1. You flatter me, Slobodan!
2. Commies/bogeymen/terrrorists: so, they don't exist....
Always happy to pay you a compliment, Rob
I respect your eloquence and erudition too much to let occasional slips, well, slip.
As already noted, you picked a non-issue (government on government spying) and turned it into a giant straw man. You are doing it with a certain bombastic (pardon the terrorist pun) simplicity, non-sequiturs, false dichotomies, as if the only choice is between no spying at all and total, unrestricted one.
Or, take for example your view of bogeyman issues: no one suggested that communism/terrorism do not exist. That is simply a non-sequitur from what I said, and a gigantic oversimplification. I clearly said "
misuse of those issues as a pretext..."
As for the bogeyman concept, I thing it is pretty much my own view of the things, so I can't cite a higher authority or academic work. Most countries/societies/religions resort to it at some point. Nothing works better to unify (and control) a nation as the existence of a powerful enemy. Most religions, especially organized ones, see the other religion as such a bogeyman. And yes, before you jump in with another oversimplification, sometimes the threat is real too. Nazi Germany had Jews as bogeyman. The US had milked communism as bogeyman for a number of years. You see, once you frame something as bogeyman, you can justify just about anything with it. It is one of those things that are taken for granted by the masses and not questioned. "Ah, we are doing it because of communism? But of course, go ahead." No need to explain or justify, just label it communism and you are free to do whatever you want.
But then, communism fell, and all of a sudden, there was a vacuum. No more bogeyman. Nothing to justify further power grab and keep the masses docile.
Enter terrorism. Once again, all it takes is to label something as such, and off you go! Create the biggest war budget known to mankind, bigger than all the rest of the world combined (and line the pockets of friendly private military contractors in the process)? No problem, we are fighting terrorism. Argue for a smaller government, yet preside over the biggest enlargement of the federal government? No problem, we are fighting terrorism. Arrest people, keep them indefinitely (!) without charging them (the most blatant power grab since
Magna Carta Libertatum)? No problem, we are fighting terrorism. You want to torture? But of course, we are fighting terrorism. You want to pass Patriot Act? No problem, we are fighting terrorism. You want to arrest someone, render them to outsourced torture centers, without the right to a lawyer, without even letting their families know they are arrested (and if they do, make it a crime to even talk about it), keep them indefinitely? No problem, we are fighting terrorism.
Do I have to explain the boiling frog concept in so many words as well?