More lump-headedness in the comments section at BoingBoing.
This crop of Oh What A Fascist State Is America emerged as a result of the latest INS idiocy, wherein a Canadian programmer who went in to get his paperwork straightened out in California was treated to a five-day, all-expenses paid trip to the graybar hotel, courtesy of the bureaucratic morons who are currently in charge of keeping terrorists from overstaying their student visas while they build bombs and take flight training.
Whenever one of these stories crops up--as I remarked on December 30--there are always those who claim to see the true Evil Face Of America. Now, I also wrote that there is a certain uniquely American penchant to complain about things that aren't right, because we have high standards and because we have the freedom to bitch and moan as much as we want...hell, we can even get off our ever-fattening asses and do something about it, if we choose to.
But too often, there's another class of complainer, whose ignorance results in comments "such as, "Locking people up who have come in voluntarily to clear up fucking paperwork is only possible in a totally fucked up, repressive, unworthy police state."
To begin with, I asked this person to let the discussion thread know when the jackbooted representatives of this totally fucked up, repressive, unworthy police state showed up at his house to cart him off in the middle of the night for voicing dissent on the web. He responded in a clueless fashion, which resulted in comments roughly resembling the following.
Such people clearly have no idea what it means to live in a police state. They have no concept of what the term means beyond its use by various overwrought leftists. They know nothing about totalitarianism's place in history, what a real police state looks like, or how the people who live in such a state suffer on a massive scale.
None of which is a defense of the INS; far from it. But I'm sick and tired of these yammering yutzes who complain about what the INS is doing on "our" behalf--admitting the very real tradition of democratic representation--while spouting the same tired, knee-jerk trope that any failure or idiocy on the part of any governmental authority is full evidence of totalitarian oppression. This does nothing except expose them as fully-involved members of the chattering class of this country, with nothing to offer except their complaints.
The INS was a vast web of crap before 9/11; it's even more so now, and we desperately need it to do its job.
Instead of indulging in simple paranoia, I do wish that such folks would attempt the apparently novel task of recognizing the real problem: how can we meet the very real security needs of this country while maintaining the liberty that makes it so attractive to immigrants in the first place?
You've hit on the main designation between the chattering classes and those that are attempting to actually shape the world into a place we can all live.
It is supremely easy to spot the minor infractions, and the deviations from the norm, and hold them up and raise a hue and cry as examples of how the system is a failure and armaggedon is upon us all.....(doom doom, we are all dooooooooomed).
The hardest thing to do is actually think of solutions and them push for their implementation as an actual plan for the future. That would require leadership and vision. The problem is you cant stand back and bitch and moan if you have leadership and vision, as it is defeatist.
(Not that I have the leadership and vision, and my minor rant is just what I just bitched about, Gah, round and round, catch-22, what? Oh, okay, I shut up now)
Posted by: John | January 9, 2003 12:22 AM
Well, there's a difference between simply noting the difference between complaining and leadership, and leadership itself.
You might be "complaining about the complainers," but you're not claiming that they represent evidence that We Live In A Fascist Dictatorship.
It's the we're all doooooooomed bit you noted that makes the difference, I think. Chatterers are perfectly willing to regard whatever they're complaining about as Very Important...but not quite important enough to actually do anything about other than complain.
Posted by: --iaw | January 9, 2003 12:40 AM