Is Freedom Over?

If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

–Abraham Lincoln

For nearly a century, the dystopian writers and filmmakers have painted a picture of a society gone wrong: Of cameras covering every inch of the landscape, of our most personal information being observed, analyzed, and dissected by some “big brother”, of fictional threats being announced daily and the protection prescribed against them being, of course, more control. But these have always been our nightmares, our “what if”s, our fables and cautionary tales.

This week I found myself sitting on an airplane that, for almost an hour, hadn’t budged from the gate. That is, after removing my shoes and belt for the security checks, emptying out my bags for the inspectors, and showing my ID at three different checkpoints; I finally boarded a plane that didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Most on the plane were too angry and perplexed by the long delay to notice that police cars had begun lining up outside the aircraft: First one, then two, then ten, then a giant van, then what looked like a rolling command center, then two SUVs marked “K-9″ unit. What had happened that made this tiny army besiege a flight full of aged Jews going to Florida? Well, after about an hour and a half, when my fellow passengers had finally noticed the buildup, a flight attendant informed us:

“Sorry, but a strange note was found on the plane. We have to evacuate immediately. Leave ALL your things here. I repeat: The police request that all your things stay on the plane”

As we walked off, a few people protested having to leave their valuables, but were quickly shut up; not by the flight crew, or the police, but by other passengers: “Just shut up and do what they say!” said a young man to an old lady who wished to take her jewelry. After this, we were herded into a containment area surround by police. The dogs, SWAT team, etc. loaded on to the plane, while we were each “wanded” and patted down by security agents–which, were the same people who had already checked all of us at the gate. Roughly three hours later, we got back on the plane where our stuff was and, without any explanation, took off for our destination. The general consensus of the passengers was not one of indignation, but of: “Well, better safe than sorry…”.

Perhaps it was just a freak occurrence. A delayed flight and nothing else to worry about. And yet, I’m not sure. The cameras once operated by big brother are now voluntarily put up en masse by the citizenry themselves. Our most personal information is posted for dissection, not by government officials, but by the persons; and not in one place, but in every available forum. The television has–by our own choice– turned into a box of terrorism, disease, nuclear holocaust, war, child molesters, and serial killers. “Safety” seems to be the value of the day and not because some dictator has filled our mind with false images of fear, but because we ourselves have come to suspect our own nightmares of being reality. Everyone knows that there’s a terrorist cell and a child-pornography ring operating in every city, every town, and–probably–one on every block. Our food will kill us, the people of other countries have been “raised” to hate us, and beyond our walls are vast conspiracies of politicians and corporations, controlling every aspect of what we think and do, right?

I think of the young man who yelled at the old woman and wonder: If young people are enforcing the rules, who’s left to rebel against them? And if we ourselves are building our prison, who’s left to escape? Who can we vote out or fight against, when the call for suppression comes not from leaders or corporate executives, but from US. Though some seeking to deflect blame have said that this isn’t a democracy, I’m afraid we can’t get off that easily. This is a democracy. What happened on my plane didn’t happen because of the Illuminati, it happened because it’s what we want. If Tyranny comes to America, it one be at the end of a gun, but in the voting booths and at the check-out counters.