Dear Friends,
It seems to me, when the bureaucracy claims national security and then hides information, that data isn’t hidden from our adversaries… it’s hidden from us. Russia, China, Israel, the UK, etc. all have intelligence services that work night and day to uncover all the secrets in the world. Rest assured, if they don’t already have an unredacted copy of anything they want, they merely need to call one of their purchased congresspersons to procure it for them. We all know this. Since it’s common knowledge but it remains unsaid, I am saying it. The real reason so much is kept secret is to protect the illegal activities of the bureaucracy. Those crimes amount to a real threat to national security. Thus making calls to keep it secret due to national security the acme of irony.
Civilizations are felled by corrupt bureaucracies. Rome for example. Many believe it was the Huns, Goths, and Muslim invasions that destroyed the last of it, but they are wrong. If Rome and Byzantium hadn’t been weakened by the internal squabbling that befalls all extractive economies, none of those invaders would have stood a chance. However, once Rome had gutted itself in factional civil war, it had little gumption left. Then the laws became utterly extractive, such that those who joined the army were economically punished, so Rome had to resort to hiring the Huns and Goths as mercenaries. (Look how that turned out). Each step down the path of ever greater bureaucracy was deeper into oblivion. They all appeared at the time to be primary causes, but in fact were the effects of bureaucratic rot.
Bureaucracies are sold as regulatory, but they quickly become extractive. As governments take on more and more power, legislatures, executives, courts, and police have a harder and harder time handling the task. This leads to a bureaucracy being born. Its job is to take laws that are complex and create regulations from them. This allows laws to grow faster than a legislature could ever pass them. A bureaucracy isn’t slowed by factional self-interest, the anger of those affected, or even constitutional limits. That allows a bureaucracy to be extremely efficient at regulating. People are people though, and we have a pattern. That pattern is self-interest. Put a pen in the hand of a person and they can’t help but benefit themselves. This is especially dangerous when the regulator doesn’t recognize it.
We are great at noticing the motes in the eyes of others, but oblivious to the planks in our own eyes. That doesn’t make us bad… it makes us human beings. Give someone power and all they can see is an ocean of motes in dire need of plucking. The bureaucrat then has unlimited work to do. That work requires money. The result is bureaucracy is always in need of revenue. That revenue must be extracted from the populace. We get the benefit because the motes in our eyes are being plucked by a shaky hand with sharp tweezers. Many eyes are lost, sure, but some motes are successfully removed. Meanwhile the planks festering in the eyes of the cubicle riders go unnoticed. Those planks are arrogance, hubris, and ego. Such attitudes must lead to criminality in the name of the nation.
Those in the CIA believe it’s wise to video a powerful person abusing a minor. They think it’s good to murder people. Running a game on an enemy of the state is perfectly fine. (Even if we are the enemy of the state). Programming children as in MK Ultra is a laudable task, in their minds. The problem is that the rest of us might not like our government committing those crimes… so we must be kept in the dark. Eventually, we become the enemy of the state. This is often due to cognitive dissonance, fear, or us fighting back politically. Moreover, bureaucracies have more in common with each other than the people they regulate. So a CIA bureaucrat has an affinity for a Chinese bureaucrat that neither has for a Bible-thumping redneck. National security then is to hide their crimes from us, not protect us.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
