Do you get the REAL significance of the DEA surveillance story? Wow, just Wow.

[Nay]

27. Uh, not true. This is a different type of totalitarianism, one that was alluded to in "Brave New

World." IOW, they don't care if you know exactly what they're doing, because 1) they'll make sure society's cultural norms will reflect that surveillance is just ducky; 2) you'll get rewards for being a good little citizen; and, when all else fails, 3) "you don't like it? Well, what the fuck are YOU gonna do about it?" as the drone circles above your roof line.

As Frank Zappa said: "“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

In our case, it's not that the illusion is too expensive to maintain -- it's that with the vastly superior power of the surveillance state, it is no longer necessary to maintain the illusion. Besides, it's more pleasurable for the PWB to see us helpless and upset; it is better than more money. It's fun for them to grind us into the dirt, and doubly fun to do that to helpless people who know what's happening to them. It's the old movie trope -- it's not enough to defeat an enemy, you have to humiliate him, too, for that good old testosterone rush.