There's a war on. Bush and others who control the national pulpit have said time and again, since the dawn of terrorism long before Sept 11, that the terrorists will win if we allow them to alter our way of life. Yet today, every time I turn around, somebody reminds me that "there's a war on," and we have "extenuating circumstances." We're in a National State of Emergency ever since 9/11/2001, and that justifies curtailing all sorts of basic American liberties and human rights. The Executive branch -- the military -- now has the ability to outlaw associations with people on their "Terrorism Watch List." They can deny the free association of American citizens by proclamation alone. After all, we've got shadows to fight.

Of course I believe there are real enemies in the "war on terrorism," but why does the existence of an enemy have to mean the loss of checks and balances in government, and the loss of liberties in our daily lives? Especially when the enemy is idealogical. We can't sign an armistice with Islamism. This war will never end. Whatever changes we make to fight this war, they cannot be considered temporary.

The whole thing reminds me of "The Brotherhood," the sinister terrorists of Orwell's 1984. Big Brother struggled to hold his society together against the ever-present destabilizing threat of the Brotherhood. Of course as the book nears its end we are led to suspect that Big Brother and The Brotherhood don't even exist; they are just symbols which the government maintains for their functional value. It is valuable to have the people believe in the enemy, to have them fear the enemy and work hard to fight it. Whether the enemy exists, whether it actually has the powers which are claimed of it, is irrelevant.

I don't remember the name of the figurative leader of The Brotherhood. I would look it up, but I lent my copy of 1984 to Eric Gustaveson 8 years ago and he still hasn't given it back.