mike mcquaid dot com

This’ll be something of a contrary point of view, but I’m not trying to be deliberately dense or provocative. “…To fight an invisible enemy” – “invisible” doesn’t mean “non-existent”. When poking around, literally, in the dark, when any of a number of shadows might be the next to explode – well, if you can’t *see* the enemy, perhaps poking is the most effective way to find him. That’s not to say that it’s the *right* approach.

It seems to me that there are two general approaches: Either try to do nothing to provoke anyone to attack us, or to ruthlessly hunt down anyone who’s shown serious signs of wanting to. It seems unlikely that either one will work; it seems likely that either one will eventually (decades, not months, not centuries) mean the end of the US as it’s become over the past century. I very much doubt that anyone will be able to steer a middle course – if even that would work.

“I truly have no idea what I can do” – well, blog about it, that always helps; but also do what you can to talk about it with the >90% of the country that has no real interest in blogs. Have you considered getting active in politics yourself? I suspect that the most effective change of course would be a nationwide housecleaning, replacing the current crop (including both sides of the aisle, “in power” or not) with people who have clearer standards of how far “too far” really is.

And since it says you’re a Christian – “I feel impotent and powerless”. Remember that ultimately your security comes not from “the power of the sword”, whether it’s used wisely or badly – but rather from He who allows states to prosper or dashes them to pieces.

Comment by Orange — October 24, 2007 @ 00:22

Get involved in local and national politics. Seriously. It’s the only way. Don’t expect other people to do it for you.

This may mean volunteering once a week or once a month to help others organize, it may mean hosting a forum for your local community where other organizers can gather, it may mean petitioning your local politicians on an ongoing basis, it may mean organizing a boycott or a media campaign or anything you can think of, but do it.

Losing hope and planting the seeds of hopelessness in the general population is part of a political agenda that seeks to render everyone politically apathetic and emotionally numb. If you are writing this on KDE planet, you are already witness to the power of what we, self-organizing volunteers, can do.

Don’t give up or as the Japanese say: fall eight times, get up nine.

Comment by El Anonimato Es cojonudo — October 24, 2007 @ 00:30

happened in real life to a guy named mahar arar:

http://www.maherarar.ca/

scary stuff

Comment by dave null — October 24, 2007 @ 01:03

I am aware of these rendition programs too. I read about numerous cases including a German citizen named Khaled El-Masri, who was abducted by the CIA and tortured in Afghanistan. I am from the United States and most people here aren’t even aware that this is happening. I think most people care when they are informed about it.

I don’t think you should feel hopeless. There is a lot of progress being made. In fact on October 27th there will be a nation wide Iraq war protest in the USA. Just you blogging helps raise the issue so other people will know about this. I always try to inform other people about these problems. Some are genuinely interested and want to help. Often you can form a group with those people and do local protests or call government officials to let them know there are people who will not stand for this. Look at how far we’ve come already with workers rights, womens rights, and the list goes on. These weren’t giving to any of us. It was fought by people for by people who organized and demanded them so don’t feel hopeless at all. We just have to inspire people to care and make them feel less hopeless.

I hoped I helped in some way. Thanks for sharing your blog post.

Comment by Josh G. — October 24, 2007 @ 01:35

…whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Maybe it’s that time again.

Comment by Louis — October 24, 2007 @ 02:05

I completely agree with you. I am an American and up until this past March, I was in the Air Force. The biggest problem Americans face as a society is people not caring. I live near Sacramento and the local news station ran a story about the police having a hard time catching criminals as people didn’t care to stand up and provide an eye witness account. This is appalling. There is a saying that goes something like; “Sin flourishes when man turns his back”. I think this is a fitting statement to our society as a whole today.

Comment by NeoFax — October 24, 2007 @ 02:35

Assuming you are in the US: Informed voting is a good start. Also get started in grassroots politics. Someone in your city is making the decision on who will be on the ballot for each party, and what the issues you – you could be that person. (last time I was at a caucus meeting there were more people needed that people attending!) Write letters to your representatives – this does get attention, particularly if you can get others to write as well, since politicions want votes, and they know letter writers vote.

If you are not in the US, do the equivalent as it applies to your local situation. Make sure your politicions know you don’t want them giving in to stupid US demands.

I strongly recommend a libertarian voting philosophy. Anything else risks that someone else with a different philosophy will get control, and you end up with laws that you don’t like. Better to not have laws IMHO. YMMV of course.

Comment by Henry Miller — October 24, 2007 @ 03:25

I haven’t seen this movie, but I can sympathize with your sentiments. We seem to be living in a time when there are people who are enlightened and those who are not. This could be explained as something like a dual bell curve where one is rising (enlightened) and the other is declining (unenlightened). When the enlightened individuals reaches a critical mass the things you talked about will fad away–however slowly. So maybe you really don’t have to do anything except be one of the critical mass.

