Snowden: A matter of unintended consequences

No, I’m not into conspiracy theories. Yes, I believe that Edward Snowden is a genuine hero and that he is acting from the best of intentions. Nevertheless, there is a side of the Snowden revelations that has been oddly overlooked. A matter of unintended consequences.

Some people already knew. Some were pretty convinced. Some suspected. A lot of people had a hunch. Then came Snowden. Now we all know. That is a good thing.

Unless you are the US Government or the NSA. (Or their international partners.) Then you are furious.

This is what is so intriguing. Shouldn’t people in high places be rather content?

Naturally governments and spy organisations don’t want their methods to be known. But what about the awareness of mass surveillance, as such?

The very notion of blanket surveillance will change people. For the worse, if you ask me. But, giving it some thought, politicians and bureaucrats might have reason to perceive it in another way. From their perspective, the way Big Brotherism changes people doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

It will thwart opposition. It will daunt traditional whistleblowers. It will deter activism. It will silence dissent. It will keep people in check. It will foster servitude.

Now, the people will — sadly enough — know that there are good reasons to fear the government. Suddenly we live in a society where mass surveillance is the new norm. A society where it is safer to keep a low profile.

How… convenient.

I fear it will not take long before this mindset will begin to saturate the ruling classes.

/ HAX

4 Responses to Snowden: A matter of unintended consequences

  1. Anarchos May 7, 2015 at 1:12 am #

    One can conclude that “the power”, (whatever power one beleive is the ruling power of a system) loves compartmentalised individuals who only take on special issues instead of seeing the big picture.
    If you go to the sources and verify them, you will be considered an oddball or tinfoil despite Snowden, NSA, corporativism and the numerous tax exempt think tanks out there. This is because we are trained that way from public school system. Personally i like a birds perspective (in mainstream terms tinfoil perspective) since i know that memes are inserted into public debate to then create consent via voting.

    In being this weird (i know that the institution of government have killed millions of people in it’s history and might do the same and that psychopaths do weird things with our tax money) i sometimes go to alternative sources of information such as gnosticmedia.com and corbettreport.com and also the more polished tragedyandhope.com in addition to anarcho capitalism websites and following development in such areas as blockchain technology and mesh networking.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOcy6RHw7A8

    If snowden still acts as an agent and not entirely as a whistleblower, it is called ‘revelation of the method’

    To sum it up, check some real facts http://www.whale.to/b/revelation_method_q.html

    And remember, it’s ok to go to that page, it’s not tinfoil until you stop being compartmentalised and start to connect the dots.

    • Anarchos May 7, 2015 at 1:33 am #

      government have killed millions of people in it’s history and _that it_ might do the same _in the future_ that is 🙂

  2. Anonymous May 9, 2015 at 4:49 am #

    The RAND Corporation agrees:
    “Brandishing Cyberattack Capabilities” http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR175.html

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    […] Edward Snowden and unintended consequences. Will knowing, inescapably knowing, we are all always under surveillance in and of itself make us more likely to comply with the real or imagined wishes of the government? (HAX) […]

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