We are entering a very dangerous period in history. Our national security is now firmly in the hands of for-profit private corporations and their lackeys in government. They have built a veritable total-information-awareness surveillance police state infrastructure with the potential to quickly turn into one of the most repressive totalitarian systems the world has ever seen. To get an idea of what could happen, all you have to do is to read a summary about COINTELPRO.
COINTELPRO (an acronym for COunter INTELligence PROgram) was a series of covert, and at times illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveying, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.
The FBI has used covert operations against domestic political groups since its inception; however, covert operations under the official COINTELPRO label took place between 1956 and 1971. COINTELPRO tactics have been alleged to include discrediting targets through psychological warfare; smearing individuals and groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media; harassment; wrongful imprisonment; and illegal violence, including assassination. The FBI's stated motivation was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order."
The emphasis is mine
This Orwellian-type surveillance system has collected massive amounts of data on hundreds of millions of Americans, including (potentially) all members of Congress, their families, their spouses, their associates, their friends. Think about the implications of that...
Right now, the system is still wearing the "mask" of democracy, not seeing the need to turn overtly fascistic (just yet) because most of the population is being effectively controlled through propaganda and induced economic insecurity (union busting, stripping off workers rights, and the like).
We need to take to the public square, meet face to face, and build solidarity to stand up against the imposition of a Surveillance Police State. There may still be time to act, but if that's true, the window of opportunity is closing pretty fast.
Here's my proposal about a possible course of action...
Public Awareness Campaign
There are many intellectuals, writers, academics, and activists with impeccable credentials sounding the alarms about how dangerous this total-information-awareness infrastructure is. Their voices are being muted, purposely ignored by the media (by and large).
I propose we band together and start a nationwide public awareness campaign meant to educate our fellow citizens about the danger of this type of indiscriminate data collection and dossier-building on millions of innocent people.
Process
- Speakers: The first step would be to identify well-known intellectuals who have spoken against the indiscriminate NSA Surveillance of innocent of Americans, and invite them to take part in a nationwide tour/campaign meant to educate the public about this issue, galvanize support against it, and build the type of solidarity we would need in order to make the government back down and restore all our right and protections under the U.S. Constitution.
- Events: These people would be the keynote speakers at carefully-planned events (seminar-style) around the country, in San Francisco, New York, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and many other cities.
- Advertising & Promotion: There would be a professional-level advertising and promotional campaign focused on reaching (influencing, motivating) as many people as possible to attend these events. This would also provide an opportunity to engage the services of artists who would help create powerful outreach messaging through their artwork.
- Coalition-Building & Solidarity: An added benefit of these ongoing, relentless, nationwide events would be to bring people together with a common cause, reinforcing a sense of coalition-building, cohesion, and solidarity.
This is a real appeal for people to start thinking about doing something like this as soon as possible. The best way this would work if its supported by as many people as possible, instead of relying on "leaders" to do it. Under these conditions, there is a very pragmatic reason for this. Any individual who becomes highly influential as a social justice activist against the rising police state could eventually find him or herself in grave danger.
This can be done; I've proposed this idea before, and I usually invite people to watch the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary "The Abolitionists."
Abolitionist allies Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown and Angelina Grimké turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation.
Something that made an impression on me when I watched the documentary is to learn about the great sacrifices made by people like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass in their quest to educate the population about the evils slavery, and build support for the abolitionist movement.
In the past, when I've suggested a similar thing, some people have objected to the idea because we don't have slavery anymore (go figure!). I would invite those people to read about recent reports of working conditions at Amazon and Walmart warehouses... Maybe they would rethink their objections.
Either way, we don't have chattel slavery (yet), but we do have a fast-rising total-information-awareness surveillance police state in the hands of for-profit corporations (by and large). We need an Abolitionist Movement against the Surveillance State because it has the potential to enslave us all.
This dairy is meant to start the discussion on this idea. I have put together a very detailed plan which I'll be glad to share with those interested in further discussion (and action).
I've been featuring this video of a Chris Hedges interview because he so masterfully explains the situation we finds ourselves in. I highly suggest people watch it as an addendum to this diary.