The recent revelations by Der Spiegel about our NSA spying on big American corporations got me thinking about the current lay of the land. If we couple this with the federal judge indicating the NSA Program Is Unconstitutional and the conflicting ruling from a New York Judge currently appealed by the ACLU, we see the conflict.

The Fourth Amendment is clear and rather than giving some arbitrary FISA Court de facto veto over the constitution, I think we either change the Constitution legitimately through the Amendment process or the NSA should be scaled back within constitutional limits.

Now that my bias is in the open, I can understand why the NSA would use the reported tactics on American big business. This thesis (which is disputable) if correct suggests a very different set of problems in terms of balance of power.

Because we fallaciously treat corporations like people without giving them the responsibility AND big business now possess more power than many nations, what we have is a loosely confederated feudal-ish system that can become oppositional at any time. It may be blithe to think that Apple Computer or Exxon-Mobile possesses less power and influence than Poland or Tajikistan simply because they are businesses. If what I am saying is true then the balance of power is not shared by the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches but rather those three AND a list of corporations that have equal or perhaps even more influence and less accountability.

If corporations have more power than foreign states, why would not the NSA treat them with similar scrutiny?

I hold it as open question whether or not the public has a genuine interest in favor of such spying on, the centralized power, concentrated in the hands of corporations to use F. Hayek’s terminology. With this question, the large difference between a human and corporation becomes clearer.

Imagine the corporate executive who ordered his laptop online. The machine requires not only a password but also a fingerprint or other scan to access. This fellow must now wonder if his computer was compromised in route to him and that the NSA logs his activity both personal and professional. They know his porn, his mistresses and his mister’s.

Is that the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover howling in the wind?

I am stretching, but I do not think my suggestion should be summarily dismissed without good reason. Civil libertarians could add a strange bedfellow to their cause and if they work it to their advantage, the rights for all will become the beneficiary, not simply the rights of corporations. In this light, recent revelations could move mountains. The people controlling the most wealth (tax free and offshore) have an interest in line with the ACLU and other civil liberties organizations.

Don’t f>#k this up guys!