Issues

[year_x]

A couple of issues that have struck me recently. I don't have fully formed opinions on them, but I thought I'd put them out here and see what other folk think.

Memorial to the 7/7 bombings:
Of course this should be marked with a memorial. But the thing that strikes me is that what is likely to be remembered is the murderous actions and the loss of '

Comments

[lwilson]

Certainly, I think that the British have an historic dislike of authority. I kind of have half a mind to link it to a tenuous thread running through from Henry VIII through Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill et. al. But then I don't really have more than a vague notion of their ideas (I'm sure I asked Laura to explain some of it to me at one stage - I probably sat looking vacant and uncomprehending). Although the idea that a sort of 'negative liberty' (freedom from something rather than freedom to do something) being quintessentially British is an appealing idea. Nevertheless, having the police enforce the use of booster seats in cars does sound a little silly - I'd say these things are largely enforced socially, like the wearing of seat-belts (which became mandatory only in 1983).

Also, the case of the suicide bombers really is quite interesting. The fact that was most striking for me was that the bombers were all born in Britain (well, almost; one was born in Jamaica but moved to Britain at 5 months), and grew up in Yorkshire - all the bluster about illegal immigrants seems to have evaporated since then. Paying tribute to the dead is fair enough, but I agree that it's as good a time as any to have a think about why 4 Yorkshiremen would choose to blow up their fellow citizens.

[ghostsmut]

Yes, I think they wanted to blow people up due to all this legislation stopping them doing stuff.

And I think that if 20% of the country were as dedicated to fixing the fucking world as those guys were to blowing people up we would be a lot better off.