'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

Short Lived Species

I look at the Glastonbury Festival, and at the troubles in Iran. Incredibly, they tell me the same story which is of the unquenchable human thirst for freedom of individual expression and liberty.

Freedom is something that we all have a grade of but none of us can claim to have in full. Once we have enough to eat and drink, it seems that the next prerogative is to be free.

The internet and ‘free range’ cell/mobile phones have changed the dynamics of democracy and therefore those of personal freedom. We are learning how to best use these technologies, just as State Controllers are learning how best to limit them. Theirs is a losing battle. They can limit information from various sources, but they cannot block it all out.

These struggles for freedom which are taking place everywhere on the planet are not just about the luxury of people being free to express themselves and vote for their representatives. They are taking on a far more crucial role. This is in respect of nuclear proliferation.

President Obama’s initial approaches to both the Middle Eastern States and Far Eastern States – particularly impressive in relation to his Cairo speech – has actually resulted in the most intransigent of these countries taking a more, not less aggressive stance towards the West. It appears that the Heads of State of these countries have no wish to enter into talks aimed at the regularisation of relations, but wish to stick to their transparent but un-admitted agenda of acquiring nuclear weapons, thereby transforming their influence on the world stage while shoring up their regimes.

It is this that has led to the political fracas in Iran where the people possibly inspired by Obama’s open hand and the prospects of a better, more open life have run into a block against their wishes. In the case of North Korea, it is a far worse scenario as the people can have no concept of life other than under the present regime. Who knows what they think, but I lay you even money that if a vote was allowed in North Korea the barrier between North and South Korea would come down as quickly as the Berlin Wall.

We are at a crucial moment in our history where we, the people must stand up not only for our own liberties but for the liberties of others in far distant lands. Our governments are pretty powerless in this respect because of the ‘sovereignty’ of nations, but we, the people are not bound by such restrictions and we must express our solidarity and sympathy with those oppressed. If anything can be done to influence events in these trouble spots it is us in our many millions who can do it. We can help avoid nuclear proliferation and State dictatorship by aiding and abetting the struggles for more open government in these countries which are presently no more than super-sized jails.

President Truman once famously said, “The buck stops here.” Well, now it stops with us and our new found technologies. It is in our hands, not in the hands of our leaders as to whether we prove to be a short lived species or not.       

 

   

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