just following orders

I'm going to risk sounding mysterious, and I don't wish to, but ever since Flatline, Comatose, Torpor & Drowse mutated into BrainDead Systems, my work has brought me into way closer daily contact with the security organs, though not the NSA, than I ever anticipated. I do not mean to suggest by this that I am privy to exotic or secret information: I am not, and frankly my masters would be crazy, or at least highly ill-advised, to entrust me with such. But I've learned a thing or two about the institutional mindsets of various parts of Homeland Security (NSA is run by Defense, I believe), and so far as I may extrapolate from this experience, I'm guessing that what the "tens of thousands of people just like you and me" on the NSA payroll think—and a non-negligible fraction of these are going to be True Believers—matters not a rat's ass in terms of policy formulation, and that the agency's senior managers are motivated first and foremost by the imperative of accumulating institutional power. Now, maybe I'm wrong, and maybe they have a completely different institutional culture than the Homeland Security boys do. But if the culture is similar, then those senior managers utterly conflate that imperative with the agency's notional mission (all of them variations on the tired old theme of "Keeping America Safe"), and sincerely believe that any obstacle placed before them, any restraint on the exercise, scope or growth of their authority, endangers this country.

Again, I don't want to sound like I'm privy to the mindset of the Federal Illuminati or anything like that, but I've seen, I continue to see even from my somewhat oblique position, ample and daily evidence of this mindset, "the sombre imbecility of tyranny," as Conrad (Joseph, not Christian) once memorably called it. And as to the rank-and-file NSA worker bees who are like you and me? Hey, I've trespassed in small ways against the dictates of my conscience over the past ten years, and because I'm neither as idealistic, reckless or courageous as Manning and Snowden, I'd probably be prepared to trample on it considerably harder in the admittedly unlikely event it was required of me because—modified Nuremberg defense—I have a mortgage to pay. If we're ever reduced to relying on employees and contractors and peripheral personnel as craven as I am as the last bulwark of our civil liberties, then we'll be buried so deep in shit that we'll never dig out.

cordially,

Post #379,700 by rcareaga 8/21/13 4:39:02 PM Reply	just following orders [The NSA is] doing what the US Congress told them to do. I'd be very surprised if the relevant legislation did not prove to have been in large part drafted by the NSA, wouldn't you? cordially,
Post #379,702 by Another Scott 8/21/13 4:52:20 PM Reply	Dunno. Does it matter? Do you really think that the NSA wants to spy on Americans? If so, why? The people who work for the NSA aren't extra-terrestrials who live in gated communities and never interact with other people. They're tens of thousands of people just like you and me. Do you think they want to be spied on by their employer when it is illegal to do so? http://nymag.com/dai...es-100-words.html My $0.02. Cheers, Scott. (Who feels like he's beating this topic to death...)
Post #379,706 by rcareaga 8/21/13 5:30:45 PM Reply	Hokay I'm going to risk sounding mysterious, and I don't wish to, but ever since Flatline, Comatose, Torpor & Drowse mutated into BrainDead Systems, my work has brought me into way closer daily contact with the security organs, though not the NSA, than I ever anticipated. I do not mean to suggest by this that I am privy to exotic or secret information: I am not, and frankly my masters would be crazy, or at least highly ill-advised, to entrust me with such. But I've learned a thing or two about the institutional mindsets of various parts of Homeland Security (NSA is run by Defense, I believe), and so far as I may extrapolate from this experience, I'm guessing that what the "tens of thousands of people just like you and me" on the NSA payroll think—and a non-negligible fraction of these are going to be True Believers—matters not a rat's ass in terms of policy formulation, and that the agency's senior managers are motivated first and foremost by the imperative of accumulating institutional power. Now, maybe I'm wrong, and maybe they have a completely different institutional culture than the Homeland Security boys do. But if the culture is similar, then those senior managers utterly conflate that imperative with the agency's notional mission (all of them variations on the tired old theme of "Keeping America Safe"), and sincerely believe that any obstacle placed before them, any restraint on the exercise, scope or growth of their authority, endangers this country. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm privy to the mindset of the Federal Illuminati or anything like that, but I've seen, I continue to see even from my somewhat oblique position, ample and daily evidence of this mindset, "the sombre imbecility of tyranny," as Conrad (Joseph, not Christian) once memorably called it. And as to the rank-and-file NSA worker bees who are like you and me? Hey, I've trespassed in small ways against the dictates of my conscience over the past ten years, and because I'm neither as idealistic, reckless or courageous as Manning and Snowden, I'd probably be prepared to trample on it considerably harder in the admittedly unlikely event it was required of me because—modified Nuremberg defense—I have a mortgage to pay. If we're ever reduced to relying on employees and contractors and peripheral personnel as craven as I am as the last bulwark of our civil liberties, then we'll be buried so deep in shit that we'll never dig out. cordially,
Post #380,109 by CRConrad 9/1/13 6:24:51 PM Reply	Bloody Cousin Joe, always stealing all my best lines! ...long before I even got the chance to say 'em myself! I ask you, is that fair?!? -- Christian R. Conrad Same old username (as above), but now on iki.fi (Yeah, yeah, it redirects to the same old GMail... But just in case I ever want to change.)

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