Is Anyone Interested On Hearing A Radical And Controversial Viewpoint?

[Riggers]

Many years ago I read somewhere that a part of a government's (ANY government's) raison d'etre is to keep the people afraid of something. That way the people need a government to help them with their fear, and offer hope of a way out.

 

This has always stuck in my mind. My first such fear was as a little boy in the 1950s when we were told a nuclear attack from Russia was imminent. Frightening TV announcements were transmitted telling you how to 'protect and survive' by taking a door off its hinges, putting it up against a wall and crawling underneath (I kid you not).

 

This matured into the Cold War with the fear of communism at its heart. With the fall of the USSR in the 90s terrorism has taken its place as the thing to keep you awake at night, and as we are gradually getting to grips with that, then global warming or climate change is being hoisted upon us.

 

Now corona virus is here and climate change doesn't get a look in.

 

Unlike Toddyboy and Fixitstan I haven't done my homework but I can see one common thread running through all of the above, and it's this. Every one of these fears gives government a reason to restrict our freedom for our own good.

 

I don't know whether Toddyboy and Stan are right or wrong but I DO believe we should stay very healthily sceptical.