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Surprised no one has pointed out the worst of Brooks' warped logic: > If federal security agencies can’t do vast data sweeps, they will inevitably > re
by marshray 13y ago
Surprised no one has pointed out the worst of Brooks' warped logic:
> If federal security agencies can’t do vast data sweeps, they will inevitably
> revert to the older, more intrusive eavesdropping methods.
and
> He betrayed the cause of open government. Every time there is a leak
> like this, the powers that be close the circle of trust a little tighter.
> They limit debate a little more.
This is exactly like something a friend from the former Soviet Union told me a few years ago. People in the community would self-censor, and moreso censor each other by saying explicitly: "If we don't censor amongst ourselves, the central authorities will be forced to step in and impose even tighter and more strict measures than we are under now."
This goes beyond a simple fear of consequences. It's a pervasive acceptance of the aggressor's malevolence in which the victim ritualistically cowtows in order to appease it.
This is ICD-9 code 995.81 "Battered person syndrome". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battered_person_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battered_person_syndrome :
* The abused thinks that the violence was his or her fault.
* The abused has an inability to place the responsibility for the violence elsewhere.
* The abused has an irrational belief that the abuser is omnipresent and omniscient.
EDIT:
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome "a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors or abusers, sometimes to the point of defending them. [...] One commonly used hypothesis to explain the effect of Stockholm syndrome is based on Freudian theory. It suggests that the bonding is the individual’s response to trauma in becoming a victim. Identifying with the aggressor is one way that the ego defends itself. When a victim believes the same values as the aggressor, they cease to be a threat."
- youngerdryas 13y agoI am upvoting this for spite, and if David Brooks was battered he probably deserved it.
- marshray 13y agoI'm disappointed you upvoted my comment for spite. I'd much rather have a thoughtful reply (pro or con). For the record, I respect David Brooks as a person, have found his writing to be insightful in the past, and of course do not believe he or anyone deserves to be battered.
- youngerdryas 13y agoSarcasm is hard. Do you actually believe David Brooks has "Battered Person Syndrome", or do think it applies to all Americans?
- marshray 13y agoYes, it is. Don't I know it :-) I do not believe that David Brooks has clinical BPS. But, the arguments he makes in his opinion piece display the exact same form of backwards logic that are commonly heard from victims of long-term abuse. Make no mistake: Surveillance is abuse. Over time it will fuck with your mind. Long term mass surveillance is always a destabilizing force upon society, never a stabilizing one.
- lukifer 13y agoSo-called "Stockholm Syndrome" is more the norm than the exception.
- gridmaths 13y agoGreat quote ... and we are all kind of susceptible to Battered Person Syndrome, post 911, post Boston. It takes a concerted effort to resist the feeling we are guilty : our government and military and legal systems are there to protect us.. if I'm noticed and singled out when I cross a border, for criticizing Cheney on twitter, then maybe its me.. maybe I'm out of line. Maybe the huge embarrassment at having to take my belt off in public at TSA checkpoint was my fault.. after all, I chose to wear a belt that had a metal buckle.. I brought it upon myself. I think this happened to David Brooks.. I think the state sponsored 'terror' scheme of putting hackers and journalists away for 10 years for acts of conscience.. has been effective in keeping Journalists in line. Speak out and you too could end up rotting in a cell.
- marshray 13y agoI'm not from the Northeastern US, but it seems to me like it might not really be the old 9/11 and Boston traumas. Surveillance and harassment of reporters certainly didn't start then. For example, in 1971 the Nixon administration broke into leak-conduit reporter Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in an attempt to obtain medical files with which to publicly discredit him. Of course, recent administrations have pushed for and obtained laws requiring that all medical records be stored electronically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#Fielding_break-in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#Fielding_break...
- dkarl 13y agoDaniel Ellsberg turned himself over to the authorities, was released on bail, and saw the charges against him thrown out. Today I imagine he would be held indefinitely in degrading conditions, brutally interrogated, and sentenced to decades in prison if the government ever bothered bringing him to trial. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/09/has-the-us-become-the-kind-of-nation-from-which-you-have-to-seek-asylum/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/09/h...
- mtdewcmu 13y agoHe's showing his sympathy for things liberals care about. He takes great pains to sound evenhanded. It could be because he's trying to win over liberal NY Times readers, or, it's possible that he's unaware that he's a conservative.
- marshray 13y agoI really don't see this as a liberal-conservative issue.
- mtdewcmu 13y ago"...the atomization of society, the loosening of social bonds ... deep suspicion of authority, the strong belief that hierarchies and organizations are suspect, ... the assumption that individual preference should be supreme... the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric..." It's the culture wars. The issue might not be inherently about left and right, but the way David Brooks is framing it is straight from the culture wars of the 1960s. I think he's slightly in denial, but he seems to argue with himself and then take reliably conservative positions.
- etherael 13y agoBetter yet, if I recall correctly, inflicting this malaise upon malignant actors that engage in this kind of bad faith behaviour was one of the stated side effect objectives of wikileaks, by forcing their targets to close ranks and become less and less open and in touch with the real world they cripple their ability to interact and interface with that real world, and trust counterparties in conspiring and analysis of the data that they have access to in putting their plans and foreign policies into action. Not to put too fine a point on it, but eventually, hopefully to the point that one day they just disappear into irrelevancy.