1. NSA was authorized to collect metadata by the Bush administration shortly after 9/11 and this was going on uninterrupted with the full knowledge of the so-called "elected representatives" for some 12 years; public reaction: virtually none;
2. Retailers, credit card companies, and credit bureaus routinely collect personal information on purchases and spending habits that are far more revealing of personal life than any metadata on telephone conversations; they use that information for targeting households with marketing campaigns and sell it to anyone willing to pay; public reaction - virtually none, except occasional kvetching in marginal anti-business media;
3. The airline industry subject passengers to personal searches that otherwise are restricted to prisons; they also collect personal information; public reaction: virtually none, except occasional kvetching in some marginal media
4. Employers and landlords collect personal information complete with credit about job applicants, which is willingly submitted by the applicants; public reaction - general approval and media advice how to fetch good information to employers.
5. During a fierce campaign of the Republican Party and their business paymasters to sabotage every initiative of the Obama administration, a libertarian schmuck in the employ of a private government contractor "reveals" - surprise surprise - that NSA is collecting metadata on telephone conversations, a fact that has been known to the so-called "elected representatives" for years (per item #1 above) ; public reaction: scandal! mayhem! bloody murder! off with their heads! rah, rah, rah
I cannot help but see some not so invisible hand behind these "public reactions" orchestrated by the corporate media.
Question: Why would a rational person jump and bark on a cue instead of saying "fuck that nonsense" if the issue at hand has virtually zero effect on his or her life?
But then, they do it all the time - sporting events, tee-vee shows, spectacles, celebrity pageants, daily pablum of "breaking news" - in a word, a public well trained to jump, bark, and fetch when cued. And this passes for the highest level of reason and civilizational achievement in the history of humankind. It is hard not to lose faith in humanity.
On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 8:07 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/why-metadata-matters
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."