Why Are We Surprised?

One of my favorite scenes in Star Wars is where Obi Wan uses his "Jedi mind tricks" to con  a weak-minded Imperial Trooper that "these are not the droids you are looking for." I am reminded of this scene by the recent disclosures of massive government surveillance on everybody.  

 
"Nothing to see here. Move along." 

 
It does not matter for whom you voted--someone surnamed Bush or Clinton (blessed be her name) or a half-African citizen of Indonesia (Obama was born in America and is not a Muslim, but he was an Indonesian citizen in his youth). My point here is that someone profoundly "different" like Obama still oversees such surveillance. The surveillance will continue--think J. Edgar Hoover. The story may be apocryphal, but one District Attorney bragged that he could go in front of a Grand Jury and get a ham sandwich indicted.  In the same way the government nakedness will be covered in the future by assembly line fig leaves called warrants even under a President Rand Paul. 

If you want more details about the long-standing nature of such surveillance read Karl Denninger's blog post. 

So there really is nothing to see here, politics is a waste of time, you might as well move along to something of more lasting importance ...

How 'bout them Cowboys?

They Are Watching You

There has been a lot of interest, bordering on hysteria, about the government spying on US citizens. Here is an example from Politico. 

“There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal, and that is to destroy privacy and anonymity, not just in the United States but around the world,” charged Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for the British newspaper “The Guardian,” speaking on CNN. “That is not hyperbole. That is their objective.”

But since most people are not knowledgeable about history (not everyone was like me and read history books for fun in high school) there is a lot of fear. 

This is where Pam Dewey's latest blog series on Big Brother comes in. While the technology has "improved," there is not much new in government interference in private affairs. This is a long-standing issue, and my prediction for the latest "crisis" is that ultimately no one will care about it. And if the next president is a Republican, the spying will continue. 

Click Here for part 6 of "Oh Say Can You See?" 

If You See Something, Say Something

One of the great things about humans is their ability to get together to make a common cause. It is also one of humanity's greatest faults.

If you think Janet Napolitano's ...the Secretary of Homeland Security...program of turning every American into an informer, called "If you see something, say something," is new, you might want to read Pam Dewey's latest entry in her Prophecy Panic Button blog.

During WWI people came together as one to fight the dastardly Hun. If you doubt the narrative of the powers that be, watch out. Your friends and neighbors will not approve. Even worse, maybe your children will not approve.

The power of culture to enforce conformity is huge. If you know how it was done in the past, you might be less susceptible to this in your present or near future. Click here for part 5 in this series. 

The Good Ole Days

Most conservatives pine for the "good ole days." This is mostly based on a mythology of the past. John Adams, the second president of the US, signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts which criminalized speech. The third president, Thomas Jefferson, was no better. His papers revealed that he did things that he knew were unconstitutional. There were no good ole days.

It is rather odd to claim that Obama is the epitome of evil, or to blame Bush for everything. I say a pox on both their houses.

These comments are my introduction to part 2 of Pam Dewey's series on George Orwell's 1984. Orwell did not have to have too much of an imagination—all the various trends that led him to write 1984 were already present in WWI. This is what Pam talks about in part 2 of her series.

For me it is not that government somehow restrained itself in the past. Instead, if there is any worsening, it is a result of better technology available to the powers that be. This does not mean that Orwell's 1984 is not important. In fact, as you read Pam's series, a reading, or rereading, of 1984 is a good idea. It is available for free as a PDF.

Today I have included a discussion with Christopher Hitchens on Orwell from Book TV.

1984?

Pam Dewey, the beloved editor of the Prophecy Podcast, has started up a series on her blog Prophecy Panic Button on propaganda and in particular is beginning with Big Brother and George Orwell's novel 1984. It is not that it matters which sock puppet is on the right or left hand of Babylon the Great. What matters is how we, unless on our guard, will be deceived just like the masses in the novel 1984 that Pam references.

As Jack Nicholson said in A Few Good Men, "You can't handle the truth." Can you? No the truth will not be about a few bad men with secret handshakes, it is a lot harder than that.

Read the series, if you dare.