Woz: This is not my America … Stopped by Spanish language tech journalists at an airport, the Apple co-founder says that after the NSA revelations, he questions his own government and wonders whether it's behaving like a king. As the passions and justifications swirl around the revelations concerning the NSA, the rest of the world sits and wonders. Is only the U.S. involved? Or might, perhaps, every government on Earth be rather keen to use all technological methods to protect its interests? – CNET

Dominant Social Theme: Don't worry, be happy.

Free-Market Analysis: Just the other day, we wrote about how when a culture loses its intellectual "buy in," that culture begins to lose cohesion. The long slide begins.

A feedbacker was kind enough to send us some quotes from legendary free-market economist Ludwig von Mises. He wrote:

"The first socialists were the intellectuals; they and not the masses are the backbone of Socialism."

"Almost all the fathers of socialism were members of the upper middle class or of the professions."

"The educated classes are possessed by the idea that in the social domain anything can be accomplished if only one applies enough force and is sufficiently resolute."

This conforms to our understanding of cultural behaviors. It is communicators and other knowledge workers that provide the narratives for societies large and small.

This has been true from the very first tribal societies in which the shaman told the stories of the tribe's creation and travels. These stories provided the history around which the tribe might coalesce.

Human tribes are a lot bigger now – too big, in our humble opinion – but the shamanistic social approach still pertains.

True, Steve Wozniak is not a mysterious, shadowy shaman, but he qualifies as one of the technological elite of modern society. As such, his voice remains important and he commands the attention of the mainstream media.

Here's more from the article:

It so happens that Spanish language tech site FayerWayer happened upon Woz as he sat at an airport. So often known to be obliging and spontaneous, Woz offered his thoughts. Essentially, he seemed to be reassessing his whole view of America.

He explained that he was brought up believing that other countries tortured prisoners, but America "didn't torture them. We gave them good clothing and everything." "I was so proud of my country and now I find out it's just the opposite," Woz sighed.

Woz believes a certain decline started a few years ago. "All these things that talk about the Constitution that made us so good as people, they're kind of nothing. They all dissolved with the Patriot Act," he said. "There's not even a free open court anymore," he added. He is clearly distraught about what he sees is the erosion of the America he believed in, one whose people had clear rights.

Everything, in his eyes, was overturned. Warming to his theme, he explained: "That's what a king does. A king just goes out, has anyone rounded up, killed, puts them in prison." He began to compare America to Russia. It was Russia, when Woz was growing up, that followed people around and made them disappear. "We're getting more and more like that," he offered, gloomily.

This trend away from the Constitution has infected ownership in the technological world, he thinks. "Nowadays in the digital world you can hardly own anything anymore," he said. If you put things in the cloud, someone, somewhere might disappear it and it's gone forever. "When we grew up, ownership was what made America different than Russia," he explained.

Woz is making the points that the US is turning into a far more authoritarian state, and that one of the major transformative issues in such a state is a lack of private property. When people are not secure in their property or person, you end up with Leviathan and eventually genocide.

He is surely not alone in his perceptions. As the infection of globalism expands and the globalist mentality continues to pervert the West's entire gamut of cultural, professional and political institutions, the damage becomes more obvious.

We often speak of what we call the Internet Reformation, and people probably misunderstand the method of its transmission. The Gutenberg Press overturned various elements of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. The Internet has revealed a good deal about the dominant social themes – scarcity memes – that have been used to sustain and expand internationalism.

But as the Internet Reformation expands, those interested in controlling society push back. Ironically, the more authoritarian the reaction becomes, the more it alienates those knowledge workers who have previously been the most important proponents of "normal" social themes. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

After Thoughts

The Internet is a process, not an episode.