By Saswat Pattanayak

Is not the war on terror actually a war on freedom?

As more and more countries join the camp, and try to outdo each other to bring American attention to their solidarity against this so-called war on terror, the obvious question is one of agenda. What, and who is served in the pursuit?

Primarily, the anti-people lobbies. With the dawn of the end of territorial imperialism, there was widespread significance attached to sovereignty of states, and in effect, its people. Sovereignty entailed that there was going to be no more subjugation and in fact, the freedom granted to people could act as the greatest proof of that.

After 9/11, we have seen an institutionalization of sovereignty erosion. Blatantly acting against the interest of the intrinsic sovereign freedom, states have passed different laws to contain any prospects of popular resentments.

In phony politically democratic societies (wide majority of the world) where the state either acts as instrument of terror and/or indifference by the corporate and administrative elites, there have been vehement oppositions to the system of misgovernance. From time to time, people have resorted to different methods of airing frustrations. To gross apathy towards social welfare, there have been ineffective mass demonstrations. To individual harassments by the police states, there have been reciprocal community reactions. But within a political framework, which thrives on sustaining necessary and illusory world of vague/abstract and abused freedom (such as speech, opportunity, dignity, security etc), its only natural that large majority remains discontent.

But another illusory method to combat discontentment since the last century has been not one of suppression (that was left to state communisms so that they could be attacked logically), but one of sustainable law and order systems. The mass media was used to make heroes out of the police and the detectives and the judiciary, to reinforce popular faiths in these systems, without letting the public know that these were indeed the very instruments that the ruling elites utilize to maintain a stronghold.

Hence, whenever the system of callous administration produced petty thieves, the individuals were required to be punished by the society which reveled in the glory of smart detectives who caught the criminal! Gradually the people were made to believe that the systems of oppressions were working for their own interests, whereas the abominably low proportion of people who rose up against the ways of the unjust world, were the traitors. This false and dangerous distinction between people who were actually working against the interest of society and who were serving their interests were still furthered with reinforcement of another wing of normalization: religion.

Religions and Law, mostly guided the norms that the society was compelled to live by or else! The people acting against the norms, because they most rationally thought of doing so to combat sustained injustice in the society, were naturally enough proved to be abnormal, and hence relegated to the prisons, that most systematically neglected byproduct of oppressive political system.

Instead of focusing on the system that thrives on numbing the anger in a meritocracy (by definition, a flawed anti-people term), the people were given occasional (once in five years?) reminders that they were able to decide their futures, with political freedom to “choose”!

Now that the small minority of people who chose to oppose the conventions has grown to a larger number with the apparent contradictions of so-called democracies, and their resentments have been expressed more vehemently, leading ways to formation of several hundreds of Independent media to expose the agents of draconic democracies, the rulers have now gone back to religions and legal experts to effect changes. If they don’t listen to “love-thy-class-enemy” sermons of religions, then pass some laws (like POTA or Patriot ) to restrict their freedoms.

Even while doing this, the democratic leaders, as expected, resort to sly methods of calling the spade. They call it now a war on terror, instead of war on freedom. After all, what are they so terrified of? If they can shred the 9/11 papers to disprove their involvement in traditional assault on innocent civilians…

Tags: Saswat, Terrorism, Capitalism, Philosophy