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Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications
40hz:
An opinion piece well worth reading can be found here at The Register.
Some highlights:
For all that I am frequently accused of being "anti-American" I hold the US Constitution up as one of the most sacred documents ever written by mankind. (The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights would be the item I consider to be the single most important document in our history as a species.)
The creation of the US Constitution was a symbol of a radically different way of thinking about our place in the world. Others had believed in the same ideals that were embedded in the Constitution long before the founding fathers, but none had ever made it stick. It was perhaps the most important turning point in the social evolution of our species since the development of agriculture.
--- End quote ---
...While I do not believe in overarching conspiracies of evil, I do believe that the structure and format of the American political system has become so damaged that the corruption of some individuals in positions of power is inevitable.
Transparency is virtually non-existent, accountability laughable and at the end of the day people unworthy of the power and responsibility they obtain are repeatedly given absolute control over the lives of millions...
--- End quote ---
...The Constitution of the United States of America is not a declaration of rights and freedoms granted to its citizens by the government. That document is a declaration of the limitations of powers granted to the government by the people that allow said government to exist.
According to the founders of the US, rights are not something that natural persons are given; that which is given can be easily taken away. Rights are innate and inalienable. All human beings are born with them and they cannot be taken from us....
--- End quote ---
Those with more to lose are far more willing to reduce the liberty of all in the vain hope of defending their monetisable assets. This is perhaps an explanation for why so many have come to associate freedom with "security at all costs".
Nowhere is this more evident than in the words of politicians themselves. Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA) crystalises the viewpoint evidenced by those governing the US over the past few decades in just a few words: "To me, what makes us such as great country, is that we cherish freedom so much. But you can't have freedom without security. So you have to find the balance."
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"You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it." - Malcolm X
As the US has spend the past 30 years going completely off the rails we've spent that same time becoming absolutely addicted to the technology and services it produces. So deeply embedded are we that disentangling ourselves from American technology providers, cloud vendors and what-have-you is a process of years, even decades.
While undertaking this difficult, painful and expensive task may not be absolutely required for pragmatic business reasons, I argue that it is a moral and ethical obligation we collectively bear to defend that which we believe. We could simply remain apathetic and allow privacy to evaporate as our laws are synchronized with those of the US, but it that what we want to have occur?
No terrorist actions, war, trade sanctions, international politics or other traditional tools of revolution and statecraft will turn America around. Americans have so deeply forgotten the concept of "liberty" that they no longer speak of their freedoms as innate but rather as rights granted them by their government. They see themselves as helpless before an unstoppable and inscrutable juggernaut and their own belief in this makes it so.
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Read the entire article here.
Read it, discuss it - and hopefully summon up the resolve and courage to become involved and legally act upon it. Because it is going to require both before much longer.
(NOTE: a record of this communication has been transmitted to US government monitors.)
TaoPhoenix:
Well, I'll start with the pessimistic view:
I will take another semi-break from all this stuff here again soon. "Living locally" I get by day to day just fine. However I could easily end up in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and then my "rights" won't matter ... and they're NOT rights. Unfortunately there's no such thing that those founders believed in as "inalienable rights". What you are allowed to do is whatever they feel like allowing you to do.
From a different news item elsewhere, Pres. Obama was saying stuff like "this is a compromise that Americans can be happy with..."?! Nah. So just assume "Anyone and everyone" is into your data, and then just go back to your daily life for the day.
40hz:
Pres. Obama was saying stuff like "this is a compromise that Americans can be happy with..."?!
-TaoPhoenix (June 08, 2013, 12:47 PM)
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Simple assertion does not establish the truth of a statement or conclusion. And begging the question still remains a fallacy of logic. Even when the President resorts to it.
8)
Tinman57:
And I served over 20 years in the military to protect our "Rights & Liberty". What a freaking joke..... >:(
On another note, this hasn't been moved to the Basement yet?
wraith808:
Ooh! Ooh! I can hit the button.
They weren't one hit wonders... they were prophets and doomsayers!
...Too soon?
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