They’ve done it again. Just when you thought that the Bush administration couldn’t get any more anal retentive about what they term “security” they go and introduce new legislation empowering the authorities to indefinitely confiscate the laptops of individuals crossing the border into the United States even if there is no actual suspicion of wrong-doing.

This little gem representative of the new dark ages within which we live and which was ushered in in no small part by the American government (through the staging of or, at best, aggravation of September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers of the Trade Centre and Trade Centre 5) can be added to other hot little coals in the ‘road to democracy’ such as the so-called Patriot Act (The spy on Americans’ communications act), the finger printing of all travellers (since we’re ‘all’ a threat), the Guantanamo bay detention camp where individuals of various nationalities have been held for years without so much as a real trial, let alone a fair trial, with no end in sight, several intercontinental wars under its belt past and present, and a lot more trash that simply goes too far beyond the scope of this fragment. To cut a long story short here, the forces at play in America make the local MLPN phenomenon look like a mere nuisance. Sure we have a president who wasn’t voted in by the Maltese people and sure the two parties are as intricately separate from each other as melted butter on toast but aside from having a relatively pitiful wage-to-price ratio we haven’t actually got it all that bad.

Just look at the United States (of America i.e.). Who cares if security policies have resulted in the American public being subjected to a degree of insularity and selective information that superpowers, both previous and emerging, have been accused of in the past? Who cares if the next big economic crash has been set into motion and who cares if a very select few, not necessarily Americans themselves, have booked themselves front-row seats so as to exploit the immediate and ensuing ripples? Who cares if the American people are being masterfully shepherded to the economic slaughterhouse and who cares if the republicans and democrats are puppets to the same economic interests? And for those such as myself who do find the gut fortitude to care, what is the point of remaining isolated in our thoughts? It is not like the most well-intentioned of mere individuals can make much of a difference in the face of a well-greased and formidable adversary of a level of power and organization sufficient to make the Mafia look like small-time players.

Benjamin Franklin had words to say during his lifetime. “He who would trade liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety.” The citizens of America – those who trust their government as blindly as many follow their faith, failing to realize that the government is not God – they should reflect upon the words of one of their founding fathers. They should not need to have to feel the need to act, but they should at least be aware of the treachery of the forces at play. It is not unpatriotic to question the structures of government within a country. The loyalty of a person should be to the self, then the family, then the community, then perhaps the nation. That is the structure of loyalty that nature inspires within us and nature does not have an ulterior motive beyond being.