Sixty Years On…

And have we learned nothing? Simon Jenkins takes Charles Clarke to task over at the Times today. He voices the thoughts and fears that have been going through my mind recently. For example:

Those who questioned the extravagant Anglo-American reaction to 9/11 are regularly accused of being “the sort of people who tolerated Hitler”. On the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I am inclined to return the odious compliment. It is they who are the sort of people who tolerated Hitler. They would have stood by complacently as Germany’s interwar rulers let go one freedom after another to avert some “foreigner threat”, until suddenly there were none left. They ran in fear of fear. Hitler’s Enabling Bill of 1933 became his in-camera People’s Court of 1934 with “sole right to try cases of treason”. But even that included two professional judges, which is more than will Mr Clarke’s “court of me alone”.

That is exactly what has been worrying me. Sixty years ago my grandparents’ generation went to war to defend our freedoms (and the freedoms of our allies in Europe) against the kind of oppressive measures our government now imposes upon us in the name of freedom. Today, sixty years on our glorious leaders say “never again” and “we must remind ourselves of the lessons of history” – the same people that is, who are repeating those very mistakes. Detention without trial? In Britain? My grandfather survived being torpedoed on the Murmansk run and died young from health failure as a result. Maybe that is as well – what would he think about his sacrifice being thrown away in this cavalier manner?

It’s not just here of course. Yesterday while idling a few hours away in my hotel room, I finally caught up with Farenheight 9/11 and was reminded not only of the corruption and sleaze that exists in high levels of government but also the arrant stupidity of the general populace who willingly (and are prepared to say so to camera) sacrifice a little freedom for the perception of increased security – because something has to be done to stop the terrorists.

Er, what terrorists? Oh, sure, there are some cells who wish to do us harm – but the global threat that Bush and Blair have been trumpeting for their own nefarious ends? An illusion. Politicians have to justify their existence. There was a time when they promised to improve our lives. That was until we all stopped believing them. Now they have discovered a new raison d’être; they’ll protect us from the bad guys. And in so doing will corrode away those freedoms that we all took for granted (until they’re gone). And, in so doing, just coincidentally, you understand, they will happen to increase their own power. Well, I never, didn’t see that one coming, did you?