FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2009
Afraid and in the Dark
The great horror films all have a common theme: it’s dark or you are in a darkened area, a person or group of people is being stalked by someone or something unknown. Watching the film you are in the same terrifying position as those in the film – you know there is a threat, you know it will come for you, you just don’t know exactly what it is or how it will attack.
While attending a mandatory Government security meeting last week, I felt like I was helping produce a similar type film. The meeting provided an update on rules to be followed for handling and protecting Government information. Straight forward enough information, every organization has the need and right to protect its secrets. The difference here is the level to which all information is being protected and hidden. In the many years I have been involved with Government programs I have always felt the reason for classifying most Government information was not to protect it from foreign Governments but to keep that information from being known by American citizens.
In today’s world that tendency has reached obsessive levels. Almost every piece of information created by Government must be treated as protected information whether or not it is classified. “Why should this matter?” is most people’s question. The answer is that individuals cannot protect their freedoms nor know the actions of their Government if everything is hidden from them. When you walk the streets of Washington, DC, you are struck by the number of Government buildings and personnel. Block upon block, edifice stacked upon edifice all inhabited and guarded by legions of Government workers. Do this, attempt to find out something about a Government program, file a request for information using the Freedom of Information Act and see how long it takes to get a sterilized reply. It’s like poking for monsters in the dark with a long stick – all you get back is a mangled stick.
This is no accident. These actions by Government are doing exactly what they are intended to do – prevent those outside the Government from knowing what Government is doing and how they are violating the limits of the Constitution.
There is another side to this coin – the Government’s releasing of information designed to create fear in people in order to allow the Government to seize more power. For example, all this week the major news agencies have been running a story about how the Government has found out that ‘foreign spies’ have hacked into the systems running our power infrastructure. If you think about what I have said above, it is obvious that this information was not only sensitive but classified. Someone, at very high levels, had to have authorized the release of this information. Why? Wasn’t there a fear that now foreign Governments would know that we know what they are up to – their evil had been detected? And since the US Government knows about their evil plans, that perhaps, the US Government would be doing the same things to their power grid systems!
You can see the nonsense here. The only reason this classified information was ‘leaked’ was to induce fear into the people of the United States. Why would Government do this? Like a trusted movie plot the answer is the same – fear enables the Government to seize additional control and power for itself. Either through additional Executive branch regulations or hidden in some new piece of legislation the Government will tighten its control over private industry and how it operates. The cost will be higher prices and less competition.
The actions of Government are as predictable as sunrises and classic horror films. Government always believes individuals and free-markets must be controlled. They believe that such control cannot come from a free and open society but must be thrust down by rule and regulation. To preclude people from understanding the depth and severity of these controls, Government utilizes secrecy and fear. Until Government is made totally open and accessible at all levels, this will not change.