Characteristics of a Police State
There are three types of Police States:
1: Traditional Police State (Example - Prussia). A product of the enlightenment whose goal was the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the populace and the military security of the state.
2: Totalitarian Police State (Examples - Nazi Germany, Soviet Union). Monolithic institutions under a monolithic party and an ideal so powerful that every individual must bow to it - body, mind and soul - or be disposed of.
3:
Modern Authoritarian Police State (Examples - draw your own conclusions). This state is modern in that it encompasses manipulation of the mass media, mass education, political parties, and theories of democracy. It is traditional in that
the state's aims are considered to supercede the rights and liberties of the individual. But it is not, at first, tyrannical.
The Modern Authoritarian Police state may apperar to be democratic in form - holding elections and having a legislature. But within the traditional forms, its nature and power have shifted.
Typically:
-The executive branch comes to dominate the nation.
-Enforcement and rule-making agencies proliferate, independent of any elected body.
-A tamed electorate lets the government have its way.
-Individual or small group opposition is crushed.
-Public opinion is molded via mass education, mass media, and propaganda.
-Public policy, though it may be voted on in the legislature, is largely made by bureaucrats or other "insiders" - careerists who are not answerable either to public opinion or to votes.
-Gradually in this state, local police are brought under the umbrella of the central authority. Instead of answering to the citizens of cities, counties, provinces, or states, the police are subsidized, regulated, trained, equipped by and ultimately loyal to the central government.
Because we have come to associate the term "Police State" mainly with totalitarian terrorist police states like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union,
we may overlook an Authoritarian Police State developing under our own eyes.
In action, a Police State:
1: Indoctrinates citizens early to
submit and obey; values uniformity and
considers people to be "resources."
2:
Enlarges its power by creating programs in the name of
health, welfare and safety. In the end, the state itself is the chief beneficiary, while individuals are deprived of choice, prosperity and independence.
3: Is driven constantly by crises, wars or crusades.
4:
Has numerous laws, arbitrairly enforced. "Everything not forbidden is compulsory."
5:
Has a court system that becomes a tool of the state's will, rather than an instrument for justice.
6:
Fears privacy. What it can't see, it can't control, so it demands to see everything - via electronic surveillance, human informers and extensive means of tracking individual lives and business activity.
7: Uses lies, secrets, and manipulation of language to ensure that the populace thinks as the government wishes.
8: Becomes increasingly ruthless as it fails to produce the perfect, orderly society it demands.
9: Out of fear of distrust of the people, it enforces a monopoly on the means of armed combat.
Conclusion:
We maintain that an Authoritarian Police State is in the process of developing in America (and other English speaking nations).
Source:
The State vs. The People - the rise of the American police state, by Claire Wolfe and Aaron Zelman, 2001, Mazel Freedom Press.
Steelheart says they are only interested in totalitarian power, but can't seem to begin to demonstrate his point, no matter how many times asked.
I just did, Handy.
As for you
Redworm, you are hell-bent that you are right. If so, you should have no problem listing several police states that meet the criteria and actions listed above
yet allow their citizens to keep and bear arms.
I look forward to reading your list.
