I admit it: I’m obsessed with the NSA’s recently revealed PRISM program. Is it just me? I’m still thinking about and commenting on this, but I wonder if this is like torture and drones — just another scandal no one really cares about but the victims.
Obsessed with PRISM
Ted Rall
http://rall.comTed Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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9 Comments.
It’s not that no one cares unless they’re a victim. As I’ve said a million times, it’s …. The Big Gimme. People simply do not care — even victims — provided they can have their nice house, nice car, big screen HD TV, Super-Deluxe cable package, in-ground pool, NASCAR and beer. They simply do not give a fuck.
If the average person today found out that every last communication they had was been recorded, stored and analyzed — they would not care. Again — Would. Not. Care.
That’s the dichotomy of The Big Gimme. You trade wealth for freedom, and do it with a smile. The problem is the rest of us are fucked too. It’s the enablers that are always the biggest problem. They stand in between justice and the lack thereof.
Ted,
The problem with PRISM is that people are simply worn out. I recall reading in a book (the title eludes me for the moment) about a Quaker who, in the interest of peaceful protest, engaged in civil disobedience and was arrested. Due to some minor bail issue, he had to be held in jail for 72 hours over the weekend.
Apparently, as soon as the guards turned their backs, the prisoners grabbed him and proceeded to rape him for almost all 72 hours.
Look at the past few decades in American history. We had Kennedy assassinated by a no one (who had received free training from the military). We had the debacle of Vietnam. We had Nixon.
Then we had hostages in Iran. For 444 days. That was psychologically pretty hard to deal with. A major world power doesn’t have a bunch of students bend them over for more than a year — and THEN get away with it in the end. But the Iranian students did.
And then Reagan. The death squads in Central America. Our government’s buddy-buddy deals with big businesses and dictators started becoming better known. (Remember, Noriega, Saddam and Osama? Just the first three let go in the economic crisis. But all three had been good little tools of the Americans for years and years.)
Then we had the Space Shuttle blow up. I think this was, psychologically, a lot more significant than a lot of people realize because, frankly, what good does the space shuttle do in most people’s minds? It isn’t the Moon. it isn’t Mars. It isn’t even a permanent space colony in a Lagrange Point. It’s just a thing floating around doing what sounds about as exciting as junior high science-lab experiments. NASA would probably be unable to market Immortality Syrup.
Then we got Poppa Bush. Communism ended. Clinton. The first Democrat in 12 years. And he was a centrist. It’s like Susan B. Anthony getting the right to vote and saying, “I’m gonna vote for whoever my husband tells me to.” And we got eight years of that. Tepid half-measures. The beginning of “The Long Game.”
Then Dubya. (Words fail.) We got Dubya because, quite bluntly, Al Gore was simply too much of a goody-two-shoes pussy to stand up for himself.
Then Obama. And, not just centrism, but actually more secrecy, more paranoia, more Bushiness, than with Bush.
Then came OWS. A self-indulgent exercise is “outrage” mostly by people who have never had a hard day in their lives. Being forced to live with your parents? Yeah, that can suck. But don’t bitch about it to me while you’re playing Angry Birds on your cell phone and drinking a soy latte from Starbucks.
I suspect that, like the Quaker at the beginning of my reply, we are simply exhausted. We’ve been fucked so long and so hard, we really can’t see that it would make much difference now if it ended or not.
Addendum: Sorry. Forgot this point. The space shuttle blowing up. Everyone pretty much realized two things: 1. the investigation showed the astronauts died because the PR types had taken control of the launch, and 2. that in either case, what the astronauts were doing was pointless. The lives were wasted in an “ants sorting tiny screws in space” nothing exercise, not for something soaring and amazing like walking on the moon.
Wow. I thought Alex was getting more coherent, but this …… wow. A raped Quaker, the Kennedy assassination, the space shuttle, what the fuck?
Get off the weed when you post. Wow.
You young whippersnappers don’t remember the bandido El Beejay. He had enough dirt (in paper file cabinets) on enough members of the Senate to shut down the Southern filibuster against civil rights. (Also, any opposition to the American effort to liberate Vietnam from the evil Commies.)
With Prism, think of what the US President could have done.
More to the point, think of what he did.
Almost all Germans had 12 years of the Gestapo and half of all Germans had another 45 years of Stasi, so they were all against Prism. But Prism had enough stuff on Merkel that she went before the German people and said that Prism had saved thousands of German lives (details classified Top Secret, so we can say no more). And she thanked Obama for Prism.
So Prism is great. Just think what it could have done to Adolph, Tojo, Stalin, Castro, etc., etc.
And any effective critic of the US government will soon be singing the song of the real McCoy.
Which is just what every patriotic American wants.
The 40% who oppose Prism are obviously not patriots. And Obama will soon let them know that he’s read all their e-mails, and what he will do with those e-mails if they don’t agree that the US is the Greatest Force for Good that has ever existed on the planet, led by the US President, who is the Greatest Leader Ever.
Exko, your first post was a good one. Too bad your second one was back to the petulant in-fighting that you seem to enjoy so much.
Russell,
Who?
Ted,
I can hardly get this scandal out of my head. I am careful about hyperbole since I see it everywhere and know how much it can detract from one’s message, but I really believe this is the worst scandal in our history. It confirms our worst fears. Actually, our situation is even more dire than I suspected especially with such a healthy majority OK with Big Brother. I mean; it hardly gets more Big Brothery than this…Do people really not understand what a free society is? How can they not value privacy AT ALL? ‘Freedom’ is has just been a meaningless rallying cry since 9/11 or Gulf War II. And here’s where I’m really lost: the same people who know the government lies/is incompetent TRUST that government to spy on us all with restraint and decency. The paranoia charge is very irritating to me. Obviously with its dismissive quality but mostly because the government has NO POSSIBLE BENEVOLENT REASON TO DO THIS.
Exkiodexian,
Yeah, Alex often covers a lot of ground, but I followed his points just fine. He hooked us with a shocking story, went through the emasculating and shocking historical events since the 60s, and then brought it full circle.
Prism/PROMIS, What’s the difference?