George Rebane
On this hot muggy 4th of July my thoughts turn to the road this country has traveled since the turn of the last century. I have joined that trek for the last sixty-four years, have partaken in its happy ascent, enjoyed its lofty summit, and now protest the precipitous descent. Nevertheless, no matter what may come, my generation has already banked the country’s good years. Our lament is for our kids, grandkids, and, for fortunates like me, our great-grandkids.
Our main failure was raising a generation of children whom we taught to be educated, well-mannered, industrious, and to mind their own business. They have fulfilled our expectations. But in doing so, they invited and permitted the rule of those whose aim was to mind everyone else’s business. And in that, we and they are reaping what has been sown.
Today we wake up in a country where there is no longer the notion of ‘this is my business, and my business alone.’ In the quest for security and facility we have put paid to a comprehensively monitored society under a government that has and knows no limits in its ability to collect, analyze, and record EVERYTHING we do. And how much they actually do and will collect is up to the resident regime in Washington. Because trust has been extinguished between the governing and governed – neither trusts the other – we may safely assume, that for all intents and purposes, the stored record of our behaviors is comprehensive and everlasting.
Under a growing avalanche of largely unknown and impenetrable laws, regulations, codes, … any resident regime will be able to indict and arrest any individual or any group for one or more infractions simply by the selective and arbitrary enforcement of what is already on the books. And all the while claiming that we are still a nation of laws and not of men. Yesterday’s liberties have become today’s latent liabilities.
RR reader and a friend of a more liberal persuasion and I discuss such matters on a regular basis. He recalled a post-9/11 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program that kicked into high gear the development and integration of technologies to make possible our practical interment in today’s post-privacy society. The Total Information Awareness program was put under the newly established Information Awareness Office – its revealing seal is shown nearby. Upon review, the IAO was found to be so repugnant that Congress and Bush2 shut it down in 2003 (more here). However, all of its constituent technology toolkit programs have continued and expanded under hazier and hidden auspices. After all, we must be kept secure, and above all secure from ourselves.
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