Priceless: http://kieranhealy.org//blog/archives/2013/06/09/using-metadata-to-find-paul-revere/
On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 3:57 PM, Julio Huato <[email protected]> wrote: > Here are a few, telegraphic thoughts on this matter, perhaps obvious > to people here: > > At every chance we have, we should go out and defend Bradley Manning, > Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, and anybody else sticking her/his > head on this. These are courageous people who are doing the right > thing, and we should have their backs. > > http://www.standwithbrad.org/ > > I agree with Max, what is surprising is that it's becoming a story in > the media. This is good. We need to amplify it. And we need to > attack the *whole* ideology on which this national security crap is > based, not just disjoint parts of it. It goes like this: We need the > government to protect us, because there are bad people out there out > to get us. Examples: 9/11, Boston, etc. > > No! Both 9/11 and Boston are part and parcel of the crap that our > society excretes. We have to understand where it comes from: > imperialism, capitalism. It is about exploitation, inequality, > private ownership of productive wealth, all that. > > On the political logistics, there's nothing much to say except: Take > action, do your political homework, cooperate with others, struggle, > join a union, work harder for the one you already belong to, or Occupy > group, or anti-war coalition, or environmentalist campaign, or > propaganda leftwing party, local or virtual, make your voice heard, > share it with as many others as you can. ***Do not foster paranoia, > foster action.*** Broader unity, coordination, and all that. > > How should the NSA thing alter the behavior of people fighting the > fight? It should not. It is a class struggle and they are doing > their part. The basics are clear. The state is a bunch of people, > all of us in fact, trapped in a certain sucky web of social > structures. It is out to crush us. But that's the structure. Appeal > to people as individuals with souls. To distinguish among them, use > this: The greater the personal power in the structure, the greater the > responsibility for the structure as a whole. It's a battle of ideas, > as Fidel calls it. It's the battle for hearts and minds, as Rumsfeld > called it. > > The state cannot process all that data and get anything straight out > of it without *people* with wills, with hearts and minds. And if they > must use people, then they are exposed to whistle-blowing, etc. For > every Edward Snowden they terrorize, n others will get back at them > smarter and just as courageous. > > The digital machines, robots, algorithms, etc. are all junk without > the people wo/manning them. Their problem, extracting meaningful > information out of all that data is *fundamentally unsolvable*. It's > not only quantity (a problem already) but mainly quality. The state, > by definition, will get things warped, distorted, and upside down. > > Anybody who is in the business of cognition -- that is, every self > reflecting human -- knows that junk may help answer the right > questions, but does not answer the questions immediately. Humans with > minds and hearts are required. So, do not change your behavior in > reaction to the amplification by the media of the spy so-called > "national security" apparatus. Keep using your phone, chat, Skype, > visit the internet, communicate your ideas, etc. In fact, do change > your behavior: Do all that, but more, much more. Bury them under all > that data. It will mean *nothing*, unless they win our hearts and > minds. But they won't, because it makes no sense to us to further > empower a state that has already shown to be inimical to us, the > people. > > The only exceptions to this struggling nonchalantly are if/when we get > into situations in which the lives of particular individuals are under > clear life threat. This will only be truly significant for most of us > if/when our struggle expands and threatens them more seriously. Then > use common sense to limit the sharing of detailed information to a > need-to-know basis. But, again, do not foster paranoia. Foster > action. > > What's Obama's role? He's the head of this all, of course. He's > personally made choices to make this more pervasive and out of > control. He has to be held responsible. But this is much bigger than > him and his minions. This is sure to arise the ire of this list's > foam-at-the-mouth ultra-leftist, but I am not at all sure that > demanding Obama's impeachment is the proper tactical to do. I won't > oppose it, of course, if it gathers strength, but I'm not sure this is > the right initiative at this point. Well, he can sue me. > > I live in an African American neighborhood, and the people I talk to > in my immediate neighborhood, need a lot to get to a point where > they'll be supporting an initiative demanding Obama's impeachment or > resignation. In Turkey, people seem to already be clear that they > want Erdogan out. Here I am not sure. The content of agitation > depends on the tactics, which depend on the parts of the strategy that > can be accomplished on the ground, a concrete call. And I don't have > a good sense of where we, the people, are on this. > > In any event, things are moving. > > Impressions from those who attended the left forum? I spent my > weekend with family in the Catskills, hiking and polluting the > atmosphere with a rental brand-new SUV and open camp fires. These > vehicles truly feel like amazing engineering to me. The driving feels > so smooth and all that. And it takes such a long time to cook without > a gas stove. > > I had my phone on, and its GPS activated all the time. I kept trying > to upload and download photos from out there. Very spotty network > connection from out there. Hope the NSA helps the providers expand > coverage and then sifts through all my 0s and 1s, figures out what I'm > *truly* all about, and then let *me* and my *family* know, because we > don't seem to have a clue. > > * * * > > One other, sad and embarrassing item, before I closed this email: > > I mentioned Margarito Montes, a Mexican PRT leader, in a recent post > to this list. I now regret deeply the negative remark I made about > him. I just learned from a friend, followed up by some Googling on my > part, that Margarito and his family were assassinated brutally in > northern Mexico in late 2009. I met him in the mid 1980s. Then in my > 20s, I was working as an undergrad teacher at Chapingo university near > Mexico City and doing part-time organizing in peasant or semi-peasant > communities in the Texcoco area. At the time, I was very distrustful > of Margarito's political approach, though I never viewed him as an > enemy (and we did have some real enemies). I don't know the specific > circumstances of his assassination, but I always regarded him as a > courageous social fighter. RIP. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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