The new American policy is Pre-emption. Give rights, then take them away before someone might think of a way to do the wrong thing, or worse, actually use their rights. Face it, any agency making policy around our media consumption habits is wasting their time. Newspapers, radios, a few films, maybe a TV show, trolling the blogosphere, and that pretty well sums it up. We are curious. We think. We seek information and intellectual stimulation. And for the most part, we are a waste of time for anyone looking at what we are looking at, reading or talking about. Reality bites. Snooping now gathers bytes. And the nibbles of information for any law enforcement agency wouldn't amount to a good snack when all is said and done. So...Why bother? Why snoop on citizens at all? Isn't there something really big out there like World hunger, disease to worry about? Well yes. And that other Gift that Goes on Giving. Fear.
The problem with being snooped on is that the snooper gets very little that is useful. The subject of the snooping loses much. The people around the "snoopee" lose even more. And it is being lost in amounts to large to contemplate.
Five years ago, we could believe the Disney version of history, or we could believe reality. We could soothe our shattered psyches and seek comfort or we could look through what was being done in our name. We could believe the Administration, or we could believe our own eyes and ears. We could say "He's such a good moral person." Or, the popular, "Good Christians would never do that." Or even, "Those poor people, how can they stand what their government is doing. We are America. We are better than that'. It would never, ever, ever happen here.
If we believed an amorphous "they" wouldn't do whatever "that" is, we were so wrong. It started simultaneously with September 11. But the simultaneous has be said to be right before 9/11. The snoops wormed their ways into our homes, papers, and private lives.
But beyond that, we really didn't do much that was worth looking at. Information may be power. By and large, we individually don't have enough information to power a 40 watt light bulb for a full minute. And yet, because we know someone, somewhere might want to snoop, we are all becoming afraid of being watched, snooped, searched, inspected or tapped. I am not saying we don't have reasons. We do. But the damage is more than the snooping itself.
The fear is probably as valuable to those who would snoop on us to see what we are doing as is the reality of the snooping itself. We get careful about what we think, write, speak, read and listen to. Which, in turn, makes us wary of acting normally. Which THEN makes us worth watching to be sure that we are not acting normally for us as individuals, but normally for the rulers of society.
We are at the edge of a very high cliff. If we let our rights be tossed over, we might as well shoot the entire body of our rights and privileges over the edge with us. Our citizenship will be a hollow promise of what might have been.
And the cheerleaders for us, a citizenry of lemmings, is now showing itself to be what it was all along. One or two more steps, and it's down into the gaping maw we go. One or two steps and we become dangerous. We lose more rights. We become controlled. We make sure that we aren't doing anything that is different from our peers. We all become alike. We all control ourselves and are controlled by others.
We lose ourselves, our individuality. We lose our power as people.
All the while, we've been trying to tell ourselves it isn't that bad. There we go again. Whistling a happy tune, because America is just NOT a country that would do THAT.
Well, the curtains have been torn asunder, and John Ashcroft's favorite Lady of Justice is right out there, naked, looking for justice to hand out blindly. Justice is no longer blind when our actions are controlled by the threat of being searched. More especially, there is no justice when we don't even know we are being searched. Justice has handed what appears to be a huge advantage to those who want us to conform to someone elses desires.
Just take the area of law enforcement. If you are of a certain age, you would remember the little tricks Muscovites would use to find listening devices in the walls. By the way, several of them still work.
As children, learning about the listening habits of totalitarian governments, the overwhelming question was "Why do they care?" These aren't the people who are going to go off and invest a gazillion dollars in some company, ship the business off-shore, bring the money back, and then spin off into other businesses that would foster independent businesses down the road. The only think we could see as kids was people wanting to be free in their thoughts. And the "think" of wanting to be free is still seen here in the USA.
Thought is the only thing holding us back from a huge fall. Like Alice, we are about to go through a looking glass of sorts. Except this glass gives no reflection. It only absorbs our thoughts, desires, dreams and wishes. The watching isn't valuable for what they might learn. The watchers have learned that even the possibility of being watched is a powerful tool. It is control.
Be careful. You never know what "they" are watching, what "they" are listening to. Don't write what you don't want "them" to read. Don't even think out loud. Not even in your own home. The ever present "they" will hear.
And again I ask. Why bother? Aren't there bigger fish to fry than the small fry that are the average American people?
By and large, the people that are listened to aren't worth listening to. That's right. We got nothing. We say nothing. We plot nothing. We are interested in many things, but just for purposes of being alive and curious. We might be good citizens and seek news. Few among us would even consider a revolution. And why should we?
All we want is our Constitutional Rights.
All we really want is not to fear our government. We don't want to be looking over our shoulders every minute in fear that the wrong thought will somehow cause us to be whisked off to a place we never want to go.
Mostly it isn't the watching. And of this I am certain. The listeners in Moscow learned this early. Little of what was actually heard was worth hearing. It was the power of the suggestion of "listeners". The ability of some amorphous, unidentified being that could snoop. That ability was really all the power that was needed to keep people in line.
It was like that then. It is still like that. We are after all, still human.
It is time to put a stop to the possibility of overheard conversations, observed web searches, and records opened without warrants. If it is not stopped now, the damage will be done permanently. We will always fear our government, distrust our officials, doubt our neighbors and stifle all that makes being a fully living human worth the effort.
Personally, I am holding out hope that we can get past this horror called the warrantless search. My question remains. Will we prevail in time?
Ultimately, the listening posts will hear little of value. Yet they will have robbed us of our country, our citizenship and our humanity. And that is a crime even the Founders would consider a most heinous offense against the very Constitution all are sworn to protect and defend. Forget about the loud protestations of protecting the people. Protect the Constitution before the damage is terminal.