Spies Are Us

“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe.  Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” – Ayn Rand

Six days after the big bang, god, according to a fresco painting by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, breathed life into Adam, the first man; creating him in his own image and there, as Willy Shakes would later opine; lay the rub. God, the original spy, as legend has it, watched, as he does all six billion of us, their every move 24/7. 

Apparently unable to secure Mexican field hands to upkeep his Garden of Eden, god ordered Adam to work without pay. Adam, needing a little recreation, hit on god for a consort. In a kind gesture unlike him god performed a major skin graft gifting Adam a McRib playmate. Soon after, in the first ever recorded passive aggressive schizophrenic flip, god booted them both out of paradise with nothing but olive leaves to cover their junk; just for eating an apple. Seems a bit harsh but then god always was a moody prick.

Enlightened yet rightly paranoid minds from the coast have asked for my comments on the National Security State and how all communications including their email are being stored and analyzed by what they deemed “the new SS”.

Well, we can’t help it; god, creating us in his own busy-body image, hard-wired us thus. Couple that with long lines of us awaiting the next Swiss army knife like super phone that doubles as a tracking device, Face-Twit; allowing me to know when you got your pubes, reality TV, American Idol and GPS in our cars; privacy it seems is not what we want.

J.Edgar Hoover, between dress fittings, didn’t snoop on everybody; just those he fantasized commies, and for the most part, as presidents and hero’s fell and cities burned; we didn’t mind. Now, Post 911, sphincter muscles are air tight as submarines imagining another Boston Marathon and again; mostly we don’t mind.

I’m less amazed technology has enabled the level of data collection reported and more bewildered what all those trillions of phone calls are saying; mostly nervous banter is my guess. Back in the Stone Age I refused to carry a Beeper for work since it seemed like a dog collar and it’s why now I don’t own a cell phone. All the new gadgets meant to give us more time seem to fill up every second; I write. I need time to wander and wonder. The richest man is the one with the freest time.

This doesn’t mean I’m not sympathetic to those who want their communications private. It’s disconcerting I’m sure to imagine some sweaty-palmed nerd listening to you talk dirty to your girl friend or spy the Selfie she just sent you of her vag-hole; kinda ruins the mood eh? 

Personally I want the opposite; the more exposure I get the better. Maybe someone will discover my genius. But for the others; I understand. I say just chill and realize it’s the guy who’s listening clandestinely that’s the guy who’s scared. But before condemning our government who is after all us, as the new and improved East German Stasi; there are two sides to this coin.

In Sydney Pollack’s 1975 American political thriller Three Days of the Condor, Robert Redford’s character, code name Condor, a CIA analyst, discovers secret war-game plans to occupy the Saudi Arabian oil fields. When he’s confronted by the CIA Black Hand out to kill him for it Condor says; “the American people won’t stand for it.” The company man says “not now they won’t; but ask them when they’re freezing in the dark; ask them then. When they’re cold and starving they won’t care how we do it. They’ll just want us to get it for them”.

Since America will be energy self-sufficient by 2017 due to Fracking, or so they tell me, that particular boggy-man is dead. But now its terrorism and those same CIA guys are plenty pissed at having been blamed for not connecting the dots. So, once given the means to make those connections they are off to the races. I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to put that toothpaste back in the tube so my advise is don’t do or say anything you’ll be ashamed of. Speak, write and have the courage of your convictions; and remember it’s the government that follows the people not the inverse.

Meanwhile, I suspect the CIA cipher was right; we may not like it now but a few more 911’s and we’ll all be handing in our phone logs like time sheets. #spiesareus #CIA #Russiahack