My wife gave me a TiVo. I like it a lot more than I expected to, especially considering I am nobody’s idea of a couch potato. I also try to convince myself that I don’t love gadgets excessively, but this is getting harder and harder all the time. For now, though, I’m happy with TiVo.
Of course, right after I thought my gadget lust was sated, this thing comes out…
Tonight is opening night of Attic Theatre’s Homeland Insecurity. Milgram’s War is the opening play.
I was thinking about my friend “Fred” a few days ago, as a TSA officer pulled me aside for “extra scrutiny", and my bag and laptop case underwent a shallow and perfunctory search by his colleagues. My boarding pass had big bold S’s written across it ("Search"? “Security"? “Stupid Waste of Time"? I don’t know). This is now routine for me; I get this treatment every time I fly.
I have written about the absurdity of finding myself on a so-called “No-Fly List” before. Fred is one of my five loyal readers, and he responded to my post by submitting the following comment:
“Oh no - we had better accept that truce! Osama alone holds our safety in his cowardly hands. LOL.”
(Fred is referring to the so-called “truce offer” in the January 19, 2006 tape of Osama bin Laden )
Fred’s politics, you may have gathered, are opposed to mine. Fred didn’t mean any harm, of course, but when he posted this comment, in his own way, he was calling me a cheese-eating surrender monkey. It’s a common accusation hurled at anyone who doesn’t uncritically and unconditionally support every tiny detail of the Republican right-wing agenda. Anyone who isn’t completely with them is just a filthy traitor who wants the terrorists to win, and that includes me, of course. This is what passes for debate these days.
Fred has uncritically supported everything done by George W. Bush and his corrupt crony government since January 2001, up to and including the many steady erosions of our liberty perpetrated by that crowd. My inconvenience at the airport is just a minor aspect of this trend. I’m much more troubled by the news about all the myriad new ways the NSA and the Bush Administration, with the help of the big telecom companies, are creating to ensure that whenever they want to listen in to anyone’s phone conversations or read their email, they don’t actually have to deal with the inconvenience of justifying their actions in front of a judge.
Based on what I know about Fred, I’ll assume he supports this illegal and unconstitutional wiretapping program 100%. I’m sure that he’d say, “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Fred is also a full-throated supporter of the war in Iraq. What’s really hilarious about Fred, though, is that in all of this, my friend considers himself to be a patriotic American.
I thought that the Fourth of July would be an excellent day to point something out to Fred: The United States of America was formed in direct opposition to the values espoused by its current government. This should be evident to anyone who has taken any time at all to learn about the history of our country. Exhibit A is the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
See, the Founders didn’t believe that if you’re doing nothing wrong, then it’s all right for the government to search through your stuff. The Founders believed that if you’re doing nothing wrong, your stuff is none of the government’s god damned business.
“But we’re in a war,” Fred says. “And it’s a war against a different kind of enemy.” To which we Americans reply: Bullshit.
You know, during the Cold War, from roughly 1950 through 1990, the United States squared off against a nuclear-armed Soviet Union. That was a different kind of enemy, too. The Soviet Army was poised to overrun Western Europe and the Soviet nuclear arsenal was ready to utterly destroy the United States - not merely as a political or economic entity, but as a biological entity. During this same period, the United States underwent a tremendous growth in liberty. There were still many abuses (such as COINTELPRO ), but by and large the Cold War was marked at home with an expanding sphere of personal liberty. All this happened despite claims that the Communists were “a different kind of enemy.” Now, compared to the real threat that the Soviet Union posed to the United States (and by way, the real threat posed by the Russian nuclear forces, which still exist), what sort of a threat is Al Qaeda? The answer is not much. Al Qaeda is nothing more than a band of criminals, who should be brought to swift justice with all appropriate legal means. However, there’s nothing about Al Qaeda which necessitates the creation of a surveillance state.
If the President or anybody else in authority wants to listen in on telephone conversations or read email or detain American citizens, all they have to do is justify what they’re doing to a judge, and get a warrant. Why is that so hard? What is the objection to that? That’s the point of this whole NSA story. It was never terribly hard for Bush to get warrants, but he chose not to. Why not?
The Founders of America knew perfectly well that oversight helps prevent abuses of power.The Constitution was specifically created to stop the USA from becoming a monarchy or a dictatorship. Anybody who wants to call himself an American should know that.
I don’t know which rigidly authoritarian Eastern European police state Fred’s ancestors came from, but my ancestors came to America to get away from that shit. My ancestors, along with a lot of other proud and free Americans, stood together and fought a Cold War and a handful of hot wars to defend the liberties which define America, and I’m not prepared to surrender them because I’m spooked over a bunch of criminals.
Happy Fourth of July!
More Spine-Straightening Reading:
Are we such a bunch of wimps?
Big Audio Dynamite
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