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Welcome to the Police State: Your Papers, Please
Just outside the little town of Sierra Blanca, Texas, my daughter and grandson were stopped at a road block. Drug-sniffing dogs worked down the line of cars.My daughter had a small amount of marijuana in her luggage. A doctor prescribed it to her as treatment for a medical condition. The dogs immediately sniffed it. She showed the police her medical papers. But California law doesn’t apply in Texas, so the police arrested them both. They were taken to a holding cell with a dozen men and women arrested for the same crime.
A few days later, singer Willie Nelson was arrested at that same checkpoint. My daughter was fined $550. Perhaps Willie got off just signing a few autographs.
A short time later, my grandson and I drove back to California. Just over the border, we were funneled through yet another roadblock… manned by half a dozen armed Border Patrol agents.
An unsmiling officer scrutinized us. We were even asked to state our citizenship before he finally waved us through.
An even more sobering surprise awaited us…
Twenty miles later we encountered a second roadblock. And yet another 15 miles after that.
I’ve driven in the United States for six decades. Not once was I stopped at any checkpoint. That is, until I hit three roadblocks between the California border and San Diego.
It was like Nicaragua all over again. In 1956, the country was under the strong-arm dictatorial rule of Anastasio Somoza. Armed soldiers stopped my companions and I every few kilometers. They questioned us and asked us to show our passports.
We were all grateful to be from the “land of the free,” where such things couldn’t happen…
The rise of checkpoints in America, and the indignities we now suffer at the hands of airport TSA agents, is merely outward evidence of a much deeper net being cast around our individual liberty.
Monitoring America
In 2010, a Washington Post investigative report revealed the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence network of law enforcement agencies to collect information about Americans. Almost 4,000 agencies are building a database to collect, store and analyze information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents… many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, launched the “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign. This program encourages citizens to become informants. It started out as a way to get the public to identify and report “terror tips” and other “suspicious activity” to the authorities.
Recently, however, Wal-Mart, Amtrak, major sports leagues, hotel chains and metro riders have joined the surveillance network.
“This represents a shift for our country.”
1984 is Here
One can’t help but reflect on George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984… the nightmarish depiction of what future life could be like under a repressive, post-World War government.
Orwell’s prescience is unnerving.
Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker tallied the similarities between Orwell’s novel and today’s world in his 2003 book, The Blank Slate. The elements of that Orwellian nightmare are either proposed or already here.
Government euphemisms, national identity cards and surveillance cameras. Satellites and personal data on the web. Dossiers in government databanks and censorship of the actions and statements of individual citizens. Checkpoints and electronic strip searches at airports. Bankers reporting “suspicious” deposits. IRS arresting Americans for not disclosing all of their assets.
The signs are clear: 1984 is here.
Defending our Individual Sovereignty
Whether it’s a war on drugs, illegal immigration or terrorism… it is all a war on individual sovereignty.
Winston Smith, the protagonist in Orwell’s novel, rebels against Big Brother. His fate is arrest and torture.
O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party and the person in charge of torturing and converting Winston back into a docile slave, tells him about the future: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
Winston, tortured and barely able to speak, replies: “You could not create such a world… it is impossible to found a civilization based on fear and hatred and cruelty… there is something in the universe, some principle, some spirit that you will never overcome.”
In the end, Winston gives up hope in such a principle. “Everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
There are many today who have found their own peace through a love of Big Brother.
For those of us who believe in sovereignty, the spirit Winston believed in is still real. Individual sovereignty is the antithesis of a totalitarian world of surveillance, roadblocks, and Newspeak.
There is a principle, a spirit that can’t be overcome, and that is the determination to live free…
I hope it survives.
Fondly,
John Pugsley
Chairman, The Sovereign Society
Publisher’s Note: Jack Pugsley, a dear friend, mentor and a founder of The Sovereign Society, passed away recently from complications following a heart attack. We have lost a valiant freedom fighter that stood with us at the barricades of the war against growing government… he defined our vision. Many of our members have requested copies of Jack’s timeless essays on liberty. They are now available for a limited time.
Other Posts from the Author
- Obama Pushes to End Oil Company Tax Breaks - But It Doesn't Matter - March 29th, 2012
- Food Trucks and the Rise of Digital Currency - March 27th, 2012
- Digital Currency Use on the Rise in Sweden - March 19th, 2012
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Good Lord!! Yes, 1984 is here & I am sorry to hear about your daughter/grandson being arrested, but this is the way it is in America.
Like you, I’ve driven the highways of America for 6 decades & the police state is now reaching down to the common man/woman level.
Just read a new book that’s a must read cause it’s about average Americans taking a stand against this tyranny. It’s so real & how America will end up if we don’t take a stand now. I recommend it.
booksbyoliver.com
Our outrage cannot be directed to letters/petitions to our corrupt politicians because they are the bigger part of this police state. Maybe, history is now showing us our true destiny in life.
Great article that shows the personal life of average Americans. It’s starting to happen to all of us.