Spying for Freedom! It’s Total Information American Goodness!
Spying has been with us for thousands of years. It predates the Hittites and has helped establish, maintain and even bring down empires. Joshua spied for Moses, which means one can say, “It’s in the Bible!” and be completely correct. It doesn’t get any more righteous than that! Obviously, a little spying is a necessary good for all governments. It just follows, that if a little spying is good, then complete, total spying is the best of all possible worlds! It’s practically a one way ticket to heaven.
I was critical of Total Information Awareness (by another name) at first, but have since seen the error of my ways. Sure, metadata can tell just as much or more about someone than listening to the actual phone calls. And maybe spying on everyone, all the time may seem like over-kill to stop something that kills fewer people than lightning. And giving our information to corporations so that they can harm people trying to hold them to account may look to some like the priorities of our government are misplaced. And sure, by spying on reporters we are kind of nullifying the First Amendment, and looking more and more like Eastern Europe used to all the time. And maybe it does look like those in power who are supporting the National Security State are really doing it for money, both by directly giving to security companies, and by spying for economic reasons. We are also treating whistleblowers like the traitors, which I used to believe was morally reprehensible. But not anymore! I have seen the light, and boy do I feel fine!
The point is that it’s the right thing to do, because our side is doing it. Just like those who can tell you that science is wrong about evolution and global warming, so too can the supporters of absolute surveillance tell you that it is not the minutia of facts and logic that matter, it’s that if the outcome is virtuous, the rest is inconsequential. Plus… Paulbots, libertarians and such! (Being on the same side as Cheney felt a little strange at first, but now I just embrace it as part of the Brotherhood of Man. If we could all jump on the Spy Bandwagon, we would all feel connected. Even if it’s just through the NSA.)
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