Boing Boing: Flu, hernia, or police more likely to kill you than Al Qaeda

Posted on September 18, 2006
Filed Under Politics, Rants

Boing Boing: Flu, hernia, or police more likely to kill you than Al Qaeda

We’re not paralyzed with fear at the thought going to work (59,730 deaths since 1995*), walking down the street (52,000), or falling (146,542). Neither do we harp on at the government to protect us from these dangers which are even more unpredictable and costly in terms of human life than terrorism (3,147). In fact you’re more likely to be shot by the police (3,949) than killed by a terrorist but we’re not being led in a ‘War on Police’ are we.

The actual physical risk that an individual faces from terrorism is miniscule, you run a greater risk crossing the road and yet we are told that measures must be taken to protect us from this threat. I don’t see the police getting new powers to combat herniae (38,302), I don’t see our freedom restricted in the name of preventing accidental drowning (16,742). The restriction of our freedom is not necessary to combat terrorism, and the fact that our freedoms have been restricted in ways which have nothing to do with terrorism leads me to believe that there is another agenda at work here. We need a license to protest outside parliament, our MPs can change any legislation they want at will without it going to a vote of our representatives, so what was a law banning the cultivation of roses in a south facing garden can become a law banning the wearing of pink hats. Seemingly innocuous legislation can be passed and then adjusted so that it is something more sinister.

The risk we face from terrorism is minimal compared to the risks we face just stepping out of our front door. The sooner we see that, the sooner we can stop this slide into totalitarianism.

*Figures are american deaths, if you’re british the deaths attributable to terrorism are even less. Also the article I refer to uses deaths attributable to Al Quaeda which may claim responsibility for deaths they had nothing to with so I changed it to terrorism in general.

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