Imagine that someone was watching you, eavesdropping on your entire family, all of their emails, texts, thoughts, ideas, photographs and listening into every phone call. Imagine how you’d feel. Imagine that if, after challenging them, they managed to bully you and bully your loved ones, because they were bigger, smarter, richer, more articulate, more powerful, more popular. Angry?
What if I said it was happening to you right now. Just that, up to now, maybe no one has bothered to tell you. You are being watched.
May I suggest you’d feel outraged, you‘d fight and make a stand. And if you couldn’t fight for yourself, you’d find someone who could, right?
For decades, whenever such abuse was evident, mainstream newspapers, magazines, TV, news and media (known as the 4th estate), fought for us, safeguarding our society and civil rights by being an acceptable way to expose and ‘out’ scurrilous behavior, injustice and illuminate civil liberties.
To protect and strengthen those very same liberties, internet bloggers, websites, social media postings and those operating outside of main stream media (known as the 5th estate), have, especially when the 4th let us down, shouted loud and clear whenever they could.
But right now, the 4th and 5th estates, along with all of us are under attack. Attempted, total suppression and utter disregard of our rights to freedom and privacy. Our ability to stand up for ourselves, or those around us that couldn’t stand up for themselves, is being taken away. What happened to the US 1st and 4th amendments?
Many of the worlds Governments, led by the US NSA (National Security Agency), have, and are, over-zealously, commanding center stage. They have gone beyond their remit to protect us from terrorism, or gross violations of decency, to turn on us and become spying eyes. Search and seizure on an epic scale, capturing and recording all our domestic communications.
Through the NSA’s, much publicized, PRISM and the UK’s TEMPORA systems, the ‘five eye’ nations of USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, have managed to infiltrate and eavesdrop on, … well, pretty much everything! And which one of us voted for that?
’I guess, somehow, we all did, by electing members of Government, to act on our behalf, who are clearly lacking the required integrity and strength of character; and are easily influenced, if not controlled by shadowy individuals, groups, and organizations who crave only more power and absolute control.
To paraphrase the US raconteur, George Carlin, ‘The big club that we’re not in. The ‘owners’ of our countries, big wealthy businesses, control and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they’re there to create the illusion of freedom of choice. You don’t have any choices, they do, they own you, they own everything. All the important land, important corporations, the judicial system, all the big media companies. That means they control all the news and media information you hear and see. They spend $Billions every year to get what they want, which is more for them and less for you. They don’t want you to think for yourself, they don’t want you putting 2 and 2 together, they don’t want critical thinking smart people. They want obedient workers. The middle class dream – means you have to be asleep to believe it.
Some years ago, in an interview about the Internet, I said:
“A man called Marshall McLuhan once talked about the Global Village. A world in which everyone could talk to each other. A world in which there was freedom of broadcasting. The authorities didn’t like that too much. Now they don’t have the choice.”
How wrong was I. Because they clearly do have such choices, and where they didn’t, they’ve invented new processes, laws and procedures, if you like, surveillance machines, to snoop on every aspect of our lives.
In Orwell’s book ‘1984’, he suggests, that over time, we’ll be conditioned by: the ‘thought police’ and ‘doublethink’. Conditioned by the very people we’d put in office to protect our rights and liberties. He famously states that ‘he who controls the past controls the future, he who controls the present controls the past’. Clearly the writing is on the wall, and as Orwell noted in ‘Animal Farm’, we’re allowing it to be rewritten.
You’ll hear ‘If you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear, right?’ Where have I heard that before? From the mouths of blond haired, blue eyed, youths in brown shirts right through to the worlds most horrific despots? Doing nothing wrong is ok, but doing nothing, means you have everything to fear. As you hit recline, you can watch your privacy, freedom and liberty being taken away. Hidden under the very blanket of freedom that was put there to protect you.
How right Orwell was. What huge mistakes we’ve made, allowing such weakness to represent our best interests. Quite clearly ‘Big Brother’ is lulling our chosen representatives into Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ state of ‘soma’ and stealing away the general publics rights to basic privacy.
It’s time to ask yourself ‘do we control the Government or does the Government control us?’ Maybe we are totally outgunned and outnumbered, maybe we will be hung out to dry by the press, but when did bullies not deserve to be pushed back. When did we stop believing in ourselves.
Never forget one of the greatest fighters of injustice, of all time, Lincoln, who at Gettysburg, spoke loud and clear, that governments should be ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’.
Maybe you’re asking yourself, what can I do about it? Maybe you need some direction, maybe you need someone to bring matters to your attention and ask you to help.
Some companies are fighting back for you, some are denying the NSA access to their data centers, others are trying to keep your content, confidential, in more ways than one. Support them. They are flying in the face of immense pressure, but work under the principles of ‘if you’re not scared then you’re not pushing yourself to the limit’. Support them, support their efforts, because they are defending yours.
I guess I’m asking you to consider fighting. Fighting for your children right now. Otherwise they’ll grow up thinking that this snooping ‘big brother’ is the natural order of things.
We’ve clearly taken fore-granted, or worse, forgotten that freedom and liberty comes at a great price. One that on countless continents, our forefathers bled for. Your apathy will mean they died in vain.
Here’s what to do – it’s easy. Many people may not be aware of what’s going on. Simply, make them aware. Do whatever you can to make others aware that they are being watched. Spread the word and…
Watch the watchers.
Visit www.ConfiTrack.com to see how to protect your privacy and stay in control of your content