The war on terror is a worldwide endeavor that has spurred massive investment into the global surveillance industry - which now seems to be becoming a war on "liberty and privacy." Given all of the new monitoring technology being implemented, the uproar over warrantless wiretaps now seems moot. High-tech, first-world countries are being tracked, traced, and databased, literally around every corner. Governments, aided by private companies, are gathering a mountain of information on average citizens who so far seem willing to trade liberty for supposed security. Here are just some of the ways the matrix of data is being collected: Read the rest of the article
Read the comments at the bottom, too.
I try to be aware and limit my exposure to this sort of thing. But this article brought up a couple of things of which I was unaware. Not necessarily things I didn't think possible at some point in the future, but wasn't aware they existed already. I shouldn't be surprised, though. I mean, since the Superstate is concerned with furthering their own goals of greater control over everyone, and knowledge by "we the people" is their greatest enemy (Don't think so? Think about it.), they certainly aren't likely to tell us about all their capabilities. In fact, this has proven to be the case. Over and over, the Superstate nannies have denied everything until caught red-handed, spying on us instead of the bad guys they invoke every time they push for some broad new suite of powers over everyone.
What can we do about it? Not much. But here are three suggestions which spring immediately to mind, while reading the article.
- Boycott the companies that push this stuff, inasmuch as is practical. Apple, for example. I have known for a long time about Apple's pro-control, anti-freedom attitudes and tactics. Fortunately, they have effective competition for everything they produce, so I'm not really giving up anything by boycotting them. Hence, Apple products are not allowed in my home.
- Sidestep their efforts to monitor and control you. Be careful about this; don't get yourself in trouble. But there is (as yet, in most places) no law against wearing a hat with a brim, and looking at the ground when cameras are pointed at you. And don't support anti-burkha laws, because they will certainly end up being used against your hat. Also, there are products which make it difficult for a camera to make out your license plate number, while not preventing human eyes from reading it.
- Most importantly, separate all people and entities into two groups: those who respect your rights, and those who favor control over you. You can't always tell for sure about everyone, but believe me, any politician and anyone who wears a badge falls into the latter category, as do most who work for any government entity. If they didn't, they would be doing something else for a living. You will have to deal with people like this, but keep their status firmly in mind as you do so. They are not your friends, so question the motive behind everything they do and say. The auto industry and most other large industries are also in this camp.
4 comments:
I figure what's going to save us is simple data overload. Too much information and not enough actual humans to look at most of it.
That, and bureaucratic ineptitude and turf wars. There are multiple agencies now -- federal, state, local -- all engaged in accumulating masses of information, all using incompatible systems and different coding methods, and none of them wanting to cooperate with any of the others.
I agree, 100%. If it weren't for those factors, it would be 1984.
Like you I try not to be paranoid but it's just silly not to recognize what is happening in our world. RIP the good old days!
as part of the new generation, and lover of technology, this scares me. what happened to rights of privacy? i'm not a schiz, but sometimes i worry about phone taps and such. in my opinion surveillance is mostly used as a bully tactic rather than for our safety. even though we can count on data overload, it's still very big brotherish. what happens when the technology improves? also, i say the patriot act is bullshit--it's very un-american. good article!
Post a Comment