Am I A Terrorist?
This fall, an American citizen by the name of Peter Daniel Young is going to trial for "domestic terrorism." While you may immediately wonder what his connections to Al-Qaeda are, this is not the nature of the charge. Peter Daniel Young stands accused of releasing minks from fur "farms" across the Midwest, and for this, the United States government has seen fit to pursue his prosecution as a terrorist.
The logic behind the charge works thusly. By breaking into these farms to release the animals kept there, Young caused the owners to experience "economic uncertainty," which caused them fear and distress, which the United States Government equates to terror. This made me wonder if I myself am a terrorist?
Given this logic, it seems I am. Here's how. I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart, because I find their attitudes toward labor and capitalism loathsome and repugnant. Last fiscal quarter, Wal-Mart failed to realize its earnings projection, causing the stock to tumble. Given Wal-Mart's market presence in private stock portfolios and 401K plans around the country, this surely caused "economic uncertainty" among its shareholders, which undoubtedly caused them fear and distress, and by official definition, terror.
Obviously, this is logic ad absurdum. After all, mine was an act of omission while Young's was one of commission. Yet I am not arguing that what he did was not illegal given the legal framework of property rights as they have developed over the past two hundred and twenty nine years in the United States (nor am I suggesting that I agree with the legal framework of property rights which made slavery legal until 1863 and makes animal subjugation and cruelty legal today). I am simply arguing that, given the extension of logic, Peter Daniel Young is not a terrorist, and neither am I.
However, if Young is convicted of terrorism by causing "economic uncertainty," I would hope a battery of young, hungry lawyers would bring to trial the very titans of capitalism on the same charge. If "economic uncertainty" causes fear and distress, and by proxy terror, then the oil industry, the White House, corporate energy conglomerations, and retail megastores among others are all terrorist organizations. Capitalism itself could be put on trial! While I concede that again, this logic, as is the logic that holds Peter Daniel Young accused of terrorism, is ad absurdum, it was the British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley who suggested in the late nineteenth century that "history warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions."
The logic behind the charge works thusly. By breaking into these farms to release the animals kept there, Young caused the owners to experience "economic uncertainty," which caused them fear and distress, which the United States Government equates to terror. This made me wonder if I myself am a terrorist?
Given this logic, it seems I am. Here's how. I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart, because I find their attitudes toward labor and capitalism loathsome and repugnant. Last fiscal quarter, Wal-Mart failed to realize its earnings projection, causing the stock to tumble. Given Wal-Mart's market presence in private stock portfolios and 401K plans around the country, this surely caused "economic uncertainty" among its shareholders, which undoubtedly caused them fear and distress, and by official definition, terror.
Obviously, this is logic ad absurdum. After all, mine was an act of omission while Young's was one of commission. Yet I am not arguing that what he did was not illegal given the legal framework of property rights as they have developed over the past two hundred and twenty nine years in the United States (nor am I suggesting that I agree with the legal framework of property rights which made slavery legal until 1863 and makes animal subjugation and cruelty legal today). I am simply arguing that, given the extension of logic, Peter Daniel Young is not a terrorist, and neither am I.
However, if Young is convicted of terrorism by causing "economic uncertainty," I would hope a battery of young, hungry lawyers would bring to trial the very titans of capitalism on the same charge. If "economic uncertainty" causes fear and distress, and by proxy terror, then the oil industry, the White House, corporate energy conglomerations, and retail megastores among others are all terrorist organizations. Capitalism itself could be put on trial! While I concede that again, this logic, as is the logic that holds Peter Daniel Young accused of terrorism, is ad absurdum, it was the British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley who suggested in the late nineteenth century that "history warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions."
posted by MK | 9:19 AM
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