5 ms·
There are issues that people care about in theory, in books & political science courses and such and there are issues that people care about in practice. In th
by netcan 12y ago
There are issues that people care about in theory, in books & political science courses and such and there are issues that people care about in practice.
In their political sphere, people care about their wealth (economy), their identity (nationalism, religion) & drama (political scandals). These are pretty constant. They are the bread and butter of politics and have ben since ancient time. When wealth decreases, identity is challenged or political drama whips the mob into a frenzy political instability ensues. So long as those are kept in check, political stability is hard to challenge.
If you look at most big stability events (eg the recent riots and protests in Greece), they relate to these. Wealth & political drama. The US banking crisis related to wealth (recession), drama (evolving doors) and identity (corporate welfarism).
Abstract ideas like freedom (of X), democracy, equality, privacy, justice, do not have political weight in their own right. To make them count politically they need to become one of the things that matter, bundled into the national mythology, people's identity.
The US for all their faults, have a genuinely principled foundational mythology/ideology. They can graft principles like privacy onto those making "privacy" into an identity issue. Government spying is offensive to Americans in the same way (though sadly not to the same degree) as a perceived islamization of the UK to the British. Most major political "principle" issues are really identity issues. That's why nationalism and religion are impossible to exorcise from politics.
Americans seem better positioned to put up a fight against this spying stuff than the rest of us because they already have government-skepticism built into their national identity. Europeans can build onto our 'enlightened" edentate though this is less wieldy. But ultimately I have a hard time believing that any of us will avoid being completely surveilled by several governments. There is too much momentum in that direction.
- Silhouette 12y agoI hate this post, but mostly because I'm afraid of how accurate it is. It is disturbing how quickly we forget the lessons of history -- even history still within living memory that shaped the entire future of Europe -- and instead allow an "it would never happen to me" mentality to take over.
- harshreality 12y agoIs there one (or a few) book(s)/article(s) that shaped your view on this (most of all the wealth, identity, drama triad)? I'd be interested in reading them.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- digitalengineer 12y ago"The Century of the Self" (BBC documentary by Adam Curtis) is a good start. It discusses the Self(image), nationalism, (mass)psychology and much, much more. http://vimeo.com/87419450 http://vimeo.com/87419450
- samstave 12y agoThen make sure you watch "Human Resources" to see how manipulated and unknowingly controlled most of Human society is.
- digitalengineer 12y agoFound it. "The driving force in society is not love, but fear". It's on Youtube, but it's from this site: http://metanoia-films.org/films/ http://metanoia-films.org/films/
- jacobolus 12y agoSee Machiavelli: both The Discourses on Livy and The Prince are quite insightful on these topics. I recommend reading both near the same time.
- GHFigs 12y agoYou may find this book interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
- ivanca 12y agoEveryone should care about this; but as you said most people don't see the issue in practical terms. I think is our jobs as tech-savy people to put it in more practical terms for them, someway the average Joe can relate to, for example: - NSA and GCHQ are probably watching your kids naked, a lot, because exploits from webcams are very common, and they cannot know before hand if someone is using Skype to plan tewowist attacks or a video for their teenage boyfriend. - They are watching everything related to any company, so if an NSA employee happens to have stock in a rival company, well, that's insider trading sponsored by the state. - Blackmailing is a piece of cake, because completely normal and legal activities such as watching porn are enough to defame you. - They want security exploits to exist (and they pay for those), because that's how the intercept your communications, the problem is, those are the same exploits tewowist and black hat hackers use against you. You get the idea.
- netcan 12y agoTo the extent that I'm right, I don't think this is enough. You can respond to criticisms about blackmail exploits or watching your kids with layers of laws, bureaucracy and compromises. You can deny it or call it isolated incidences. To fight something like this, we need something that makes people draw a line. An uncrossable one. The main item a politician can identify with. Otherwise, this is a negotiation. One we'll lose.
- grkvlt 12y ago> Blackmailing is a piece of cake, because completely normal and legal activities such as watching porn are enough to defame you. How can you blackmail someone with their normal and legal activities? Either watching porn is abnormal, and a source of blackmail opportunities, or it's normal and it's not, surely?
- DanBC 12y agoThe UK is probably more relaxed about this than the US but I can imagine situations where people watching legal[1] porn could come under sever pressure at work because of it. Scout masters watching gay porn; headmasters watching legal but "teen" porn; teachers watching BDSM; etc - these are all people doing something legal that has no impact on their job but who would face severe pressure at work, and may well lose their job inder a variety of "disrepute" clauses. [1] the legal situation in the UK for porn is not straightforward.