THOUGHTS ON: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and anti-terrorist laws

Tom Robbins' book Even Cowgirls Get the Blues may have been written in 1976 but boy he hits a bull's-eye with relevancy. Half way through the book, there it was - a metaphorical silver bullet for the current Western governments of the world.

To paraphrase the Chink (slightly mad-yet-wise Japanese (yes Japanese) recluse in the book): He says civilized man has confused stability with rigidity; stabilization to the world's leaders means order, uniformity, control. Disorder invariably leaks in and the world's managers rush to tighten controls and so totalitarianism grows in viciousness and scope. But, the Chink (via Mr. Robbins) alleges, true stability is when order and disorder are balanced. He says a truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed ... just like how a stable individual is an individual who accepts the inevitability of his death.

Stability doesn't come from effectively taking freedom away from people - by promoting fear and introducing laws to control the masses. At the base of current events is instability in the form of insurgent ideas and terrorism. Governments are attempting to eradicate this instability by introducing draconian laws that in effect only lie like a sheet too small for a bed; it will never cover it sufficiently.

SM