has proved to be a very handy enemy when the Government wanted to bring in anything controversial.
The ID cards idea had been bandied around for years and dismissed as too controversial then up pops Bin Laden and they were set in motion with the warning that it is for our own protection.
Thankfully they have now been binned as too expensive so we have the recession to thank for that but it proves that the bloke in the cave has indeed been very good for scaring us, Fidel was talking sense.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

so many responses come to mind...

1. how can anybody doubt the word of fidel? ha ha ha ha - just a joke...

2. fidel should know he is a master of fear. he has kept a under his personal control for his personal gain for 60 years by creating fear among the cuban people. of course, what they fear is fidel.

3. funny, the flaw of a disliked western leader neutralizes all else. yet, for slime like castro or chavez only their words of wisdon are recognized... not that you are doing that in this post hanzi.

so, then to your point.

you are absolutely correct about the abusiveness of governments and their use of enemies. a book titled "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer elaborates on the idea in extreme detail. it was required reading in texas schools in the 1970's.

also related, the American founders that shrugged off British despotism were fond of saying "government is a necessary evil so use it sparingly."

sadly, when people advocate the use of government to solve problems like:
- preventing hate speech
- solving unemployment
- punishing greedy bankers
- crime prevention thru gun control
- unequal education
- unequal pay
- unequal health care
- unequal everything (the domain of the left)
they are empowering and enabling that very government that turns around and abuses them.

by the way, use of the government to fix problems by creating controls isn't liberal... it is facism.

q

Falling on a bruise said...

All i said was i agreed with Fidel on his musings that some Governments used the Bin Laden excuse to bring in some legislation that they would have struggled to bring in othewise.
They have all done it, Fidel as well as you point out. It is a tried and trusted way Governments work. Just because Fidel said it doesn't make it untrue.

Anonymous said...

i guess i could just say "i agree" or "i disagree" but that is bit boring... then again so are rants... damned if you do, damned if you don't...

q

Falling on a bruise said...

I like rants but the problem with writing them is that i calm down halfway through so they lose their sting the longer i go on.