Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Your Papers, Please

A source on Capitol Hill tells me that the U.S. Congress is about to pass a bill that would introduce a national ID card. Despite the reasoned arguments and pleas for sanity, Americans will soon hear the well-known totalitarian phrase, "Your papers, please," whenever accosted by an armed employee of the United State (the last "s" having been superficial since 1865). In fact, as the Nine Nazgul see it, they already have to.

Well, if this is how the Empire defines "freedom" at home, I really shouldn't be surprised at what it's doing in the Balkans, or the Middle East - or anywhere else, for that matter.

1 comment:

earth that was said...

Here in Australia, the social democratic Labor Party tried to introduce a national ID card system in the 1980s. This scheme was stopped by a national campaign of opposition that linked right-wing and left-wing groups. Interestingly the Hawke administration that proposed it was probably the fervent 'corporatist' federal government in our history. So it shouldn't be a surprise that Tony Blair is pushing for the same thing in the UK.

(For a brief history see the item on my blog here.)