Dear Friends,
It seems to me, as surveillance of the people goes up, so does the opacity of government, alternatively, as the people are freed from government’s all seeing Sauron’s eye, government becomes more transparent. Imagine a variable one way mirror between you and government. The more you can see them, the less they can see you, and the better they can see you, the more hidden they become from you. This is because our relationship with government is fundamentally one of power. When the power of one goes up, the power of the other goes down, and visa versa. Moreover, statistics show that one is twenty times more likely to be killed by one’s own government, than by random crime! Doesn’t this suggest it wise to… police our government officials at least to the extent they police us?
People old enough to remember the Soviet Bloc recognize the danger of a surveillance State. The USSR was a police state and so it’s vassal states followed and were as well. Every country under the yoke of socialism had a secret police, phone taps and a network of spies. East Germany had the vaunted Stazi, a notorious secret police force that included an enormous percent of the population. It was said that in East Germany that everyone was a spy. The result was that despite a strong and active fifth column in the West, a fifth column that is still active in the post modernist movement, as well as the consensus of economists at the time (1970’s) was that the rationally planned economy and State ordered society would win. How could it not, rational versus irrational…?
As our ability to oversee our government, so that it does not become corrupted is reduced… the propensity of government to become corrupt is increased. Take a random individual, give them access to vast sums of money and no effective oversight, if you only give the opportunity to a few people, then it is likely no one will embezzle money. Pass thousands of people through that test however, and it becomes certain someone will… and once one does, the precedent will be set and others will follow. Moreover, since people follow their leaders, the people will become corrupted as well. If it works for them, why not me? When our ability to oversee government is taken away, government must become corrupt, then we follow and become corrupt ourselves, leading to mass shootings, misery and poverty.
On the other hand, give even the most corrupt person access to vast sums of money, and put a video camera over his shoulder, wiretap his phone, drug test him and have in place powerful punishments for any infraction… and you can rest assured your money is safe. In truth, a person likely to engage in embezzlement, is repulsed by a position that is scrutinized. They are attracted to positions without oversight. Look at the States in the US that are one party progressive run, and you will quickly notice embezzlement by city treasurers, town clerks and bureaucrats is rampant, and those caught are only the tip of a vast iceberg of corruption. This is only common sense, we all understand that monitoring makes people follow rules, look over the shoulder of a cashier at Dollar General.
Letting the power relationship between us and government get skewed is a sure path to oppression, suffering and economic disaster. This is done by giving government carte blanche to monitor and regulate us. Especially when we allow arbitrary rule. While we need police to keep order, we do not need secret police to keep us silent, afraid and oppressed. The surveillance State radically swings the power relationship between the governed and the governors, to the side of the governors, guaranteeing they will eventually become oppressors. A more enlightened approach would be to, monitor, regulate and severely punish any wrongdoing by our government elite. Yet it would appear by recent news… we have accepted arbitrary rule, even as we cower before the surveillance state. How progressive.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
