The era of absurdity has begun
Are we all getting a little too edgy courtesy of the publicity around our upgraded security level?
From an old friend comes this Facebook comment today:
The train stations I use have closed their rubbish bins for “security reasons”. They’ve been closed with masking tape and cardboard. Sec-ur-it-y.
There’s a new messageKeep an eye on who’s sitting next to
on the train PA, telling passengers what to do if they suspect or see a
“security incident”. It’s a long message. You might have to wait a bit.
I smell dystopia.
you. Check those with beady eyes that keep darting around. Be suspicious
of bearded people who are whispering into their mobile phones.
In this guest article, Ewan Nicholson
adds his ‘colourful’ thoughts (language alert) to what was – in essence –
a case of ‘suspicion on steroids’ and the aftermath of it . . .
Oliver Buckworth, a 28-year-old Melbourne-based interior designer was removed
from a Tiger flight bound for the Gold Coast after a fellow passenger
saw his doodles and deemed them to be “terror” doodles, whatever
ever the fuck a terror doodle is. It’s frightening and threatening
statements and doodles like this got him booted off the plane:
In a land of melting ice-creams, sandy feet and fluffy bears, how could anyone be fearful of terrorism.
and . . .
A sketch of a chandelier; the phrase
“Terrorismadeup”; and a cartoon of a child clutching his head with a
thought bubble saying: “Tyrannosaurus Rex. Terodactyl. Tarantula.
Terrorist.
The surreal nature of what happened wasn’t lost on Buckworth as he said:
The irony is, I was writing a sentence about the
absurdity of the fear-mongering, when we live in such a happy country of
ice-cream and beaches and fluffy things.
So not even in the space of a week, just writing the word “terrorism”
on laptop or a piece of paper is enough to be escorted from a plane,
miss your flight and have to answer to police.
Oliver Buckworth’s notes. Photo: Oliver Buckworth (image from smh.com.au)
I would like to know why the airline themselves and the person
reporting the “terror” threat weren’t arrest for wasting police time and
resources? Seriously, who was the moron in charge of that flight that
ordered Buckworth to be removed? He or she should be automatically
elevated to Australian’s top 10 dumbest humans. Why didn’t they upon
listening to this paranoid and panicked sticky-beaks evidence of “terror
doodles” tell that nosey parker to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck
down. What level of analysis and investigation was required to ascertain
this was a person actually writing about how absurd the “fear of
terror” has become and explain to this dip-shit that writing the word
“terror “or “terrorism”, is not the same as actual “terrorism”.
I can’t help thinking the police must have arrived and in less than 2
minutes and thought: “You’ve got be fucking kidding me.” So why isn’t
the media lampooning, naming and shaming the fearful imbeciles who
instigated the whole thing? The reason is that it is seen that it’s
better to be “safe than sorry”. That as of last week, home-grown terror
is alive and kicking down under. It’s responsible citizens like
bird-brain here and his accomplices that are doing their civic duties by
reporting on the filmiest and most farcically of imaginary threats. And
this is only the beginning.
I genuinely feel for what the Muslim community in Australia are going
to be putting up with in the coming months. It will feel for them like
9/11 all over again, which is exactly the divisive and fearful mind-set
Tony Abbott is happily nurturing and fueling. As “fear” is the great
distraction as corporate and state agendas and carefully executed under
its dark shadow. In the wake of last week’s arrest we already we see
this process under way. Somehow this immediate “threat “justifies
re-writing all our laws on how we combat terrorism, unsurprisingly
giving the police more powers and even less accountability.
Under the proposed counter-terrorism laws, radical preachers who encourage others to engage in extremist acts could be jailed for up to five years.
How “encourage” is legally defined is ambiguous. What constitutes as
extreme act? A hunger strike? A sit in protest? An invasion of foreign
country?
Police would also be given the power to conduct what
amounts to covert search warrants on terrorism suspects’ properties,
enabling them to delay notification of a search warrant for up to six
months.
This a long winded way of saying the police will now be able to
conduct warrant-less snooping and spying on any person by penciling the
word “terror threat” 6 months down the track.
A new offence would also make it illegal for anyone to advocate a terrorist act, even if the act did not occur.
This type of blurry legislation opens the door for all sorts of
twisted interpretations. As what is it to “advocate” and what is a
“terrorist act”? Is sympathising the same as advocating? Where is our
right to free speech fit into this? Is defending yourself from an
invading army defense, or terror? Would Australian planes bombing and
killing civilian in ISIS controlled Iraq defined as terror acts? Can
Tony Abbott go to jail for encouraging such acts?
History shows us the more power that is given those in power, the
more power will be abused. Once new powers are granted they are not
easily or willingly let go. Laws that were exclusively for the
“terrorist bad guys” can be eventually used to control dissent and
opposition to those in power.
As we move closer toward a hybrid fusion of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave
New World” and Orwell’s “1984”, I really hope there is enough
Australians that see through this façade and prevent even further
encroachments on our freedom and liberties. Here is hoping.
This article was originally published as
In Australia a man is removed from a flight for writing the word
“terrorism” : So the new era of absurdity, farce and lies begin on Things-that-matter.net.
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