Svenska Kim Wall hittad död sedan danska ubåten UC3 Nautilus havererat (2017-08-11)

"Peter

The situation is complex, we all know that. We all know that life on Earth is fragile and that in the distant past, it came close to complete extinction several times. The last major event of this magnitude happened about 65 million years ago and marked the end of the era of the dinosaurs. This was caused by the impact of a cosmic meteorite, and almost cut off 3.5 billion years of life on Earth. The collision itself was an accident, and the degree of destructiveness was only the result of an exact coincidence of all the circumstances of this accident. A few seconds earlier, or a few seconds later, the meteorite could have crashed into the earth's surface far from Yucatan, but when it got there, to the east of the peninsula, it came into contact with a geological layer of the earth rich in mineral gypsum, exacerbating the consequences of the massive explosion.

The most incredible coincidence, caused by the perfect combination of time and place. "Shit happens," some say. There are dozens of possible scenarios for the total disappearance of life on earth: alien invasions, the eruption of a supervolcano, the explosion of which will blow off the Earth's magnetic field, the solar wind, which erases the atmosphere from the planet. These are more or less incredible plots, but events of this magnitude can and will potentially happen, if only life will exist long enough to face these challenges.

The destruction of the magnetic field happened with Mars, and today its atmosphere is so thin that the life expectancy of an earthly person, such as you and me, on its surface is less than half a minute without a spacesuit.

A global pandemic, a virus that, with our very mobile lifestyle today, is spreading across the planet and could wipe out our species in weeks, months or years - a less vivid, but more realistic scenario. Imagine something as infectious as Corona, as deadly as Ebola or possibly HIV. This is quite possible, quite likely, and may happen even tomorrow.

Ignoring this fear, like most other experiences that we cannot do anything about, deep down we all know that it is fully justified. Now, in an era of global travel, with COVID-19 kicking our global asses like never before in human history, fear of this version of Armageddon is rife.

But fear is the material from which every tyranny and every infringement of civil rights is built.

Fear of Jews, fear of communists, fear of terrorism. Fear is an excellent building material for totalitarian systems. This has been the basis of dictatorships since prehistoric times - fear of a foreign tribe, fear of the Outside. Hitler built Nazi Germany out of fear of racial impurity. Fear triggered the start of the Cold War; more recently, fear of Muslims and terrorism has fueled an ever-accelerating retreat from our hard-won civil rights and ever-increasing surveillance.

Nobody knows more about you than Google and Facebook. For example, if you feel a strange itching in your genitals, then the first one you tell about it is not your closest friend, but Google.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, tyrants and dictators, we now have a new fear - the fear of a global disease.

This is a classic dilemma - of course, we are forced to provide our authorities with the necessary monitoring and control tools to fight terrorism and prevent attacks before they happen. Obviously, we need specially trained men and women in uniform with weapons in their hands who can professionally protect us from this kind of violence.

Of course, the state can, and sometimes should, have legal instruments to enforce quarantines, close borders and prevent large gatherings of people in order to stop the spread of the virus, but one should never trust the state, naively believing that its representatives are immune from the known temptation by the authorities corrupting it.
owner.

Power like that which is spreading across the globe today can and will certainly be misused if this process is not stopped.
Whenever constitutional democracy has to slow down and think twice about some new law that is contrary to the constitution , you can be sure that we are in a danger zone of potential abuse.

After all, that's what constitutions are for — precisely to protect us from our governments.

Today, these governments are breaking through the sacred boundaries and taboos established by our constitutions in quieter times. For example, we found anti-terrorism laws that are not being applied against "cold-blooded bomb makers" but, for example, against eco-activists. Suddenly, the measures taken during the acute crisis, which were supposed to be temporary, will become permanent , because, as usual, "you never know when the next crisis will come and we must be prepared." 

Fear is always the perfect excuse. Some of the emergency measures currently undergoing parliamentary hearings may well prove to be effective ways to contain the spread of the virus, while others will prove to be empty gestures intended solely to show strength and power. An important example is the closure of borders between countries, where many people have already been infected from both sides. The effectiveness of this measure is about the same as the effectiveness of the watertight compartments of the hardened nose of the Titanic - if the ship already has holes, the degree of watertightness of the structure no longer matters. Consequently, containing the spread of the virus will be as successful as the maiden voyage of the world famous White Star liner.

Closing borders and isolation as a new phenomenon of public life in themselves require reflection, and it does not even matter that the medical community, capable of competently assessing the real level of potential danger, condemns border closure as an ineffective measure. However, this senseless measure, taken too late, after the widespread spread of the virus, becomes an exclusively political issue that divided the world.

As civilians, individuals, we have a serious obligation to remind our politicians to lift emergency measures after the crisis is over, to prevent them from being saturated with the sweet taste of unlimited power.

Thomas Jefferson seems to have said it best:
"Freedom is when the government is afraid of its people, tyranny is when the people are afraid of their government."