Looking for the next bogeyman

Yesterday's bogeyman is dead.

Today Scott Greenfield asks whether the death of Osama Bin Laden will change anything. Now that the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks is lying at the bottom of the sea, will the apparatus of the security state be dismantled?

Will the Patriot Act be repealed? Will the government cease efforts to do away with the Great Writ? Will the concentration camp prison at Guantanamo Bay be closed? Will the metal detectors at small town courthouses across the country be dismantled? Will los federales stop trying to force cellphone providers to give the state backdoor access to our communications? Will the airport gropers be forced to look for other employment? Will we finally stop flushing money down the toilet building more and more tools of death for the military? Will our young people be brought home from the Middle East?

I doubt it.

Already the government is warning us that the world might be a more dangerous place because of the death of Osama Bin Laden.

That's what the security state needs -- an enemy. Knock one down and put another in its place. After all, the government must justify the permanence of every "temporary" security measure.

The world is a dangerous place. It was a dangerous place before 9/11. It will be a dangerous place long after I'm dead and gone.

The goal of the security state is to do away with those pesky little protections afforded to us under the Bill of Rights. We can't allow the death of one bogeyman to get in the way of the eradication of our civil liberties. There will always be another threat just around the corner. And, because of that threat, the apparatus of the security state must remain in place. In fact, I'm certain that someone will stand up and call for more draconian security measures in the wake of Osama Bin Laden's death.

Where are those advocates for limited government when you need them?