War on Stupidity

You may have seen my recent posts about the Southgate complex's ban on photography.

"We've had a couple of incidents of tourists taking photos of obscure things, and they were approached by security and asked to stop taking photos," Southgate property manager Kathy Barrance said.

Asked if the restrictions were designed to deter terrorists from conducting reconnaissance, Ms Barrance said, "Yes, that type of thing."

Source: Herald Sun, Photos ban in tourist precinct, 25 July 2006.

This is just one symptom of a disturbing trend in Australia. Whenever basic freedoms are being removed, the perpretrators cite terrorism and claim to be acting in the interests of protecting us. The photography issue is a small part, but we've also got bigger issues such as racial/religious profiling of travellers, vilification of Muslims and refugees, and worst of all, incarcerating people without charges or trial in places where laws do not apply.

There's nothing wrong with fighting terrorism. Like it or not, it's a global priority at the moment. But fight the terrorists, don't fight your own citizens. And don't use the War on Terror as an excuse to remove freedoms and increase you own power. It doesn't make sense fighting people who want to ruin your society by taking steps to ruin it yourself.

We need to preserve our freedoms. We need a sense of perspective when we take measures to protect ourselves. And all of us need to stand up sometimes and refuse to go along with reactionary decisions that Blind Freddy can see are stupid.

The time has come.

I declare War on Stupidity.