“The lie can be maintained only for
such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic,
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for
the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the
mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest
enemy of the State.”
– Dr. Josef M. Goebbels
Finding itself (themselves?) unable
to put the issue of NSA’s blanket surveillance of all Americans phone calls,
emails, internet activity – even photographing U.S. Mail envelopes – completely out of the electorate’s mind (perhaps because so many Americans so
distrust “the media” (sic) that even planned distractions like a “government shutdown”
didn’t keep the issue in the background), the “media divisions” of all six multinational
corporations that own “the media” (from now on, well just call them “THE multinationals”)
changed tactics last week, as the news “broke” of ongoing revelations that NSA,
on behalf of “the” United States (grammatically
correct in certain circumstances; politically important with respect to “these
United States”) has “dragnetted”, “vacuumed”, and otherwise consumed the phone
calls, emails, and internet activity of, for all intents and purposes, the
world.
Breathlessly (with relief?), we’re
told that the leaders of Brazil, France, and now, Germany, are very upset, but
we’re simultaneously reassured (by a Senator, no less (gasp!)) that such “upset” is “for the domestic
consumption of their own public”; “code” for “‘s OK. They’re not really mad.” It’s a great setup for the message to follow,
delivered by an “assistant to the president for homeland security” in an *editorial*
published Friday:
“[N]o one disputes
the need for careful, thorough intelligence gathering. Nor is it a secret that
we collect information about what is happening around the world to help protect
our citizens, our allies and our homeland. So does every intelligence service
in the world."
We’re supposed to be relieved, ourselves. Somebody else is outraged! And they’re
governments! Surely they’ll put a
stop to this!
We’re also to be resigned. After all, didn’t Senator Rubio (no friend of
the party in power!) just tell us on a multinational media division “ ...
Everyone spies on everybody. That's just a fact.”? We should just understand that it's no BFD. As he said, striving for a Texas metaphor, “at
the end of the day, everyone knew there was gambling going on in Casablanca.”
Right. Here’s a thought! Why would the leaders of Brazil, France, and
now, Germany, or any (every?) other country want – no, need – to “respond[] to domestic pressures in
their own country”; why would Brazil, France, and Germany, or any (every?) other country want
– no, need – to provide for “domestic
consumption of their own public”?
On the face of it, the “domestic pressures”
to which Senator Rubio off-handedly refers are the anger of Brazilians, Frenchmen,
Germans, and people of any (every?) other country, at “the” United States’ outright theft of their
privacy, too! And they want to know how
and why their own governments let it happen.
Of course, that’s not what this story, the new story, is
supposed to be about. Because even “angry
allies” hasn’t been working the way it should.
The new story is how “documents obtained by former NSA contractor
Edward Snowden…might expose [Brazil’s, France’s, and now, Germany’s] own
intelligence operations…and their level of co-operation with the U.S.”
I find it hard to believe that Brazilians,
Frenchmen, Germans, or any other people, would impose “domestic pressures” over
their governments’ “intelligence gathering” about “the” United States. That makes the blackmail hard to understand.
Could it be that Brazil, France, and
Germany, or any (every?) other country, are doing blanket surveillance of all their own countrymen’s phone calls,
emails, internet activity – perhaps even photographing mail envelopes – too?
We could ask Senator Rubio. But we don’t have to. He already told us.
“ ... Everyone spies on everybody.
That's just a fact.”
There is a subtler, but equally
important fact lying in the background. In
Senator Rubio’s reassurances that the leaders of Brazil, France, and Germany are
merely “responding to domestic pressures”, providing for the “domestic consumption
of their own public”, there are two stark truths:
1. The government “ ... spies on everybody." Everybody. Everybody. Even you; and your kids.
2. The “leaders” of governments manufacture
news.
That second one is good for “the media”,
giving “Goebbles’ Gerbils” a product to bring to market,
It's good for the “multinationals”
that own “Goebbles’ Gerbils”.
But it’s not good for America.