All this surveillance stuff

This surveillance leaking has been going on for a long time now. I partly disagree with some of the way its being done. It is being deliberately trickled out to the media and I don’t think that that is necessarily a responsible form of actual whistleblowing. It makes it difficult to get the whole picture on what is happening and to have a discussion about it.

But more than that, another serious problem I have with it is that, as each story trickles out, it paints this picture of America being so bad, etc. But the reality is that I’m sure many countries are doing the same thing. They are doing it and also it is probably commonly known that they are among the intelligence communities of various states.

So these trickling-out items on various aspects of covert surveillance by the United States in painting a picture of the US being really terrible but that picture is surely not the most accurate.

I’m a neophyte in the area of surveillance but I do know some things. I know that cell phones emit radio signals and anyone with sufficient knowledge can obtain information if not outright intercept calls. If just any person can do this, obviously governments can. So one thing that’s really skewed with all this media coverage and the way the whistleblowing documents are being leaked is that it makes it seem like this is unique activity being exclusively done by America.

And it appears that for the most part even governments which documents have revealed have been subject to surveillance seem not too willing to really have the open debate about surveillance in general. Perhaps this is because nothing that has been revealed is actually a suprise to them, and perhaps all the intelligence agencies aren’t keen on having open discussions about all this and would rather let this episode – being dragged extensively out – pass.

Another messed up thing is that the real discussions that should be occurring aren’t either. Even though we have these high-impact acticles coming out in succession, still we see in the mainstream media how there is no appropriate discussion about the powers of surveillance and society.

Even as changes are enacted and policies undergoing scrutiny and revisions it seems like the true debate that needs to be happening – precisely the one which Edward Snowden initiated in his video interview months ago – is not.

We turn on a tv and see bigots on networks like Fox News. We have had two George Bush presidents in office in the United States for 12 years who pissed on a lot of laws and did a lot of horrific things to the world and to our country. There has been a lot of bullshit and there is still a lot of it going on. Candidates for the office of President of the United States displayed open, unabashed bigotry in the last election. This is where America is at.

These sweeping powers to raid and invade the lives of human beings have been created without proper debate. They are governed by secret policies which the public has not even been aware of. And there are people who are like Hitler or Stalin the Second one step from getting into office in the United States. There are networks that are openly bigoted, lying, spiteful, and very hateful.

What happens when people like that are the ones running the show? What happens when they are in office? We’re supposed to trust that these powers won’t be abused, but I sincerely think that their mere existence is already an abuse and I believe that the founders of America also thought that.