tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post7667535823442498347..comments2024-02-21T08:52:55.878+00:00Comments on Your Freedom and Ours: This is what real oppression looks likeHelenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13799545178433498944noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-44281453178821048152011-03-30T21:57:16.000+01:002011-03-30T21:57:16.000+01:00No, I don't think that is the definition of th...No, I don't think that is the definition of the term. Intruding is one thing (and I am very much against that, which is why I consider this government to be no better than its predecessor) and controlling it totally is something quite different. If we are to fight we need to define what it is we are fighting.Helennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-87033864074211256212011-03-30T15:14:00.000+01:002011-03-30T15:14:00.000+01:00"I hear a great deal from various parts of th..."I hear a great deal from various parts of the political spectrum that this country has become a tyranny, an authoritarian state, even a totalitarian one."<br /><br />I agree that we are not a tyranny or anywhere close to it. Nor was we particularly authoritarian. However are you sure we are not totalitarian, abet democratic-totalitarian? I say this on the basis that it is difficult to come up with many areas of private life or the commercial sector into which the state is unable or unwilling to intrude, and this is surely the definition of the term?AKMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-62235934159964413222011-03-30T15:02:47.000+01:002011-03-30T15:02:47.000+01:00Re: "The government would never allow that to...Re: "The government would never allow that to happen" was her confident reply. <br /><br />I can easily imagine a member of the British post-war generation saying the same much the same thing. This sort of trust in the political establishment is quite common, as they are regarded (foolishly in my opinion) as being a bulwark against the capitalists/bankers/<insert>.</insert>AKMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4057487038565855826.post-37436238448653499432011-03-30T14:53:19.000+01:002011-03-30T14:53:19.000+01:00A friend of mine is married to a charming Chinese ...A friend of mine is married to a charming Chinese lady from Shanghai. They go back to visit family an relatives have been to visit here. He says that the thought patterns are different. Chinese people like to feel that the government is strong and that they are under control. It sometimes shows itself in odd ways. He thought his wife might be worried about family in Shanghai because of the Japanese Tsunami - not at all! "The government would never allow that to happen" was her confident reply.<br /><br />He also says that it is widely believed that the Japanese were the authors of their own catastrophe - that the earthquake/tsunami was the result of an undersea atomic bomb test which went wrong and that the business with the power station is to give credible cover for the resultant release of radiation..Edward Spaltonnoreply@blogger.com