The Other (Worse) Side of the PRISM Scandal

The fallout from the PRISM scandal has reached Stage Two, where faces in front of television cameras promote memorable slogans to give people reasons to accept their abuse and to pretend that everything is okay. And, overall, these slogans and their promoters break down into to two primary models – predators and battered women.

Let’s start with the predators.

These abusers – who are building the largest blackmail archive in all of human history – keep coming back with the same old hateful slogan:

If you don’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to fear.

Understand this clearly: these are the words of a predator speaking to his hostages.

As you sit, his gun pointed at your chest, he says, “As long as you keep the rules, I won’t shoot.” This phrase is intended to hold you in that position, under the complete control of the gunman.

The trick of this evil phrase is that it takes the first position – with you as a hostage – as a given; as an assumed starting point. The phrase allows no possibility of you existing without a gun pointed at you.

Your captor says, “Don’t transgress me and I won’t kill you.” But all the while he maintains that it is righteous for him to keep you in permanent fear of the SWAT team breaking down your door at 3 am and sticking their automatic weapons in your face.

But, of course, it’s never “terror” when they do it, and you can be sure that, after you’re taken in, their friends at the TV stations will call you “suspected terrorists.”

Never accept a predator’s right to say this to you. Don’t accept his right to hold such a position over you. Instead, say something like:

I don’t grant you that position.

You’re not my master.

Why would I want you (or your bosses) to hold such a position over me?

Whoever throws this phrase at you is justifying your position as a hostage and is locking you into it.

Now, let’s move on to the equally disturbing issue of battered women.

The sad truth is that quite a few women have been beaten by their boyfriends or husbands, and they stay, rather than leave. Instead, they find ways of justifying their abusers, saying things like:

We’re working it out.

It wasn’t like it seems.

If I just ease up a little on him, it’ll be alright.

It’s not that bad. At least he doesn’t…

He said he’s sorry.

I can’t manage without him.

This is ugly stuff, but spousal abuse is, sadly, not uncommon.

But notice that people routinely use variations of the same “it’s not so bad” slogans to justify government abuse:

Mass surveillance is good because it also collects the data to prove people to be innocent!

I’d rather trust a computer and algorithm to spy on me than a human.

The primary job of the state is providing security for its citizens.

Surveillance on financial data is a whole different subject. That is about taxes, not free communication.

And there are many other variations.

So, we have hit the season of a two-fold attack on reason:

First, we have the predators trying to lock everyone into place in front of their guns.

Second, we have the sycophants trying to convince us that it’s okay – that we really do need our abusers.

This is the other side of the PRISM scandal, the one that most people don’t (or don’t want to) see: the subtle manipulation of our minds to ultimately turn us into sheep… those that will accept the role of the abused without question or complaint.

And to me, that’s the most disturbing side of all.

Paul Rosenberg

FreemansPerspective.com