This is all true--about him breaking the law for visiting an off-limits country. However, in this mixed up world of ours, we haven't reached the maturity level where we can run around without the protection of a political entity i.e. a national government. Maybe in the future we can be "citizens of the world" and do what we please, but heaven help those who turn their backs on their country, spit on their letters, etc. You can admire him for speaking his mind or despise him for his nutsy belief system, but you can't ignore the prominence he gave to chess or the wonderful heritage of chess games he created. In that sense, he's an artist, one who has ironically turned his back on the one thing that has kept him out of jail or straightjacket.
What a bunch of BS! This country was set up to protect the people's rights; you should be able to go anywhere you damn please in the world! And besides, if "you're a love it or leave it" type, he left the US and now we're reaching out to prosecute him for playing chess??!! What a total bunch of complete horseshit!!!
You're right. You should be able to go where you please, but, as I said, that's not the reality of the situation right now. Try getting on a plane out of the country without a passport or visa. Like it or not, nations control movement between nations. Just think for a minute, if the U.S. or Britain or certain other desireable countries didnt have a quota system, they would double their populations within a week! Then who would we get to live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Originally posted by buddy2I have no problem with a country controlling who gets into their territory, but this is something completely different. This is trying to jail a man for going to another country even though he was perfectly willing never to return to the US! Hey, "love or leave it", but he left! And it's not like they want to extradite him for murdering someone in the States (I'm down with that) but they want to extradite him for leaving and going to the wrong place!!!! That's still total BS to me!
You're right. You should be able to go where you please, but, as I said, that's not the reality of the situation right now. Try getting on a plane out of the country without a passport or visa. Like it or not, nations control movement between nations. Just think for a minute, if the U.S. or Britain or certain other desireable countries didnt have a quot ...[text shortened]... pulations within a week! Then who would we get to live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
I suspect that what this has to do with in what the Fish has been saying lately; he has made it clear that he is strongly critical (maybe even hateful) towards many in the US and he has made many comments that are viewed as anti-Jewish (or at least anti-Israel). Maybe the Fish is a nut, but he shouldn't face 10 years in the Federal pen for playing chess where the US government doesn't want him to and/or for saying things most Americans don't like.
Favorite Fish quote (after complaining about audience coughing at his 1st match with Spassky): "If they're sick they should go to a hospital, not the World Championship!"
Don't get me wrong. I agree that Fischer shouldn't be imprisoned for playing chess in a country out of favor for the moment. We, for example, take in baseball players from Cuba, who desert their country illegally for the bucks. But when the shoe is on the other foot...
Incidentally, that's a great Fischer quote. And I have the sneaking suspicion he wasn't trying to be funny when he said it.
As long as they are opinions, fine, disturbing or otherwise. He hasn't killed anybody or stolen any property that I know of. And as for visiting countries he shouldn't, Americans do it all the time. Thousands visit Cuba via Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, etc. and the Cuban govt conveniently doesn't stamp their passports. If we were to prosecute all the people running around the world, we'd have our hands full. I'm afraid this case smacks of political revenge for snubbing his nose at the state department.
Originally posted by buddy2Here is his insane website.
As long as they are opinions, fine, disturbing or otherwise. He hasn't killed anybody or stolen any property that I know of. And as for visiting countries he shouldn't, Americans do it all the time. Thousands visit Cuba via Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, etc. and the Cuban govt conveniently doesn't stamp their passports. If we were to prosecute all the people ...[text shortened]... I'm afraid this case smacks of political revenge for snubbing his nose at the state department.
http://home.att.ne.jp/moon/fischer/
He's an American citizen. As an international celebrity, he flouted our laws and was willingly used as a propaganda tool by a hostile foreign power acting as an accomplice to genocide. (That's another thing he has in common with Alekhine - what is it with chess players?)
Sure, there's freedom of speech. But there's also treason. If, in WW II he had gone to Nazi Germany and done radio broadcasts denouncing the U.S., he'd have had a legal problem. The poet Ezra Pound did exactly that and was lucky to get off with some asylum time.
Hopefully Fischer will get some psychiatric help. It's horrible to see a brilliant mind fall apart like this.
Fischer reminds me of something the baseball player Ty Cobb said of himself: "I was like a steel spring with a growing and dangerous flaw in it. If it is wound too tight or has the slightest weak point, the spring will fly apart; then it is done for."