December 20, 2004
The ultimate, most profound, fundamental civil liberty in the world ever
In a Times article titled ID cards defend the ultimate civil liberty Charles Clarke, our brand new home secretary, gives us a lesson in the most fundamental civil liberty in our society:
I claim that the ID Cards Bill that I am introducing today is a profoundly civil libertarian measure because it promotes the most fundamental civil liberty in our society, which is the right to live free from crime and fear.This is a whole new level of libertarianism that I was not previously aware of and I thank the man for his insight. Just imagine, a life without fear. How could I have missed that fundamentally ultimate libertarian aim.
Got a vertigo problem? Get an ID card, the ultimate promoter of your right to live free from your terrible affliction. Want to talk to that girl you’ve been too scared to approach? Hey, that’s fear baby and it’s your right to live a life devoid of it. Flash her your ultimate plastic friend! Frightened that your finances continue to spiral out of control? £85 quid for your poverty busting plastic pal and it’s sorted.
Of course, some folk don’t actually subscribe to this no fear brand of civil libertarianism. Libertarians for instance. Fear leads to aspiration. Aspiration leads to action. Action leads to either more fear or less fear depending upon the quality and execution of the plan.
Of course, I’ve ranted.
Clarke was just throwing in a soundbite and he probably was referring to a particular kind of fear, say, terrorism. But honestly, it is hard for us to imagine ID cards as the best tool for that particular job given that it is far easier to imagine the affect that three and a half billion one pound coins could have on a terrorist if used in a more imaginative manner.
I fear that Clarke is guilty of a certain level of woolly thinking on this whole freedom thing so I offer him a little educational material, by way of this short message, which is a great deal deeper than its shallow surface would otherwise suggest:
Clarke. Shut-up. If you want an ID card go right ahead and buy one. I don’t, so piss off.
That, my friends, is my brand of ultimate civil libertarianism.
