Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 08:29:05 -0500
From: leonf@perspicuity.net ("Leon")
Subject: FEAR: Fwd: Review of *Minority Report*
To: fear-list@mapinc.org, fear-talk@mapinc.org
Reply-To: fear-talk@mapinc.org
Thanks to Bob Bauman for allowing me to post his review of the movie, *Minority Report*. LF
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>
>=====================================================================
> THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
>Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
> Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - Vol. 4 No. 59
>=====================================================================
>In This Issue:
>* COMMENT: Minority Report
>
>* OFFSHORE: Swiss Schizophrenia. Big Manx Tax Cut. Gibraltar Embroiled.
> Bahamas Semantics. Hong Kong Tightens. Russian Amnesty. Intellectual
> Property. Tyco Taxes. G-7-8. Four Cleaner Nations. Keating in Belize?
>
>* WEALTH: NY Times Answered. IRS Ups Ante, Audits. Court Bars Fraud
> Trust. Money Moves: Sterling, Dollar, Euro, Color. Bonner's Bears.
>======================================================================
>* COMMENT: Minority Report
>
>Dear A-Letter Reader:
>Steven Spielberg's latest film, 'Minority Report' opened last weekend in
>
>the US and, having read about its civil liberties theme, I made a point
>of seeing it. I strongly recommend that anyone concerned about personal
>liberty do the same. Then consider this film's serious implications.
>
>The Financial Times reviewer calls this flick 'a quivering, momentous
>slice of Big Brother futurism that seems ominously topical.' The movie
>is loaded with what could easily be current events, even though it's set
>
>in 2054 AD. National security, terrorist threats, police 'pre-emptive
>defense,' stark, brutal consequences for hapless arrested citizens.
>
>Minority Report features 'PreCrime,' a Washington, DC police agency that
>
>employs psychic judges to predict and prevent murders. Without due
>process or appeal, those fingered by the always-right government
>psychics
>are arrested and whisked away into permanent physical suspension and
>oblivion. No defense lawyers, no judges, no arguments. The drama hinges
>on whether the US as a whole will adopt this 'perfect, infallible'
>anti-crime system.
>
>Watching this discomforting film one easily sees the parallel in
>Attorney General Ashcroft's unchallenged fast-track police control being
>
>sold as proactive protection. The FT reviewer notes 'This film
>resonates with the day's headlines. What does pre-emptive justice mean?
>An end to terror? Or the beginning of the end for civil liberties?
>Will we soon all be arrestable?'
>
>I saw 'Minority Report' with a young friend who gets his 'news' - if at
>all - from MTV. He initially left the local multiplex with a puzzled
>look, offering his opinion that 'the government probably wont like this
>one.' But then he added: 'That could never happen in America!'
>
>When I explained that since Sept. 11th almost a thousand people have
>been held by the government in virtual secret, many without any legal
>charges filed against them, most without counsel or due process, his
>face clouded. 'You mean a sort of 'Pre-Crime' is already happening
>here in America,' he asked with disbelief.
>
>Yes, indeed it is. 1984 has come and gone. 2054 is already here.
>
>That's the way that it looks from here.
>BOB BAUMAN, Editor
>=============================
>COMMENT LINKS:
>* 'What we are heading towards; the result is eerily prophetic.'
> LINKS: http://www.cinecon.com/reviews/minorityreport.shtml
> http://www.minorityreport.com/
>* 'All of Us Are in Danger' says Nat Hentoff. The Village Voice.
> LINK: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0226/hentoff.php
>* Protecting Liberty in a Permanent War. Cato Institute.
> LINK: http://www.cato.org/dailys/06-21-02.html
>* Civil Rights -- and Wrongs. Business Week. LINK:
>http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jun2002/nf20020618_3322.htm
>* War on Terror Makes for Odd Twists in Justice System. NY Times.
> LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/23/national/23SUSP.html
>* Secret military detentions opposed. Worcester Telegram.
> LINK: http://www.telegram.com/news/south/immigrants.html
>* Writ of habeus corpus in danger. Washington Post. LINK:
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20878-2002Jun20.html
>
[. . .]
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