Citizen Fore
March 4th, 2015 | 
Author: What’s mind blowing about the whole Snowden thing is not what huge deal it was, it’s what a huge deal it is.
To my dismay I have become cynical, so it occurred to me at the time that it really sucked but I wasn’t at all surprised.
I mean, how could anyone in real time America be in any way at a loss over the nefarious efforts of our government to know and control everything within its reach? Who doubts that shit?
What floored me the most was the indignity of professional blowhards along with the great unwashed. They were all pissed and everything.
Whoulda thought our government was anything but benign and magnanimous?
I was nascent during the the Vietnam war era and the Nixon administration. My mother made us watch the resignation of Nixon live on television along with stuff like any televised activity by the Apollo Space Program and Sesame Street. God love her. Consequently, I never had any reason to to trust my government and went on to date the daughter of an ABC News science correspondent. She may have had access to an actual moon rock and she did have a great rack. She was crazy and smart and beautiful and told me her father was a real prick.
So I watched the Snowden Documentary the other night and regardless of my feelings on the subject, the film was brilliant. Fascinating.
Yep, Snowden is fascinating too. Erudite and still clever. He’d obviously thought hard about what he was doing and taken at face value, was pretty unselfish and altruistic about it.
I’m not going to spend any time here guessing about his true intentions because I’m not sure how much it matters. This is not about whether Edward Snowden is a hero or a villain. Hardly. The focus so far on that question is deliberate distraction on the part of the players. I’ll say this much, he’s no traitor and is probably only as earnest a patriot as he knows how to be.
What is important to me is what he revealed, because as cynical as I am, it was awesome and profoundly disturbing. The chilling malignancy of our government and its corporate partners to deceive and manipulate the gen pop gnaws at me. I can’t stop thinking about it because I can’t stop wondering what we don’t know.
It’s an iceberg.
Think about that.
If you don’t think what we know now pales in comparison to what we don’t, I’d like for you to join my ministry and buy my free book.
Okay look, it’s hardly a stretch these days to conclude that the assassinations of JFK, MLK and RFK were at least somewhat the behest of the CIA and organized crime right? That’s a 50 year old iceberg. The tip of Snowden’s iceberg shows drones, secret prisons, torture, spying on Americans in vulgar defiance of the 4th amendment, the suspension of Habeas corpus, Posse Comitatus…………
Try for a minute to imagine what lies beneath that waterline.
Americans only gave a shit about the salient aspects of the story for like a day. The next day it devolved into a debate about whether this dude should be hung or shot. After that it was Benghazi, Ebola, ISIS and all manner of things more existential.
How quick this event stopped selling tickets in the American theater of short attention spans.
Drinks for my friends.
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I remained perplexed by President Obama’s enabling and acquiescence.
This a new thing for me. A new feeling. People you knew but never met, dying. I knew Andrew. We were friends. When I saw that he’d posted I went right to it and ate it up. I feel like I knew him. When he shared his thoughts he was thorough and profound. He cared. He actually really cared. He commented on my blog often. His was often the first comment. It flattered me because he was such a passionate writer. We were often on the same facebook posts. Sometimes when I was battling some asshole bigot. I never met him but I felt like he was right there sometimes. He was a force. I felt him. I’m just so sorry about this. The idea that he took his own life digs at me. I don’t know what to make of it but it scares me. The idea of it has haunted me a little since I learned of it. It’s hard not to take the world too seriously. It can be really hard. Thanks Andrew, very much. I’ll miss you for sure. All my best to your family and friends.
Frankly, the government scares the crap out of me … always has and probably always will … I was pretty young when we lost the Kennedys and MLK, but even in my child’s mind, I knew there was some really scary crap going on in our government … Never bought into all that typical patriotic “best country on the planet” bullshit …
Brilliant, as always. Truthfully and it may be my age, my first response to his selling our secrets to a third party, non-American….not positive. It rankled, a bit. …and his Ron Paul shirt didn’t do a lot to make me like him, more.
…but then…something that separates us from right wingers…I thought about it for a while. …and my attitude changed. Everything he disclosed needed to be brought into the light. Absolutely. …and I remembered how MKUltra turned out to be TRUE, not tinfoil. …and I have never understood why every single American didn’t revolt against the government, when we found that out. We found out that the government actually DID use citizens as guinea pigs and we didn’t, in full force, take our government apart… Hard to believe.
…and now, Snowden is one of my heroes…because I thought about it…
I have always believed that a democracy required us to shine a light on what the government is up to. If we don’t know it we can’t vote about it and that is what a Democracy is. The news media is no help now. They all spit out the same drivel and d their best to be unhelpful. Granted there are two sides to the drivel and some is worse than others, but you can’t count the Cable news channel that went to court to be allowed to lie at will. That was never intended to be news. S we depend on whistle blowers t find things out. There should be no crime in that if what they say is provably true. Perhaps we could just extend Freedom of the Press to include them. It is n more f a reach than extending the Second Amendment that allows a well regulated militia to giving every yah in the country an AK.
I grew up listening to my parents, my elders discuss politics. Watched Face the Nation with my Grandpa. Watched the Vietnam war come to a close. Watched National Guardsmen shoot students at Kent State. Saw Civil Rights become law. Saw the Watergate hearings on TV.
Came into adulthood as the Cold War ended and Iran Contra broke. Though only part of that truth was exposed.
Over the decades, I have seen my government wage “police actions” and subjugate sovereign nations at the behest of powerful corporations, to rape and pillage the resources belonging to others.
I am not sure which I fear more, the government or those who buy and control the government.
Now, where did I put my tinfoil hat?
When they televised President Bush reading to children in a classroom, and the guy whispered in his ear that America was under attack, Bush showed no emotion and kept reading. That tells me he already knew this was going to happen. That one incident was all I needed. Now if he did not know, I believe he would have immediately excused himself and found out what was happening. The more secrets that are exposed, the more afraid I am of my own government and/or the monied people/organizations that control them. Oh dear, I may become one of the people I used to laugh at.
You’re so right. He knew. And the evidence that stacked up after the fact only went to prove that he did indeed know. I’m sickened by those that can’t grasp the idea that our countries leader could perpetrate such a horrific attack on his own country. One like we have never seen on US soil. But being in denial doesn’t change it.
Thanks for the drink 🙂
Been meaning to watch that doc. Have yet to do so. Has anybody noticed the name ‘Snowden’ is also the name of the young bombardier who dies in Yossarian’s arms in ‘Catch 22’? -One of the best books ever about the fucked-upedness of the powers that be, where all lines blur and bend to the all mighty dollar, where they bomb their own base as part of a big money deal.
That’s always given this Citizen Fore thing a slightly surreal edge in my mind.
“Snowden, the young gunner who died on my last mission…He was very old.”
“I thought you said he was young.”
“Well, he died, you don’t get older than that.”
Anyway…
Another great bit of writing Mike.
I’m watching the doc soon.