For the political elite, "change" means "damage"

I posted this on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee site last week. Lumping dissidents into one generalizing category and then shouting from the rooftop that they are "damaging the system" is very telling.

In early June, an appellate court in Philadelphia refused to look into the conviction on terrorism charges allegedly perpetrated by animal rights activists. The conviction stemmed from the activists' posting a web site that brought animal testing site Huntingdon Life Sciences to near bankruptcy.

What's really interesting about this article is the quote by the lead prosecutor, Charles McKenna, after his announcing that a new computer profiling method would be brought to bear (Emphasis mine),

“Jihad, Crips, extreme animal-rights activists, it’s all the same: people trying damage the system,” added McKenna.“We need every trick in the book to avert disaster.”

"Damage the system"? That's the key. Those in power are constantly trying to maintain the status quo...the "system" if you will. Change is the enemy of those in power. They have a hammerlock on all our lives and continually squeeze to maximize their power.

Mr. McKenna was promoted after he successfully prosecuted the activists. One inevitably gets rewarded for publicly slapping down anyone who tries to buck the "system."

As the article puts it,

Such absurd scare-mongering rhetoric has become normal for corporations, industry groups, and the politicians who represent them. When it is adopted by government officials who are in charge of keeping us safe, though, it has frightening implications.

It is by attempting to "damage the system" (i.e., exposing egregious behavior normally covered up or buried in order to maintain the "system") that true change for the populace can come about.