The Police State Challenge

I wrote a previous article entitled A Checklist of Oppressed Cultures: See if Yours Compares, where I rather clearly outlined a full checklist of the parameters that all oppressive, police states have. Naturally there was some disagreement with the notion, after all, one content producer informed me, why wait until those parameters are actually filled before protesting? I'd assume that, without evidence that we're in a police state, decrying the presence of one is a little absurd.

But despite the rather obvious absence of American fascism, the idea that we live in a dystopian 1984 style society persists. We live in a whole new world, I'm told, that is most like V for Vendetta, and that only by standing up to our government can we get our rights back. Naturally I scratch my head, because I haven't lost any of my rights for years, in fact I still carry on roughly the same routine I always have with little divergence. Neither myself nor anyone I know has ever disappeared into a black bag like those of Chancellor Sutler's, and neither of my siblings are required to chant Praise Bush songs and hymns or say prayers to him.

Nevertheless, the paranoia persists. It's all the same - 9/11 was an inside job, America is a police state, George W. Bush is worse than Hitler and so on and so on.

Therefore, I'm going to take the ultimate experiment. Rather than simply settle for the internet debate tactics, I'm going to carry out The Police State Challenge. I'm going to do a number of things that would get me truncheoned, thrown into the back of a truck, and disappeared in many other countries. Heck, in Myanmar they would probably get me shot, as recent evidence has shown.

Simple common sense would state that the Police State Challenge has already been passed and proven - after all, thousands of protests have been carried out since 2003, marching everywhere around the country, even outside the White House itself. These protests usually go unchallenged, save for when they're found without the required permits or when they become destructive.

Cindy Sheehan is even allowed to aspire to political office.

An opposition party was allowed to take over Congress, Bush has made no attempts at amending the Constitution to allow further term limits, and he has not strong armed Congress with anything more than his Constitutional veto.

But still people aren't convinced. So maybe, once and for all, my Police State Challenge will break any final doubts. Of course, I call into question the validity of these doubts, they're simply too convenient of positions to hold in a unique chance to live through a movement, a revolution where there does not need to be one. I don't blame them - sometimes I wish I could live through the days of ancient Rome. But I can't rebuild the Roman Republic for my fantasies, and liberals can't force America into a fascist police state for theirs.

So here it is, what I'm going to do to find out, once and for all, if we're living in 1984.

I'm going to:

First: Walk the length of my town at night.
Why: Because any good police state has a curfew and patrolmen/secret police to insure that I don't violate it.

Second: I'm going to tell a police officer that I hate Bush.
Why: Because after all, no agent of the government should be able to resist arresting me in a police state.

Third: I'm going to buy an anti-Presidential book
Why: Though I'm loathe to fund some of these authors, it's valuable to prove my point. So you win this round liberal authors.

Fourth: I'm going to write an anti-Bush blog.
Why: The NSA monitors the internet of course.

Fifth: I'm going to call my local congressman and tell him that I think the President is evil.
Why: Same as number two - no prominent party member of this fascist regime could handle me criticizing our glorious leader.

Sixth: I'm going to check some controversial books out of the library.
Why: Because the Patriot Act kills our freedoms don't ya' know.

Seventh: I'm going to go down to my local mosque armed with my copy of the Quran and partake in the services there.
Why: Because these are such hot spots of government abductions.

We'll see how it goes.