Nonsense so errant
There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
Bertrand Russell
I work in an office that requires employees to wear a photo ID badge and use a cardkey to enter the work floor. An unarmed security guard is required to touch each of our badges to prove their authenticity, but in the interests of time, they merely look up from whatever Youtube viral nonsense they are gaping at momentarily, see a blur of color that approximates a badge that we wave from across the lobby, and nod. I suppose this method is perhaps more secure than having nothing at all in place, but just barely.
But I have coworkers who have commented on just how safe they feel here, and how the presence of a minimum wage flunky in an unflattering uniform means that no one here will “go postal” and take out the office with a flurry of handgun fire. Any attempts to show otherwise fall on deaf ears, not because they are stupid- but because they are scared. The only thing that might possibly stop any person from going whackadoo and shooting up a bunch of office workers is the prospect of getting shot themselves- and perhaps not even then. But you can bet if my coworkers and I were allowed to carry guns, folks might think twice about going all Rambo on us. Anything less- all your security guards, all your badges, all your cameras in parking lots, all your mandated online security exams- only succeeds in giving the non-criminal sheep a warm fuzzy. Criminals, they merely sidestep it all, ignoring the rules. Because that is what a criminal is- a person who doesn’t obey the law. They will fake badges, conceal weapons, avoid cameras. All the while I have to be fingerprinted, drug tested, badged and filmed simply to perform my role as a semi-skilled hamster in a high-tech habitrail.
Annoying and counterproductive as this “security” is, I accept its intrusions for a paycheck. It’s part of a contract I signed with my employer. If I no longer wish to be bothered by it, I can quit and find employment elsewhere. But I am under no illusions as to the merits of it all- it’s all nonsense- but I have a choice.
But as a member of society, I have signed no explicit contracts. Not with my fellow citizens, not with my government, none. I pay taxes because that is the price of living in what passes for a civilized society these days. But I, unlike many of my fellow citizens, refuse to live in silent acceptance of tyranny, simply because our government told us that scary brown people hate us enough to do us harm. This is not to say I’m unafraid- because I am. I’m afraid of my governments brand of “nonsense so errant” that it considers itself free to do such completely un-American acts, supposedly for my benefit, such as:
US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a “walk in the park,” according to an interview published in the New Yorker’s print edition today.
Of course, they want to do this to protect us:
According to a 2007 conversation in the Oval Office, McConnell told President Bush, “If the 9/11 perpetrators had focused on a single US bank through cyber-attack and it had been successful, it would have an order of magnitude greater impact on the US economy.”
Then, a few paragraphs later, you find out who they actually plan on protecting is:
“He claimed that cyber-theft account for as much as a hundred billion dollars in annual losses to the American economy. ‘The real problem is the perpetrator who doesn’t care about stealing-he just wants to destroy.’”
Ah, so theres the real reason for monitoring all of our internet traffic- “cyber-theft”. A loss of money to business. Nothing about security for citizens, nothing about terrorists, but all about making sure that corporations don’t suffer any losses from theft. My, that’s certainly worth my privacy, you betcha.
Ok, maybe you don’t mind your entire internet history being data mined so that some online site doesn’t get a phony credit card charge, that’s your business. Or maybe you do it old school, and still write letters? Well, don’t think thats escaped notice:
Bush says feds can open mail without warrant
WASHINGTON – President Bush quietly has claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans’ mail without a judge’s warrant.
Bush asserted the new authority Dec. 20 after signing legislation that overhauls some postal regulations. He then issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open mail under emergency conditions, contrary to existing law and contradicting the bill he had just signed, according to experts who have reviewed it.</em>
I currently reading- thru gritted teeth, page after infuriating page- Naomi Klein’s masterwork, “The Shock Doctrine. This is America stripped bare, devoid of all morality, a beast built on greed in which people are expendable, rights are trifles to be ignored, and any nation is simply a candidate for plunder. Chile, Brazil, Poland, Russia and now Iraq, all methodically stripped of anything of value after enduring a “shock”- coups, wars, economic collapse- all stage-managed by a select few, and sold to the witless citizens as simply the reaction to bad events. It gave us Pinochet. It gave us Kissenger. It gave us Katrina. It gave us Bush. It is government by people who have dedicated their lives to the notion that government doesn’t work- and they prove it. It is the metaphor so perfect of cargo planes full of tons of American currency on pallets, stolen from the American people, flown to Iraq and handed back to mercenaries, oil companies, fly by night security firms, embezzlement in all but name.
It’s all a lie. Its all just theft. And yet we’re surrounded by people who believe it, or fear it, and meekly accept any nonsense so errant, as long as they are convinced that daddy is protecting them.
Well, my daddy is dead. And I didn’t elect any lying sociopath in a nice suit to pick up the job, either. If any of you reading this feel the same, my I suggest the following.
Go here, and begin to regain your privacy.
Take some time and read a book.
Buy one of these– while you still can.
Do whatever it takes to make yourself feel secure. You can’t rely on minimum wage ex-burger flippers now security guards to do it. You can’t rely on the government to do it, because they ain’t in the business. Trusting a government with your security is akin to paying protection money to the mob, or buying a security system from the man you find at 3 in the morning in your living room with a gun.
But the longest lasting, best method of securing yourself? Stop believing the nonsense- and stop allowing those around you to either. Because the sooner we stop allowing fear to govern our lives, stop allowing the daily rape of our rights under ruse of security, the closer we’ll be to safe.
So learn- and share. Investigate- and protest. Monkey wrench whatever you can. Encrypt your mail, spray paint security cameras, paste images of dead Iraqi children over every support our troops magnetic sticker you see. Set up bogus email accounts, and mail between them pages of gibberish, with “bomb” and “jihad” and “al Sadr” mixed in. Bury the system.
But most of all- don’t believe the nonsense.
