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How the secret police tracked my childhood
- draugadrotten 13y agoWill we ever get to read the files that the NSA, GCHQ and the CIA are keeping on us today?
- tinfoilman 13y agoOnly if you attempt to rise above your station peasant; Otherwise it will stay in the store room
- parimm 13y agoDoes a freedom of information request give you the data that the NSA collects on you?
- corndoge 13y agoNSA is not covered by FOIA. Try making a request on FOIA.gov, they aren't even in the list of agencies.
- rangibaby 13y agoWe'll have to raid NSA HQ before they... wipe their HDDs? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi#Storming_the_Stasi_headquarters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi#Storming_the_Stasi_headqu...
- kej 13y agoSome people tried this when the first Snowden leaks came out, and were promptly shut down with a response that revealing what information they had on that individual would indirectly reveal what information they had on everyone, thereby threatening national security.
- a3n 13y ago> thereby threatening national security. A couple words missing: ... thereby threatening the national security agency.
- stefantalpalaru 13y agoIt still amazes me that the US accepted political refugees from the eastern bloc. Their involvement in Romania was extremely thin. From what I can tell it was just Voice of America propaganda[1] and the unfounded rumor that american saviors are coming any day now. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America#Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America#Law
- softatlas 13y agoYou need to understand the scope of surveillance, its primitive basis: Magical Combat should be differentiated from psychic attack, with which a large proportion of 'fringe' occultists concern themselves with, and is largely a product of self-delusion and varying degrees of megalomania. True magical combat has its own rules and boundaries, which are known to the skilled, while the trainee must quickly learn them if trauma is to be avoided. Caught up in a situation which s/he finds incomprehensible and alien, the trainee only knows confusion and terror. Stripped of the smug self-assurance of "it can't happen to me" s/he learns to perceive the environment with clarity, to give attention to the rhythms and pulses of the world. Truly, Death is a great teacher. If you can reach forwards and see the moment of your 'death', then that moment will give you a glimpse of your potential.[0] Look at this from a naturalistic framework. Jesus, for instance, may have simply been a very eccentric man who behaved linguistically and personally in ways that were revolutionary. He probably induced too many magic mushrooms, or some atypical neurological condition set him extremely intuitively in line with a mystical tradition — nevertheless, these are historical implementation details of this Universe. Not uniquely interesting either way you describe it. Now imagine that these features of a society become more widespread — where you have {J1, J2, J3, ...}, then imposters, {I1, I2, I3, ...}, and then of course randoms, {R1, R2, R3, ...}. This is an oversimplified model, but it captures the problem well enough. Surveillance becomes a psychological management strategy that naturally emerges given the task of ruling out true adepts (altruistics) and delusionists (potentials who cannot manage their own psychic powers). "Psychic powers" does not amount to some belief in the supernatural. If I mention the word "chair", this will not sit with you as mental residue (surely, contextual and relational analysis apply, but on the whole it will not) — but if you take recourse to JL Austin's "How to Do Things With Words" — you will certainly need to shake off words like "preapopstaticontinentalism". The first point is that a speaker has produced the word, then it comes that decision procedure of whether or not it has literal meaning. The brain has to do work — which is the basis of "psychic forces" (reducible to behaviors of neurological substrata). — [0]: http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/apikindx.html http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/apikindx.html
- logfromblammo 13y agoI was confused, until I realized that the parent post itself was a form of psychic attack. You are supposed to be confused by it. Also, I erect a Tower of Iron Will around the party. (rolls d20)
- willvarfar 13y agoThe security services of the eastern bloc were terribly inefficient; just imagine how effective they could be today!
- ilbe 13y agoI hope that more people who believe in a "new collaborative economy" for America come across stories like this.
- dredmorbius 13y ago???
- ilbe 13y agoWell, like in this article [1] on the front page yesterday, there's a sentiment that individual rights and private property per capitalism should give way to something more "collaborative." Only "collaborative" is not new, it stinks of failed historical experiments and the exact kind of repression described in this article in Romania. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/31/capitalism-age-of-free-internet-of-things-economic-shift http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/31/capital...
- dredmorbius 13y agoConnecting those two stories is a real stretch. Sorry.
- yiedyie 13y agoI am a Romanian and I lived through all three systems. Why I say three: I lived 10 years through the worst period of communism, 10 through the savage transition and more than 10 through the crony capitalism. And although I pay a lot for not leaving with all the waves of brain drain, it deserves all I pay to experience this, all three systems are so similar, the way they sell themselves is different. At least they had the chance to survey those files and learn from them. Imagine us survey our files at NSA, GCHQ or any other services that gets its targets from linkedin. It will never happen.
- bippi 13y ago"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." -- John Kenneth Galbraith
- davidw 13y ago> all three systems are so similar Although when the father went back to Romania, no one tried to hold him in prison for 10 years and torture him, so perhaps something has changed - no?
