When states monitored their citizens we used to call them authoritarian.

[n2doc]

Now we think this is what keeps us safe
The internet is being snooped on and CCTV is everywhere. How did we come to accept that this is just the way things are?


Suzanne Moore
The Guardian, Wednesday 3 July 2013 15.00 EDT

America controls the sky. Fear of what America might do can make countries divert planes – all because Edward Snowden might be on one.

Owning the sky has somehow got to me more than controlling the internet. Maybe because I am a simpleton and sometimes can only process what I can see – the actual sky, rather than invisible cyberspace in which data blips through fibre-optic cables.

Thus the everyday internet remains opaque to all but geeks. And that's where I think I have got it wrong. My first reaction to the Prism leaks was to make stupid jokes: Spies spy? Who knew? The fact that Snowden looked as if he came from central casting didn't help. Nor did the involvement of Julian Assange, a cult leader who should be in Sweden instead of a cupboard in an embassy.

What I failed to grasp, though, was quite how much I had already surrendered my liberty, not just personally but my political ideals about what liberty means. I simply took for granted that everyone can see everything and laughed at the idea that Obama will be looking at my pictures of a cat dressed as a lobster. I was resigned to the fact that some random FBI merchant will wonder at the inane and profane nature of my drunken tweets.

Slowly but surely, The Lives of Others have become ours. CCTV cameras everywhere watch us, so we no longer watch out for each other. Public space is controlled. Of course, much CCTV footage is never seen and often useless. But we don't need the panopticon once we have built one in our own minds. We are all suspects.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/03/when-states-monitored-citizens-call-them-authoritarian

[sibelian]

1. Suzanne Moore is a NARCISSIST.

Her journalism is biased and skewed.




...... aaaaaand so on. Something like that, something along those lines. You know what I mean.

[Cleita]

3. In this she is right. n/t

[Cleita]

2. That's what authoritarian, totalitarian states tell their citizens. It's to keep them safe.

You spy and tell on your neighbor. Your kids are told to spy on you at school and then report you to their teachers and it's all to keep everyone safe. We don't have to spy on neighbors or parents any more because our tech does that job, but it's the same thing.

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

4. Yes, but... LOOK-SQUIRREL!

Yeah, the bullshit being flung about to try and justify these un-American, illegal totalitarian policies is surreal in that they even have the nerve to fling it, especially on DU who was the first to sound the alarm over a decade ago, and who has been very consistent in battling them ever since.

FAIL

[forestpath]

5. K&R

[L0oniX]

6. Well it's a good thing the military is blocking the Guardian ...huh.

Odd ...they want to spy on us ...and to keep us from finding out the truth ...but yet we are supposed to trust them ...while they don't trust us.

[Logical]

7. KR!

[DeSwiss]

8. K&R

''For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.'' ~Jonathan Swift

[Mojorabbit]

9. K and R nt

[sibelian]

11. K+R

[KoKo]

12. Recommend

[treestar]

13. Are they really monitoring people like the Stasi did?

I say no. The internet is out there and the government can see it as much as anyone else can.

We can criticize the government and politicians freely. We see it every day. How would world salad Sarah get away with her crap if we lived in a true police state?

In fact with the internet we have even more of a platform to do it. Do we come to DU to have private conversations? No.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Yes, they are monitoring people like the Stasi did

The government can see far more than anyone else can. This is not about a records of the stuff we put up in public on DU or similar sites. It's about every phone call you've made - who you called, where it was made from. The titles of your emails, and where in the network you sent them from. Probably the content of all the emails, though I'm not sure if that has been confirmed by an official document yet.

"How would world salad Sarah get away with her crap if we lived in a true police state? "

What did you think we were talking about - a 'grammar police' state??? Palin doesn't threaten the NSA, CIA or FBI. A lot of them probably love her. If nothing else, she's an excellent diversion from talking about real, responsible (and responsive) government.

[HereSince1628]

15. I think the surveillance thing goes well beyond monitoring digital communication...

A story about the USPS was imaging and archiving the face of first class mail was posted on DU in the past week...

Although technology certainly presents new capacities that greatly facilitate snoopiness (remember the outcry at FBI thermal imaging of people inside their homes? Or, placing radio-trackers, or tripping 'on-star' location finders, on vehicles without a warrant?) the crux of the problem does not rest on any one technology.

To me it seems characterization of the surveillance problem as only an internet issue is too narrow a view and the dangers of surveillance lie within human nature.