Tom wrote: > I don't know that there is ONE big problem. I can see several. The one I > find particularly fascinating (and disturbing) is how the existence of an > institutional infrastructure for repression creates a set of incentives and > constituencies that are independent of any overt will to dominate. The > profitability and growth of contractors like Booz Allen Hamilton depend in > the long run on some sort of "metric of success." So if they ever run out of > one kind of "terrorist," they'll just have to find a substitute. And they > will.
I view it as a piece of the organized political power of the 1% or .1% or .01% over the rest of the human race. In that context, it should be opposed. I don't know if, in and by itself, the main damage (in, say, lives ruined or destroyed) is done abroad or at home. The thing is that the NSA apparatus is not a stand-alone thing. Again (and it must have lots of glitches, just by its sheer complexity), it is just a piece of the more or less integrated overall machinery enforcing U.S. imperialism, domestic rule, and all that, which now has thingies like drones and other war-making, digitally controlled robots. I think it should be viewed mainly in that context, and not just in the narrow context of the struggle for privacy rights in the U.S. It is true that the relative U.S. economic decline has reduced the global weight of U.S. imperialism, drones and all. But, globally considered, it continues to be the main force crushing the 99% or 99.99% of humans. That's what gives it the importance that I attribute to it. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
