There are two primary ways to control people. One is to appeal to their fears and the other is to appeal to their desires. Contrary to popular belief, it is the second brand of tyranny that poses the greatest threat to America today.
As of this writing, it is possible that Gen. Michael Hayden is the new director of the CIA. His nomination was controversial for a number of reasons, most notably his oversight of the domestic surveillance program as head of the National Security Agency. The clandestine practice of wiretapping without court orders since Sept. 11 has raised suspicion among many Americans, and this is healthy in a democracy. In fact, I would be alarmed if these revelations were met with anything less.
Nonetheless, those who have gone beyond suspicion and chosen to oppose the program altogether are misguided. The primary concern of most of the detractors seems to be that the Bush administration, in its unquenchable thirst for power, launched this program to tighten its grip on the lives of Americans. These critics view the wiretapping as a gratuitous ploy to pry into the public's privacy under the guise of fighting terrorism. This is nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
The detractors have forgotten, for the bazillionth time since Sept. 11, that the United States is at war. Their criticism seems rooted in a false notion; that there are not terrorist networks plotting attacks against America. The distinction here is rather simple for those not blinded by partisanship.
If there were no threat of terrorist attacks against America, then such intrusive government surveillance would be outrageous. But the Bush administration is not pursuing imaginary foes for the sake of justifying power grabs. As long as the government can prevent catastrophic events through domestic wiretapping, it is an action that takes place under a valid premise. The enemy is all too real.
But when the enemy is oneself, the battle lines are often blurred. During the last century, the government has vastly expanded its influence in citizens' lives. This expansion has fueled itself off a growing culture of entitlement. In the wake of the Great Depression, the government unleashed a barrage of social programs aimed at repairing an America in economic shambles. These programs exist today, draining personal income and feeding the bureaucracy.
Forget for a moment that the government has misspent the money paid into Social Security by hardworking Americans who might never be reimbursed. The program and all of its welfare state brethren are immoral at face value. A valid premise for government intervention is missing. Social programs operate under an illusion ' that individuals cannot secure their own financial well-being. Instead, bureaucrats should lead them by the hand and save them from themselves.
The government deciding how to spend people's paychecks is an invasion of privacy, so why has there never been an uproar about this? Especially when the implicit justification is that people cannot be trusted to retire or seek healthcare on their own? In this case, there really is no boogeyman in the closet. But this is not about fear. It is about desire, and therein rests the subtlety that has perpetuated the welfare state.
It is the desire to have something for free and desire might just move people more than fear.
Nothing is free in a world of scarce resources. The promise might be well-intentioned, just as the New Deal once was, but results are what matter. The result is inevitably the disempowerment of the individual and the growth of government control. Tyranny masquerading as charity.
Our generation is in a prime position to fall prey to the warm but self-destroying embrace of the entitlement mentality. But with decisive action America can avoid such a fate. A full return to laissez faire capitalism ' the only economic system that respects individual liberty ' is the only solution. But this would require courage from average Americans ' sadly, this is a scarce commodity these days.
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Joe Vance
