The Falmouth Terrorist

Thought has become illegal. We have reached the point where some thoughts are so dangerous we are not allowed to share them.

I no longer know what I'm allowed to say, know what I'm allowed to own. The reality is the colour of my skin allows me certain privileges. I'm white so I'm allowed an extra level of subversion before my door gets kicked in by armed police.

We are living in a time when writing has become subversive. When I started publically writing, I didn't see it as dangerous. In other countries, yes, of course. Writers are ruthlessly persecuted. But here, writing has always felt like the soft option.

I believe in the power of writing. This much is obvious, otherwise I wouldn't write. But this idea of the State turning writing into terrorism is another matter. When a woman is on trial at the Old Bailey partly because she has written under the pen name of the “Lyrical Terrorist”, then writing is subversive. She expressed support for Jihad and radical Islam but she has done no more than read sympathetic websites and written poetry on the subject.

So can I be the Cornwall Terrorist? Or, as an anarchist, do I need a moniker less nationalistic? I could just be the Falmouth Terrorist. After all, I'm in a more literal than lyrical mood.

So what is terrorism? The law defines it as action which is “designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a a section of the public for the purpose of advancing a religious or ideological cause.” There are several ways to do this, including firearms, “serious violence against a person”, but also include “serious damage to property.” There are also offences of promoting terrorism, glorifying terrorism and inciting terrorism.

Does this mean my belief that causing severe amounts of economic damage is essential to changing the status quo is terrorism? I believe violence is an unfortunate but inevitable part of agitating for any kind of social change.

I don't really want to get into a protracted debate over the rights and wrongs of violent revolutionary action. I've had the arguments too many times, but moreover, it is irrelevant to the point I am making.

I advocate and participate in illegal actions which have the ultimate aim of agitating social change. I am fully supportive of property damage and fighting back. I believe we have to hit them in the pocket, hit them where it hurts in order to affect anything with the capitalist system.

Again, I could give you a lengthy explanation of why I believe this. I could make you think I'm a nice, if not slightly misguided person, who simply wants a better world for all.

But it's irrelevant. Either I'm legally allowed to say these things or I'm not. It shouldn't matter what the cause is.

Or does it? Are you allowed to put a value judgment on terrorist thought? The legislation does not leave room for such indiscretions, but the reality is different. I'm allowed to say I believe in causing serious damage to property is an essential tactic in fighting the State because I'm white.

Or am I? Where do the lines blur, and when does writing become dangerous, become terrorism? I'm scared by this level of control. I'm scared by what's been going on recently. I'm scared by the increasing levels of violence and repression.

As writers, we have to accept we live in a new political arena. An arena of control. You may not be saying anything subversive at the moment, but at what point do you cross the line? And are you going to wait until you cross that line until you start fighting for the freedom of speech for all?

Who ultimately decides which political ideologies are so dangerous we are not allowed to hear them? At what point did we become so stupid as a population that the State has had to implement laws to stop us accessing information and being able to make reasoned judgments?

You may read what I have to say and decide I'm a delusional fanatic, a loony fringe element. On a good day, I might even be dangerous. But wouldn't you rather read my ideas and make up your own mind? Or would your rather the State proscribed my views as being terrorist and stop me from writing?