• It’s [not] a free planet

    “It’s a free country.” In an age of anxiety you don’t hear people say it so much.  And you certainly won’t hear anyone say “It’s a free planet”.  For some people it’s getting less free all the time. The retreat in planetary freedom is measured in the rise of terms such as “border security” and the real and virtual fences are going up on the borders of the world. The barriers going up not just at the borders – within countries and beyond them mechanisms to keep ‘them’ out are being reinforced all the time.  The highest and most impassable barrier is the wall being built in our minds, so that it becomes more and more difficult…