http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/11/evaluation/
On the one hand, I think this is appropriate. My smarmy bells go off whenever I listen/watch Snowden talk. He just smacks of "insider threat" to me. So, plans like this seem, in a knee-jerk kinda way, like a good idea. But I can't help but wonder what such a culture does/will engender? One of the reasons I get the heebee jeebees around criminals is their constant paranoia. Since I hung around many people who were or later became criminals during my middle and high school days, I often think that I could easily have become one of them... were it not for the constant psychological overhead of having to validate every person and every interaction. That sort of extra effort just to stay alive or out of jail seems so exhausting... hell, I feel the same way about mundane tasks like changing the oil in my various engines... there's no way I'm vigilant enough to be a criminal. Anyway, what type of person are we _grooming_ to be "clearance holding personnel"? They certainly won't be risk-taking entrepreneurs who constantly stand at the edge of bankruptcy. They won't be empathetic parents of children who end up running in the wrong crowd. They won't be happy-go-lucky vacationers who might want to backpack across Iran. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the continuous evaluation and monitoring these cleared people undergo will be sophisticated and will encourage the evaluated and monitored to live full and satisfying lives. But I can't help but think that the evaluation and monitoring will actually select for tight-assed, self-repressed, little fascists who believe all 6 sigma human behavior should be sliced off and tossed in the incinerator. -- ⇒⇐ glen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
