[ExI] openness on the internet, was RE: Destructive uploading.

[Jeff Davis]

On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 11:16 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> Interesting aside: when a person goes through the security clearance
> process, they investigate everything about a person's life, in ways far more
> intimate than a proctology examination.

The above is an aside, but what does it mean regarding the pros and
cons of governmental total awareness?  If you're being vetted for or
possess a clearance, you're already on the inside.  Insofar as one is
concerned about authoritarian intrusion and control, you have then
become part of the problem.  You've become an assistant to "the
oppressors".

As to Gene's warnings and suspicious attitude, frankly, after 62 years
on the planet, I judge the warnings to be too late.  It's already
"game over".  The Capra-like narrative of American wonderfulness is
tattered to transparency, and the basis of the delusion -- America the
massively wealthy -- is going, going, gone already.  Wealth, whereever
located, has owned your ass since agriculture was invented.  In modern
times the US has owned everyone's ass as the capo de tutti capi,
since its rise after ww2.

(The Soviets resisted that ownership, but hobbled by their own
contradictions, were brought to heel.  The Chinese, having waited --
first by chance, then by design -- for the US to exhaust itself with
imperial autophagy, look primed to take over the "big dog" slot. And
five thousand years of Chinese cultural continuity suggest that they
may very well hold that title for the next thousand years.  They seem
adept at social stability.)

So the bad news is that the West is soon to be even more
comprehensively under the control of Big Brother, but the good news is
that this condition is "end stage", presaging its imminent collapse,
just like the Soviets, due to the attendant expense and inefficiency.

In short, technology and commerce are the key to success.  Commitment
to these two brings sovereign -- and personal -- success.  Then
follows the misstep: pride, arrogance, and falling victim to the
imperial impulse, bringing it all down.

Because one's personal fortunes are often linked to the fortunes of
the sovereign, it's  best to be circumspect about national loyalty.
Have your full-featured "alternative watercraft" ready well before the
ship of state torpedoes itself.  Be out of there before nationalism
leads to treading water in the shark tank.

Best, Jeff Davis

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well
please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take
the consequences."
              P.J. O'Rourke