I’m currently reading a book “Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson. I have always been an admirer of Einstein, but I never knew before this reading how much he thought about the human condition and how much I thought like he did. Maybe reading this book could help you feel more like you are doing something. I am also a Baha’i not that I want to push my faith on you, but my faith has many of the aspects in it that Einstein advocated. The man really was a genius and not just in relativity. And by-the-way most people of importance in his day thought he was a bit loony when it came to his ideas on world peace.

Anyway I hope this sheds some light on our situation.

Comment by Carl Nobile — October 24, 2007 @ 03:42

You work for BT, right? And you are Christian, right? So I would say that you first quit your job, since the Anti-Terror-War and the corresponding actions towards potential terrorists are capitalistic and you work exactly for that interest. Terror and fear is always in favour of big enterprises and capital. Marx couldn’t be more up-to-date today.
And second quit your church. Either you are fundamentalist, which means you believe there is some truth in religion and this truth, as it is the truth, is more worth than human rights or fairness, or you are not seriously religious, because you don’t think there is a truth in the bible. You can’t get out of that. The only option, before you get political, is to start to think. As Heidegger said it: “People start to act before they think, instead to think before they act. We have to relearn thinking.” (rough translation) Nothing is harder than that and takes more time. This is the real problem. You can’t do serious politics without knowing what you are talking about. And Nietzsche helps.
But I guess you won’t do anything, since it would be uncomfortable for you and you prefer to let the “terrorists” suffer…
And if you are serious in politics you get problems with your employer, just to warn you…
Cheers,
C.J.

Comment by Charles Johnson — October 24, 2007 @ 20:59

Thanks for all the replies guys, good food for thought.

CJ, I don’t really think you’ve thought through what you were saying. Sadly, without BT I have no job and with no job I cannot eat. Also, my skillset as a programmer only really enables me to work for businesses. Marx’s ideas of a violent revolution are barbaric and I cannot take anyone serious who still advocates them as a solution to political problems.

As for the church angle, maybe you have informed Martin Luther King before he passed away that campaigning for human rights is not allowed if you are a Christian.

I’d be interested to know what you are doing to help said problems as you seem to feel you can rake on me for doing nothing?

Comment by Mike — October 24, 2007 @ 21:55

From reading http://www.maherarar.ca/ it looks like this guy, Maher Arar, has had a lot of his details used in the film. Other than Rendition’s protagonist being from the US rather than Canada and some dramatic liberties in the film this seems very similar to what happened to him.

Comment by Mike — October 24, 2007 @ 22:08

It’s a funny thing.

You and I (along with a a few million others) believe that we have a future and a hope. And that hope does not disappoint because it’s built on Christ, the solid rock.

Fear stinks. It really does. It’s fear of loss that we are bombarded with from media, family and friends. Status and it’s associated states of mind just rob us of free living. I’m not sure about the powerless thing – we have the power to change the world. I firmly believe our part in this is to love God will all we have an love our neighbour as ourself. The rest is all going to work out once we get these right!

An idealist? Maybe, but we all could do with a dose of the truth and get some real freedom in our attitudes and living.

The worst that we could do is hate people – even those who do what we perceive to be wrong. Hate won’t fix it. Hating the position get drawn or placed into, hating the causes for their actions or pain is great, but maybe we need to hate it for what it is and not who is doing it?

I think that’s where your coming from, but I might be wrong!!

Peace

W

Comment by the Weir — October 24, 2007 @ 22:17

the most important thing is to find other people who care about these things. alone, you are weak and vulnerable – but when you work with others, you are strong, and you *can* make a difference.

the are people out there who care; they’re just bloody hard to find sometimes. while modern protests don’t seem to accomplish much of anything – people just show up, say a bunch of stuff, maybe get beat up by the cops, and then leave – they are at least a place to find interesting people who might have some good ideas, or be involved in things that could make a difference.

in rich 1st world countries, the majority of people aren’t too eager to change anything – their lives are ok, the people that are exploited to bring them cheap products are far away so they don’t have to think about it much, tv feeds their apathy, they’re encouraged to think they couldn’t make a difference anyway…

but when people are made aware of wrongs, and convinced that they are not powerless, then they can achieve incredible things.

when corporations shut down many factories in argentina and left huge numbers of people without jobs, just so they could make a bigger profit with factories in another country, some of those workers decided they wouldn’t put up with it – they broke into the factories, cleaned them up, and started producing again. the best part is, without any management they were able to sell the goods at a lower price *and* pay themselves more.

people can do incredible things when they get together and stop letting others push them around.

Comment by Chani — October 28, 2007 @ 10:02