| "If this were true, one would have expected reforms and curtailment to have lasted at least a few generations. This situation seems more akin to a misbehaving child who apologizes only to appease, and carries right on with their activities." Not at all: preserving liberty "requires eternal vigilance." Old lesson. ;) Existing elites and people wanting that for themselves never stop. So, the public has to be watchful. It has to stay on them via every branch of government. That shake-up happened when the public had maximum attention on them while defenders, esp CIA media manipulators, were acting in full force. The result was half-ass justice but made them a lot more careful in what they do domestically and a little more in foreign. Had American voters and media stayed on their ass we would've gotten even better results. But, it brings us to another issue... "Also, please note that pure democracy - people voting with their time/money/attention/data - is what has brought us this modern surveillance nightmare of Google/Facebook/etc." ...tyranny of the majority. Didn't realize back in school how fundamentally bad that problem was and how pervasively it would affect us. Your illustration is excellent although remember that willing, private surveillance to sell analysis to advertisers and unwilling, government surveillance of all data to be used in convictions or murder aren't the same. ;) You're right, though, about how majority makes our situation worse by where they put their time and money. They seem to be hardwired to go with whatever will screw them up in the long-run for the smallest, immediate gain. I'm at a loss for how to handle this except to practice CYA to max degree, stay out of dragnets where possible, and invest my own energy/money into better things that might get big. One example was getting people off of scheming SMS and Facebook messenger for IM clients like WhatApp. It was one of best for usability and incremental step in right direction so I used to recommend it. Actually made it in a huge way. Then Facebook bought it. Well, we have the Whisper apps... (Twitter acquisition) (explitives) I'm not naming any more of them lol. Need these jokers all in non-profits or public-benefit companies with charters protecting the future of the app's security or source. |