don't wish to flame you. (If you are just a troll I take that back)
I am not a troll, i am a person with an opinion. I don't take offence, i have had much worse. I come from a different country and look at things that often rock the very foundations of your country.
I am from a country that had a "great" empire, people still say "put the great back in Britain" but i do not see how we were great, just because we were able to take advantage of, kill, abuse, enslave other people does not make us great. In fact we are more great because we managed to give all of that up, allow other countries to gain their freedom.
I really am interested in how you can believe that the freedoms of the people of England are not being taken away.
Because the reality is we were never 100% free. That would, in my opinion, be anarchy. In order to have order, you need to lose a certain amount of freedom. The govt is attempting to do certain things, but in the end, they are either not dangerous or will be taken down. You may not believe it, but we do change governments, we do change laws, we do prevent things we do not like from happening.
I can point to many things, we had the 90 day detention which has been reduced to 42 days and may not get in. How is this possible in a country that is losing its freedoms?
In the U.S. its not that just owning a gun suddenly equals freedom. That’s not what Americans believe.
Its the whole idea about WHY we have the right to own guns and thus what guns represent to us. Guns have become an icon of freedom in the US as is gun ownership. It speaks to the idea that as Americans we have the RIGHT to personally defend our lives thus we don't have to depend on some one else to do so.
I can understand that, on the other hand there is the feeling that this symbol will save us, we don't need to do anything else which in the UK we do not have. If we want to keep our freedom we have to fight for it.
The Iraq war is the perfect example of what i am talking about. Most americans supported this war, because it had a feel good factor, you are the best and proving by winning. Yet nobody said, hang on a minute, this isn't what our constitution stands for, this isn't what WE should be standing for. The things that your govt does abroad can happen at home as well, and americans seem to be taking this complete disregard for other people without even questioning it.
As i have said in a previous post, the way the US govt has dealt with the native americans is scary, what is more scary is the fact that all the other americans accept it, dismiss the bad things and get on with their life.
When you are dependant on some one else to provide something as fundamental as self preservation then YOU ARE LACKING BASIC FREEDOM in your life. And this is BASIC freedom, the bottom of the barrel so to speak.
You are always dependent upon someone else. Many people suffer in the US, because they cannot go through life without being dependent on others. Back to native americas, who have been dependent upon the american govt for more than a century, they get a raw deal out of it, hardly anyone is fighting for them. And this is happening in the country that you consider the most free in the world.
Independence to make your own choices, not only about self defense but in all areas of life IS FREEDOM.
Which i can and do do every day. What can i not do? I can get a gun if i really wanted one, i just don't.
Now, from the other point of view we can see that a person who can easily get a gun in the US has a 4 times higher chance of being killed than in a place where it is hard to get a gun. Perhaps many people don't CHOOSE to get a gun, they feel it is necessary whereas in the UK we really can choose.
Look at rape rates in the US, states which are known as being gun states like Texas, have higgher rape levels than those of other states with less guns or more restrictive gun laws.
In England it seems the government has decided that the people no longer have the right to carry items, any item, that you could use to defend yourself OR use arms at home if attacked, so now you (the British people) are less free then you once were. You are TOTALLY dependant on the police to protect you.
But as i have said, a person in america is not that free to choose. Though i know many people who do choose not to have guns, in what position does that put them?
It doesn't stop there, what about the cameras that are every where just watching for some one to do some thing wrong? Or that story above about the woman who is forbidden to put a wading pool in her yard because some committee decided THAT was too dangerous? No drinking on the tube now also?? The list goes on and on. INSANITY!!
There are two types of cameras, speed cameras which are very effective. Our death rate on the roads is a quarter of yours.
The other cameras in cities are not that technologically advanced, they are generally used to combat criminals in city centres. But then just as in the US you are free to own a gun or not, or free to choose to go somewhere where there are no guns, the same in the UK, you know where the cameras are, just don't go there. There are no reports of people having their freedom taken away from them by the cameras. Besides, being watched while in a city centre, there are thousands of people around, all who can watch you, what is the difference? You could have a policeman on the streets, or a camera, both watch. If you are doing nothing wrong you do not fear the police man, so why fear the camera?
Why is there SO MUCH fear?
Fear is something right wing govts in the US live off of. Why go to war in Iraq? A common enemy to unite the people under fear?
Sorry friend, but from an American point of view, where we still have at least some of our basic freedoms (the right to decide for ourselves) intact, you have been fooled into thinking that the taking away of freedoms has made you safer.
What do i not have the choice to decide, that you do? I have the choice to leave my country, i have done and i am doing again, i have a job in Austria coming up. That is my decision, my choice.
In reality, as I see it, it only has make you dependant AND under the thumb of your government.
And i could say the same about you. I mean, you are the melting pot, you are a country that has to be patriotic from school age, knowing each state and its capital, the founding fathers, all the good history is promoted, the bad history hidden under a blanket, so that on the 4th July people stand up and shoud U-S-A U-S-A, have a flag flying and all of that. How free are you?
