Baron Dahrendorf: 9/11 and the new authoritarianism

[Mark Gobell]

Mr Blair was the first to argue that security is the first freedom. In other words, liberty is not the right of individuals to define their own lives, but the right of the state to restrict individual freedom in the name of a security that only the state can define. This is the beginning of a new authoritarianism.


9/11 and the new authoritarianism

While terrorism is being fought in the name of democracy, the fight has, in fact, led to a distinct weakening of democracy

By RALF DAHRENDORF

Five years after the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, 9/11 is no longer a mere date. It has entered the history books as the beginning of something new, a new era perhaps, but in any case a time of change. The terrorist bombings in Madrid and London and elsewhere will also be remembered; but it is 9/11 that has become the catchphrase, almost like August 1914.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ralf_dahrendorf/2006/09/post_339.h tml

Published here as an article:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/07Sep2006_news23.php

Ralf Dahrendorf on Free Speech: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/dahrendorf45