National insecurity

As I walked out this evening with Penne I came across a couple of “sparkies” who were repairing a street light (privately owned and operated) in the next door community.  One was atop a “cherry picker” and the other was standing below. 

 

They greeted me nicely, They  were clearly “cheery chappies”. 

 

The electrician who was standing underneath the lamp post asked me “how are you doing?” 

 

I replied “I am not allowed to tell you, it’s a matter of national security”. 

 

He caught my humour and pretended to “kowtow” to me.  Then he made a huge fuss of Penne. 

 

But there was a cynical flavour in my humour. 

 

There is a widespread obsession with “national security” in these United States.

 

Our governments (of both the Bush and Obama Presidencies) want us to give up “just a wee bit” of our freedoms of speech and assembly in favour of the illusions of security.  More shame on Pres. Obama who should have know better. 

 

We “give up a little bit” only to be asked for more - so it has gone in every dictatorship, and so it is going in the U.S.A. today.

 

I believe that our American national focus on security springs from one source: that we are deeply insecure in these waning days of American imperialism.

 

In other words –our deeply insecure national psyche is leading us not to honest reflection, but to a “circling of the wagons” in the name of national security.

 

It is hard for us to understand and believe that our quest for “national security” is more or less equivalent as the quest for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.