Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Electronic Communications Surveillance

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Electronic Communications Surveillance

Click here to access article by Lauren Regan from Monthly Review.

This piece offers one of the best single sources of information that I have found that covers a broad spectrum of issues related to our ruling class's surveillance programs and methods including the integration of corporations with government spy agencies, legal challenges, implications for activists, etc. It is loaded with additional links to other sources for more specialized information.

Regan starts off with a caveat:

...there is no absolute protection against surveillance. You can make it extraordinarily difficult for people or technologies to gather your data, but no protection is absolutely impassable.

However, later on she further clarifies this statement:

...there is no absolute protection against surveillance. You can make it extraordinarily difficult for people or technologies to gather your data, but no protection is absolutely impassable.