Book description
An impassioned defence of the civil liberties and the rule of law in
the face of increasing pressure for ever greater security The means of
defence against foreign danger historically have become the instruments
of tyranny at home. James Madison Our societies, says Anthony Grayling,
are under attack not only from the threat of terrorism, but also from
our governments attempts to fight that threat by reducing freedom in our
own societies think the 42-day detention controversy, CCTV surveillance,
increasing invasion of privacy, ID Cards, not to mention Abu Ghraib,
rendition, Guantanamo... As Grayling says: There should be a special
place for political irony in the catalogues of human folly. Starting a
war to promote freedom and democracy could in certain though rare
circumstances be a justified act; but in the case of the Second Gulf War
that began in 2003, which involved reacting to criminals hiding in one
country (Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or Pakistan) by invading another
country (Iraq), one of the main fronts has, dismayingly, been the home
front, where the War on Terror takes the form of a War on Civil
Liberties in the spurious name of security. To defend freedom and
democracy , Western governments attack and diminish freedom and
democracy in their own country. By this logic, someone will eventually
have to invade the US and UK to restore freedom and democracy to them.
In this lucid and timely book Grayling sets out what s at risk, engages
with the arguments for and against examining the cases made by Isaiah
Berlin and Ronald Dworkin on the one hand, and Roger Scruton and John
Gray on the other, and finally proposes a different way to respond that
makes defending the civil liberties on which western society is founded
the cornerstone for defeating terrorism. An impassioned defence of the
civil liberties and the rule of law in the face of increasing pressure
for ever greater security The means of defence against foreign danger
historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. James
Madison Our societies, says Anthony Grayling, are under attack not only
from the threat of terrorism, but also from our governments attempts to
fight that threat by reducing freedom in our own societies think the
42-day detention controversy, CCTV surveillance, increasing invasion of
privacy, ID Cards, not to mention Abu Ghraib, rendition, Guantanamo...
As Grayling says: There should be a special place for political irony in
the catalogues of human folly. Starting a war to promote freedom and
democracy could in certain though rare circumstances be a justified act;
but in the case of the Second Gulf War that began in 2003, which
involved reacting to criminals hiding in one country (Al Qaeda in
Afghanistan or Pakistan) by invading another country (Iraq), one of the
main fronts has, dismayingly, been the home front, where the War on
Terror takes the form of a War on Civil Liberties in the spurious name
of security. To defend freedom and democracy , Western governments
attack and diminish freedom and democracy in their own country. By this
logic, someone will eventually have to invade the US and UK to restore
freedom and democracy to them. In this lucid and timely book Grayling
sets out what s at risk, engages with the arguments for and against
examining the cases made by Isaiah Berlin and Ronald Dworkin on the one
hand, and Roger Scruton and John Gray on the other, and finally proposes
a different way to respond that makes defending the civil liberties on
which western society is founded the cornerstone for defeating
terrorism.
