Stardate 20010713.1103 (On Screen): I am now and have been for a long time a rabid opponent of mixing church and state. That's because I fear greatly the experience of living in a theocracy. I think some people wonder why I feel so strongly about this. If so, all they have to do is to study what's happening in Afghanistan right now, where the people are living in conditions of thought-control which were beyond even that of the Third Reich. The Gestapo has nothing on the Taliban, folks. They're even trying to make the
Hindus wear yellow insignias "for their own protection".
But ideas are pernicious and people want to think freely. Given the Taliban's balls-to-the-wall attempt to enforce mental conformity, they've decided that exposure to foreign ideas is simply too dangerous, and have decided to cut off the Internet from the country, thus joining those sterling examples of free thinking and liberty, Myanmar and North Korea. Access to the internet is in itself not particularly special, but this is the latest in a long series of moves by the Taliban which are becoming very alarming. I think three things are coming in Afghanistan: economic collapse, mass starvation, and a terrorist campaign against the Taliban. (discuss)
