[aflagatopamoon]

You need a brutish thug in your tribe/gang/Pantheon which you can count on to do dirty jobs. That's why the connection between organized crime and intelligence agencies has always been solid.

Too much oversight/rule-pushing muzzles the potential of these guard dogs to act or intimidate. If you don't have these thugs in your gang, then other gangs that include them can take advantage of you. They are protecting the interests of the Gang-leader. They are not there to help old ladies cross the WWW. They are there to wiretap entire countries to capture contract fraud before it can damage the US economy (which impacts the average citizen). They capture gang infiltrators before they can do too much damage to the defensive and offensive capabilities of the gang. They make infrastructure to annihilate the communication capabilities of other gangs, should this need arise.

A gang without rule-skirting all-seeing thugs, Tricksters, and Peeping Toms will not stay on top.

[rhizome]

Seeing the world in terms of who is "on top" is a big part of the problem.

[stickdogg]

That said. It is the way the world has always operated. Until one can separate themself from their ego, they will continue to be run by their ego.

[rhizome]

As a matter of fact, the world has not "always operated" on Freudian terms, and my understanding is that those terms are essentially the COBOL of psychology by now anyway.

[Chriky]

> That's why the connection between organized crime and intelligence agencies has always been solid.

What do you mean by this?