Via Chicken Yoghurt the story of the cabbie who dobbed in his fare for playing punk rock.
The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash’s 1979 anthem “London Calling,” which features the lyrics “Now war is declared — and battle come down” while other lines warn of a “meltdown expected.”
It would be easy to dismiss this cabbie as foolish, ignorant or stupid (all of which apply). However, there is a darker side to what seems a silly story.
In the early days of the Nazi regime, the Gestapo were not all seeing and all powerful, they relied on people; ordinary people like you and I to inform on their neighbours, friends and relatives. Those who did not conform or were, in some way odd, were singled out. Those who informed, did it because they believed that this stopped the same thing happening to them; they were good citizens (and we know how to recognise them, don’t we?). Good citizens obey the rules and keep an eye out for antisocial, different or disturbed people who may be criminals, subversives or terrorists.
And, so, the Gestapo rounded them up, these subversives, these terrorists, or just Jews, of course. Stalin’s secret police did likewise. Self preservation among a cowed populace made their reign of terror possible. A terror whereby self preservation involved sacrificing others. In post war Germany, the Stasi picked up where the Gestapo left off, spying on the population with their army of informants. Now in “modern” Britain, the kernel of the same mind-set emerges. Indeed, it is actively encouraged.
The fear of “terrorism” propagated by a morally bankrupt, power hungry government sees a gullible, unthinking cabbie informing on his fare because he was too bloody stupid to see through the lies and propaganda and recognise that someone playing punk rock was just that; someone playing punk rock. An evil lurks in our midst and that evil will flourish while good people stand by and let it. The first step is not to enable it. Enabling the beast does not quench its thirst for power; rather, it increases that thirst. Stop playing their game.
Now playing: Neil Diamond – What’s It Gonna Be
“It would be easy to dismiss this cabbie as foolish, ignorant or stupid (all of which apply). However, there is a darker side to what seems a silly story.”
Perhaps. Something similar happened to me a couple of years ago. I was stupidly fooling around with a toy gun in a pub, in a completely non-menacing or non-threatening way. Although silly, the punters seemed to think it rather funny (not sure whether they were laughing at me or with me, to be honest).
We made our way out to the next establishment but never got there because I was quite brutally “apprehended” by several coppers on the way. Into the cells, several interviews, DNA swab, fingerprinting etc and several hours later, to be released with a caution.
Clearly somebody had dobbed me in. As a joke? Out of legitimate concern? Who knows…
What’s for sure is that in a climate of fear and suspicion these things are much more likely to happen.
PS: when I told the interviewing Officer that clearly he could see that this was a toy, he replied laconically: “I’m not a firearms expert”. You don’t say! 🙄