- yiedyie 13y agoYour argument would have been very powerful if I would have said that the system is identical. Of course it changed, but is similar in structure, upward mobility, morality etc. Of course it had other ways for rewarding dissidents: by not caring about them. Many of whom where not really integrated in the economic reality, and this time would fight a harsher world, at least in communism they had the support of those who hated communism. Many withered away in poverty, anonymity and alcohol. They tried to avert us that many of those holding power where from the same circles as the previous regime but to no avail.
- firstOrder 13y agoWhat are you talking about? Romania has secret prisons where people are held without trial and tortured. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/world/europe/08iht-prisons.2.6061008.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/world/europe/08iht-prisons...
- cobrausn 13y ago"In a refugee centre in Rome we had been taught that Americans, when they ask "How are you?" don't really expect an answer" Still true. I responded to someone's 'How are you?' yesterday with an actual status report, and they were taken aback.
- Fuxy 13y agoI always respond with an actual status report. If you're not interested then stop pretending to care. Plus getting people off balance is always fun.
- stronglikedan 13y ago> getting people off balance is always fun. Also fun by actually remembering the names of new people.
- lostlogin 13y agoI work in a hospital. I ask every patient how they are today and 99% say "fine" or "good". The odd one that doesn't and says something like "I'm awful, that's why I'm here" is always interesting to chat to. I suspect that the majority of what we say is completely scripted and as such is startling when someone chucks a spanner into the works.
- LoganCale 13y agoI expect a real answer when I ask it.
- logfromblammo 13y agoWhen I emit a NULL+POLITE+INVITATION linguistic token ("How's it going?"), I expect to either hear a NULL+POLITE+NONCOMMITAL ("Fine.") or a mood-conveying linguistic token ("Awful [and I will talk to you about why, if you're interested]."). I don't expect to hear actual conversational content until after I confirm whether I actually want to talk ("What happened?") or whether I was just being polite ("I hope you feel better."). If I don't want to talk at all, I will use a simpler NULL+POLITE token ("Good morning.") without the implicit invitation to open a conversation. It isn't that Americans don't expect a response. It's just that most Americans have different handshake formulas for starting a conversation. People who skip the initial negotiation might be perceived as chatty.
- hippich 13y agoModern Belarus (well, it was in 2006 - 2008.) Me and some of my friends and their friends get together to organize some opposition performances or participation in national opposition events. As well as distributing printed gazette. No any kind of extremism or terrorism or whatever "-ism". I was probably the oldest one back then, around 22 yrs, the rest guys and gals were 18-20 yrs. All are students either at community college or getting their bachelors. I was stopped randomly in car traffic because my car was "reported stolen" just to get every single piece of the car out trying to find "illegal" printed materials. One of these guys in our team also snitched for local police (so they recruited someone, i still don't know whom.) They tapped my cell phone and were able to meet us at place which was mentioned over one single cellphone talk... My very small business suddenly became in focus of various state agencies, like IRS, fire department, etc. Each was able to find something to fine me for. I closed it. It got to the point where my mom had "interview" with KGB where they openly told, that if she can't influence my behavior, probably I will never get my masters degree, my sister will never get into college, my mom will likely loose her job. At some point I was "invited" to talk with local police chef about my "disturbances". At that time I already worked out a way to get out from Belarus for good and told about it to this police guy. He was very satisfied with this response from what I could see... This was happening 6 years ago and from what I hear, still does. At least they did not prison and torture me, although it is probably more because I never cause too much trouble for them and was dismissed as not very important person to deal with.
- karuneshkaushal 13y agoAre your family fine and with you? Do you get to meet/call/email these friends now?
- hippich 13y agoOnce I moved out - everything is back to normal for my rest of family. They sometimes call my family to check if I am back, but getting "no" answer each time. Yeah, with some of these friends I keep in touch. So it played out well for me and my family. But definitely not for the people of Belarus.
- novalis78 13y agoSounds awfully familiar - my dad's story and his experience with the GDR's police state and socialist totalitarianism was quite similar. It's really a chilling account and makes you appreciate every tiny bit of freedom.
- bumbledraven 13y agoThey bought two typewriters, one of which they did not register with the police... Evil regimes hate anonymous communication. My father was sentenced to 11 years at the harshest prison of all, Aiud, for "fraudulent crossing of the border, punishable with art. 267 of the penal code". Evil regimes love to make it a crime to try to leave the living hell they have created. And look how official-sounding the law is. People who uncritically accept the government's position will think, "Well, the man did something fraudulent, after all... surely he deserves some punishment."
- brc 13y agoWhat surprises me with all this detailed record keeping is the sheer cost of all this -manual- security apparatus. Sure, not every resident was a 'dissident' to be monitored, but it sounds like this family had a team of ten people working their case, round the clock. I suppose a lot of the informants and plants were not paid, but forced to participate through threats, but it still seems like a staggering amount of organization at incredible cost.
- ScottBurson 13y agoYes, and the interesting thing about that is how few dissidents it would have taken to completely overwhelm their ability to keep an eye on them.