Some years ago Jeremy Clarkson said upon returning home to the UK from a trip to the US, that he was glad to be back in a free country.
This statement of course, pissed me slam off. How dare that pompous imperial claim that the ultimate nanny state of the UK, was a country with more freedom and liberty than the great US of A. That arrogant unmitigated asshat. That jowly overstuffed, jean wearing, Corvette Driving, cowboy boot strutting, clown of a man… would be proved right by our own Government.
Here we are, years later. Our Government has attempted a take over of the Auto Industry. Has taken over 1/6th of our Nations Economy and has told us to buy their Insurance or Else. Our phones and emails and all other forms of communications are recorded for use against us. Drones are in the skies above us. Our Police Officers are pointing guns at us. Our Military is told that we are the bad guys, those of us who go to church on Sunday and might read the Drudge Report. We are the problem, and more Government is the solution.
And Jeremy Clarkson is right.
Damn that man.
I was comfortable being smug knowing that he was wrong and that he had to cope with security cameras at every corner and “Health and Safety” was always looking out for him. But he’s only Monitored when he steps out of his front door, or gets behind the wheel of some car with more than 10 cylinders. In the UK, the Ministries really don’t care what he does unless he breaks a law. And now I sit back and wait for the CIA and the NSA to message me that I made a typo here and that they agree with me. Because I know now that here in the USA, freedom is only an expensive illusion. We are the problem, more Government is the solution. (Homeland Security just let me know I dropped a letter “Y” on “they”)
I however believe that the Government is the problem and that we are the solution. Unfortunately no one is going to throw the switch.
Freedom is comparative. Here in the US we can acquire a CCW and walk down the street armed; Clarkson can’t. Here in the US we can carry various types of knives without too much problem; in UK the knives that Clarkson is allowed to carry are heavily restricted. Clarkson can be arrested just for defending himself against a criminal attack; here in the US with Stand Your Ground and Castle Doctrine, in most cases we aren’t. If Clarkson in UK were to become angry and call someone a name – – the N word, for example – – he could be arrested and imprisoned for “hate speech.” Indeed, people in UK have been arrested and imprisoned for expressing out loud the belief that homosexuality is a sin before God; here in the US that can not happen.
So although things can seem bad here, they are just as bad in UK in ways that boggle the mind here.
So Robert, we are driving towards a cliff at 80 mph and you’re happy that we are in a Mustang instead of a Jag?
I have to believe the forefathers wouldn’t have been so apathetic as we appear to be today.
“Washington would have marched on Washington if he were alive today”
So far!
The illusion of freedom [in America] will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.
– Frank Zappa
Agreed. It is depressing to have to think about let alone admit. We the people has been substituted with We the duped.
Clarkson’s obvious implication being that the UK is more free than the US. I wonder what criteria he bases that opinion on.
Others can have their opinions of course, but me… I’m still of the opinion that Clarkson (and Richard Hammond and James May for that matter) are pompous, arrogant, stuffed shirt asshats. I for one wish they had gotten caught in that Alabama episode for that shit they pulled. Stay in your own fucking country idiots.
http://www.break.com/video/ugc/top-gear-gets-beat-up-in-alabama-225620