Edward Snowden, Freedom and the Media's Manufacture of Meaning

There is no doubt there is a need for fear, or at least anxiety, over our government's secret intrusion into our online personal lives.  Yes the Government of Canada too, not just the United States, is doing this.

Reassurances from those perpetuating this travesty say that the surveillance is only on foreigners, not citizens is hardly reassuring nor very genuine.  Those communications monitorings are ostensibly only on foreigners.  But foreigners connecting with whom?  American citizens is often as not the the answer.  For Homeland security that is what the US spy system is mostly interested, I expect.

This makes the sincerity  of the governments of the United States and Canada reassurances as to who is really being targeted by government invasion of privacy activities kind of, shall we say, "incredulous?" No wonder the USA is having trouble getting these "foreign" nations to cooperate with them in extraditing Snowden.  A collaboration culture is hard to create with these "foreigner" nations, when their citizens and institutions are admittedly being spied on by the America government.

If Snowden is right, and I've seen no official rebuttal yet, those nameless anonymous government operatives who are doing the online surveillance searches of email, cellphone calls etc., they only need a personal confidence rating of 51% that they are not dealing with an American citizen in order to proceed.  That puts a very low bar on standards of reasonable doubt don't you think? Since we don't know what metrics are actually being used to test what is involved in the 51% "confidence" (sic) level, it all seems to be so much manipulative Orwellian double speak.  It make the integrity of surveillance process entirely ridiculous, especially when it to making claims that only foreigners are the targets of this official invasion of privacy practice.

Yes the world is still a dangerous complex place and American soil is not sacrosanct from invasion, even by their own fundamentalists citizens as it turns out. So more than a decade after 9-11 we are still seeing our governments use fear over reason, secrecy over solutions, and, dare I say, fascism over democracy to justify further denial and erosion of personal freedoms.

Freedom!  That great American concept that motivated the G.W Bush government to take aggressive measures and to use freedom as justification for invading Iraq and Afghanistan.  He wanted to give those poor folks the gift of American freedom...through invasion.  It would appear that the great American concept of freedom is what drove Snowden to choose to jeopardize his personal freedom.  He exercised personal freedom and came to a personal judgement, as a matter of democratic principle, when he decided to expose the US government secret abuses of freedom.  He also created a space for that very necessary conversation to take place about the place of personal privacy and freedom for American citizens.  That conversation needs to be open, candid and public, especially so when it has to consider their government's role to protect personal freedoms,....or ignore personal freedoms....or worse yet, abuse them.

The American government is clearly flummoxed about what to do since being "caught" in this secret underhanded system of what appears to be an unprecedented invasions of domestic and foreign personal privacy.  They find the facts are against them.  The law, while not strictly against them, is in serious disrepute.  And so they revert to calling Snowden names like traitor and pathetic gestures like canceling his Passport.

And where is the media in all of this?  Well the Guardian in the UK is doing the job. Check out their coverage. But where is the American media?  I hope this video clip of David Gregory's alamaring questioning Glen Greenwald of the Guardian on Meet the Press is not a representative sample of where mainstream American media is positioning itself in all of this. If so then freedom of the press in the USA is also as good as gone, at least so far as its independent role of being the public's eyes, ears, and sense-makers and narrative makers is concerned.

Study Shows Fox News Makes You Stupid!

Here is an interesting study about how misinformed Fox News viewers are about the truth.  Seems that the misinformation is deliberate too. This is beyond sad and dangerous to democracy.  Wonder how much Fox News North will mimic their American cousins in this style of "journalism."  I wonder what a comparative Canadian study of Hardcore Conservatives in Canada and Alberta would show.

The fundamental foundations of citizenship and democracy are truth, trust and respect.  Sorely lacking principles by what we see from the political tactics of Hardcore Conservatives - on both sides of the 49th Parallel.

Progressives can't be content anymore with rolling their eyes as this kind of abuse of the truth and assault on informed free speech.  It is morally reprehensible behaviour and must be challenged.  Those who perpetuate and promote this kind of ignorance are in positions of political power or gaining political power.  That power is over the rest of us and we risk losing control of our democracy as a result.  This is a recipe for disaster.

This is happening because too many of us who are progressive, caring and compassionate people are siting on the political sidelines.  We are merely abdicating our duties as citizens by our indifference.  We are inadvertently abetting the erosion of our democracy as a result.  Because of this irresponsible lack of response by Progressive, we are letting the Hardcore Conservatives take over the political and public agenda.  Their goal is all about taking away hard won rights, freedoms and progressive values.  And we are letting them get away with it.

The Hardcore Conservatives can't handle the truth.  They don't feel comfortable considering competing ideas at a time.  It drives them to distraction.  Without the truth and respect for a diversity of opinions politics becomes more and more about deception, subterfuge and misinformation... coercion and suppression.  Citizenship suffers and democracy declines...civil society disappears.

"All men make mistakes but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong and repairs the evil.  The only sin is pride."  ~Sophocles.


"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."  ~Dante  

Progressive thinking citizens in ALBERTA have to get re-engaged in the political culture of our times.  We have to do more than just step up to the plate.  We have to upset the Hardcore Conservative applecart as well.