Re: Why anonymous in concept for democracy is important
@Charles 9
Nothing is black and white, you know that.
Absolutism is almost never descriptive of society in the big picture.
We need the intelligence community because there have always been conflicts of national interest as long as there were nations. However, it seems a proclivity within some cultures to allow a type of... auto-scaling of government... given the funds to grow, to develop capabilities, to make a technology better at a given task is a natural outcome. People are not stupid... Many will see it coming and put up resistance, when it is their own government, watching them. The fact that many will welcome their own surveillance in the false hope of increased security, don't see the problem... or somehow make it seem to themselves that it is not a massive loss in self determination.... I realize that there are differences in how the United States citizens and the citizens of the UK perceive this. 1984 as a story took place in the UK, did it not. I live in Oregon, USA... However I have lived in about a dozen different states across America. Many but not all Americans feel as though their government is encroaching on the fundamental driver of their concept of what democracy was supposed to be.
The statement about highly educated populations was not specifically directed towards any population... other than American... However it is true. It comes from President Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower from a little known article in a US Air Force monthly magazine of around 1956-ish... He was explaining why an interest free education loan program was a necessity in America. I did not pull that out of thin air.... its a fact though. Think about it. Is it not true that the higher the general level of education a population is, the better the government... the less inclined towards singularity of popular goals of the culture... Hence more creative... And what happens to a population that asks no questions... or is dissuaded from asking any.
In the end the politicians begin to reflect the average level of the level of education... And then making wise choices falls equally.
Its not difficult to do the math on this.... I am not making a slam on the readers but I am asking for people to give some consideration to the idea that a surveillance society is a fundamental mistake in any democracy... mine and yours... It is not the same as no police... nor is it the same as no intelligence organizations... but any organism (culture) that no longer trusts itself ( or its own people ) to the level we are approaching really is in trouble.