beefree@gmail.comWHAT IS A POLICE STATE? pass on.........Sat Dec 10, 2005 16:51
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WHAT IS A POLICE STATE? pass on.........
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 02:02:14 -0800
From: beefree@gmail.com
I recommend reading 1984 by George Orwell, help understand what is happening
right now, your local library may have it... unless it was burned !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_states
George Orwell:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
A *police state* is a totalitarian
state<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian_state>regulated by
secret
police <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_police>; the police exercise
power on behalf of the executive and the conduct of the police cannot be
effectively challenged. In such regimes there is no significant distinction
between the law and the will of the executive; there is no rule of
law<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law>
.
Under the political model of enlightened
despotism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightened_absolutism>,
the ruler is the "highest servant of the state". The ruler exercises the
absolute power that he enjoys to provide for the general welfare. All of the
powers of the state are to be directed toward this end; to constrain the
ruler with written law would be bad policy. This view was supported by such
thinkers as Voltaire <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire> and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau>.
Because the enlightened despot is charged with the public good, opposition
to government policy is an offense against authority, and thus against the
state itself and all that it represented: the concept of loyal
opposition<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyal_opposition>is
incompatible within this political framework. Because public dissent
is
forbidden, dissent is inevitably secret. To police dissent, therefore,
requires use of informers and secret police.
Liberal democracy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy>, with its
emphasis on the rule of law, focused on the fact that the police state was
unrestrained by law. Robert von
Mohl<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_von_Mohl>,
who first introduced the rule of law into German
jurisprudence<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurisprudence>,
for example, contrasted the
*Rechtsstaat<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsstaat>
* ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the
aristocratic<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy>
*Polizeistaat* ("police state").
No state ever claims to be a "police state", the term is always applied by
critics of the state, based on differing perceptions of legitimate law,
human rights and social contract.
[edit<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Police_state&action=edit§ion=1>
]
The police state in literature
The best-known literary treatment of the police state is George
Orwell<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell>'s
novel *Nineteen Eighty-Four<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four>
*, which describes life under a
totalitarian<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism>régime that
uses the constant presence of eternal
war <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_war> as a pretext for subjecting
the people to mass
surveillance<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance>,
constraining both freedom of action and of thought.
A *police state* is a totalitarian
state<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian_state>regulated by
secret
police <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_police>; the police exercise
power on behalf of the executive and the conduct of the police cannot be
effectively challenged. In such regimes there is no significant distinction
between the law and the will of the executive; there is no rule of
law<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law>.
Under the political model of enlightened
despotism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightened_absolutism>,
the ruler is the "highest servant of the state". The ruler exercises the
absolute power that he enjoys to provide for the general welfare. All of the
powers of the state are to be directed toward this end; to constrain the
ruler with written law would be bad policy. This view was supported by such
thinkers as Voltaire <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire> and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau>.
Because the enlightened despot is charged with the public good, opposition
to government policy is an offense against authority, and thus against the
state itself and all that it represented: the concept of loyal
opposition<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyal_opposition>is
incompatible within this political framework. Because public dissent
is
forbidden, dissent is inevitably secret. To police dissent, therefore,
requires use of informers and secret police.
Liberal democracy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy>, with its
emphasis on the rule of law, focused on the fact that the police state was
unrestrained by law. Robert von
Mohl<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_von_Mohl>,
who first introduced the rule of law into German
jurisprudence<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurisprudence>,
for example, contrasted the
*Rechtsstaat<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechtsstaat>
* ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the
aristocratic<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristocracy>
*Polizeistaat* ("police state").
No state ever claims to be a "police state", the term is always applied by
critics of the state, based on differing perceptions of legitimate law,
human rights and social contract.
[edit<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Police_state&action=edit§ion=1>
]
The police state in literature
The best-known literary treatment of the police state is George
Orwell<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell>'s
novel *Nineteen Eighty-Four<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four>
*, which describes life under a
totalitarian<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism>régime that
uses the constant presence of eternal
war <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_war> as a pretext for subjecting
the people to mass
surveillance<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance>,
constraining both freedom of action and of thought.
George Orwell:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
- Internet Censorship - A very important article! —By Wayne Madsen, Sat Dec 10 19:48
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