Greenwald's bombshell news continue

[JDPriestly]

113. Get off the net. Leave the front lawns of the parks and city halls.

And your house is too small to meet with more than a few friends.

That is how democracy is being squashed and outlawed in our country.

The homes of most of us in the 99% are too small and humble to permit us to entertain more than family and friends at one time.

We are not allowed to congregate in public places for long enough to organize a movement.

And the government watches us when we communicate on the internet ever ready to infiltrate any kind of movement, no matter how peaceful, no matter how democratic, no matter how utterly harmless it is.

This is the trend in many countries in the world, I am sure. Just read an article on censorship in China tonight. And the gist of the article was that speech itself is not repressed as long as it does not present the possibility that people might congregate or meet or demonstrate.

Sorry. But we need a free internet, free from surveillance.

And we need privacy laws that protect our words and the thoughts that we express with them from any surveillance performed without our personal consent, whether by private or public entities.

Our very future as a nation and a world depend on freedom of thought and expression, on creativity. And surveillance destroys creativity.

I would suggest that anyone who doubts my words read the book, Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China. In it the author describes the devastating effect that the accusations and paranoia of the Communists under Mao, particularly during the period in which Madame Mao held great influence, had on creativity, problem solving and the functioning of society in China post WWII.

China did not have the means to watch its people that are available in this age of the internet. But it managed through requiring and rewarding spying and reporting on neighbors to create quite a terror regime. The more spying and accusing, the poorer China became.

Excessive spying leads to suspicion, blame and paranoia. In turn, those feelings paralyze citizens and prevent the emotions and values that are necessary for a functioning society such as trust, confidence and hope. We need to be realistic, not paranoid or fearful. But that is difficult when over and over our worst fears, our fantasies of Big Brother are admitted to be true.

We need trust to overcome difficulty. That cannot exist in an atmosphere of surveillance. Everyone begins after a time to watch their speech. The society itself becomes dishonest. This happens in every dictatorship. Read the history. The lessons are clear.

Surveillance forces discontent to be hidden. And the discontent then manifests itself in very destructive behavior. That is not a wish on my part. That is an observation. Just read the history and watch the people and society around you.

For example, when homosexuality and abortion (even for medical reasons) were prohibited, people did not admit to that kind of behavior. We saw what that lead to: deaths from AIDs among homosexuals and deaths from illegal abortions among women.

There are many, many examples of behavior or speech that are prohibited for no good reason that result in people continuing the behavior but in secret, and often to harm of themselves and others around them.

Surveillance discourages openness and honesty. That is why tyrants love it so much.

Sorry, but do a cost-benefit analysis. The small benefit that a government or business gains from surveillance is far outweighed by the costs, the detriment to individuals and society.