SECTION IV
The Transition
Can we ring the bells backwards? Can we unlearn the arts that pretend to civilize, and then burn the world? There is a March of Science. But who shall beat the drums for its retreat?
āCharles Lamb, Last Essays of Elia
Introduction
The Digital Age and Which Digit Itās Giving Us
It is becoming, or has become already, a digital world. Which digit is it giving us? All of themāballed into two fists. Weāre going to be hit hard with a punch right in the privates.
A digital world does a lot of things, most of which Iām unenthusiastic about. But what Iām least enthusiastic about is the way a digital world enables a Security-and-Surveillance State.
Weāre on our way to a new life āWhere Everybody Knows Your Nameāāand your Social Security number, computer passwords, financial status, debit card PIN, credit rating, physical address, present whereabouts, etc.
Everything about us will be seen and known. And my greatest fear is that when we arrive in this place of universal visibility and ubiquitous public knowledge of all our thoughts and deeds, weāll like it.
A Security-and-Surveillance State that is all-seeing and all-knowing could replace religion. Something will. According to the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life, only about half of Americans age eighteen to twenty-nine are certain that they believe in any kind of God at all.
Central to the concept of God (or Gods) in every faith is that He (or They) knows (or know) exactly what weāre up to at all times and why. This should be terrifying, but most people who are religiousāmyself includedāseem more comforted than frightened by Godās omniscience. Our original Security-and-Surveillance State was a state of graceāa oneness with God. Maybe a oneness with TSA will be just as good. Most Americans pass through airport security more often than they go to church.
Comfort with Security-and-Surveillance runs even deeper in the human psyche than religion. Thereās Mom.
She always knew what I was thinking. āDonāt you even think about it,ā sheād say about the fresh-baked cookies before Iād caught a whiff of them. And she always knew what I was doing. She had eyes in the back of her head. Not only did she have eyes in the back of her head, she also had all the other eyes of all the other moms in the neighborhood. Iād come home from a jolly Saturday afternoon tormenting cats and tipping over birdbaths with my pals, and, before I was halfway up the front walk, Iād hear Mom: āNo TV for a week!ā
It hardly came as a shock when they taught us in Sunday school that āGod is watching.ā Mom had gotten there before Him. Yes, God mightāin some future too distant to be imaginedāsend us to hell. But He never smacked us on the butt with a wooden kitchen spoon. Much less did God wait until our fathers got home and tell them our sins so that we got a real whopping.
Plus we were also taught in Sunday school that āGod is Love.ā And that He would āforgive us our trespasses,ā certainly including the foray into Mrs. Pulaskiās yard where we cracked the head off her garden gnome with our Wham-O slingshots. And Mom, of course, was nothing but love. Can anything be as secure as a motherās love? Whatever weād done, she got over it. Dad, too. By the time heād had his second highball heād forgotten all about giving us a real whopping and was out in the kitchen saying to Mom, āBoys will be boys . . .ā
Thenāto further muddle our attitudes about Security-and-Surveillanceāthere was Santa Claus.
You better watch out, you better not cry,
You better not pout, Iām telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Heās making a list and checking it twice.
Heās gonna find out whoās naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He sees you when youāre sleeping.
He knows when youāre awake.
He knows if youāve been bad or good,
So be good for goodnessā sake.
And yet, after 364 days of my being a peevish brat, the Erector Set was under the Christmas tree anyway.
Due to our instincts and our formative experiences, it is all too easy to confuse a Security-and-Surveillance State with Mom, God, and Santa Claus.
The U.S. government is Santa Claus. Federal government annual per capita spending is $21,875. Everybody in America gets almost 22 grand apiece. Meanwhile what the average taxpayer gives to the federal government is only $9,655 a year.
Making up the difference must keep those elves at the North Pole busy.
The U.S. government is also Mom. There are a multitude of āeat your vegetablesā federal laws on the books, all of them intended to make us healthy and safe, to give us āSecurity.ā
Iām not talking about what really gives us security. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines go begging. (According to a DOD report, about 23,000 active-duty members of the armed services receive food stamps.)
Iām talking about things like the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The Act, as signed by President Nixon, was 39 pages of Whatās-Good-for-You that spawned a myriad of federal regulations and bureaucracies. A PDF of the Occupational Safety and Health Administrationās āField Safety and Health Manualā is 265 pages long.
Which is barely a note under a refrigerator magnet by federal Whatās-Good-for-You regulatory standards. The PDF for the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Serviceās Food and Drug Administrationās Public Health Service āFood Codeā is 768 pages long. āDonāt put that in your mouth!ā
The government has a vast apparatus to secure us. And an even vaster apparatus to surveil us.
Itās not just the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security. When it comes to U.S. intelligence and investigative agencies, their name is legion:
(I have printed the following list in very small type so that you wonāt read it all and experience a horrible fit of paranoia.)
Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export, Office of Security Enforcement, and Office of Inspector General National Institute of Standards and Technology Police National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service Office for Law Enforcement Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Pentagon Force Protection Agency, United States Pentagon Police, Department of Defense Police, Defense Logistics Agency Police, and Defense Intelligence Agency National Security Agency Police National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Police Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Command, Military Police Corps, Counterintelligence, and Intelligence and Security Command Department of the Navy Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Marine Corps Criminal Investigation Division, Master-at-arms (United States Navy), Department of the Navy Police, Marine Corps Provost Marshalās Office, Marine Corps Civilian Police, Office of Naval Intelligence, and Marine Corps Intelligence Activity Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Security Forces, Air Force Police, and 25th Air force intelligence unit. Department of Education Office of the Inspector General Department of Energy Office of Inspector General, Office of Health, Safety and Security, National Nuclear Security Administration, and Office of Secure Transportation Department of Health and Human Services United States Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations National Institutes of Health Police Federal Protective Service United States Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Police United States Customs and Border Protection Office of Air and Marine, Office of Border Patrol, and Office of Field Operations Federal Emergency Management Agency Weather Emergency Operations Center Police United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Removal Operations United States Secret Service Transportation Security Administration Office of Law Enforcement and Federal Air Marshal Service Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General and Protective Service Division Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Police, Bureau of Land Management Rangers and Special Agents, Bureau of Reclamation Office of Law Enforcement, Hoover Dam Police National Park Service Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, United States Park Police, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, and Division of Refuge Law Enforcement Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and United States Marshals Service Department of Labor Office of Inspector General Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Bureau of intelligence and Research Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, United States Merchant Marine Academy Department of Public Safety, and NHTSA Office of Odometer Fraud Investigation Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, United States Mint Police, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Department of Veterans Affairs Police Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate United States Capitol Police Library of Congress Office of the Inspector General Government Publishing Office Police Marshal of the United States Supreme Court United States Supreme Court Police Office of Probation and Pretrial Services United States Environmen...