AN OPEN LETTER TO THE FIRST POST'S EDITOR!

Dear Sir,

As an African example (albeit one with virtually no formal education, I must confess!), of the breed of the species, referred to by your Mr. Roger Alton, in his March 24, 2008 First Post article, entitled: "The dump accomplices to petty authoritarianism", I am fascinated by the picture conjured up in the mind's eye, of the amazing world, which he ultimately dreams of : a nation-state, in which the Leviathan, has been completely emasculated: and puny humans, including even Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, roam completely free, doing as they please, regardless!

That paradise of the imagination, evoked by the fantasies of today's "know-it-all" neo cons, would be a very interesting place, indeed. The question is, precisely how do the Roger Altons of this world, propose to deal with the many Al Qaeda would-be mass-murderers - determined to a man, to send to early graves, countless innocents, such as commuters in London and New York?

Or would such monsters - spawned by the mad and evil ideology, of fundamentalist religious hatred, propagated by the blasphemous Osama bin Ladens, of today - simply be outlawed by a stroke of the top-dog neo con's pen?

Since the neo cons want to roll back the state, would one be right in assuming that there will be no outlawing of any brainwashed, Islamic fundamentalist would-be mass murderers, in the neo cons' new heaven on earth?

That is the conundrum, Leviathans the world over face - balancing individual freedom and the need for tough measures (including surveillance of individuals and groups!), to protect society.

And it is that, that makes "dump accomplices "( knowing perfectly well, that fundamentalists too, would also have complete freedom to do as they please, in the surveillance-free world, desired by the Roger Altons of this world), wonder, just how the free society, of this neo-con Nirvana of individual freedom, would protect itself, from such unalloyed evil!

Perhaps, to get round that little local difficulty, the mad and dangerous abomination, represented by the outrageous and blasphemous notion, put about, by the very evil Osama bin Ladens of today (and which conditions fundamentalist Islamic myrmidons, into believing, that conspiring to kill tens of thousands of innocent "infidels", just because they happen to live in London or New York, is somehow pleasing, in the eyes of Allah), would be the predominant ideology, in that cloud-cuckoo-land, of complete individual freedom (from the tiresome strictures, one presupposes, of the Aunt Sally Leviathan, that is the modern "nanny-nation-state"!) : the neo-con Nirvana of complete individual freedom? Whatever next, one wonders?

Yours faithfully,

Kofi Thompson.