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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (64704)	10/29/2002 2:54:19 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

We weren't just comparing the US to the USSR. Clearly we had more freedoms than they did -- it would be absurd to say otherwise. But your original post said we were "the freest" country on earth. One has to interpret that to know whether it is true. In terms of percentage of the population not incarcerated, we have one of the lowest percentages of free vs. unfree citizens in the world. In terms of civil liberties, we are certainly up there, but I'm not sure we have more civil freedoms than, say, New Zealand or Scotland. I just don't know on that level, and it depends on how you define civil liberties (such as the right to take a pair of fingernail scissors on an airplane trip). If you haven't seen any gated communities yet, maybe that's not a phenemenon of the DC area, though I suspect it is and you don't know it. A search on Google will turn up what I think is clear evidence that the trend is increasing. For example, One article states " More and more people want to reside in gated residential communities. Because of this, gated residential communities and garden apartments across the country are being built at record rates." crimedoctor.com "This page is intended to acquaint you with some of the issues surrounding the growing number of gated communities in the United States. " nindy.com The Nation pitched in with a review of a book on Gated Communities in which it stated that "never before in America has what they call "forting up" been as widespread, and not just among the rich. Some 3 million residences with some 8.4 million people are now situated behind gates, some of them staffed with twenty-four-hour guards and patrolled by private security forces, some relying on electronically operated gates. More significant, demand for homes in gated communities is soaring, ..." nindy.com One can view this as proof of the freedom in our system, that people can choose to live this way if they want to. But I don't think it is an indication of a "freer", nor of a healthy, society.